It has happened! Detective Sergeant Ben Jones, oh how he longed for this day to come! And it seems right that he heard about his promotion from from his senior partner, Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby. Right now Ben is so giddy, he could jump for joy, but he refrains from it. Surely that wouldn't be appropriate behaviour for a DS. But he can't help the goofy smile that is plastered on his face as they wrap up their case.
Back at the station a while after being told of the news, he's typing away at his report when Barnaby walks up to his desk.
"What are you doing tonight, Jones?"
Ben looks up at him questioningly. "I don't know yet. Depends on when I finish the report, I suppose."
"Wrong, you're coming for dinner. Mrs Barnaby insists on celebrating your promotion." He makes it sound like a terrible chore, but Ben can read his boss well enough by now to know he's actually agreeing with his wife.
Ben suppresses a grin. "I suppose in that case, my evening has been planned for me." He manages to make it sound just as unnerved as Barnaby did.
"Can't be helped. Oh, and she said you should bring your lady-friend." Barnaby walks over to his own desk and sits down.
Ben looks after him, confused. "My lady-friend?"
"The one she met you with the other day. She mentioned it to me for whatever reason."
"Oh, her!" Ben exclaims, letting his pen drop onto his desk, leaning back and stretching before he continues. "Maggie, she's my cousin. She was visiting the family for a few days. I was showing her around Causton when we met Mrs Barnaby."
"No lady-friend, then?" Barnaby enquires and receives a rueful smile in return.
"Wouldn't mind if there was, but – no."
"I wouldn't let Mrs Barnaby hear that. I can't guarantee for your safety if she does."
The lines are delivered while the DCI is studying a note someone left on his desk for him, so he doesn't see how hard Ben is trying not to laugh out loud. He's aware that Joyce Barnaby has a bit of a soft spot for him and he doesn't doubt that she might try to set him up with the daughter of some friend or acquaintance.
"So what do I tell her why I'm coming on my own?"
"You have until eight to decide on that, Jones," Barnaby replies and gets up, walking out of the office.
When Ben arrives at the DCI's house shortly before eight, it is neither Joyce Barnaby nor her husband who open the door; it's Cully, their daughter.
"Hello Ben, come in. And congratulations." She smiles at him, then looks past him out of the door. "Mum said you'd be bringing someone?"
"Thank you, Cully. But no, I'm on my own." And he is none the wiser yet how to keep the boss's wife from interfering with that. He peers around Cully to see if her mother might be within earshot, but it seems safe to speak up.
"Look, Cully, I don't currently have a girlfriend, but your father thought if your mother ..."
Cully interrupts him. "Oh yes, she would, wouldn't she?" She laughs. "So you need some excuse why your girlfriend couldn't come?"
Ben looks at her hopefully. "Something that sounds credible, yeah. I mean, what girlfriend wouldn't want to celebrate her partner's promotion if she could make it at all?"
"Ill?" Cully suggests, but Ben shakes his head.
"Your mother might end up giving me a bowl of chicken soup for her."
"You could eat it yourself."
Ben doesn't comment on that, only pulls a face. Joyce Barnaby is a wonderful person, but not a wonderful cook.
"Oh, come on through before they get suspicious, we'll think of something." With a hand on his shoulder, she hurries her father's junior partner through to the kitchen.
"Ben!" Joyce exclaims and rushes over to hug him, holding her hands away from him awkwardly as they are sticking in oven gloves. "Congratulations and well done!"
"Thank you, Mrs Barnaby," Ben replies, trying to politely disentangle himself. But his superior comes to his rescue before he manages.
"Joyce, the oven, the oven!"
"Coming! Tom, mind your manners, offer our guests a drink."
"Guest," Cully corrects her mother.
With a steaming hot casserole in her gloved hands, Joyce straightens and turns back to Ben, then to her husband. "What? Tom, haven't you told him to bring his girlfriend?"
"Oh, I have, I have indeed," he replies while busying himself with opening a wine bottle.
"Then where is she? She seemed such a lovely young woman, Ben."
"The woman I was with when we met in town the other day? That was my cousin Maggie," Ben confesses. "She was only visiting for a few days."
Joyce puts down the hot casserole on the kitchen counter. "Oh, that's too bad. And there's no one else you could bring?"
Ben shrugs a little helplessly.
"But mum, you asked him to bring his girlfriend. Didn't you know Ben is homosexual?" Cully delivers the line with such certainty in her voice, that everyone – including Ben – stares at her for a long moment. She breaks out in laughter at their expressions. "Oh mum, give him a break. If he doesn't want to bring his girlfriend to his boss's house, I can't really blame him. One detective is enough for most people."
Joyce gives Ben a curious look for a moment and then suddenly turns to her husband, who is watching the scene with growing amusement – and a still unopened wine bottle in his hands. "Tom, the wine!"
Ben's private life is not mentioned again throughout the dinner. Yet later that night, just as Tom Barnaby starts to drift off to sleep, Joyce shakes his shoulder. "Tom? He's not really homosexual, is he?"
"Oh for heaven's sake, will you just leave the boy alone, Joyce?" And him, too, if you please.
Joyce remains silent for a long moment and Tom only vaguely hears her say, "Surely he's heterosexual. I can't be that wrong," before he falls asleep.