Bennett True Read online

  The happenings had taken the last vestiges of his self-control, and that Jethro had planned to chauffeur his grandmother to the hospital in Kedington, had ignited the fuse cord of the bomb inside him. For a split second, his bad consciousness attempted to radiate inside his body, because he had insulted and hit the man. But then he immediately abandoned this thought. Only a short while ago, the other one had lain on top of him and compelled him to a kiss. Not to mention that he had threatened to fuck his self-composure out of him.

  “Punk,” Bennett True cursed, and he unlocked the car.

  When he parked the vehicle directly in front of the entrance of the house, the door was opened and Aethel Reddington, accompanied by Kate, appeared.

  He got out and let the gray-haired woman sit down on the backseat.

  “Do you really don’t want to be accompanied by me, Mrs. Reddington?” the housekeeper asked heavy-heartedly.

  The addressed woman shook her head. “Bennett is with me, so don’t worry about me, Kate.”

  He merely nodded briefly, and he swiftly took his seat behind the wheel. With a worried glance in the rearview mirror, Bennett drove off to the hospital in Kedington.

  Left

  Bennett swallowed, when he saw the facial expression of the doctor. His countenance clearly reflected his sympathy, and then he regretfully shook his head. When Aethel covered her mouth with her hand, he knew what she had just been told, although he couldn’t hear anything.

  Subsequently Aethel darted at him a helpless glance with eyes that were filled with tears. His heart convulsed, and his legs were automatically set in motion in order to approach her. When the woman buried her face in her hands and began to weep terribly, he couldn’t help wrapping his arms around her. To keep the appropriate distance as it was expected from a butler seemed to be the last thing this situation required.

  Even though he hadn’t made the acquaintance of the Reddingtons an eternity ago, he was very much affected by this stroke of fate.

  “I am so sorry,” Bennett whispered.

  He felt that the knees of the woman began to buckle, and he led her to a chair. After a fairly long time, the doctor came back again, and he asked Aethel if she wanted to say goodbye to her husband. Bennett accompanied the woman to the room the doctor led them to, and he took a seat in front of it, while Mrs. Reddington went inside. His nerves were raw and exhaustion overpowered him. Bennett braced his elbows against his knees, and he cupped his head with his hands.

  He was roused from his rigidity when someone cleared his throat.

  The doctor reached out to him a small box with pills.

  “I give you a light tranquilizer for Mrs. Reddington. She shouldn’t take more than three of them a day. Please read the package insert carefully.”

  Bennett nodded numbly, and he reached for the pills. The doctor disappeared into the room, and he left it together with Aethel after a few moments. The woman was leaning on him, and each step seemed to be incredibly difficult for her. Bennett’s gaze was filled with concern. He released the doctor and he supported the old lady. It took a perceived eternity until they finally had left the hospital and he finally managed to put Aethel on the backseat of the car.

  They spent their way back home in silence. The woman in the back part of the limousine was merely drying her seemingly never-ending rivulets of tears on her cheeks. They reached the mansion, when the sun had already begun to envelope everything with its soft glimmer. The door was opened immediately, and the housekeeper appeared in the doorframe. Bennett got out and shook his head in the same manner the doctor had done it a while ago. Subsequently he circled the car in order to help the gray-haired lady to step out. When he walked past Kate, he told her in a quiet voice, “Put Aethel to bed and stay with her for a moment, please, will you?”

  Bennett noticed that Kate’s eyes were watery, when she accompanied Aethel Reddington into the house. Even though he wasn’t in the mood for it, he duly parked the car on its designated spot. When Bennett got out, he noticed something. Jethro’s red sports car was gone.

  He opened his mouth, but no words came out of it, and eventually his hand furiously hit the car roof.

  “You damned asshole! You actually turned tail and fled, now of all times, when she needs you most?” he cursed into the silence of the morning.

