by Wendy Reakes
“Oh my god,” Rose had whispered.
“Kathy came out of nowhere...She told Teresa afterwards that she’d been with her friends and spotted the boy forcing Teresa between the stalls to the back. Kathy went to investigate and saw him lying on top of her as he was attempting to pulling down her jeans...” Gordon stopped for a moment, as the notion of his daughter almost being raped weighed heavily on him. “Kathy had apparently grabbed a wooden crate and bashed him over the head with it. Then she’d taken Teresa’s hand and ran with her away from the scene. Kathy reported it to the fair organiser’s and they called the police.” He paused for thought. “It was a brave thing she did. She apparently made a statement last night, after I brought Teresa home, so I haven’t had a chance to thank her. Everything was such a rush, you see?”
“Will she have to go to court. To be a witness or something?” Rose wasn’t sure of the correct terms. The only knowledge she had of legal matters was from watching Dixon of Dock Green every Saturday night.
“We’re not pressing charges. We prefer to le the matter drop so that we can all move on. The fair will be leaving today anyway. And it’ll take that lout with it.”
Scandal! Prevented because Gordon Bentley had probably pulled a few strings and got the case dropped. Oh, to have that sort of money and power, thought Rose at the time, although frankly, she wouldn’t have wanted it herself.
Now, today, Rose was tentatively approaching Gordon Bentley’s study once again, albeit now, it was by her own accord. She held up her fist and knocks.
A voice answered. “You can come in. I’ve finished.”
Rose hesitated as her hand hovered over the door knob, until she finally pushed the door open and stepped into the room with an awkward gait. “I hope you’re not in the middle of something…I don’t want to bother you.”
“No, of course not, Rose. Come on in,” Gordon Bentley said. “It’s a project I’m working on.”
Rose followed his gaze towards an Air-fix model of an aeroplane, on a side-table next to his desk. “Alice made me take up a hobby, to get my mind off work,” he said. “It’s surprisingly therapeutic!” He motioned to a leather wing-back chair on the opposite side of his desk. “Please, sit down, Rose.”
Rose wasn’t sure. She didn’t really want to sit down. She’d cleaned that chair only that morning. Sitting in it didn’t seem right.
Gordon walked around the desk. “Go on! Take the weight off your feet,” he said. “What can I do for you?”
“It’s about the gift…the bracelet…for Kathy! I’m guessing you sent it!”
“Ah, she got it! Good!” He smiled as he dug his hands into his pockets. He was wearing an Aaron cardigan over a shirt and tie. His slippers seemed a strange edition to his grey flannel trousers. And they still had that infamous scuff on them.
“We can’t accept it…but I can’t return it to you. Not without our Annie finding out.”
“I not sure...”
Of course he wouldn’t understand. People like him…they think they can buy anyone. “I don’t think it’s right…Kathy’s not used to things like that.” Her words faltered. She was trying to be respectful but, truthfully, she was mad. “I don’t want to seem ungrateful. It’s very nice of you to think of her, but I still don’t think it’s right. I’m sorry,” she says finally.
Rose felt like he was putting her in an awkward position and that he should know better. She had always liked Gordon Bentley and his wife, but they were from a different world to her. They were rich and they were her employers, so gifts like that bracelet were very inappropriate.
Besides, she still hadn’t told Annie about that night. Not when her nerves were on edge with Kathy going off to college. The last thing Annie needed to hear was about her daughter getting involved in a crime scene.
“I’m sorry. You’re right of course.” He shuffled his feet. “You know, Rose, I just wanted to give her something. What she did that night...it was so brave and…”
“Stop!” Rose bowed her head. “I’m sorry. We just don’t like this sort of thing. We like to live quietly and what happened to your daughter…well things like that don’t happen to the likes of us. We keep to ourselves, see?” The whole thing was so uncomfortable, Rose wanted to flee and never look at Gordon Bentley’s face again. She just wanted to put the whole thing behind her. She’d spent the past week tossing and turning in bed at night, wondering what would have happened if the incident hadn’t playing out the way it had. What if Kathy hadn’t knocked the boy out? What would he have done to their Kathy if...
