Bennett True Read online

  “Two months?” the butler echoed with horror.

  “Who knows, Bennett, maybe he wasn’t aware how many things he actually stuffed into the bag. When I brought him his breakfast into the winter garden moments ago, he smelled of plenty of alcohol. Didn’t you notice it?”

  “Of course I did. The mouth spray couldn’t whitewash it.” Bennett decided on withholding his observation regarding his extremely dilated pupils. There was no need in order to upset Kate even more, or to encourage her to gossip. A suspicious heat flashed over his face, when he thought of the other objects he had taken out of the travel bag. He would never ever tell anybody about it anyway.

  Bennett concentrated on his watch, and he explained, “Aethel will come downstairs any moment. I should make myself useful now.”

  The butler went past Kate, and he hoped that he wasn’t as red as his face felt. He vanished into the kitchen, and he emptied his coffee, that had become cold in the meantime, at one gulp. Subsequently he pulled on his jacket that he had neatly hung on the back of a chair earlier. A short while later he already was standing at the foot of the staircase, when Mrs. Reddington came down.

  “This time, the boy is really very early,” the old lady pointed out. Her voice merely sounded surprised, without any grudge at all.

  “Good morning, Mrs. Reddington. Your grandson is in the winter garden. Kate has set the table for you as well.”

  The gray-haired woman nodded contentedly, and she headed towards the extension of the building, while Bennett followed her like a shadow.

  “Jethro, my dear,” the landlady greeted her grandchild.

  He got up and let himself embrace from his grandmother. Bennett noticed that this gesticulation was only one sided. Jethro’s arms were loosely wrapped around the woman, and his smile seemed artificial.

  “Excuse me, I have arrived a bit early,” Jethro explained.

  Bennett’s hair stood on end, because he had never discerned a lie more clearly. He wondered, if Aethel Reddington hadn’t perceived the dishonest tone of voice, or whether she simply ignored it. After the two of them had finished their greeting, Bennett adjusted the chair for Mrs. Reddington, and then he positioned himself at the entrance of the winter garden.

  “My boy, you look, as if you could benefit from a brief vacation at our place,” Aethel remarked worriedly.

  “That’s why I am here, grandmother. I share your opinion. I really think that it would do me good to stay with you for a while. I hope it is all right with you?”

  “Of course it is. You know that you are welcome anytime, and I would be pleased if you don’t leave for London too soon.”

  Jethro nodded, and his smile was so false that Bennett felt his anger rising. Aethel was one of the most warm-hearted people he knew, and this guy didn’t appreciate it at all.

  “Philipp has retired, by the way. But you certainly have made the acquaintance of Bennett, haven’t you?” Aethel asked, and she gesticulated in his direction.

  Jethro turned around, and he scrutinized him as if he were a cockroach. A knot was growing in Bennett’s stomach that even became bigger, when the man pointed out snidely, “Isn’t he a bit too young, grandmother?”

  With his eyes, the butler fixated an imaginary point in the room, and he pretended that he neither had acknowledged the question, nor the condescending tone of the other man. This guy clearly wouldn’t succeed in provoking him in public.

  “I don’t think so. Bennett is thirty, and he has brought along excellent references. He is a good successor for Philipp.”

  “Thirty. Well. It is a miracle that there still are young people who decide on becoming a servant nowadays, in order to wipe other ones their mouth clean after a meal. But you obviously must be born for this kind of job.”

  The knot in Bennett´s stomach turned into lava, and he would have loved nothing better than spitting it out.

  “Jethro, you know very well that Bennett doesn’t have to wipe any mouths clean! What is going on with you, my boy?” Aethel asked indignantly.

  With contentment, Bennett noticed that the old lady definitely was capable of giving her voice a sharp undertone, and he was grateful that she defended him right now.

  “Excuse me, grandmother. I guess I simply am short of sleep. Maybe I should catch up on it.”