  His eyes glazed over, and Bennett called himself a fool, because despite of the argument, he had hoped that Jethro would get sober in order to be there for his grandmother. Five minutes later, Bennett entered the house, and he straightway headed towards the liquor cabinet where he filled a glass with whiskey. He took it with him and sat down in the kitchen. He realized that he would have to gulp down a whole bottle of this liquor in order to demand his emotions to remain silent.

  “She has fallen asleep.”

  Bennett lifted his gaze, and he looked in the grief-stricken, with tears covered face of the housekeeper. He nodded despondently and emptied his glass. Subsequently he cleared his throat in a noncommittal manner, and he asked in a low voice, “Has Jethro left?”

  “Didn’t he meet you at the hospital?”

  Bennett shook his head, and Kate began to tell him in detail, “After you and Aethel had left, I heard the engine of his car barely an hour later. I thought he would follow you.”

  The housekeeper obviously wanted to continue, but he interrupted her at once, and he explained, “I will go to bed and sleep for two or three hours. Kate, please wake me up in the case of urgent matters.”

  Bennett got up, and he merely noticed that the woman nodded in surprise. Then he went on his way upstairs. He stopped in front of Jethro’s room and he inhaled deeply, before he opened the door. When his eyes perceived the battlefield the grandson of the Reddingtons had left behind, he leaned against the doorframe with exhaustion and closed his eyelids for a moment.

  The pieces of furniture were overturned, and pictures were spread on the floor, as well as all of the decorative objects that usually were neatly arranged. Bennett took a deep breath, before he opened his eyes again. He glanced over at the open drawers of the nightstand. Reluctantly, he entered the room, and on his way in the direction of the wardrobe, he avoided stepping on the items which covered the floor. The doors were wide open, and Bennett saw that the wardrobe was empty. Jethro Reddington had packed his things and hit the road.

  Hard Times

  Bennett checked the pile of letters the mailman had handed over to him. The letters of sympathy were piled up on the dining room table. Among them were the first responses of the people who would attend the memorial ceremony for Charles Reddington.

  The funeral parlor took care of the formalities, and Bennett was pleased with the competences of this enterprise, because he had promised to organize everything else. Aethel hadn’t gotten up for almost one and a half week, and she was lying in her bed without interruption. The woman seemed to get over the death of her husband much slower than he had ever anticipated it. Kate tenderly took care of the old lady, and the family doctor was a daily visitor in the meantime. The small, still weeping bundle in bed had said to him only one sentence. She had requested him to organize the funeral, because she wouldn’t be able to do it. When Aethel was awake, she couldn’t stop weeping, and only the tranquilizer helped her to drift off to sleep. Thanks to the housekeeper, the old lady drank something at least, and Kate also managed it to force her to eat a bit.

  With a frown, he glanced at he sent invitation which had returned to sender with the annotation that the receiver had moved to an unknown address. It was the letter which was destined for Esther Reddington, Jethro’s mother. Bennett took the sheet of paper, and he put the sorted envelopes on the dining table. He wanted to take care of them at a later point in time. He went into the kitchen, where Kate was working with a sinking heart. Bennett briefly knocked on the doorframe, so that the woman who was standing with her back to him wouldn’t become frightened.

  “Did Esther Reddington mention a new address at one time or another that wasn’t wri
tten down?” he asked the housekeeper who had turned around to him.

  The woman wrinkled her brows, and she shook her head. “Not that I remember. But the family circumstances have been broken since Jonathan’s death years ago. Esther has never come for a visit or called. Merely Jethro has kept in touch with his grandparents.”

  It wasn’t easy at all for Bennett to voice this request, but he didn’t feel in the position to do it himself, “Could you contact Jethro and ask him where we shall send the invitation for his mother?”

  Kate looked at him in surprise, and he admitted truthfully, “I don’t know if I can keep my temper when I have to phone this man.”

  She merely nodded and said to him, “Well, then let’s hope that he is sober, if I can reach him at all.”

  Gratefully, Bennett vanished from the kitchen, and he entered the dining room in order to open the mail and to complete the list of attendants. Ten minutes later, he heard Kate’s approaching steps, and he turned his face in her direction.

