The Dinner Guest by B Walter (best short books to read txt) 📕

me; I worried for a moment that he was talking about me. After all, I was no stranger to a liaison behind the stables myself back in my youth. But then it hit home. He was talking about Johnny Holden.

‘Just leave me alone,’ Titus said now, a sob rising in his voice. He turned to walk away from us, towards Pippa who was hovering on the edge of this strange scene, clearly unsure if she should wait to find out how it developed or seek shelter away from all the rage.

‘Oh no you don’t,’ Matthew said. He grabbed Titus again, his arms firmly steering the boy around. ‘We’re going.’

To my surprise, Titus didn’t put up much of a fight. Trying hard not to let his tears spill over, he rubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand and allowed himself to be led away. I opened my mouth to say something to Pippa, who was still staring at us, but couldn’t think of anything to say. I just gave her a weak smile, then followed Matthew and Titus across the grass back towards the house.

We managed to get to the entrance hall before anyone stopped us.

‘Charles? Matthew? Where are you going?’

I looked round to see my mother walking quickly to catch us before we left through the front door.

‘I think … I’m afraid we’re leaving. Matthew’s not very well.’ I gestured to him, but he was already down the steps to the driveway, ordering one of the young men at the entrance to bring the car round.

My mother peered at me, her eyes searching my face, trying to work out what was wrong. ‘You look … stressed. Has something happened?’

I looked back out to the steps and driveway outside. Titus and Matthew were now standing separate from each other, waiting for the car, Titus kicking moodily at the gravel.

My mother had seen them too. ‘What’s going on? Is Titus all right? He looks upset.’

I shook my head. ‘He’s fine. He’s … it’s just all been a bit of a tense afternoon.’

She looked understandably confused by this. A crunching outside announced the arrival of our car on the driveway, followed by the doors opening.

‘Charlie! Now!’ Matthew called out.

‘I’m sorry, I’ve got to go,’ I said to my mother. ‘It’s just Matthew. He has a headache or something.’ I turned away from her and began to walk down the steps.

‘Should he be driving if he’s feeling so ill?’

The voice wasn’t my mother’s. It was from someone else. I turned back and saw Rachel walking through the front door, glass of champagne in hand. There was something about her that instantly unsettled me. There always was, to some extent, but today it seemed amplified. Her eyes were bright, her face keen and inquisitive and I had a strange sense that she had more of a grasp of the situation than any of us standing here.

Deciding to ignore her, I turned back to my mother and said, ‘I’m sorry. I’ll call you later.’

I turned and walked down the steps and got into the already running car. Matthew didn’t say anything as I closed the door and did up my seatbelt; he just reversed quickly to turn the car round then started driving off at a speed that felt excessive. In the rearview mirror I saw my mother go back inside the house. But a shape remained at the top step for a few moments longer. The outline of Rachel, the red sunset bathing the Ashtons’s manor in an otherworldly glow behind her, watching us as we drove away.

The journey home was fraught and filled with bouts of Matthew and Titus shouting and snapping at each other. It only got into truly difficult territory when Matthew made another reference to Titus’s biological father. Titus, who had maintained that it had been very wrong of Matthew to interrupt him when he was having sex with Pippa, said that he was a ‘hypocrite’ and was sure that both of us had done worse in our time. I saw Matthew’s knuckles grow white as he gripped the steering wheel when he responded.

‘I would just prefer it if you could control yourself when we go out as a family. We were at the Ashtons’s wedding anniversary, not a student house party in some shithole flat.’

Titus scoffed, ‘Now you sound like a snob.’

‘I also noticed you weren’t wearing a condom. How can you be so stupid? You’re supposed to be bright, intelligent, sensible. Do you know the risk you’re taking?’

In the mirror I saw Titus go red. ‘I seriously don’t think Pippa has HIV or—’

‘I’m not talking about fucking STIs, I’m talking about pregnancy. That’s how mistakes happen. Potentially life-ruining mistakes. Young people behaving recklessly, shagging around without protection…’

‘Mistakes like me, you mean?’ Titus was shouting now, and I saw some tears fall from his eyes. ‘You’re saying just because I act like any other boy my age, I’m going to somehow turn into some no-good drug addict like my father? So you think it would have been better if I’d never been born?’

‘For God’s sake, I’m not saying that,’ Matthew said and swerved the car erratically and had to act quickly to keep within his lane.

‘Pull over at the hard shoulder when you’re next able to,’ I said firmly.

‘What?’ he said, glancing over at me as if he’d just remembered I was there.

‘I mean it. You shouldn’t drive when you’re this angry.’

We made the swap a few minutes on, and continued our journey in silence, punctuated by the odd sniff from Titus, who had the pinched look of someone trying not to cry openly.

I’d been concerned how Matthew and I would finally find a time to talk alone, to unpick what exactly had made him so desperate to leave the party before the whole business with Titus had blown up. But the opportunity arrived quicker than I’d expected. As soon as we turned into Carlyle Square and shut the engine off, Titus got out and