“Look, Rose,” Gordon Bentley was saying. “I understand about the bracelet. I really do! It was insensitive of me and inappropriate. I can see that now.” He paused. “It’s just that I bought one for my wife and I ended up buying two because it was easy. I didn’t mean to offend you or Kathy’s mother.” He coughed to hide his discomfort. “And at the risk of offending you further…And I completely understand if you refuse my offer, but…I know Annie can’t manage the stairs now. I believe you’ve had to move her bed down…”
He was waiting for her to acknowledge him, but she remained silent. He was going too far, but she was curious about what he was about to propose.
“Well, I was wondering if you’d perhaps allow me to finance a small extension on your cottage.” He spoke hurriedly. “Just for a small bathroom on the back, so that Annie wouldn’t have to struggle. You know, we’ve got the decorators in next door…We thought we could finance the project on your house from the cost of doing up that one, so you see, it would all be tax deductible and I wouldn’t be much out of pocket…if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Rose pushed herself to her feet. “I can’t accept that. I’m sorry! I know you mean well, but it’s too much. You have to understand; we’re not used to that sort of thing. We’ve always struggled and we’ll go on struggling. It’s our lot, you see.”
She moved away from him and walked towards the door. She stopped and turned about, looking at the pattern in the carpet. “Please don’t send any more gifts. And don’t worry about our Kathy.” She looked at him and nodded her head. “She doesn’t need you to thank her.”
Chapter 5
When the phone rAng, Annie Killa picked it up. “I don’t know if you remember me,” the voice on the line said. “I’d like to meet up. Perhaps, just the two of us!”
Gordon Bentley visited the cottage the very next day.
In her wheelchair, Annie reached up to open the door. He tipped his hat. Rose had cleaned the Bentley’s house for over ten-years, yet Annie had only met them a couple of times in passing; at village fetes and when Annie accompanied Rose to the mansion when they were having a Christmas celebration for all the staff. That was back in the days when they had a whole load of servants, before they put in mod-cons and cut back.
He reached out and shook her hand.
“I’ve made a pot of tea,” she said as she turned and wheeled herself to the kitchen. Annie was curious about why Gordon Bentley wanted to talk to her. Her greatest worry was that he felt Rose had become too old to carry on with her job, but Rose was fit as a fiddle. Not like Annie.
Annie had spent the biggest part of her life in and out of hospital. Asa child during the war, when her parents took her down to the shelters during the Luftwaffe air raids on Swansea, Annie had caught Tuberculosis. Then when one of her kidneys failed, it was decided that Annie was a fragile thing and that she should be kept bed-ridden for at least two years thereafter. When she was seventeen she met and married Katherine’s father, John Killa. Her health had improved greatly in those days, until she got pregnant. She lost two babies before she finally had Kathy, and after, even though she’d fought illness and disease intruding her mind and body, there was always something new to challenge her.
When she went back into the sitting room, balancing the tray on her lap, Gordon rushed to her aid. “Let me carry that for you.” Without any direction from her, he set it down on a small table next to the easy
chair Rose always sat in. “The cottage is so cosy,” he said. “You probably know that this is the oldest building in the village.” He smiled with perfect white teeth.
Annie nodded. “Yes, the library has some old pictures of the cottage on the archive’s wall. There’s some showing ladies standing outside wearing long Victorian dresses and sun hats. Of course they wouldn’t have lived in a place like this. More like the sort of place you live in.” She smiled as she lifted the lid on the tea pot to see if it had brewed. “How do you like it?”
“Milk, two sugars. Thank you.”
“My mother-in law has lived in the cottage practically all her life and after our John died, Kathy and I moved in. Kathy was very young when we lost my husband, but Rose made up for the loss by treating me as if I was her own daughter, instead of the widow of her dead son. She’s a good strong woman.” She hoped the remark didn’t sound like a hint, just in case he was planning on terminating his cleaner’s employment.