  Jethro got up abruptly, and he excused himself one more time. Subsequently he explained that he wanted to go to bed. Without so much as looking at Bennett, he strode past him and left a speechless Aethel Reddington alone at the table.

  “I have to apologize for his behavior, Bennett. I don’t know what’s going on with the boy. He has changed quite a lot since recently”, the lady of the house confirmed regretfully.

  He briefly nodded, and he tried to give the old lady a friendly smile instead of speaking out loud what he really thought. Drugs could do to people a lot. Although he didn’t socialize much, it didn’t mean that he was completely unworldly. After quitting time, Bennett loved to read pretty much, and moreover, he had developed a preference for all kinds of documentations. In the evenings, he often surfed on the internet, and he looked up everything he was interested in, or he read articles about certain subjects.

  While Aethel was silently having her breakfast, Bennett was dwelling on his thoughts. Jethro hadn’t been completely wrong with his statement. After school, Bennett decided to begin with this training, because he really felt a vocation to serve. Not in order to wipe any mouths clean, but he simply was glad to be the good soul of a house in a way. He wanted to anticipate wishes, even before they would be voiced at all. He loved it to take care of that everything was perfect and everybody was content. He had never found out the reason for this attitude, but it didn’t matter to him anyway. His parents had initially been stunned at his career aspiration in those days, because his good marks would have offered him profoundly better job opportunities, but they accepted his choice in the end.

  He returned to the present again, when Mrs. Reddington was about to get up. He rushed towards her and helped her up.

  “Thank you, Bennett. I will go into the garden and take care of my roses for a while.”

  He nodded, and he looked behind the old lady. She seemed to be depressed, and he felt so sorry for her that Jethro was such an asshole.

  What goes round

  Bennett sighed silently, and with a rake, he refilled the striae with pebbles again that Jethro had left behind on the driveway by his performance in the early morning. While the man was still sleeping, his grandfather had already finished his breakfast and vanished into his greenhouse, whilst Mrs. Reddington was still attending to her roses.

  With contentment, Bennett looked at his work, and he carried the rake back to the small shed of the garden.

  “What have you done with the rake?” Mrs. Reddington asked him curiously. She was just hanging her rose clippers back on the place where they belonged.

  “I put the driveway in order, Madam.”

  “But you don’t have to do it, Bennett. You could have simply phoned the garden center.”

  He gave her a friendly smile and shook his head. “From time to time, a breeze of fresh air is good for me, Mrs. Reddington. Furthermore it wouldn’t have been worth the effort, to send for a gardener for this.”

  The old lady sighed. “Sometimes he drives, as if the devil was chasing him. The boy is so inconsiderate, Bennett.”

  “Maybe he will calm down, when he gets older. It happens to people quite often at least, Mrs. Reddington.” Bennett tried to cheer the woman up.

  “You are no more than three years older than Jethro, and you don’t act like Richard Kimble in the movie The Fugitives. Or do you really want me to believe that you changed abruptly during the past years?” the lady of the house objected.

  Bennett grinned, and he explained, “I have always been a rather reserved and prudent human. But that doesn’t mean that your grandson won’t turn into a more attentive person after all.”

  Aethel Reddington smiled at the butle
r, and then she sighed silently.

  “I only hope that you are right, Bennett. I wish it at least. I am so glad that you have agreed on working for us. You always radiate a sense of calm. Even our good old Philipp couldn’t display it when Jethro came for a visit. Would you be so kind and wake my grandson up, please? I suppose Charles wouldn’t be delighted if the young man overslept lunch.”

  “Of course, Madam,” Bennett replied, and he disappeared with a brief nod.

  At this moment, a minor part inside him had the urge to wake Jethro up with a bucket of ice-cold water and to give the man an evil grin. He panted silently and shook his head, when he entered the house. Not even the children of the Whites had managed to disconcert him, and a guy like Jethro would be able to do it even less.

