Absolute Truths Part II

Charles turns to Jon Darrow, now an old man and a recluse, for help and advice, but in the months after Lyle's death, times are very hard for him. He worries about Neville's work on the Cathedral appeal, as his dean is very reluctant to show his accounts to the other clergy who are involved. He goes to dinner at the Aysgarths, where he meets Loretta Staviski, the American lady he had romanced briefly many years ago. HE and Charley have a row because his son insists on repeating gossip about Michael to him and Charles loses his temper and calls him a bastard. In a desperate attempt to make up to his son, he goes to London with him.. and thenre he runs into Sheila, the widow of a felllow clergyman. She is now living in a small flat in London and she and he talk about their lives, and Charles feeling desperately lonely, winds up in bed with her. He realises that this was a terrible mistake as she will now almost certain expect, as a respectable clerical widow, that he will marry her when his mourning period is over. He returns to Starbridge but Jon is busy looking after his younger son Nick, who has come home from Africa. Charles invites Martin, Jon's older son, who is gay and an actor, to come and stay with him, to keep him company till Jon is able to help him again. He dines with Martin and Harriet March, a sculptor who has been doing a model of Aysgarths hands and who is close friends with Neville. He finds himself flirting with her and worries about his weakness for women.