Hope - Lesley Pearse [158]
Regrettably she was frightened of Albert; he had a way of looking at her with those dark, penetrating eyes that made her shiver. Normally she avoided all contact with him, because she felt he believed she’d put Nell up to leaving him. But she had to be brave and face him or remain ashamed of herself for the rest of her life. Besides, Hope was her own daughter – what mother wouldn’t want to know what happened to her child?
Hope would be twenty-two in April. She might be married now, with children of her own. How terrible it was to remember that for so many years she’d never allowed herself to think about her firstborn. She’d never asked Bridie where she was buried, she hadn’t even considered how old she would have been had she lived, or wondered what she might have looked like. Yet in the last couple of years, when it was too late, she’d thought about her all the time.
Having put on a cloak and some stouter shoes, Anne went out of the front door. Albert was clearing some bramble bushes that had sprung up over the hedge on the far side of the garden. As she walked towards him she became even more nervous. Albert was a powerfully built man, and if he had killed Hope he might attack her too if she pushed him too hard. He was obstinate as well. Anyone else in his position would have moved on, for it was common knowledge that Matt, Joe and Henry Renton hated him.
‘Good morning, Albert,’ she said as she got close to him. ‘I would like a word with you.’
He didn’t turn to her, but carried on pulling out the brambles.
‘Stop that,’ she said firmly. ‘I expect you to look at me when I’m speaking to you.’
He turned then, but his expression was wooden. ‘Yes, m’lady?’ he responded with unconcealed insolence.
‘I want you to tell me the truth about the day Hope left,’ she said. ‘I am not satisfied with the explanation you gave at the time.’
‘Aren’t you now!’ he said, looking her up and down as if she were a common housemaid. ‘But then you’ll have had it hard without a maid. No one to pin up your hair or fill the bath.’
That he saw her as a pathetic creature who felt nothing more than resentment that she had to take care of herself now her maid was gone was another source of shame. ‘She didn’t leave me, she left you,’ she retorted, trying to keep her voice from shaking. ‘Sadly I was unable to keep her on while you were still here. I know you hit her, and Hope too. Men who hit women are cowards.’
‘Is that so?’ he said, taking a few steps closer to her, his jawjutting out threateningly. ‘You’ve had a lot of experience with men, have you?’
Anne’s stomach contracted with fear, not just at the way he was looking at her, but at the barbed question.
‘It is my intention to go back to the police and ask for a new investigation into her disappearance,’ she said more bravely than she felt. ‘I’m giving you the chance now to tell me the truth before I go to them.’
‘You don’t want to go talking about me to the police,’ he said, smirking at her. ‘You’ve got too much to hide yourself.’
‘I beg your pardon!’ she said with some indignation.
‘I know who you were carrying on with,’ he said. ‘You make trouble for me and I’ll do the same for you. But let me tell you I’ve got proof, you ain’t.’
Anne’s bowels contracted with fear. It was a very long time since Angus had called here, and no one but Baines remained who knew about those visits, so maybe she could just call Albert’s bluff.
‘I haven’t any idea what you are talking about,’ she said archly. ‘You are mistaken. You’d better show me this so-called proof.’
‘I ain’t got it on me right now,’ he said. ‘But I’ve got it safe right enough. A letter from Captain Angus Pettigrew, Royal Hussars, no less. He’s been sniffing around you for years.’
A cold chill ran down her spine, for she suddenly realized how and when he’d got the letter. He must have caught Hope with it while she was away burying her father.
‘That’s knocked the stuffing out of you,’ he said dryly, his eyes glinting with malice. ‘Still going to the police?