by Bella Bryce
"I don't suppose I might eat here tonight, Bennett?" she asked from the wingchair.
He glanced at the tray and then back at the butler.
"Yes, all right," Bennett replied, signalling to Wellesley. The butler carried the silver tray to Elisabeth and placed it gently in her lap after she smoothed the blanket down. Wellesley moved her goblet of sparkling water and lime to the small table to her right after slipping a coaster beneath it, and then removed the napkin from its ring and gave it to Elisabeth.
"Thank you."
"Is there anything else, Miss Elisabeth?" He was still bent down toward her.
"No, thank you, Wellesley."
The butler waited for a nod from Bennett before leaving the bedroom.
"I'm afraid I'm not really very hungry," Elisabeth said, as she adjusted the tray over her lap beneath the dress, tights and blanket. She felt so cosy under all the layers.
Bennett straightened his blazer and slid one of the nearby Louis XI chairs beside her, then crossed one leg over the other. Elisabeth mentally referred to that as his 'supervising' posture.
"That's understandable, Darling, but I want you to eat as much as you can."
"What is it?" Elisabeth asked, furrowing her eyebrows.
"Foie gras."
She looked at him with uncertainty. "It sounds like a delicacy."
"It is," he replied.
"Then I don't think I want to know what animal part it is and how it got to look like that," she replied, pensively moving her fork and knife toward the filet, although it was a very fine filet and presented most impressively. Of course.
Bennett let the corner of his mouth rise slightly in a mildly amused expression. There was something incredibly adorable about handholding Elisabeth into the upper class system in which he had always lived. It would have been easy enough to marry someone very similar to him who knew the ins and outs and rights and wrongs of everything he knew, but that wasn't how it turned out. He had fallen in love with Elisabeth, and she was still getting acquainted with formality, wealth and everything that went along with having a salaried professional chef at home, which meant the menu and diet was surprising or intimidating at times.
Elisabeth sliced and then took a very tentative bite, but was pleasantly surprised at how her taste buds embraced it.
"Good girl," he said, watching her cut another small piece.
He wasn't at all surprised that she didn't have much of an appetite, but she'd also skipped breakfast, luncheon and spent the bulk of the day crying. She was exhausted, and needed to refuel even if she didn't think she needed to. Bennett knew better; he also knew that her lack of appetite was emotional.
Elisabeth slowed down after only a few bites and glanced over at Bennett as he indeed supervised. He could tell she'd cried enough for one day. Her posture was easy and squared, her face rather lightened from burden and she took her time cutting her dinner. Bennett could supervise her all day long from where he sat – he loved every moment of it. It didn't quite appear that way because he wasn't smiling, but the adoration of observing Elisabeth was there all the same.
A knock caused Bennett to look across the room as the large, wooden door opened. Elisabeth leaned back in the tartan armchair and saw Alice step in and pause a few feet from the door, her hands loosely clasped in front of her. She wasn't sure if she should approach; it was almost like Elisabeth had some kind of contagious emotional disease and Alice didn't want to disturb it. Bennett signalled with his index finger for her to approach. Alice did, tentatively, then stopped beside his chair.
"I didn't mean to interrupt," she offered, slightly embarrassed at having walked in on Bennett supervising Elisabeth eat her dinner. That was what Bennett did most of the time – supervise.
"That's quite all right," Bennett said, in his usual straight and no-nonsense tone as he looked at his niece.
Alice was a bit nervous because since she'd been adopted, she learned that certain (and many) behaviours otherwise widely accepted were not quite so at Waldorf or around the Fowlers. In particular, Alice wanted to see Elisabeth as soon as she heard the news about her parents but Brayden had told her she wasn't allowed until given permission or invited to do so. She'd waited since that morning and still felt as though she were intruding.
"Father said I could ask you to see Elisabeth."
"Would you like to be finished?" Bennett asked his fiancée, in a tone that told her 'I know you want to be finished.
