The Casual Vacancy Page 0,95

laughing, and Mary looked tense. Kay, who had not touched her pie, and had managed very little of the first course, realized that she had drunk too much; she had been sipping wine steadily out of nerves, and now she had committed a prime indiscretion. Still, it was too late to undo that; anger overrode every other consideration.

'Krystal Weedon is no advert for that woman's mothering skills,' said Miles.

'Krystal's trying her damnedest to hold her family together,' said Kay. 'She loves her little brother very much; she's terrified he'll be taken away - '

'I wouldn't trust Krystal Weedon to look after a boiling egg,' said Miles, and Samantha laughed again. 'Oh, look, it's to her credit she loves her brother, but he isn't a cuddly toy - '

'Yes, I know that,' snapped Kay, remembering Robbie's shitty, crusted bottom, 'but he's still loved.'

'Krystal bullied our daughter Lexie,' said Samantha, 'so we've seen a different side of her to the one I'm sure she shows you.'

'Look, we all know Krystal's had a rough deal,' said Miles, 'nobody's denying that. It's the drug-addled mother I've got an issue with.'

'As a matter of fact, she's doing very well on the Bellchapel programme at the moment.'

'But with her history,' said Miles, 'it isn't rocket science, is it, to guess that she'll relapse?'

'If you apply that rule across the board, you ought not to have a driving licence, because with your history you're bound to drink and drive again.'

Miles was temporarily baffled, but Samantha said coldly, 'I think that's a rather different thing.'

'Do you?' said Kay. 'It's the same principle.'

'Yes, well, principles are sometimes the problem, if you ask me,' said Miles. 'Often what's needed is a bit of common sense.'

'Which is the name people usually give to their prejudices,' rejoined Kay.

'According to Nietzsche,' said a sharp new voice, making them all jump, 'philosophy is the biography of the philosopher.'

A miniature Samantha stood at the door into the hall, a busty girl of around sixteen in tight jeans and a T-shirt; she was eating a handful of grapes and looking rather pleased with herself.

'Everyone meet Lexie,' said Miles proudly. 'Thank you for that, genius.'

'You're welcome,' said Lexie pertly, and she swept off upstairs.

A heavy silence sank over the table. Without really knowing why, Samantha, Miles and Kay all glanced towards Mary, who looked as though she might be on the verge of tears.

'Coffee,' said Samantha, lurching to her feet. Mary disappeared into the bathroom.

'Let's go and sit through,' said Miles, conscious that the atmosphere was somewhat charged, but confident that he could, with a few jokes and his habitual bonhomie, steer everyone back into charity with each other. 'Bring your glasses.'

His inner certainties had been no more rearranged by Kay's arguments than a breeze can move a boulder; yet his feeling towards her was not unkind, but rather pitying. He was the least intoxicated by the constant refilling of glasses, but on reaching the sitting room he realized how very full his bladder was.

'Whack on some music, Gav, and I'll go and get those choccies.'

But Gavin made no move towards the vertical stacks of CDs in their sleek Perspex stands. He seemed to be waiting for Kay to start on him. Sure enough, as soon as Miles had vanished from sight, Kay said, 'Well, thank you very much, Gav. Thanks for all the support.'

Gavin had drunk even more greedily than Kay throughout dinner, enjoying his own private celebration that he had not, after all, been offered up as a sacrifice to Samantha's gladiatorial bullying. He faced Kay squarely, full of a courage born not only of wine but because he had been treated for an hour as somebody important, knowledgeable and supportive, by Mary.

'You seemed to be doing OK on your own,' he said.

Indeed, the little he had permitted himself to hear of Kay and Miles' argument had given him a pronounced sense of deja vu; if he had not had Mary to distract him, he might have fancied himself back on that famous evening, in the identical dining room, when Lisa had told Miles that he epitomized all that was wrong with society, and Miles had laughed in her face, and Lisa had lost her temper and refused to stay for coffee. It was not very long after, that Lisa had admitted that she was sleeping with an associate partner at her firm and advised Gavin to get tested for chlamydia.

'I don't know any of these people,' said Kay, 'and you haven't done one damn

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