The Devil To Pay (Hennessey.) (72 page)

There were prayers in the morning and afternoon, before and after every meal, and in the evening he would keep us on our knees for hours sometimes. And of course church every day, twice on Sundays. If we so much as fidgeted during prayer we were beaten with a belt or whip.’ Another wry smile, ‘as you can probably guess I got more than my fair share, I was the consummate fidgeter.

Needless to say when I was older I rebelled, got into trouble with the local law, nothing too serious, not then anyway, stealing apples from the neighbours trees, letting the cows out of the nearby fields, breaking windows, stupid, childish stuff like that. But there were severe penalties for all of those things. My uncle may have been a God fearing, law abiding man but he was also a cruel, vicious bully.’ He stopped here and looked away, ‘I don’t really want to go into too much detail of what happened back then, it’s all in the past now anyway, but it goes without saying that it was pretty rough being a child in that household.’

Those bumps and scars she had seen and felt last night must have been the result of the beatings he'd received as a child. Adela felt her heart contract in her chest with pity for him, for a young boy who had just lost his mother and found himself in a household ruled with an iron fist by a religious zealot. And she knew there was much more he wasn’t saying. She felt her eyes fill and squeezed his hand in understanding and sympathy and said very gently, ‘I’m so sorry, Sterling that you had to endure that. I know what it’s like to live with a violent person. Although my mother never whipped me or made me pray for long periods of time. She was a lot of things, but I don’t think she was ever a hypocrite as your uncle was. People that inflict pain and humiliation on others in the name of God are worst than drunks or drug addicts in my view.’

He frowned as if perplexed, ‘you’re very irate on my behalf, thank you for that.’

‘I think any decent thinking person would be irate on your behalf, on the behalf of anyone subject to the whims of a tyrant.’

He laughed now, “The whims of a tyrant,” I like that, I wish I had thought of that at the time.’

She didn’t laugh but remained serious as she said, ‘did no one help you, a teacher, your local priest or minister, anyone?’

He shook his head, ‘they thought the sun shone out of his ass, ‘pardon the crudity. Besides, in the community in which we lived that kind of thing was overlooked, kids misbehaved and they were punished, period,’ he grinned, ‘or should I say full stop?’

She did return his smile this time and they were silent for a moment just looking at one another. Then she asked, ‘do you mind if I ask what happened to your uncle?’

His eyes took on that same expression she had seen before when she had asked if Carson Bentley’s torturers had been prosecuted, cold and unreadable. She felt a shiver pass through her. He said, ‘he died just before I left.’

She nodded still recovering from the sensation his expression had engendered in her. She shrugged it off; he was obviously still affected by what his uncle had done to him, who wouldn’t be?

She tried a little humour, ‘well at least I was spared the prayers, my mother would only have slurred the words anyway, if she could remember them at all that is.’

He looked at her his eyes wide, the smile slid from her face, ‘oh I’m sorry, Sterling, that was insensitive, I was just trying to be funny. I’m sorry.’

To her surprise he laughed, ‘no, don’t be sorry, it
was
funny. It’s always a good thing if we can laugh at ourselves, or rather at our tormentors.’

Despite his words she still felt awful, her silly joke sounded as though she was making light of his pain. He seemed to know what she was thinking because he turned her face to his and kissed first her cheek then her lips. 'Do you think I'm crazy for feeling this connection between us?'

She stared back into his eyes and her own voice was just as low and just as sincere, ‘no, no, it’s not crazy in the least, I feel it too.’

Hennessey felt his heart jump with excitement, this was it, this was the moment he knew it, but he had to go carefully. He said, ‘you do? You’re not just saying that to make me feel better?’

She leaned forward and kissed him, a soft, chaste kiss that she did so well. He pulled her into him and deepened the kiss. When they finally parted his voice was low and earnest, ‘I’m glad I told you, I knew you would understand, you more than most people. I feel…I feel as though you’re a kindred spirit,’ his lips twitched slightly, ‘is that silly?’

‘No, not
silly at all.’

‘Good. S
o now we know each others deepest darkest secrets. I’m very happy that we’ve shared the things that trouble us. What’s that old saying? “A trouble shared is a trouble halved.” She backed away slightly and looked down at her hands. He put as much concern and sincerity into his voice as he could as he asked, ‘what, what is it?’

She shook her head but said nothing. He persevered, ‘have I said something wrong, something I shouldn’t have?’ When she still didn’t answer he turned away as though bewildered and hurt then said, ‘I know, I know you don’t believe that I could feel this way about you. It’s that old self doubt thing raising its ugly head again, you just won’t believe that someone could care about you, could feel an affinity with you, could want to share their thoughts and feelings with you. That they must want something from you in return. Don’t worry about it, it’s okay, I understand.’ Good God he thought, he sounded like a third rate romantic novel, but it would be worth it if she just went one step further and trusted him with her more important, five million dollar secret.

She was very quick to dispel his concerns, ‘oh no, no, Sterling, please,
please
don’t think that. All right, yes, I do still have that self doubt, something you’ve had all your life is hard to shrug off. But it’s
self
doubt I have, not doubt of you. Please believe that.’

He stroked her cheek softly and smiled ‘I want to believe it, but you looked so hesitant there for a while, so unsure.’

The eyes that looked into his were wide and troubled, ‘that’s true, but it has nothing to do with you, but with me and…’

‘And what?’ He urged gently.

‘And…and one other.’

‘One other?’

She nodded and looked away, she was obviously struggling with herself as she took a deep breath and said, ‘something happened when I was in Alabama, something awful and…

He interrupted her
his voice stony, ‘is this about Jonas Lando? Did he do something to you, did he hurt you?’

