‘I certainly would, Arnold, and it should tell you something, shouldn’t it? Lyn loves him warts and all. Being gay is in that respect no different from an assortment of other things parents might view as shortcomings in their children. You, on the other hand – well, is it too late for you to realize what you’ve done to your son? For you to let fatherly love take precedence to your prejudice?’

‘Lower your voice, will you?’

People had begun streaming from the bar in to the restaurant.

‘If you knew the disappointment that boy is to me, Marianne,’ Arnold hissed. ‘I could kick myself for taking him to the Manchester Opera House when he was a schoolkid to see whichever Shakespearean play it was that we saw. It was after that he told me he wanted to be an actor. I laughed and said at his age I’d wanted to be a professional cricketer—’

‘You were no good at cricket, though, were you? The same can’t be said of Matthew’s acting. Aren’t you proud of what he’s achieved?’

‘I would rather he were a street-sweeper than what, thanks to you-know-who, he became.’

Trying to get through to Arnold was like butting your head on a brick wall! Marianne eyed their reflections in a mirror beside the lift. Was that portly gent really the lad she’d grown up with? The woman clad in black and red, her hair streaked with silver, the kid who’d minded the shop with him and Harry while their parents ate a hasty meal?

All that remained of that Arnold was the dimple in his chin. And of that Marianne, naught but the simple hairstyle she had not let the dictates of fashion change. As for Harry… just thinking of him was a source of distress. Her envisaging his running his business from a wheelchair had not taken into account the self-pity consuming him, though he rejected compassion displayed by his family. Marianne’s daring to voice her expectation had resulted in one of his tirades, including that the sight of him in the store would frighten the customers away.

‘If my guests kept me waiting this long, I’d be in the bar knocking one back!’ she exclaimed to Arnold. ‘Why don’t you and I do that?’

‘It isn’t the done thing.’

And according to the ‘done thing’ was how Arnold had lived his life, except for his marrying out. An exception that had since proved the rule!

Matthew and Pete were the first arrivals, Matthew sartorially elegant as always and Pete looking as if he had tried his best.

‘We got here too early,’ said Matthew after they had kissed Marianne, ‘so we hung around downstairs.’

‘Too early?’ said Arnold. ‘You are half an hour late!’