AT IT AGAIN

They were at it again.

As Charlie washed and stacked the dishes, he could hear through the kitchen door Steve Temple telling her husband – in no uncertain terms – to put her down that instant, or...

"Or what?" Paul Temple's voice was amused, and the 40-year-old Cockney manservant could imagine the smirk that adorned his master's features as Steve wriggled uselessly in his strong arms.

The draining board was quite near to the door, and in two strides Charlie was next to the doorway, holding a tea towel in one hand and a glass in the other.

"Or, Mr. Paul Temple, novelist and criminologist extraordinaire; you'll be sleeping on the settee tonight."

Charlie muffled a laugh as he leant closer to the crack between the slightly open door and the frame, absently drying the glass tumbler in his hands.

"You wouldn't," was Paul's uncertain reply.

She would. She had done it before. Mind you, it had been when Paul had crawled back in from another book launch party his publisher had thrown (Steve had deigned not to attend) that went on until the early hours of the morning. He had unfortunately woken her up, and when she smelt the whisky on him – even though she knew her husband was a careful drinker and he wasn't totally drunk, just rather merry – she had banished him to the settee. But still, it all came to the same thing. Even Sir Graham Forbes, the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Force at Scotland Yard, would follow orders without question when Steve was in this type of mood. No one argued with her.

"Paul..." came her warning tone, but any reply was drowned out by a sudden loud crash as the glass Charlie had been holding slid out of his grasp and hit the floor, shattering on impact. Guiltily, Charlie leapt back from the door as it swung open to reveal a stunned and exasperated Paul Temple.

"Really, Charlie, that's the second glass you've dropped this week," he said, amidst his wife's laughter from behind.

"Darling, you shouldn't complain; Charlie's just saved you from a night on the settee," Steve told Paul.

And suddenly Charlie found himself under the suspicious scrutiny of his master, while over Paul's shoulder Steve's eyes twinkled with amusement.

"Have you been listening at the doors again, Charlie?"