Elisabeth nodded her head as she chewed and put her cloth napkin to her mouth. "Sir," she managed, behind it.
Bennett stood up and took the silver tray from her lap, leaving it on the nearby table in front of the fireplace. He returned to Elisabeth and took the napkin from her hand and wiped the corner of her mouth, then returned it to the napkin ring on the tray.
"Go on and give Elisabeth a cuddle then, Alice. You haven't seen each other all day."
Alice's face managed a hesitant smile and she walked around Bennett's chair to Elisabeth's other side, and then bent down to give her a hug. Bennett was across the room and closing the door behind him when the girls finally pulled away from each other. Alice folded one leg beneath herself and sat on the ottoman at Elisabeth's feet covered by the blanket.
"I'm so sorry, Lissy," Alice said, nearly whispering as her face went from being happy to see her, to being sympathetic toward her circumstance.
"Thank you." She looked up at Alice after a moment of consideration. "But I know everything is going to be okay, so I'm okay. I just feel quite tired."
Alice gave a small smile of understanding. She trusted Elisabeth's words; if she said she was okay, then Alice believed her. It was hard to imagine Elisabeth not being okay when she was surrounded by unconditional love and unlimited resources. Bennett would ensure everything was taken care of. All of the variables that would have otherwise made Elisabeth's grief more cumbersome had been removed since she met Bennett, and she found it easy to feel joy again.
"Did you go to see them?" Alice asked, gently.
Elisabeth shook her head.
"Did you want to?"
Elisabeth shook her head 'no' again.
"Oh," Alice replied. She looked down, and fiddled gently with her thumbs in her lap. Alice didn't know what to say. What could she say to a friend who'd lost two people in one day?
"Your parents must have been lovely if you were so sad." Alice looked up at her. "I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to be horrid."
Elisabeth offered a weak smile and put her hand on Alice's. "You could never be horrid."
"I was horrid to you in the beginning." Alice looked down. Time had passed. There had been forgiveness and a good relationship built between them, but the memory of her own anger toward Elisabeth never really went away.
"I haven't thought of it since," Elisabeth said.
Alice looked back up at her. "I don't want you to move to Barton-Court, either."
"You're very sweet."
"I mean it," Alice said. She bit the inside of her cheek. "This probably isn't a good time."
"What is it?" Elisabeth's eyebrows inverted.
Alice considered how utterly insensitive it could be sharing her feelings with Elisabeth on a day where she had suffered a great loss. She also considered the importance of not speaking complimentary words to people who should hear them, and perhaps never knowing the impact they'd had. Alice looked straight back at Elisabeth and began rather timidly.
Her voice quivered. "You've been like a sister to me and sometimes, I think I just couldn't do without you. I know you love my Uncle Bennett, but I'm going to miss you terribly."
Elisabeth was speechless as she watched Alice look down. She softened her concerned eyebrows and reached toward her. She hadn't expected that at all. "Come here," she said, gently.
Alice moved her legs around so she was facing Elisabeth with her feet on the floor, and slid to the edge of the ottoman.
"You've been like the little sister I never had," Elisabeth said, holding Alice cl
ose.
Alice closed her eyes. Despite Elisabeth's loss having nothing to do with her, Alice felt somewhere in her heart like she'd just lost her friend.
"I can't wait to be your Aunty," she said, and then pulled back to look at Alice. "I know deep down you want Anabelle to be here with your father, and I think you deserve a mother who will love you and teach you how to grow in only the way a mother can. My own Mum, even though she was blind, deaf and had a lot of handicaps, still managed to be that person to me in her own way. Despite how we started, and how close we've gotten as friends, I do feel really ready to be your aunty. I want to be that person to you. I just hope I can give you a bit of what you need. Perhaps today has helped me to realise that."
Alice nodded with furrowed eyebrows.
"There was a time when I was quite uncomfortable with the idea because I didn't think I would be good enough. I've spent a lot of today thinking about how insignificant my Mum and Dad must have felt, not being able to do things other parents were able to do. But they were good enough, and I'm good enough. Everything will be all right for both of us, you'll see."
