the delicious wolves

10: dirty and true

1930

When Will finally returned to Brand Hall the next morning, he felt as though the world had been pulled from underneath his feet. He walked like the undead, barely finding his way back home, and only making it because his feet remembered the way. He didn't want to return home... not alone... not without his Pat.

When he finally found the road to his house he felt his senses coming back. He could finally hear the birds singing and the felt the warmth of the sun on his face, and smelt the scent of tobacco... He looked up and found much to his surprise that Fred Billings, or rather Fatty Billings, was sitting on Will's porch, smoking a pipe.

"Hullo Master Will!" Fatty greeted happily. "Did Pat find you all right? He was looking for you yesterday at about tea time."

"Pat?" Will asked with a hoarse voice. "Yes, he found me." Will looked at Fatty with confusion in his eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to visit my sister, my parents mailed me saying she wasn't feeling very well... Say, where have you been?" Fatty asked suspiciously, looking the dirty man over. "Looks like you slept in a ditch."

Will took a seat on the porch next to his old friend. "I did sleep in a ditch."

Fatty almost laughed, not knowing if he was taking the piss or being serious, but from the grim look on Will's face he assumed that his friend wasn't joking around.

"Don't worry about Estella, she'll be fine," Fatty reassured him, thinking that Estella's condition had to be the reason for his sad state.

Will looked at Fatty with a sincere smile on his face and his eyes clouded over. "Yes I know, thank you," Will said, and actually meant it. Having a kind voice saying kind things to him once more was more than he could ask for. "I should go see Estella."

"Go right on in, we won't bother you," Fatty said, taking another puff of his pipe.

Will put his hand on Fatty's shoulder in a friendly way as he left him sitting on the porch. He then found Rosaline and James Billings in the kitchen having a light snack of bread, cheese and two cups of tea. They were both nicely rounded, with grey hair and spectacles. They were one of those couples who looked more and more like each other with every passing anniversary.

"Hullo Will," Rosaline greeted him cheerfully.

"My goodness, you look a fright boy," James exclaimed as he took Will in. "One would think you had slept in a ditch."

Will opened his mouth to say something, but Rosaline cut him off.

"Now, now Jim, he's obviously just worried about Estella," she got up from the table and walked over to Will, putting one hand on his shoulder and the other on his forehead. "Look at you, warm as a kettle. You need to take a long bath and relax before that fever gets worse," she smiled, grabbing his hair in a lovingly way.

"Don't fondle the lad! He might have been rolling in filth." James muttered to himself.

The two elder Billings gave Will a sideways glance. It was clear what they both thought, though it was unclear how much they actually knew. They must have known he'd had an affair. Why else would Estella run off in the middle of a storm to return home? She'd wanted to catch him in the act. What she discovered, Will knew Estella hadn't told her parents, because otherwise her parents would never speak to him again. He could go to prison for what he and Pat had done.

"The last thing we need are both of you sick in bed with pneumonia," Rosaline's eyes went to the floor. "You better start coming home at night."

Will looked at Estella's mother with guilt in his eyes. He knew what she was thinking. Surely Rosaline knew it wasn't the rain that had made Estella ill. He had done this to his wife, not the weather. For years he'd been breaking her down without a second thought and she finally couldn't take the strain any longer.