Hope - Lesley Pearse [143]
Yet she had always longed to unburden herself to someone, and she liked Bennett so much that she wanted him to understand just why she had to leave Briargate and her family. She also knew he would persist in questioning her anyway, and that he could be trusted to keep a secret to himself.
‘If I tell you, will you promise you will never interfere and try to go behind my back and sort it out for me?’ she asked. ‘And of course never tell anyone else?’
‘I promise,’ he said. ‘I only want to understand. That’s all.’ She told him then.
She began quite well, explaining about Nell and Lady Harvey being away and why she had to hide the letter from her Ladyship’s lover. But when she got to the point where she’d thought the upstairs window was banging and walked into the bedroom, she faltered.
‘Albert was in there? With whom?’ Bennett prompted. ‘Was it another of your sisters?’
She was embarrassed and shamed. Once again she could see the two men in the bed together and the sight horrified her again as much as it had on that terrible day.
‘No, it was Sir William,’ she finally blurted out.
‘Oh God,’ he exclaimed, and put his head in his hands. ‘I didn’t expect that.’
Having told him the very worst part, the rest was easier. The words tumbled out quickly as she wanted to get it over and done with.
‘I fainted by Bristol Bridge and Gussie and Betsy helped me and took me home with them,’ she finished up.
Bennett let out a low whistle. ‘I understand now why you would be so afraid of Albert,’ he sighed. ‘As for my promise I wouldn’t interfere, I couldn’t. I wouldn’t even know how to begin dealing with it. But do you think Nell knew what Albert was?’
‘I know she didn’t,’ Hope said. ‘He was always cold with her; but how could she ever think something like that of him? I doubt she even knew such a thing existed. She might be sixteen years older than me, but I think I am more worldly now than she will ever be.’
‘My heart goes out to you,’ Bennett said, his voice deep with real emotion. ‘No young girl should have to learn of such things in that way. Albert deserves to be horsewhipped, not for his leanings, I’m sure he can’t help those, but for his brutality to you, his deceit to your sister and the wretched blackmail.’
‘So do you understand why I can’t go back there?’ Hope asked.
‘Only too well,’ Bennett sighed. ‘He’s got you over a barrel. Only the truth would satisfy your brothers and sisters that you didn’t leave willingly. But if you do tell them what really happened they’ll want to attack Albert, and he’ll retaliate and hurt anyone he can.’
While it was good to know that Bennett saw the whole picture as it really was, Hope felt disappointed too. She supposed that at the back of her mind there had been a glimmer of belief that a clever man like him might come up with some kind of scheme where Albert got what he deserved, and everyone else remained safe from harm. But then, if there had been such a scheme, she would have thought of it herself by now.
‘So what am I to do?’ she asked.
Bennett took her hand and squeezed it. ‘I think you have to do what your heart tells you. Weigh up whether the need to see your family is greater than the fear of what Albert can do to Nell and the others you care about.’
Hope thought this over for a moment or two. ‘Sir William would claim I’d made the whole thing up, Lady Harvey would back him up to spare herself any disgrace, and Rufus would hate me for saying such things about his parents. As for Nell, she’d still be stuck with Albert, and it would be even worse for her then.’
‘It might make her leave him!’
‘She isn’t the kind to do that; she always believed marriage was for ever. And she’d lose her position at Briargate.’
‘You could bring her into Bristol with you. I could find her work somewhere.’
Hope shook her head