Annie poured two cups of golden coloured tea and added a dash of milk to each. She passed him the cup and saucer (their best china, of course). She offered him a plate of welsh cakes and homemade biscuits not long out the oven. He took a welsh cake and bit into it. He closed his eyes and groaned. “Delicious.”
“I was sorry to hear about your father passing last year,” Annie said. “I understand he’d been ill for a long time.” Gordon nodded as he stirred his tea. Rose had told her he’d taken his father’s death badly. “I remember your mother well.” Gloria Bentley had died five-years before her husband. “She was a nice lady. I recall her sending me a heartfelt letter when my husband was killed.”
“I understand it was a tragic accident.”
Annie nodded. “Run over on Castle Street, just when he was going up in the world. A salesman he was and a good one at that.” She stared into her cup as it caught the reflection of the overhead light. “He had a promising future and then, in a blink of an eye, it all came to an end.”
“It must have been very difficult for you...with Kathy being so young and all.”
“Yes, it was. Rose has provided for us ever since. I can’t work you see. I have a bit put by, but that’s for Kathy.”
“Well, it’s about Katherine I’ve come to see you.”
“Kathy?” Annie couldn’t be more taken aback. It was the last thing she was expecting him to say.
“Yes, I’d like to help get her started. When she graduates...”
Annie stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. His suggestion didn’t make sense. “Why would you want to do that?”
He smiled gently. “I believe I owe her a great debt and I’d like to reward her in some small way.”
“Hmm!? I don’t understand.” Annie felt completely bemused.
“You can’t have forgotten,” he said.
The pause between them lasted a couple of seconds, as each wondered the other one’s meaning. Annie realised she was holding her tea cup tightly. She relaxed her grip and rested the saucer on her lap. “Forgotten what?”
Gordon rubbed his hand over his cheek and nodded. “Ah…I gather you weren’t told.”
The hairs on the back of her neck were bristling now. She suddenly felt cold, and wished she’d put her sweater on before he came. “Told about what?”
That’s when Gordon related the story of Katherine saving his daughter from being raped and perhaps even murdered. “I believe you were in hospital at the time,” he finished.
Annie couldn’t speak. She was trying to piece together the day it must have happened…how Kathy must have felt…and most of all, the reason why nobody had told her. Kathy! She was her life, her only child. The thought of her getting involved in such a scandalous and dangerous event made her want to bring her home and never let her go.
“I’m sorry, Annie,” Gordon Bentley was saying. Annie looked into his eyes to see if he was being genuine. “I’d assumed Rose had told you. I feel so bad. I could kick myself for coming here and upsetting you like this.” He brushed an imaginary fleck off his trousers. “Look, Annie, I shouldn’t have come.” He was about to stand up and leave.
Annie shook her head and he sat back down again. She reached for her handkerchief and blew her nose. “I’ll be all right in a minute.” She took a long deep breath. “I must say I’m very proud of her...but it was a dangerous thing to do…And terrible for your child too I imagine.”
Gordon leaned forward and rested an elbow on his knee. “I’d like to help Katherine because I know life has been very difficult for you all these past few years.” She saw his eyes go to her wheelchair and Annie bristled. If there was one thing she hated, it was people feeling sorry for her. He was still talking. “I have the means and it would make me happy to know I’d repaid my debt for what she did that night. She’s a good girl.”
“What do you mean ‘difficult’?”
“It’s a small town. People keep me informed.”
“Informed? ‘People!’ What people?” She knew she sounded defensive, but she was upset; angry at him for talking about her daughter.
He shook his head. “Look, Annie, please allow me to start again? I know all this sounds strange, and believe me, I wanted to kick myself when I realised Rose hadn’t told you about that night. But I promise I have nothing but good intentions here. The people, who ‘inform me’, as I put it…” He rolled his eyes. “…are family and friends. It’s nothing sinister. Believe me.”
His smile looked sincere. Annie felt sorry for his awkwardness. He was a nice man, despite putting his foot in it at every turn. “Very well, I believe you,” she said.
