Chapter 4
"Well, you look well enough to go home." Kenneth said to Willie. "As a matter of fact, you are leaving today."
"That's great. I feel fine, and Louella has been telling me about things I need to fix up at home."
"Don't overdo it. You still need to take it easy. And while Louella is healthy, she should take it easy too."
"That's what Julia tells me, too."
"She does?" Kenneth scowled at hearing her name. "Indeed?"
"By the way, how come you two have separated? You seemed to get along so well."
"You didn't get the whole story."
"Lying there, nobody bothered to tell me the full news. I couldn't even get it out of Barnabas. And that is something. Why? What is between you two?"
"It had to happen. I found out certain things about her. Certain things I can't overlook."
"But what could that be? She does not..." then he realized what it had to be. "It is Woodard, right?"
"So you know about it?"
"I have known about it for quite a while. Don't forget that I was here from the start."
"And you were railroaded into a mental institution. Well, the way I was raised, I don't consider Murder One to be a joke."
"Neither do I. But I also know both Barnabas and Julia. I think that they should be allowed to put this behind them. I don't want to see them suffer again for this. They got enough of it already, both of them."
"We don't have the same definition of 'enough'. Mr. Loomis. "Kenneth said stiffly.
"But what more do you want? Would you be happy if Julia killed herself? She came close to it.""
"Yes. She did. And she never confided in me." he said bitterly "she never trusted me enough for that."
"It was not easy for her."
"She kept secrets from me with Barnabas. It was to him that she went when she needed help. And he practically kicked me out of the room, saying I had no right to interfere between the two of them."
"It had to be Barnabas. He had wounded her. He had to make her well again."
"I was her husband! She should have trusted me more!"
Willie studied him shrewdly "What is it that you actually resent? Her being an accessory to murder, or her not confiding in you?"
"That has nothing to do!"
"Kenneth" Willie shook his head, amused. "you might have gone to college and learned a lot of fancy words, but there are things that I know better than you."
"Yes" Jessica confirmed Barnabas' suspicions "he did not decide to prosecute Sheriff Brant until he started going over the papers. Until then he agree with me that it wasn't Brant's fault. I mean everybody in town got caught. Why single him out? It could have been us."
"But now he does not think that way."
"No." she shook her head "he has these moods, you see. And when he gets into one of them nothing can move him. If only I could understand why he acts this way... Yes." she added slowly "I think it is something that he found in the papers. I think that he carries some of them in his pocket at all times."
"Probably the answer is there."
"But what could that be? Those papers are old. Most of them should be thrown away. Why would they have to do with Brant?"
"Well, I would like to see them" Barnabas knew what the papers were. Still, he wanted confirmation.
"All right. Come in real late, and make sure you don't wake Zeb."
Delia wrapped the whip around her hand. It was the real thing. Not one of the toys usually sold for SM games. Properly used it could maim and even kill. In fact, it had been sued to keep the cargo quiet in the slave ships.
And it was hers now.
Zeb was deeply asleep. He always slept like that, Jessica assured him. She, herself, was a light sleeper, that was why she was now watching him read the letters.
"Are you sure that is what you want? We got other papers if you want to make sure."
Barnabas winced involuntarily. His stint as a civil servant had given him an allergy to anything that sounded like paperwork. "No, I think this is it."
He could not keep from blushing as he read the love letters that George had written. There was genuine love and affection in George's word. The letters were also emphatic, with all the self-dramatization that the young are so prone to, but the sincerity was undeniable.
They were also crude. Explicit. There was no way to ignore what George and Dave had done to each other. He could understand how Zeb had found them shocking.
Zeb was just the wrong man to read the letters...
"What is it?" Jessica insisted.
"Love letters. From George Brant to Zeb's uncle."
"Love letters? From Brant?" her eyes widened. "You mean that Uncle Dave was... gay?"
"Yes. He was gay."
"But Brant... him. I'd never have suspected... Oh, well. I can understand why Zeb wants to get him."
"Yes. It explains everything. " he looked at Zeb and spoke softly. "Why did you have to be so destructive? Julia, me... I can understand.. But George, why would you want to do it? What satisfaction could you get out of it?"
Hallie laborer over the letter she was writing to Barnabas. She did not mean a word of it, but she sensed that she should write such a letter to allay suspicion.
She would bring Laura back, no matter what it took, no matter how long it took.
"... I am singing again. There is a strain in my voice, but I think that it will wear out soon. It give me the opportunity to study deeper into the roles I want to play..."
Lies, lies. She would never sing like she wanted to. Like Laura could make it possible for her to sing... not the way she sang when the fire burst out of her body.
"...I never thanked you for inviting me to your home. And I am ashamed that I repaid you that way..."
She was not ashamed. She regretted only that she had failed. She still remembered that her name had once been Maude Browning. She still remembered what Laura had promised her, what Laura would have given her. As for him... he owed her.
Unlike Buffy and Frank she would accept no blame for what had happened. She would not curse Laura, Louella had promised them the child. David belonged with his mother. That was the way things should be.
Barnabas was a Creature of Darkness. Laura Creature of Light. She would side with the Light against the Darkness.
So she wrote more lies, knowing that soon she might be invited again to his house, and that the next confrontation would end differently.
Barnabas was surprised to find Kenneth waiting for him.
"It is quite late." he said lamely.
"Yes. It is. I have been waiting for you for quite a while. I want to ask you one thing."
"One thing?"
"Yes. I have been giving it some thought. Maybe I should give Julia another chance."
Barnabas did not like the tone in which he said it, but recognized that he had some right to it.
"In order for that to be possible, I want you to sign this."
"Sign this? What is it?"
"Your formal resignation form Wyncliffe."
"And you'll forgive Julia if I sign it?"
"I think that you are a bad influence on her."
Barnabas closed his eyes. Kenneth could be insufferable. Yet, he had a point...
And it would be best for Julia, wouldn't it?"
"I would rather put this in my own words." he said. "this way she'll think it was my idea."
"As you wish. Just make sure that by tomorrow she gets it."
Barnabas sat at the typewriter. How much of a relationship would Kenneth allow him and Julia to have? Well,, Julia had right to a life of her own. She had sacrificed too much already.
"Is this good enough?" he asked Kenneth when he was done.
Kenneth read it. "Good enough. A bit too mushy for.. for what you are. But as you said it, in your own words."
"Tell her goodbye for me."
"I will."
Frank Torrance held his glass against the light. Back at the beginning. Back at the Blue Whale, trying to kill time. Trying to forget...
Only a salamander... but she could be so good in bed. She could make you believe she loved you so much...
And what he had done for her... He was ashamed of it now. Still, he could not wholly regret it. For he had had her in his arms
He had tried to kill Angelique... Barnabas... he had tried to kill Louella.
But it was not really him who did those things. And Barnabas refused to blame him for it.
He was just going to concentrate on feeling sorry for himself.
That was when he saw her, from her own table, lifting her glass at him.
Delia Harding. She and Derek had split recently. He did not know the details. Rumor were that her sex life was unusual.
Which was better than what he had now.
He moved to her table. "Is this seat taken?" he asked.
"You can see it isn't Can't you think of a better opening line?"
"Not at the moment."
"All right. You'll have to do."
Frank sat down. "Your place or mine?"
Delia smiled "You must be curious as to my equipment, are you not?"
"Yes, I am." Frank admitted.
"Well, at my place you'll get to see it."