‘Who’s Ted Sloper?’
‘He’s the choir director. I’ve told you about him before. He’s the rudest man I know and he swears a lot.’
‘Yes, I know about him, the one with the beard.’
‘He doesn’t have a beard,’ Harriet said. ‘He was telling us about French pronunciation and he obviously didn’t know a thing about French.’
‘I’m sure you said he had a beard.’
‘So I decided I should tell him the right way of pronouncing this word. Because it would be awful if the whole choir was singing the wrong pronunciation and thinking it was right, wouldn’t it?’
‘Who’s the one with the beard, then?’
‘There isn’t anybody in the choir with a beard,’ Harriet patiently explained, then paused thoughtfully. ‘Except for Mrs Sterp, but when you reach that age …’ She directed her thoughts back to the more important details of her diatribe. ‘Anyway, I told Ted Sloper how to pronounce this word in French …’
‘Is he French?’ asked Bernard, still catching up on the story’s earlier details.
‘No, I told you, he doesn’t know a thing about French. And when I told him how to pronounce the word, he said something about … he said that I was like Fauré’s mistress.’
Bernard’s face darkened. ‘He said what?’
‘No, it wasn’t that, he said … he said that he didn’t care if I was Fauré’s mistress.’
‘Who is this Fauré?’
‘He’s the man who wrote the music we were singing.’
‘Is he the one with the beard?’ Bernard asked, a new source of anger mounting inside him.
‘There isn’t anyone with a beard.’
‘Are you his mistress?’ Bernard asked.
‘Don’t be silly, he’s dead.’
‘Then what right,’ exploded Bernard, ‘does this Ted fellow have to accuse you of being his mistress?’
‘And when I argued with him, he told me to shut up.’
‘The French man? Fauré?’
‘No, Ted Sloper.’
‘The one with the beard?’
‘There isn’t anyone with a beard.’
Bernard stood up. ‘Where does he live?’
‘There’s no need, Bernard.’
‘Tell me where he lives!’ shouted Bernard. He was burning to take an evening’s worth of frustration out on this man, beard or no beard.
‘Calm down,’ Harriet ordered her husband. ‘There’s no point in doing anything about it now.’
Bernard sat down, reluctantly. ‘Tomorrow, then,’ he said. ‘Tomorrow I’ll go and speak to him. He’s no right …’
Thus satisfied by a husband’s righteous anger (which approximated a form of sympathy), Harriet picked up her spectacles from the coffee table and put them on, then looked fondly at Bernard. He was such a passionate person. No doubt he would have forgotten all about it in the morning.
Ted knocked moodily on the door of the vicarage. He wasn’t pleased to be there – by this time of the evening he was usually in the Green Baron and a drink of some kind was always necessary to wash away the taste of the choir rehearsal, but he was fairly sure Reverend Andy Biddle hadn’t asked him round to share a pint. Added to that, Ted always found encounters with the new vicar intensely depressing – it was something to do with the way he was always smiling.
Andy Biddle opened the door and smiled. ‘Ted!’ he beamed. ‘Thanks for coming.’
What was wrong with the man? wondered Ted. How could he spend so much time looking happy? He was supposed to be a Christian.
‘Won’t you come in?’ Biddle asked, and Ted reluctantly accepted the invitation, stepping into the warmth of the house.
‘Tea? I’d offer you a gin and tonic, but I’m completely out of gin. And tonic,’ Biddle laughed, then winced. ‘Ouch.’
‘What?’
‘I … er … broke my tooth the other day. It hurts when I laugh,’ Biddle chuckled cautiously.
Why? thought Ted. The man’s in pain and it’s still something to laugh about. This relentless enthusiasm was depressing Ted even more.
‘Tea will do,’ he gloomily said, trying to suppress his body’s desperate need for a pint of beer. He followed the vicar into the kitchen, feeling the insipid details of the house drain him of his little remaining resilience. Lots of pastel shades and nondescript watercolours – all new since Biddle’s arrival. Previously, the house had at least radiated some kind of life, having been not so much decorated as left to evolve its bold and frankly hideous décor (Biddle’s predecessor had been quite a different man who certainly would have had some gin).
Biddle reached down two yellow mugs from a cupboard and started to boil the kettle. ‘How’s the choir?’ he enquired cheerfully.
‘Awful,’ Ted replied, wondering if Biddle had asked him round for purely social reasons, and if so, when he could expect to leave.
‘Oh?’ Biddle’s face dropped a little, but not enough to make Ted feel any happier. ‘What’s the problem?’
‘No talent,’ Ted responded. ‘There’s not the slightest bit of talent amongst the lot of them. None at all.’
‘Ah. Right.’ Biddle chuckled, uncertainly. ‘Well – I’m not sure that there’s an easy solution for that one.’ Ted just stared back grimly, so Biddle added humorously ‘Except perhaps napalm!’
He quickly repented of the comment, hoping that he hadn’t offended his choir director; he apologetically put on a serious face in case he had.
‘They’re so unresponsive,’ Ted sighed, ‘I could insult them to their faces and they wouldn’t notice.’
‘I sometimes feel like that about congregations!’ Biddle laughed, then winced again.
‘You should see a dentist about that.’
‘I, er … I have an appointment with a dentist tomorrow.’ The kettle clicked and Biddle poured hot water into the mugs. ‘Milk?’
‘Yes. Two sugars.’ Biddle dutifully stirred sugar into one of the mugs, then carried them through to the living room. ‘I don’t think they realise how important music is to me,’ Ted continued, following Biddle. ‘If they did, they wouldn’t do what they do to it.’
‘The work you do with the choir is very much appreciated, Ted,’ said Biddle, gesturing towards one of his armchairs. Ted sat down miserably, feeling ever more trapped in an undesirable situation. ‘I know how much you put into it, and …’ He laughed again, which caused him another jolt of pain that almost made him spill his tea. It was hard enough remaining cheerful in front of Ted Sloper, without this toothache. ‘The choir is getting better every week,’ he lied.
‘You think so?’ Ted asked, raising an eyebrow knowingly.
‘I’m – not a musician, obviously …’ Biddle swallowed a chuckle before it had a chance to cause him any more pain, wondering why everything he was saying sounded so insincere this evening. ‘But if there’s anything I can do to make things any – er – easier, for you …?’
‘Got