Trev and Glenda looked at one another. Trev shrugged. Where could they start?

Glenda coughed. ‘Mister Nutt, are you alive or dead or what?’

‘Alive, thank you very much for asking.’

‘I saw you killed!’ Trev shouted. ‘We ran all the way to the Lady Sybil!’

‘Oh,’ said Nutt. ‘I am sorry, I do not recall. It would seem that diagnosis wasin error. Am I right?’

They exchanged glances. Trev got the worst of it. When Glenda was angry, herglance might just possibly etch glass. But Nutt had a point. It was hard toargue with a man who insisted that he was not dead.

‘Um, and then you came back here and ate nine pies,’ said Glenda.

‘Looks like they did you good,’ said Trev, with brittle cheerfulness.

‘But I can’t see where they’ve gone,’ Glenda finished. ‘Belly-busters, everyone of them.’

‘You will be angry with me.’ Nutt looked frightened.

‘Let’s all calm down, shall we?’ said Trev. ‘Look, I was pretty worried, myoath, yes. Not angry, okay? We’re your friends.’

‘I must be becoming. I must be helpful!’ This came from Nutt’s lips like amantra.

Glenda took his hands. ‘Look, I’m not bothered about the pies, really I’m not.I like to see a man with a good appetite. But you must tell us what’s wrong.Have you done something you shouldn’t?’

‘I should be making myself worthy,’ Nutt said, pulling away gently and notmeeting her eyes. ‘I must be becoming. I must not lie. I must gain worth. Thankyou for your kindness.’

He got up, walked down the length of the vats, picked up a basket of candles,came back, wound up his dribbling machine and began to work, oblivious of theirpresence.

‘Do you know what goes on in his head?’ Glenda whispered.

‘When he was young, he was chained to an anvil for seven years,’ said Trev.

‘What? That’s terrible! Someone must have been very cruel to do something likethat!’

‘Or desperate to make sure he didn’t get free.’

‘Things are never all they seem, Mister Trev,’ said Nutt, without looking upfrom his feverish activity, ‘and the acoustics in these cellars are very good.Your father loved you, did he not?’

‘Wot?’ Trev’s face reddened.

‘He loved you, took you to the football, shared a pie with you, taught you tocheer for the Dimmers? Did he hold you on his shoulders so that you could seemore of the game?’

‘Stop talkin’ about my dad like that!’

Glenda took Trev’s arm. ‘It’s okay, Trev, it’s all right, it’s not a nastyquestion, really it isn’t!’

‘But you hate him, because he became a mortal man, dying on the cobbles,’ saidNutt, picking up another undribbled candle.

‘That is nasty,’ said Glenda. Nutt ignored her.

‘He let you down, Mister Trev. He wasn’t the small boy’s god. It turned outthat he was only a man. But he was not only a man. Everyone who has everwatched a game in this city has heard of Dave Likely. If he was a fool, thenany man who has ever climbed a mountain or swum a torrent is a fool. If he wasa fool then so was the man who first tried to tame fire. If he was a fool thenso was the man who tried the first oyster, he was a fool, too–although I’mbound to remark that, given the division of labour in early hunter-gatherercultures, he was probably a woman as well. Perhaps only a fool gets out of bed.But, after death, some fools shine like stars, and your father is such a one.After death, people forget the foolishness, but they do remember the shine. Youcould not have done anything. You could not have stopped him. If you could havestopped him he would not have been Dave Likely, a name that means football tothousands of people.’ Nutt very carefully put down a beautifully dribbledcandle and continued. ‘Think about this, Mister Trev. Don’t be smart. Smart isonly a polished version of dumb. Try intelligence. It will surely see youthrough.’

‘That’s just a load of words!’ said Trev hotly, but Glenda saw the glisteninglines down his cheeks.

‘Please think about them, Mister Trev,’ said Nutt and added, ‘There, I havedone a complete basket. That is worth.’

It was the calmness. Nutt had been spinning, almost sick with anxiety. He’dbeen repeating himself, as if he’d had to learn things for a teacher. And thenhe was otherwise–totally reserved and collected.

Glenda looked from Trev to Nutt and back again. Trev’s mouth hung open. Shedidn’t blame it. What Nutt had said with quiet matter-of-factness had soundedlike not an opinion but the truth, winched out of some deep well.

Then Trev broke the silence, speaking as if hypnotized, his voice hoarse.

‘He gave me his old jersey when I was five. It was like a tent. I mean, it wasso greasy I never got wet—’ He stopped.

After a moment Glenda pushed at his elbow. ‘He’s gone all stiff,’ she said, ‘asstiff as a piece of wood.’

‘Ah, catatonic,’ said Nutt. ‘He is overwhelmed by his feelings. We should layhim down.’

‘These old mattresses they sleep on in here are rubbish!’ said Glenda, lookingaround for a better alternative to cold flagstones.

‘I know the very thing!’ said Nutt, suddenly all action and plunging off downthe passage. This left Glenda still holding a rigid Trev when Juliet appearedfrom the direction of the kitchens. She stopped instantly when she saw them,and burst into tears.

‘He’s dead, isn’t he?’

‘Er, no—’ Glenda began.

‘I talked to some of the bakery lads coming in to work and they’re telling methere’s been fights all over the city and someone got himself murdered!’

‘Trev’s just had a bit of a shock, that’s all. Mister Nutt’s gone to findsomething for him to lie down on.’

‘Oh.’ Juliet sounded a little disappointed, presumably because ‘a bit of ashock’ was not sufficiently dramatic, but she rallied just as a loud, rough anduniquely wooden noise from the other direction heralded Nutt pushing a largecouch, which shuddered to a halt in front of them.

‘There’s a big room piled up with old furniture up the hall,’ he said, pattingthe faded velvet. ‘It’s a bit musty, but I think all the mice have fallen outon the way here. Quite a find actually. I believe it is a chaise longue fromthe workshop of the famous Gurning Upspire. I think I can probably restore itlater. Let him down gently.’

‘What happened to him?’ said Juliet.

‘Oh, the truth can be a little bit upsetting,’ said Nutt. ‘But he will get overit and feel better.’

‘I would very much like to know the truth myself, Mister Nutt, thank you verymuch,’ said Glenda, folding her arms and trying to look stern while all thetime a voice in her head was whispering Chaise longue! Chaise longue! When noone else is here you can have a go at languishing!

‘It’s a kind of medicine with words,’ said Nutt, carefully. ‘Sometimes peoplefool themselves into believing things that aren’t true. Sometimes that can bequite dangerous for the person. They see the world in a wrong way. They won’tlet themselves see that what they believe is wrong. But often there is a partof the mind that does know, and the right words can let it out.’ He gave them aworried look.

‘Well, that’s nice,’ said Juliet.

‘It sounds like hocus pocus to me,’ said Glenda. ‘Folk know their own minds!’She folded her arms again, and saw Nutt glance at them.

‘Well?’ she demanded. ‘Haven’t you ever seen elbows before?’

‘Never such pretty dimpled ones, Miss Glenda, on such tightly folded arms.’

Up until that point Glenda had never realized that Juliet had such a dirtylaugh, to which, Glenda fervently hoped, she was not entitled.

‘Glenda’s got a bee-oh! Glenda’s got a bee-ooh!’

‘It’s “beau”, actually,’ Glenda said, swiping to the back of her mind therecollection that it had taken her years to find that out herself. ‘And I wasjust helping. We’re helping him, aren’t we, Mister Nutt?’

‘Doesn’t he look sweet lying there?’ said Juliet. ‘All pink.’ She strokedTrev’s greasy hair inexpertly. ‘Just like a little boy!’