  “He doesn’t know where she is either. About one year ago, she sold her house and disappeared without a trace.”

  Bennett sighed impatiently, and he thought that it obviously was a hereditary disposition of this family line to vanish into thin air.

  “Did you happen to ask him if he intends to attend the funeral?”

  “I didn’t have the chance, Bennett. After the information about his mother, he simply disconnected the call.”

  “That’s great. That actually means that we will have to take pot luck,” the butler sighed, and he turned his attention to the pile of envelopes again. A few minutes later, he stared at the negative reply of Margret Reddington, the daughter of Aethel and Charles, with a bitter expression. After Charles’ death, he had left a message for the family on the answering machine in Australia. He initially had thought they might be on vacation when he had waited for a return call in vain, but the note in his hands taught him better.

  “Damned, what is the matter with this family?” he cursed despondently. All of a sudden, he realized that Aethel didn’t have anybody on her side, except for acquaintances and a grandson who was as equally disloyal as the rest of the Reddingtons.

  “Please Aethel, bid him farewell. Charles doesn’t deserve it, when you don’t appear on his funeral,” Bennett whispered in low spirits.

  He knelt in front of her bed, and he anxiously held the hands of the gray-haired woman. Kate and he had managed with great efforts and a lot of reasoning that Aethel Reddington was sitting on the edge of the bed at least.

  “You are not alone, Aethel, we will be on your side, all right?” Bennett inquired quietly and he swallowed the lump in his throat.

  During the past three weeks, the appearance of the woman in front of him had drastically changed for the worse, and it almost broke his heart.

  Even before the death of her husband, Aethel Reddington had been a slender person, but now she seemed to consist of bones and skin only. Her face was sullen, and it looked like a desperate mask of grief. Her swollen eye area was proof for all the tears the woman had shed.

  He gently squeezed the hand of the old lady in order to encourage her, and he heard that Kate also was on the verge of tears.

  “Please bring one of the pills and a glass of water for Mrs. Reddington,” the butler requested her politely, although he would have preferred to tell the housekeeper that she better should brace herself in order to stabilize Aethel mentally.

  He heard that Kate went out of the room, and he tenderly stroke the fingers he gently protected with his own ones. The old lady slowly shook her head.

  “You will manage it, Aethel. You spent more than fifty years on the side of your husband. Please be strong for him,” Bennett implored her.

  “I want to be with him,” the woman answered weakly and in a scratchy voice.

  “You will be with him, when the time comes,” Bennett tried to comfort her, and he felt the slight searing pain in his eyes that wanted to give vent to his emotions.

  Kate entered the sleeping room again, and Bennett was grateful that Mrs. Reddington, after one more “please”, bravely took the pill and washed it down. The housekeeper laid out ready her clothes, and after the old lady had calmed down to a certain degree, they jointly guided Aethel into the bathroom. He withdrew, and he left the two women alone.

  Bennett took advantage of this situation, and he put clean sheets on the bed. During the previous weeks, there actually hadn’t been many opportunities for Kate to take care of that, because Aethel had only left her bed with the assistance of his colleague for the most necessary actions. He swallowed hard, because he was afraid of the burial and of the subsequent memorial ceremony even more. He heard noises from the first floor, and he was glad that the funeral parlor really took care of everything, so that Kate and he could solely dedicate their time to Aethel.

  The bathroom door was opened. Bennett understood the housekeeper’s gesticulation and he immediately came to her aid. Mrs. Reddington looked in her dressing gown even more lost than before in her night dress. After they had seated the woman on a chair, Bennett left the room with the sentence that he would wait in front of the door. He wanted to spare the old lady from the embarrassment to be helped with her dressing by a man.

  “We are ready,” the woman announced silently.

  Bennett merely nodded, and he walked into the sleeping room. With the housekeeper’s support, they led Aethel to the tread of the staircase. Bennett stopped there and hesitated. For him, it was clearly much too high a risk that the old lady could lose her balance despite of their help.

  “I will carry her downstairs, it’s safer,” he informed Kate.

