“I suppose you have, yes.”
“Well, if it’s got Sooty Stevens’ approval, perhaps this is the recipe I shall stick with. I’ve worked through a few, but it’s so nice to be able to solicit an opinion on one’s work – I’m sure you understand. I’d ask Consolata, but she doesn’t know the first thing about cider. So there you are. Sooty Stevens is a fan. Bene, bene.”
The way he hams up the Italian accent on “Bene, bene” seems, to me, almost cruel given his wife’s heritage. But then I’m not the one married to her, what would I know? On my way out of the kitchen I can hear him talk to himself over my shoulder. “Good English cider.” It’s genuinely pleasant to see someone that happy with that they do.
***
Dougal laughed when I told him I’d found out what Bastian did, and of course he corrected me ye
