by Alexander McCall Smith, 2004, Book #6 in The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series
Moved me to tears!
Mma Ramotswe has a man hiding under her bed. He escapes but loses his pants on a mattress spring. Never figure out who he was. The next day, the trousers are gone (she had hung them outside) and a pumpkin was there. It turns out Charlie had given her the pumpkin.
Mma Makutsi joins a dance class. She meets Phuti Radiphuti, a man who has a stutter and 2 left feet. She is kind to him and he falls in love with her. He gives her a gold velvet cushion: “It was the most beautiful thing she had seen for a good while, and she struggled with her tears.” He is the son of a furniture store owner who was Mma Ramotswe’s father’s best friend growing up. He goes and asks if Mma Makutsi will marry his son (he asks Mma Ramotswe to ask Mma Makutsi). She says, “Yes!”
Charlie gets involved with a rich, married woman who drives a Mercedes-Benz. Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi follow them to Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni’s house. He has rented it out since he now lives with Mma Ramotswe on Zebra Drive. It turns out this woman is running a Shebeen in Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni’s house. Mma Ramotswe accidentally knocks over a bicyclist and takes him home and fixes his bike. He was looking for a job. No one would hire him because he had been to prison. Mma Ramotswe gets Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni to hire him to replace Charlie, who quit in anger. The new man’s name is Mr. Polopetsi. He ends up being a wonderfully hard worker and a good detective and typist. He is very, very grateful for the job.
Mma Ramotswe is visited by her 1st husband, Note Mokoti. He tries to blackmail her out of 10,000 pula saying she never divorced him. She drives to his village, at night, in the dark, and speaks to his mother and finds out Note was married to another woman and had a child already when he married Mma Ramotswe. So she confronts him with that, sends him on his way forever with, “Go in Peace. Go Slowly.”