NINE
At about the time of the arrival of the Banana Boys to the Duchess’s semi-detached villa, Jack and Mandy were returning home from the Palace. Jack, being a sensitive individual, or so he believed, sensed a lingering after-burn following a stilted conversation with Mandy in a packed train from London. He sensed also that an inappropriateness to converse in the cab from the station to home was likely only a temporary respite; a sensible assumption as it turned out. Being a man knowledgeable in the ways of women, which made him an extraordinary catch for Mandy, Jack said nonchalantly to his wife, as he headed to the kitchen to get a white wine for her and a Jameson’s for himself, a snifter so to speak. ‘Should we talk about today before we go to bed, love?’ He applied his cheeky, wide b
