Bram quickly turned his eyes down, drew his shoulders up, and muttered an apology, but he looked up when their guest defended him.

"I don't want him disrespectin' his teacher. He's a good man."

Anne and Will looked from their father to the guest, tense.

Anthony's smile faded a bit. "What's it matter? The teacher isn't here," he said, laughing awkwardly and shrugging in what he hoped was a casual way but was actually very tense.

The children seemed to hold in their breath as they looked from their father to Anthony and back.

"It's still disrespectful," Ben said, a little irritated. "I don't want him to make a habit out of talking like that."

"Bram spoke too fast, father. He won't say things like that again, will ye, Bram?" Anne quickly said in a nervous voice.

Bram shook his head.

Anthony frowned. He could have just written this off as no big deal or anything, but all the kids looked so nervous and kind of scared regarding this so it was hard for him to do that.

Anthony raised his eyebrows as Anne spoke. "Look, maybe I'm just insane," he laughed humorlessly, "but I don't think saying something kind of disrespectful once is the birth of a terrible habit or the end of the world or something."

"It will if its not addressed." said Ben, who was getting quite worked up now. Who did this guy think he was, criticizing his parenting under his own roof? "Small wrongdoings lead to greater wrongdoings if not corrected." Because Ben had definitely been able to prevent disastrous behaviour in his children. "Anne! the stew!" He suddenly shouted, as he realised the stew was boiling over.

Anne who had been watching and had completely forgotten the meal, turned with a grasp, to find the stew boiling over. She quickly took the pan off the stove. "Sorry.... sorry...." she grasped, as she put the pan on the table on a coaster that Will quickly put down for her. The cooking range was a mess.

Anthony flinched at the sudden shouting, but other than that, he didn't really care about the food or whatever. He was pretty focused on just criticising Ben's parenting. "Oh well," he shrugged and crossed his arms. "what do I know about parenting? I'm just the guy who should be kept away from your kids because I'll corrupt them." Anthony hadn't forgotten the fact that Ben had said that about him, once. So he chose to remind him of that at the worst possible time.

Ben turned his attention back to Anthony. His eyes narrowed. "Alright, you know what. You probably will. Get out!"

Anne stopped cleaning. The other kids looked terrified.

The kids weren't the only ones who were terrified. Anthony stood up, tilting his head slightly as he looked at Ben. "Imagine getting this pissed over someone implying that maybe you should treat your kids well," he held his hands up for calm, and moved a few steps away from Ben. "couldn't be me!"