Elisabeth pulled Alice into another cuddle and held onto her securely. She needed a hug as much as she wanted to give one, and nobody could have filled that small space in her heart on such a day better than Alice.
* * * * *
Bennett frowned as he held his iPhone to his ear and removed a Mont Blanc pen from his blazer, prompting Brayden to reach inside his desk. He produced an immaculate sheet of cream linen paper and offered it to Bennett.
"Right," he responded, into the phone, as he placed the paper on the desk in front of him and wrote a neat bullet point, then followed it with a perfectly horizontal string of words. Bennett was one of those people who could write on unlined paper, and it was still straight. His cursive script flowed across the page and down to the second line. "Mmmm," he confirmed, before carrying on with further bullet points. Brayden sat back in his chair and watched quietly as Bennett continued taking notes.
"Thank you," Bennett said, at the end of the conversation. He slid his iPhone into his blazer pocket. "Right. We have five days to register the deaths and ideally, it should be a relative who was present when they passed away. Of course, that's not possible. The next option is a relative who was present during their illness." Bennett looked up, "which is Elisabeth."
Brayden folded his hands.
"The next option is a relative living in the district where they died, and the last is anyone else present at the death, which would be the nurses." Bennett looked over his notes and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"The nurses pronounced the death and the coroner has been kept out of it, which is a miracle."
Brayden looked down for a moment. "Does Elisabeth know she might need to be the one to register her parents' death?"
"Not yet," he replied, opening his eyes. "I told her earlier that she didn't have to go if she didn't want to. Unfortunately, that might not be the case. If I could go for her, I would."
Bennett crossed one leg over the other and straightened his cuffs before glancing at the paper again. He wanted to shield Elisabeth from as much as possible, but protocol dictated a different order and one that Bennett had absolutely no control over.
"You said that anyone else present could do so?" Brayden asked.
"Yes, but that could cause more hassle. If they need more personal information, Elisabeth will only be dragged into it anyway." Bennett looked down at the paper in his hand. "After that, I will need to pass the death certificate to the funeral director."
"I assume you're hiring someone to plan the funeral," Brayden remarked.
Bennett glanced at his friend. "Yes, although it will be a cremation. The Warners were all rather isolated from their extended family, both geographically and emotionally as I understand, so there will be very few in attendance."
Brayden looked across the study and imagined Elisabeth watching her parents being pushed into a furnace right in front of her, and the realisation hitting her that she no longer had biological parents on this earth. He knew that feeling well, and it stung. "Poor darling," he said, looking away.
"My thoughts exactly," Bennett replied. Whilst Bennett's suit was tidy and confident, his insides felt as though they were bruised. It had been an exhausting day; watching his fiancée weakened by the devastation of losing her parents, and the idea that she would have to take on some of the tasks associated with the practicalities of it all. Bennett didn't want Elisabeth to have to do anything. He would fund and ensure the right people sorted all of the details properly. He wanted Elisabeth to spend her time and energy on healing before they carried on thinking about their wedding.
"I'd best phone Damian. He doesn't know where I am," Bennett said, pulling himself out of his thoughts.
"Of course," Brayden replied, as he watched Bennett abandon the club chair and replace the iPhone to his ear.
Brayden surprised himself as he felt a sliver of envy rise up inside of him watching Bennett; his future wife down the corridor as he made arrangements on her behalf, the knowledge that within a few months they would be married and how the dynamics of their relationship were perfectly suited to them. It was a bittersweet envy. The sweet part of that envy was the driving suspicion that he could have a perfectly suited dynamic in his own life, but that he was the one preventing it.
