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 waters, 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.
“It was your decision to become an ass-kisser for rich people after all, and so you must live with the truth,” Jethro mocked him maliciously.
The pressure on Bennett’s wrist increased painfully, and if he had abandoned himself to his impulse, Jethro Reddington would have felt his fist hitting his chin.
“Your grandparents pay me for taking care of the interests of the household and for making their lives more comfortable,” Bennett replied, and he was proud that his voice didn’t reveal his fury that was dancing tango in his stomach at this very moment.
“Oh, I think you can make my life also more comfortable during my stay here. When you go upstairs, you can take the glass with you and along with it the whole bottle of scotch.”
With these words, Jethro Reddington released Bennett’s wrist again. The butler picked up the glass and turned on his heel.
“Oh well, and don’t forget your gloves this time!” resounded behind him, when he left the room.
He firmly clenched his teeth, and he did something that had never been necessary before. He made a beeline for the wine cellar of the house, and as soon as he had closed all doors behind him, he yelled, “Such a damned asshole!” Finally, a desperate sound escaped his throat that had already tried to get out more and more urgently during the past few minutes. Bennett furiously kicked against one of the old casks next to him, “Asshole! Asshole! Asshole,” he hissed angrily.
Right now, he wouldn’t love anything better than having a punching bag he could hit his fists against. Bennett True needed ten minutes in order to regain his composure, until he could leave the basement of the house again. He took a clean glass out of the cocktail cabinet. Subsequently he fetched the bottle of scotch and marched, while he was still furious, the stairs up to the room of the guest.
Just when he was smoothing the linen on the bed, Jethro appeared in the room. Bennett adjusted the pillow, and he decided that this would be the right moment for him to disappear. He saw that the man pulled off his pullover and dropped it carelessly to the floor. The butler suppressed a snort. It certainly wasn’t his intention, to stand beside the grandson of the Reddingtons and to fold the dropped pieces neatly. He headed towards the door straightway.
“Wake me up when it is time for coffee,” Jethro demanded.
Bennett didn’t look at the man, and he merely nodded before he vanished. A glance at his watch revealed to him that he would have to return to this room in barely one and a half hour. He uttered a hissing sound, because if this guy poured the scotch into his throat as equally quickly as the wine at lunch, he probably wouldn’t have any chance to wake him up at all. But maybe he would be too drunk to attend coffee-time anyway.