  He absolutely disliked the thought of entering the room of this man and to wake him up from his sleep. On the spur of the moment, he headed for the kitchen and reached for the house phone. He patiently stared at the ceiling and listened to the dialing tone that wasn’t interrupted. He had a feeling that the phone couldn’t wake up the young Reddington. In other words, it meant that he had to step into the lion’s den in person, and to be prepared to all kinds of surprises.

  Bennett hoped that he would be punished with his ignorance, and he absolutely would be okay with such a behavior of this man.

  He made a small detour and walked into the laundry room. He picked up the pile of clothes Kathy had already folded.

  “Well, he can wear fresh clothes at lunch at least,” the butler growled, and he morosely stomped up the stairs.

  He loudly knocked on the door of room where Jethro Reddington was still sleeping, but he didn’t receive any reaction. Bennett inhaled deeply and opened the door. The heavy curtains that shielded the daylight were drawn, and therefore he couldn’t recognize anything at the first moment. However, there was one thing he perceived, it was the smell of stale alcohol that worsened the air in the room profoundly.

  Bennett groped for the light switch, and shortly afterwards, the overhead light illuminated the darkness. He perceived an impatient growl from the direction of the bed, and he could see that Jethro Reddington changed his position in a way that his face was protected from the growing brightness. Bennett deposited the clothes on the dresser, and he purposefully headed towards the window front. While he noisily parted the first curtain aside, he explained, “Your grandparents expect your presence at lunch.”

  The addressed man didn’t show any reaction, and the butler pulled the second light protection away as well, so that the room was sun-drenched.

  “Will you kindly draw the curtains back in place?” A growling voice came from the direction of the bed.

  “Your grandmother has requested me to wake you up, and I certainly won’t be able to manage it when it will be dark again,” the butler replied matter-of-factly.

  Subsequently he opened the first window wide open in order to let fresh air into the room.

  Jethro Reddington didn’t stir at all, and Bennett instantly carried back his mind to the time, when he had to wake up the White children for school. Their reaction had almost been the same, with the exception that he had been literally been given a carte blanche to do it. The momentary situation was completely different and quite obvious.

  “Your grandparents expect you to be present at the lunch table, Mr. Reddington,” Bennett pointed out in a chilly voice.

  Without waiting for another reaction, he picked the clothes he had deposited on the dresser moments ago and sorted the pieces out. He picked some things out which would be suitable for lunchtime. After that, the butler went into the bathroom, and he neatly placed the clothes there, as well as a few towels. On the spur of the moment, he turned on the water in the shower.

  When Bennett turned around, he had to suppress a horror-stricken twitch, because Jethro Reddington stood in the doorframe all of a sudden and glowered at him. The butler avoided showing any emotions at all, when he noticed that the man was naked and displayed the occasionally unavoidable erection after getting up. Jethro’s gaze changed from mischievous into a mixture of arrogance and amusement, and then he headed towards the toilet.

  “What do you think about holding my dick while I pee? As a household slave, it certainly is one of your tasks,” he suggested sneeringly.

  Bennett felt his racing pulse only too clearly, and fury was boiling in his stomach, but he didn’t intend to let on any emotions. He looked at Jethro with a broad grin, which however didn’t reach up to his eyes, and he answered matter-of-factly, “I am really very sorry, Mr. Reddington, but I don’t have my gloves on me.”

  Bennett purposefully left the bathroom, and he explained on his way out, “The meal will be served at one o’clock on the dot.”

  Just when he closed the door of the sleeping room behind him, he heard the blond man cursing loudly, and he grinned from one ear to the other one. He had merely turned on the cold water faucet.

  Asshole!

  Barely fifty-five minutes later, Bennett was surprised that Jethro Reddington appeared together with his grandparents in the dining room in time. He laboriously tried to hide his confusion, because the man on the side of Aethel and Charles seemed to be a completely different person. Although Bennett was ignored by him, he animatedly was talking to the lady of the house. With surprise, he noticed that Jethro put his car key into the pocket of his pants.