  The employee nodded gratefully, and only moments later, Bennett put his arm behind the back of Aethel’s knees and he lifted her cautiously.

  He instantly realized how haggard the woman must have become, because her weight was considerably lesser than he had estimated. At the precise moment, when Bennett stepped on the third stair, he heard an unmistakable noise. The way the vehicle was driven seemed to be moderate, but the sound of the engine of the sports car was distinctive.

  Bennett swallowed hard, and he concentrated on the staircase. The main thing was to reach safely together with Aethel the first floor. He blocked out the steps that he perceived in the house moments later. Only then, when he and the old lady arrived downstairs, he dared to raise his head.

  Jethro Reddington was standing in front of them. Black sunglasses prevented the look in the eyes of the man. His face didn’t express any emotion, and it rather looked like a motionless mask. His cheeks seemed to be even more sullen than a week ago, and Bennett had the impression that his physical appearance was leaner as well.

  “Mr. Reddington, could you please fold out the wheelchair over there?” Bennett asked him politely.

  To his amazement, the addressed person nodded briefly and complied with his request. Subsequently Jethro helped him to put the woman on the seat.

  “Jethro, my boy,” Aethel whispered. “Thank God you are here.”

  Her grandson didn’t reply anything, but he placed his hand on one of his grandmother’s shoulders. Bennett knew, if the man accompanied Aethel through this tough day, he would be as equally glad about his appearance as the gray-haired lady.

  “I will fetch the car,” the butler said.

  A few minutes later, he drove up in the big limousine which was used by the Reddingtons only rarely and on special occasions. With contentment, he observed Jethro pushing his grandmother to the exit of the house. After they had seated the woman on the backseat, her grandson circled the car and got in on the other side in order to go with them.

  Bennett bent down to the man before he closed the door.

  “I would like to take the wheelchair along in the trunk. The cemetery is spacious, but there are chairs on the graveside. Do you think the two of us can manage it together?” he asked Jethro in a low voice, so that Aethel couldn’t hear it.

  The blond-haired man
turned around in his direction, and once again, Bennett’s question was answered with a nod of him. He closed the car door and he stowed the wheelchair in the trunk. Then he also got in the limousine, and Kate sat down on the passenger’s set. Subsequently, the car set in motion in the direction of the cemetery.

  Without saying a single word, Jethro escorted the old lady to the gravesite, and after she had taken a seat, he positioned himself behind her, so that Bennett withdrew with relief. The sentences of the minister reached his ears only softly. Only then, when the time came for Aethel to throw the small bouquet on the casket that Kate had placed between her fingers, Bennett approached her again. One more time, he supported the old lady together with Jethro. The legs of the woman noticeably got more and more wobbly.

  The facial expression of the other man wasn’t as composed as before, and Bennett saw that he bashfully wiped away the tears from his cheeks that came into view below the rim of his sunglasses.

  Bennett was grateful that the mortician had recommended noting in the obituaries and the invitations that the attendants should abstain from expressions of sympathy on the gravesite. Aethel already was in a mental condition which certainly wouldn’t have braved this.

  The large cluster of people gradually broke up, and a part of them went on their way to the house of the Reddingtons. Merely Jethro, Kate, Aethel and he remained in front of the grave. The hands of the old woman were firmly clinging to her handkerchief, and her soft sob let the other ones know how horrible the situation was for her.

  “I will fetch the wheelchair out of the trunk,” Bennett explained in a low voice. With slow steps, the butler went along the path to the parking lot which was devoid of people in the meantime.

  Subsequently, it was an emotional hell for him to get the woman away from the grave of her husband, and it was only due to Jethro’s coaxing that they managed it in the end. The voice of the man sounded as equally strained as the one of his grandmother. When Mrs. Reddington was finally sitting in her wheelchair, Jethro’s body quivered so conspicuously that it was Bennett who pushed her to the car. He himself didn’t have less trouble in order to fight for control of his emotions, while Kate was repeatedly drying her own tears. The butler sent a quick prayer to heaven that this day should pass quickly.