Customers at three of the pub tables were subjected to the same growled questions by Tom and his brother, not from any expectation that they would admit to anything, but in the hope that word of the visit would get back to the culprits. The brothers left the pub looking as though they would throw a punch at the smallest provocation. Whether word of this performance ever did reach those it was intended for we never found out. To Darren's great relief, and mine, there were no further trips to Turnpike Lane.
At the hotel out of politeness I asked Tom's brother if he wanted to stay for dinner, but he refused saying plausibly there would be a meal waiting for him at home. I saw him to the front door, and before leaving he fixed me with his unsettling gaze and said tauntingly: 'I hope you're the one who's the woman, and not him.' Giving me no chance to respond he turned quickly and walked briskly down the path, not seeing my angry grimace.
Furious, I told Tom what he'd said. 'You shouldn't take no notice of him. He's a piss-taker, always has been.'
'I suppose you can't pick who you have as a brother.'
'He didn't intend to be insulting, he wouldn't understand a remark like that was going to cause offence. He thinks he's funny. Take no notice of him. He ain't worth it.'
***
The more important activity following Darren's ordeal was to coax him back into the education system. Lizetta occasionally arranged courses for new recruits to my old firm, and was the obvious person to ask about his chances of a place in college. We met for long lunches together every month or so, usually in busy moderately priced restaurants in town. When I mentioned Darren she immediately wanted to know what he had been studying at school, an obvious question but one that had somehow not occurred to me. Reproachfully she said, 'People find it a struggle to get back into education once they've dropped out. Does he want this badly enough to keep it up for a year or more? If you want me to help him things will have to be gone into properly.'
She suggested I bring him along to lunch so she could meet him. Andrew had been encouraging him to think about a career and, predictably, had suggested horticulture. When I told him about Lizetta he brought down some of his old school work to show me, neat life-like drawings of fungi and painstakingly detailed illustrations of plant cell structures. His teacher had given him good marks for the work. 'You really are interested in plants, aren't you? You haven't got all your old school work up there, have you?'