“So you’ll let me help?”
“I think there’s been a misunderstanding. It’s true John’s life insurance policy was small, but I have saved most of it, so there’s enough for Kathy to get started in whatever business she sees fit. She may open a restaurant one day, but she will need a lot more experience than just a couple of years at college. Your suggestion is a kind one I’m sure, but...”
“I’m sorry. I thought …” He paused. “Annie, I want to apologise. I know how all this sounds and I don’t blame you for thinking badly of me…”
“I don’t think badly of you. You’ve just over-stepped the mark a little.”
She watched him reach inside his breast pocket. He pulled out two white envelopes and handed them to her. “What’s this?”
He sood up as if to leave. “Well, if you had accepted my proposal, one of them would have been for that.” He pointed to the envelopes in her hand. “The other one was in case you refused.” He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek and then he walked towards the door.
Annie was taken off guard, yet she still remembered the question she wanted to ask him. “Before you leave…Why did you come to me? Why didn’t you speak to Rose about this? Surely, you see her every day.”
“Rose would have turned me down flat. And as for you Annie, I am a man after all. I figured I could talk you around.” Annie felt herself blushing. “Besides if you’re anything like my wife, it’ll be you who makes the final decision about your daughter.”
“Why are you doing this?” Annie looked at the envelopes.
“My own daughter is a little spoilt, truth be told. I regret indulging her and frankly, I think she’s a danger to herself and others. Kathy has had so little...pardon me...yet she risked herself to save a stranger. She is the girl I have often hoped Teresa will become one day. So you see, I simply wanted to watch out for her. My problem is, Annie, none of you will let me.”
He left then and closed the door behind him.
Annie wheeled herself over to the window and pulled back the curtain. He was walking down the garden path to turn right, going back to his house at the end of the lane.
Annie looked at the first envelope, addressed to Ms Katherine Killa. It had a discreet letter ‘a’ written in pencil in one corner. She opened it and pulled out a cheque. She gasped when she saw it had been made out for five-thousand pounds. Ridiculous! She could buy the
ir cottage for that! She tucked it back into the envelope and then opened the one marked ‘b’ with her name on the front. A note said, Dear Anne. I’m sorry that you haven’t accepted my offer, but please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you or Katherine. Now or in the future! With the kindest regards. Yours, Gordon Bentley.
She sniffed at his suggestion. He’d be the last person she’d turn to for help. Annie put the cheque and the letter together and tore them up. Then she stuffed the pieces down the side of her chair before she poured herself another cup of tea.
Chapter 6
Gordon Bentley unlocked the green wooden door and stepped inside. He hadn’t been in the house for a long time, certainly not since they began redecorating. In the grounds of his own mansion the house had once belonged to his parents. When Gordon made it big on the stock exchange after floating his paper production company on the market, he’d bought the land surrounding his parent’s house along with the mansion next door. He’d connected the two properties with an additional driveway so that he could be there for them as they aged. His father only lasted five years after his mother died of cancer, but that was recent and he still felt their presence every time he went there.
Standing in the hallway, his eyes travelled up the stairs where a sheet had been draped along one of the banisters. The decorators were almost finished and the smell of fresh paint was everywhere. Upstairs, the landing on the first floor looked dark and cold. When she was alive, his mother had always kept the bedroom doors ajar in the day as there was no natural light on the landing. Now, they were all closed and it didn’t seem right.
He looked towards the kitchen door. There was only darkness in there too where the old shutters had been closed on the windows. Everywhere was quiet. Too quiet! There were no pots banging, no lively chatter and no cooking smells wafting through the house as it had when his mother was alive.
Holding the keys in his hand and letting them dig into his palm, Gordon went into the sitting room. The furniture was covered in dust sheets. The pictures had been removed and were now on the floor propped against the wall, waiting to be re-hung. No ornaments adorned the room and the familiar Persian carpet lied rolled up against the sofa. The only thing left to look at, was the clock on the mantel, a chilling reminder of how time passed and life went on.