Chapter Twelve
Damian stood, waiting patiently, in the foyer of Waldorf Manor as he held a bouquet of two dozen white roses. Wellesley had offered to take his coat, but Damian wasn't staying. Waldorf was quiet as he stood in the middle of the vast marble floor, imagining Brayden and Alice were in the middle of their daily routines. Damian couldn't say as much for his brother, who he'd barely seen all week with his going back and forth from Barton-Court to Waldorf. He glanced at his watch and looked up just as Bennett and Elisabeth descended the grand staircase together. Damian smiled at his future sister-in-law as she landed in the foyer.
"Hello," she replied, producing a sweet smile.
"Good morning," Bennett said, arriving first, and shook his brother's hand.
"Good Morning. Hello, Elisabeth." Damian leant down and kissed her twice. "These are for you." Damian handed her one dozen of the long-stemmed roses.
Elisabeth's eyes softened as she glanced at Bennett, and then back at Damian. "Thank you," she said, as another smile crossed her lips and appreciation inverted her eyebrows. "They're lovely." She planted another kiss on his cheek.
"You're welcome."
Bennett looked down at Elisabeth as she admired the beautiful bouquet.
"I think I'll find Celia to have these put in my room, if you'll excuse me?" Elisabeth asked, looking up at Bennett. She received a small, approving smile from him, causing her to exit the foyer.
"How is she?" Damian asked.
"Elisabeth's been a good girl." Bennett nodded, half-turning toward the opposite end of the foyer where she'd disappeared. "I can see each day becoming easier for her."
"Has she been to see them? Damian asked, quietly.
Bennett shook his head no. "Not until the cremation tomorrow. I thought perhaps she would have wanted to go straightaway, but that wasn't the case." Bennett glanced behind him and then turned back to his brother. "It was rather fortunate that Elisabeth came to live with me at Barton-Court before we began courting and all that. I sorted a lot of her parents' financial affairs back then, so getting my solicitor to ensure the estate is handled properly hasn't been nearly as troublesome as I originally thought."
Damian nodded. "I'm sure. Speaking of putting affairs in order, Mother phoned, asking after you."
Bennett folded his arms neatly and prepared himself.
"I didn't tell her anything of Elisabeth's news, it wasn't my place."
"Thank you," Bennett replied. "Elisabeth asked me not to say anything to our parents for right now, and I see no reason to talk her out of it. It was very important to Elisabeth that she closed the door on her parents' passing
away without a lot of fuss, and I have to respect that. Mum and Dad hadn't met her parents yet anyway."
Damian didn't show his surprise at Bennett's words, although he felt them strongly. Bennett was like a different person to the one he'd known all his life, and Elisabeth seemed to be the contributing factor.
"Mother only phoned me because she said she hasn't been able to reach you. She didn't sound happy," Damian reported.
"Yes, well, I needed to put some distance between us, and although I only meant to ignore her for twenty-four hours, that's now turned into a week. I will phone her back, but obviously Elisabeth needs me right now."
Damian shook his head. "You have your priorities straight," he said. "Don't let Mother try to convince you otherwise. She also asked when I was coming home."
Bennett straightened his cufflink on one side and raised an eyebrow. "And?"
"I told her I don't plan on returning home as a full-time resident."
"You know you are welcome to stay at Barton-Court until the wedding."
"Uncle Damian!"
Bennett and Damian turned as Alice appeared in the corridor leading from the ballroom and music room. She ran toward Damian when she reached the staircase and he bent down to her.
"No running," Bennett warned, causing Alice to slow down to a quick walk just before she reached Damian.
"Hello, Darling," he said, and gave her a kiss as she put her arms about his neck.
"Those are pretty. Who are they for?" she asked.
"Alice," Bennett warned.
"Sorry."
"I'm not sure," Damian frowned. "What does the card say?"
Alice stepped closer so she was right beside Damian as he lowered the bouquet. She settled her eyes upon the small card and the script written on the front.
"To my little Alice in Wonderland. That's me!" she exclaimed, surprised and delighted as she looked up at Damian.
"Oh, well then, I'd best give them to the rightful owner," he remarked, as he handed the bouquet to her.
