Free Sins of the Father: MANTEQUERO BOOK 3 by Jenny Twist Page A

“Tell me more.”
“Well, they’re quite different writers, aren’t they? I mean, Cervantes ridicules his society with surreal jokes, whereas Dickens writes clear, hard-hitting plots firmly established in                                       reality.” Forgetting for a moment the disturbing blonde girl, he began waving his hands about theatrically. “Cervantes just has these cardboard cut-out, cartoon characters that nobody could take seriously, but Dickens’s characters are real people. You can believe in them. Not that Dickens couldn’t do jokes,” he went on, totally in his element now, talking about something he really liked, and his voice changed from a squeaky up-and-down nervous bleat to the confident boom of the natural orator. Most of the class was sitting up straight and paying attention.
    He could see out of the corner of his eye that Samantha had swivelled round in her chair and was gazing at him, and he very nearly lost it. He stumbled over the next few words and then took off again. “Not that Dickens doesn’t tell jokes. There’s that wonderful line in Oliver Twist – when Mr Brownlow tells Mr Bumble that in law he is responsible for his wife’s actions ‘ If the law supposes that, the law is an ass . . If that’s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor .’ Or in Barnaby Rudge – where John ‘ determined to kick his raven , on the very first opportunity.’”
    The whole class broke out into laughter and he suddenly realised he was being a complete prat. Mrs Winton wasn’t actually laughing but she was looking a little bemused and her lips were twitching at the corners. Oh God!
    He sat down with a bump. “Er, well, that’s what I think, anyway,” he finished lamely and stared down at his hands, afraid to look in Samantha’s direction.
He’d blown it with her now – totally.
     
    “How about you, Samantha? Do you think they merit comparison?”
    Samantha gave Rupert a quick sideways glance, but he was still looking down at his hands.
    “I agree with Jones, Miss,” she said. “I don’t much like Cervantes as a writer and I don’t see how his stories could be taken seriously, whereas Dickens made a real impact. Dickens changed things.”
Mrs Winton was most definitely looking amused now. “Are you saying that Dickens was responsible for social revolution?”
    Samantha shifted in her seat. “Not by himself, obviously. But he did a lot to bring people’s attention to the plight of the poor. He made people aware. I don’t think Cervantes chang ed anything. English society did change. Spanish society didn’t.”
    Mrs Winton smiled. She loved this class. These students were here because they wanted to be. They had stayed on to do A levels. Most of them were headed for university. She could give them their head in this sort of discussion and they often came up with some interesting new ideas.
    “What about you, Denton? Do you have an opinion?”
    “I think they’re both dead boring, Miss.” Den ton could always be counted upon to be controversial. 
    There were some protests from the class. “Oh, come on, Denton,” said a fair-haired boy with thick spectacl es and a nasty case of acne, “Cervantes might not have achieved social change but you can’t say he’s boring.”
    Rupert relaxed. The conversation had moved away from him. The heat was off. He risked a sideways glance at Samantha. She was still looking at him! Rapidly, he shifted his eyes away. She was smiling. Oh bugger! He wished the ground would open up under his feet.
     
    The little episode had not escaped the notice of Mrs Winton and a small smile played around the edge of her lips.  She had known Rupert all his life and she thought he was a lovely boy, if a little on the serious side. He was very bright and very studious and the kids called him the Geek. It didn’t seem to bother him. He lived largely in his own world. Sometimes she wondered whether he was a little