to work out where a story is going, what the outcome will be. We do it all the time when we read books or watch films, we’re always trying to second-guess the writer as though we have to prove that we’re cleverer than him or her. I wonder why we feel compelled to do that? Is there something wrong with just waiting for the narrative to unfold?’
Taking it as the criticism she knew it to be, Joely said, ‘OK, I won’t ask again what comes next, I’ll wait until you’re ready to tell me.’
Freda continued to eat. ‘Would I be right in saying that so far you’re considering Sir to be a victim?’
Joely said, ‘I don’t think he can be that, given his age and position, but he could be considered prey.’
Freda broke into a smile at that. ‘Yes, prey,’ she agreed. ‘He was her prey – until he wasn’t any more.’
Joely continued to eat, presuming Freda was going to expound on the verbal trickery.
‘Nabokovian games,’ Freda stated.
Having no idea what that meant, Joely helped herself to more pie.
‘You know who Nabokov is?’ Freda asked.
‘Didn’t he write Lolita?’
‘Yes, he did. Have you read it?’
Joely shook her head.
‘Humbert – you know Humbert is the main protagonist – he claims to be a hebephiliac. This is someone who has a sexual preference for children in early adolescence, usually up to fourteen, but I think we can stretch it to fifteen. A paedophile is generally recognized to be a person whose attraction is for pre-pubescents. Eleven and under.’
Wanting to be sure she was following this, or maybe she didn’t want to follow it at all, Joely said, ‘So are you suggesting that a hebephiliac is more acceptable than a paedophile?’
‘Don’t you think so?’
All Joely could really think was that she’d rather not be having this conversation, but she said, ‘I guess I’d prefer it if neither of them existed.’
Freda didn’t appear to disagree. ‘The problem is we don’t choose our sexual proclivities, we’re born with them – or are we conditioned into them?’ She puzzled that for a moment. ‘I’d say both are possible, but for the purposes of this discussion let’s just deal with those whose chemical make-up comes into the world with them. They don’t at any point in their lives make a conscious decision to become a monster, if that’s how you’re going to view men whose predilections are for children. Do you have any, by the way?’
Startled by the question, Joely said, ‘Presuming you mean children, I have a fifteen-year-old daughter.’
Freda’s eyes widened with interest. ‘Is she healthy? Normal? A pretty girl?’
‘I’d say all of the above.’
‘So if an older man found himself attracted to her, would you consider him a monster?’
‘I’m sure I would if he did something about it.’
‘But what if you found out she’d instigated it? Do you think it would be fair for him to be labelled a paedophile for the rest of his life when her sixteenth birthday might be just around the corner and she made all the running? She’s not under eleven, she’s practically old enough to get married.’
Becoming increasingly uncomfortable with this, Joely said, ‘I’d rather we didn’t bring my daughter into it, if you don’t mind.’
Freda’s expression darkened, although her words were mild as she said, ‘It’s a difficult subject. We naturally feel very protective of our children, but we have to accept that very few, probably none of them, are angels. What they do when their parents aren’t looking is very often something the parent would rather not see, that way they can perpetuate the myth of their offspring’s innocence and believe them blameless if something happens to them that shouldn’t have.’
Since there was no arguing with that, Joely didn’t try. She was intrigued though to realize that Freda was putting up a bizarre sort of defence for Sir, which at least provided some indication of where the story was going.
‘Young Freda’s parents – my parents – were hedonists, dedicated to the experiments of free love. They set no rules or none that were clear enough to help keep a fifteen-year-old out of trouble. They accepted, encouraged, nudity and much more at their weekend parties, and seeing all this with impressionable eyes we have to ask ourselves was it any surprise I went on to behave the way I did?’
Joely said, ‘So you’re not only blaming yourself for whatever it was you went on to do, you’re blaming your parents?’
‘Precisely.’
‘And you’re not holding him, the hebephile, responsible at all?’