A Laborer in the Vineyard of Love by Smith Alexander McCall

Author:Smith, Alexander McCall [Smith, Alexander McCall]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
Goodreads: 180172335
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2023-09-19T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

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It was a week before they saw George again. Katie deliberately left him to make his own arrangements with Emma—it was not part of her job, she thought, to nursemaid the relationship through its initial stages. The Perfect Passion Company was an introduction agency, and although she was beginning to see its role as being a broad one, it should only intrude, she felt, where needed. She knew, though, that there would be more involvement needed from the agency if George and Emma should take to one another as she—and indeed they—had planned. Then they would have to address the issue of Margaret, who was the rock upon which George’s previous relationships had floundered.

The more she thought of Margaret, and of her baneful influence, the more outraged Katie felt. She had never met her, of course, but her dislike of the other woman had become intense. She discussed that with William one morning, as they sat over their companionable coffee. William had shown her a design he had just finished, and she had admired it, even if somewhat absent-mindedly.

He had noticed. “You’re somewhere else this morning,” he remarked. “Not that I particularly mind. You don’t have to talk to me if you don’t want to.”

There was no reproach in his voice, but she quickly apologised. “Sorry, William. I wasn’t ignoring you. I like that pattern. I really like it.”

He laughed. “I wasn’t fishing for compliments. I was only showing you because, well, because you’ve got good taste.”

The tribute pleased her.

“But there’s something on your mind,” he went on. “What is it?”

She hesitated, and then said, “Do you think it’s fair to dislike somebody you’ve never met?”

He reached for his mug of coffee. It was a mug she had found for him the previous week, and he liked it. It was blue, with WILLIAM printed round it in large letters. “It’s my mug,” he had said. “Look. Mine. It was waiting for me in the shop where you bought it. It was waiting for me.”

“Solipsism,” said Katie, and laughed.

“What-ism?”

“Something I read about—somewhere, I don’t remember where. The belief that everything exists only for you.”

William looked at the mug. “But it’s just a mug,” he said. “And I wasn’t being serious.”

“Nor was I.”

Now, holding his eponymous mug, William returned to her question about disliking people. “I think it can be reasonable to take a view of someone else. If somebody tells you about somebody else who’s really awful…If they spell out the horrid things a person’s done, then, yes, you can dislike them. As long as what you’ve been told is true.”

Katie agreed. “Some people in public life, for example. You hear about some bully whose position has gone to his head. You hear about him intimidating staff. You hear about him making some junior person cry—I’ve heard that, you know, about some politicians right here in Scotland.”

William rolled his eyes. “Oh, that’s a familiar enough story. We’ve got those guys at home too. Australian politics can be rough.” He took a sip of coffee.

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