TIME MACHINE CHAPTER THIRTY NINE
A/N WARNING: Possibly disturbing images, and character death (Thanks to Google for their help with the details.)
"Do you think we'll get medals?" Lloyd giggled.
"You heard what Captain Spiller said. We're lucky we're getting off without being charged for messing with government property."
"It's Mr Chiltern's property."
"Not now it isn't. I'm glad he's not a villain though" Jamie said.
"Poor Taylor though, she's probably in handcuffs and off to the Tower by now…" Lloyd snivelled.
Jamie punched him, and enjoyed it.
Ben smiled at the prison Chaplain. He did want to talk, and this man had an air of personal calm about him. He poured out his heart, being careful not to mention the time travelling, and instead just talked about his past life, his parents and the people he loved. He spoke of Dylan as his dearest friend.
Then there was an urgent rapping at the door, and Ben knew. It was time.
He took the talisman and handed it to the Chaplain.
"Please could you send this to Dr Keogh? Captain Spiller knows where to find him. Tell him he needs to wear it, please… he needs to keep it with him."
Ben didn't know why he'd said this, just a gut instinct.
The older man nodded and put the talisman away carefully.
Spiller's car was already pulling in at the gates of the Tower of London. Dylan's heart was going into overdrive; there were just five minutes left. He felt a mounting rage as Spiller talked to the sentry on duty. Just hurry up and let us through, you fool, he thought.
They walked to the miniature rifle range, the Chaplain reading from the Bible, as was customary for executions. Ben kept pace with the soldiers, he was beyond fear now, his mind just teemed with regret at everything he was to lose. He was even unmoved by the smirk on Fletcher's face. He was surprised to see a chair placed for him; he'd expected them to stand him against the wall. He sat, as the man silently indicated. He heard vague whispers from the firing party, and Fletcher, their commander.
"There are two minutes to go, Captain Fletcher, and isn't he entitled to a last request?"
"Not by my watch. Too late for any requests and greedy scum like him doesn't deserve one. Now are you going to obey me or are you going to be next?"
Fletcher was confident this breach of protocol wouldn't be challenged; he knew his men feared him and Chiltern was as good as dead as it was.
Two of the men tied Ben's hands behind him, and he felt another of the soldiers place his hand on his chest. He wondered why and then realised that the soldier was placing a target over his heart. He flinched slightly but regained his calm. He'd been told that one of the soldiers' rifles would contain a blank so the squad would never know which of them had taken the prisoner's life. Fletcher walked over to him, smugly holding out a blindfold.
"I know what you're going to do; I don't need that" Ben told him. Fletcher looked like a child that had been refused sweets.
"Your loss, sonny" Fletcher shrugged.
Then he barked out:
"Ready!"
Ben looked up at the sky, forcing himself to think of other things. Would Jess's baby be a boy or a girl?
"We're within earshot; we have two clear minutes. It's going to be all right, Doctor Keogh."
Dylan's nerves were at screaming point and he tried to let his mind drift to imagine how the village gossips would have to eat humble pie..
"Aim!"
Ben kept looking up, avoiding the sight of the rifles, and thought:
"Oh, Dylan, if only we'd had just one more night. Just one…"
"STOP!"
"FIRE!"
The two cries merged together and only Fletcher's bellowing cry was heard above the Captain's command. The squad acted accordingly.
The impact in Ben's chest sent him into merciful oblivion.
Then he was motionless, his head falling on his stilled chest.
Dylan, his eyes dry, ran over to him.
Spiller rounded on Fletcher, waving a signed document in his face.
"You had two more minutes to go!"
Fletcher covered his uneasy with a display of arrogance.
"He's been condemned, two minutes wouldn't have made any difference."
Spiller slapped the Captain hard across the cheek.
"You've just executed a man who's been proved innocent beyond doubt."
Fletcher's complexion turned a sickly green.
At a sign from Spiller, the men were gently untying Ben and laying him almost reverently on a stretcher.
Spiller looked back at the chair, wet and spattered with Ben's heartsblood.
"I hope this happens to you shortly" he told Fletcher.
"I don't" said Dylan tonelessly, "I hope he contacts a wasting disease that eats him from the inside out, and I hope he lives to be a very old man."
The soldiers carried Ben into the Tower, to a temporary resting place. There was no question of a traitor's burial in Highgate now; Ben would be buried in the village.
Spiller felt nauseated by the new developments. Two minutes, he told himself, two bloody minutes.
A few moments later the soldiers who'd killed Ben were marching Fletcher away in custody.
It was only afterwards that Spiller realised that because of the horrific circumstances that Ben hadn't been give the customary mercy-blow; a single shot to his temple. He just prayed that death had been painless.
The Army paid for Ben's funeral, it was the least they could do under the circumstances. Dylan wondered briefly what to have inscribed on the headstone: 'Beloved friend of…?' In the end he just chose the single word "Beloved". So many people had loved Ben. In less than a day the grave was covered with flowers and tributes.
Cal seemed to have aged with grief, and Ethan was desperately trying to stay strong for Jess's sake, though she too was mourning the kind man who'd looked after her all that time ago in Slatternly Honey's. They'd resigned themselves to staying in the village, there was no need for any further travelling. Only little Lucius, although he'd sobbed bitterly on finding out Ben's fate, was able to accept the situation. He'd gone up to the grieving Dylan – who carried an extra burden because he could only mourn Ben publicly as a dear friend- put his arms round his neck and said:
"Don't be afraid for Ben, he's with the Gods now and they will protect him."
Child and Stepfather clung together weeping, giving vent to the sobs that would begin the slow healing process.
Fletcher was court-martialled and imprisoned for two years, then dishonourably discharged from the armed forces. He turned to alcohol on his release and eventually this caused the end that Dylan had wished upon him. Taylor Ashbie was buried in an unmarked grave in Highgate Cemetary.
Jamie and Lloyd didn't receive medals but their action did ensure that they were deemed to be responsible lads, and were set up as apprentices once the war was over. Lloyd earned enough to survive, Jamie watched, learned and eventually took over the business when the owner died.
But all that would happen in the future.
The travellers carried on in the village for a month. Dylan steeled himself not to turn on the well-meaning visitors who told him what a sweet man Ben had been. He refrained from saying "Yes but you were all baying for his blood when you thought he was a spy, weren't you?"
He kept the talisman round his neck as Ben had requested. Sometimes he swore he could feel it glowing against his skin.
It was Ethan, very nervous in case Dylan should snap at him, who suggested that they went back to the broken Time Machine to bring back any precious reminders of Ben. Dylan agreed and the others asked to accompany him. There were very few things, a poem that Ben had written for Dylan and had hoped to set to music one day. A pair of cufflinks that Dylan had helped him to choose back in Victorian London. Lucius, ever-sensitive to grief, hugged Dylan.
And then they gasped in shock. The machine was working, the controls began to move on their own. They'd been wrong about the two pilferers wrecking the machine. Hanssen had always known he could bring them back when he wanted and he was doing it now.
So, let them kill me, I'm dead inside anyway, thought Dylan. Then he saw the fear in Lucius's eyes and thought, no, I'll fight with my last breath for this child, Ben. He felt the talisman glowing against his skin, and then the doors to the machine opened and there were Hanssen and his thugs standing smirking at them.
A/N Sorry that was so grim but I needed to follow my ideas through. Please bear with me till the end of the story.
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