‘No, you i***t. The rat put his arm around her and… pinched her!’
‘Pinched her – handbag?’
‘No, you dumbbell – her bottom. You wait until I’ll get hold of him.’
Overcoming a sudden overwhelming urge to laugh, William hastily rearranged his features to express a suitable look of disgusted horror and tut-tutted in sympathy.
‘And that’s not all. She was too upset to speak to me about it, but from what her mother told me he also made a pass at her as well.’
‘Golly, he must have been blind drunk,’ said William without thinking.
‘Well, by the time I’ve finished with him, he’ll need it,’ was the grim reply.
After a pause, William managed to ask, fearing the worst, ‘What did you have in mind?’
‘I’ll think of something – something that will shut him up for good.’ Then remembering his duty a
