Read Love Among the Walnuts for Free Online Page B

said, and laughed evilly.
    When the doorbell rang, Bentley cautiously opened the door.
    "Evening, Bentley old boy," Bart said, stepping over the threshold and thumping Bentley's shoulder so hard he nearly knocked him over. "Come on, Bernie. Don't just stand out there freezing." Bernie came in and closed the door behind him.
    Sandy restrained his impulse to leap at them both and ... and ... well, he didn't know exactly what, but it would be bad. Then his better judgment reasserted itself, and he knew that if he was ever to prove their responsibility for what had happened to his parents and Flossie, he had to keep his wits about him.
    Bernie thrust a bottle of wine into Bentley's hands. "We brought this to have with dinner. The least we could do."
    Bentley held the bottle at arm's length, only his thumb and forefinger touching it around the neck. It was port, which he despised, and not a very good year, at that.
    "While you whip us up some dinner," Bart said, throwing his overcoat, and then Bernie's, over Bentley's outstretched arm, "I'll run up and have a look at my dear brother." He crossed to the staircase.
    Sandy grabbed his flabby arm. "I told you he's gone to sleep. You can't wake him up."
    For a moment they stood looking each other directly in the eyes, and Sandy knew they each could read the other's thoughts. Bart knew something was wrong with Horatio. And Bart knew Sandy understood his and Bernie's parts in what was wrong. War was silently declared.
    "I'll see him next time, then. Won't I?" he asked Sandy challengingly as he turned from the stairs.
    "Absolutely," Sandy said grimly.
    Bentley said, "We were just going to open a can of soup for supper."
    "A can of soup is dandy with us," Bart said. "Right, Bernie? And this bottle of wine will make it a real party." He strode off to the kitchen.
    Sandy grabbed Bentley's arm and whispered, "Let's just feed them and get them out of here."
    Bentley put together a plate of toasted cheese sandwiches and started the soup heating on the stove.
    Bart said, "I'll go wash my hands and then I'll open the wine." He left the kitchen and a minute later they heard a scream from upstairs.
    Bentley, Sandy, and Bernie ran up the stairs and found Sunnie at the door of the sickroom, her arms stretched across the entrance, screaming her head off as Bart tried to get past her.
    "What are you doing up here?" Sandy yelled, grabbing Bart by the collar and pulling him away from where he hovered threateningly over Sunnie.
    "I just wanted to tiptoe up and see my own brother," Bart said, shrugging Sandy off, pushing Sunnie aside, and marching possessively into the sickroom. "How come you need a nurse and hospital beds and all this other junk if they've only got the flu? What's this chicken doing in here? I want my own doctor to examine them, and I'm going to inform my lawyer about this, too." Bart cast triumphant glances at Sandy as he spoke. "Your father has a fortune to manage, and if he's incompetent to do it, as it certainly looks like he is, I want something done about it, and done in a hurry. I always knew this was an unhealthy setup, the way you live out here like hermits, getting more and more removed from reality. Wouldn't surprise me if you were all crazy as bedbugs. And I doubt I'd have any trouble convincing a court of that."
    He and Bernie bustled down the stairs and out into the night, slamming the heavy front door behind them.
    Then Bentley and Sandy had to explain to Sunnie who Bart and Bernie were, and why they were so dangerous.
     
    At nine the next morning, Bart and Bernie were back at the front gate, this time with a doctor and a lawyer and a court order. There was nothing Sandy or Bentley could do to prevent them from coming in.
    The doctor examined the patients, read Sunnie's meticulous records, and determined that the patients were in comas, had been that way for a month, and that nobody knew why. Bart insisted the circumstances were questionable, to say the least, and he cast