She looked back at his hard cold face the amazement and confusion plain to see, ‘oh no
, no, this has nothing to do with Jonas Lando.’

His features softened, ‘that’s a relief. I’m sorry, please go on.’

She took another deep breath, ‘one night I went to the theatre and while I was on my way home I saw something, something bad.’ Again she hesitated.

He tried to keep the eagerness and impatience out of voice and made his tone encouraging. ‘What, what did you see? Please, I know you want to tell me, to share whatever this bad thing was with me.’

She turned to him again and gripped his hand tightly, ‘Sterling, I saw two men with a…

She never finished the sentence because just then they heard her name being called, or rather shrieked, across the park. ‘Adela, coo hee, Adela.’

Adela jumped startled then winced as Hennessey’s grip on her hand tightened. If she had looked at his face just then she would have seen intense anger and unbounded frustration. He almost screamed aloud.

They both stood up as Angela and Scott Carter came through the door of the gazebo, followed by their offspring Scott and James, who immediately began to climb on the benches pushing one another off and laughing.

Adela was very conflicted; she knew that Hennessey was not happy that the Carters had shown up just then. This was supposed to be a day out just for them, their last day together and as far as he was concerned they had interfered in that. Part of her felt that way too, she was disappointed and annoyed to see the Carters, but another part of her was relieved that they had come at that precise moment. She had nearly done something not only stupid, but dangerous.

It wasn’t that she didn’t trust
Sterling, she did, but as she had said it was not her secret to tell, but Olivia’s. But just as importantly she had almost involved him in something that may be dangerous to him too, and she couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to him because of her.

She had seen no sign of the two men in almost a week of being here, if they had indeed once been government agents they most certainly would have tracked her down by now and asked her about Olivia. But there had been no one suspicious hanging around, and she knew that
Sterling would have noticed such people; he was very observant and very astute. But still she must not let her intense need, her
desperate
need to confide in someone tempt her into being indiscreet.

As for Hennessey his rage almost choked him, all that sharing and intimate revelations by him had been wasted. She had been about to tell him about Desi, and these people, these loud, brash, red necked trailer trash had spoilt the moment maybe never to be recaptured. He had rarely felt more like killing someone as he did right then.

Angela Carter was saying, ‘the boys said it was you, they wanted to look at the gazebo and came running back saying the English lady was in there…with a man.’ She eyed Hennessey speculatively and appreciatively then looked down at their joined hands. Hennessey immediately released Adela’s hand who tried not to flinch and rub her bruised knuckles.

Angel
a must have read their expressions because she said, ‘don’t worry, we won’t disturb you for long, we’re on our way to lunch but the kids wanted to come see the ducks and swans first.’

Adela found her voice, ‘oh no, Angela, it’s nice to see you. Really. I was only thinking of you this morning, I intended to come and see you tomorrow.’ She turned to Hennessey, ‘this is Sterling Hennessey,
Sterling, this is Angela and Paul Carter and the two whirling dervishes are James and Scott.’

The whirling dervishes laughed uproariously at her description of them and ran around shrieking “whirling dervish, whirling dervish.”

Scott and Angela shook hands with Hennessey who felt like breaking all their fingers but  smiled and said, ‘pleased to meet you.’

Angela
looking coyly at him before saying, ‘so how’ve you been, Adela, we’ve hardly seen you since that first day.’

‘Oh I’ve been fine, thanks. I’ve been exploring and been so tired at the end of the day I’ve just crashed into bed exhausted.’

Angela said, ‘oh we understand don’t we, Scott,’ she looked Hennessey up and down before adding, ‘we know how exhausting
exploring
can be.’

Scott laughed as loudly as his kids had done earlier. Adela wondered if he was ever embarrassed at some of the things his wife said, she was so obvious and quite crude sometimes. But right now she felt the heat rising up to her chest to her face. She lowered her eyes as Angela giggled at her own joke.

Hennessey said, ‘well it was nice to meet y’all, but we have to be going.’

Angela looked disappointed, ‘oh so soon, what a shame, are you heading somewhere good,’ she gave Hennessey a telling look, ‘somewhere quiet, to
explore
maybe?’

Scott laughed again and Hennessey thought he might forget they were in a public place, forget that his target was standing right there, even forget the five million dollars and kill the entire Carter clan right there in the gazebo.

Adela her face still bright red said, ‘er, no, we’re going for a picnic actually.’

Both boys jumped down from the benches and ran to their parents yelling, 'a picnic, great can we go too?
Please,
mom,
please,
dad.’

Scott ruffled th
e hair of both his sons, ‘fraid not, these good folks want to be alone, ain’t that right, Adela?’

‘T
here isn’t enough food for six people anyway.’ Hennessey said abruptly

The boys both groaned in unison and Adela after looking at Hennessey added, ‘besides, I’m sure you wouldn’t like our food anyway, it’s all vegetarian stuff, green beans and cabbage and nuts, that kind of thing.’

Hennessey met her eyes, torn between amusement at her lie and extreme annoyance with these odious people.

The boys looked crestfallen, but brightened when their mother said, ‘well there ain’t nothing stopping us from having a picnic of our own is there?’

Adela just about suppressed the sigh of relief she felt coming on. Before anything else happened to prevent their leaving or they came up with another reason to join them Hennessey said, ‘well that humus will be spoiled if we don’t hurry.’

He took Adela’s hand again and made to walk past the Carters but Angela stepped in their way and said, ‘feel free to call on us any time, Adela,’ she turned to look Hennessey directly in the eyes and Adela knew then what the word preening meant as Angela stood close enough to Hennessey to kiss him before saying seductively, ‘you too of course,
Sterling
.’