Looking Down Read Free Page B

fallen.’
    ‘I don’t fall,’ he said with dignity.
    ‘You will. Then you’ll be a corpse or a casualty, and although I might be mightily relieved, how would I explain it? I’m quite sure there’s something forbidding
that
in the lease. You wouldn’t shit on your own doorstep, but you’ve done it on mine, you selfish swine. I live here.’
    ‘Well, so do I sometimes. When I’m allowed to share your precious luck. And you always leave windows open.’
    ‘Oh, come on, Steven. Am I hearing that hint of self-pity again? You haven’t done so badly for luck. You turn your back on it. You spit on it.’
    ‘
I
haven’t been given a flat, free gratis and for nothing.’
    Definitely a jibe. She sighed in exasperation.
    ‘It wasn’t for
nothing.
It was a gesture of affection, thoroughly reciprocated over several years.’
    ‘A very big thank you, from a man you slept with. He dies and leaves it to you. You’re a tart, Sarah.’
    She swiped the hair upwards from her face again, took off the glasses. He was sure she could turn that into a devastating gesture.
    ‘Yes, surely, my dear, I’m practically an old lady and I’ve sleptwith a lot of men – what’s wrong with that? Although it’s a bit dramatic to give my particular form of therapy such a common and over-romantic description. Nothing wrong with it anyway. Don’t be so pompous. I’m ten years older than you. Too old for criticism and too shocked to be angry. I want a
peaceful
life.’
    ‘And still quite lovely in your dotage.’
    ‘It’s in the eye of the beholder, dear. And you, on the other hand, are a thief. I don’t approve of that either.’
    ‘Now who’s being pompous? What moral high ground do you live on? Don’t you dare criticise me.’
    She shoved the glasses back. She should have been a teacher with that low, smooth, persuasive voice.
    ‘I’ve been gainfully and respectably employed for most of my life, Steven, and I’ve always given
value,
given
something,
in whatever I have done, while all you do is
take.
I don’t go where I’m not wanted. I specialise in improving lives, in my own particular way, while you wreck them. There’s that malice in you I don’t understand.’
    He moved to sit on the floor, with his skinny spine resting against her legs. She put down her wine and began to knead the back of his powerful shoulders. It was strange how, even in the midst of a quarrel, they were content to touch one another, and how even with the undertones of envy and occasional dislike the protective affection endured. In appearance he was a most insignificant-looking man, small, pale and sandy-haired, looking as if he never saw daylight, which was more or less true. Nobody ever remembered Steven, except to recall a harmless and reliable face, and perhaps his handshake, from which they recoiled. Sarah had often wondered if his insignificance was cultivated in response to the handshake, or purely a natural result of his overall appearance and the sort of muddy colouring which melded with brick walls.
    ‘I’m sorry you think of it like that. What if I told you I thoughtthat my kind of occasional, discriminating thieving is an honourable profession, or at least no more dishonourable than working for a bank, where we play around with people’s money and take more than our fair share.’
    ‘Bollocks.’
    ‘What if I were to say that thieves like myself have the greatest respect for property? Far greater respect than those who own it. I
liberate
beautiful paintings from owners who have no idea of their value or importance, and then I pass them on, in due course, to a truly appreciative owner at a bargain price. For small, humbler items, the owner might be myself. Haven’t got the right home for anything else. And I don’t believe I have wrecked a single life for longer than five minutes. That’s the advantage in stealing from the vulgarly rich, because they don’t know what they’ve got and it’s all eminently replaceable. I just want