  It was a custom that there wasn’t any talk during the meals. The Reddingtons ate in silence, and merely between the courses, Jethro volunteered to engage his grandmother in conversation. While Aethel’s shining eyes were feasted on her good-humored grandchild, Bennett didn’t miss to notice that Charles Reddington scrutinized his grandson attentively. The old man had clearly observed that Jethro had already emptied his second glass of wine at lightning-speed.

  “Jethro, aren’t you well?” Aethel asked with a horrified expression.

  Bennett looked at the man, and he instantly knew what his grandmother had meant, even before she could speak it out. He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and approached the table in order to hand it out to the grandchild of the Reddingtons.

  “Your nose is bleeding,” the lady of the house answered to Jethro’s inquiring look.

  Bennett held the handkerchief in front of the man’s face, and he reached for it.

  “Please excuse me for a moment,” he requested, and then he vanished from the dining room.

  “I am worried about the boy,” Aethel Reddington remarked, while she looked at the back of her grandson.

  Charles voiced an indefinable growl to himself instead of answering immediately, but his face reflected his thoughtfulness.

  “Please wait with the next course for a while, Bennett.”

  The butler nodded to Mrs. Reddington, and he removed the plates from the table. Subsequently he informed Kate.

  Ten minutes later, Jethro reappeared again, and he behaved as if nothing had happened at all. Promptly, he held the wine glass in his hand again, he calmed his grandmother down with a few words, and he enjoyed his meal that was served shortly afterwards.

  Bennett scrutinized the man unobtrusively, and he noticed that he conveyed a relaxed expression only above the edge of the table. Jethro’s leg was ceaselessly bobbing up and down. But only the butler could see it, the grandparents couldn’t.

  After they had finished eating, the old people excused themselves. Bennett knew that the two of them would lie down for barely two hours as usually. As soon as the couple had left the room, Jethro reached for the bottle of wine and poured the remaining liquid into his glass.

  “Bring me a scotch and something else to eat. Nobody can be full after these small servings,” the man demanded, without so much as looking at the butler.

  Bennett raised his eyebrows with surprise, while he continued clearing the table of the dishes. Without giving him an answer, the butler disappeared soon afterwards and reappeared in the kitchen again.

  Bennett tried to pour oil on troubled wate
rs, when he noticed Kate’s discontented facial expression, and he explained to her that Jethro was delighted at the delicious taste of the food. The woman felt clearly reassured, and she put another serving on a plate.

  One moment later, he placed the demanded scotch and the food as well in front of Jethro. The man was still swaying his leg to and fro, and Bennett believed that he recognized a quiver of his hand, when he reached for the glass of liquor.

  “Where do you want to go to?” Bennett heard from behind, when he just was about to leave the room again.

  He was taken aback and turned around to Jethro Reddington who shoved a piece of meat into his mouth, whereas he didn’t look at him. Bennett True had to keep his countenance under control, because nobody had asked him this question during the past ten years. Since when had a butler to explain where he came from or where he intended to go?

  He swallowed the lump in his throat and declared, “I intend to arrange your room. I guess you won’t need my services for the next ten minutes.”

  But before Bennett could proceed on his way, Jethro Reddington tantalized him, “That depends on the services we are speaking about.” The blond man poured the scotch into his throat, and he noisily placed the empty glass on the table in front of him. “Bring me another one.”

  Bennett took a deep and silent breath, and he turned back. Just then when he reached for the glass, he felt that a fist enveloped his wrist.

  “The matter with the water wasn’t nice of you.”

  The butler tried to get his hand free, but Jethro’s fingers gripped it as firmly as a clamp.

  “It wasn’t nice of you to call me a household slave either,” he remarked coldly.

  It was the first time that Jethro lifted his head in order to look straight into his face. The pupils of the man were extremely enlarged, as well as they were earlier in the morning, and they reminded Bennett of a tiger that was on the verge of swooping down on him in order to capture its prey.