Hope - Lesley Pearse [19]
‘Have you got a sweetheart, Nell?’ Sir William asked suddenly.
‘No, sir,’ she said, blushing furiously.
‘But would you like one?’ he said, moving right into the room and sitting down on the bed. ‘Do you hope to get married one day?’
‘William!’ Lady Harvey laughingly reproved him. ‘Stop quizzing poor Nell!’
‘I do hope to get married one day, sir, when the right man comes along,’ Nell said.
‘Then I think I must look around for a suitable husband for you,’ he said with a bright smile which showed perfect small white teeth.
‘Well, just don’t look too far away from Briargate, William,’ Lady Harvey said with laughter in her voice. ‘I don’t want her running off and leaving me. But you can get off to bed now, Nell. I can manage everything else alone.’
Nell put the hairbrush down on the dressing table, bobbed a little curtsey and said goodnight. As she was leaving the room she turned her head just enough to see that her master had got up off the bed and was kissing his wife’s neck. That pleased her, and went some way towards allaying her fears about the visitor this afternoon.
She had discovered who the gentleman caller was from James. He was Captain Angus Pettigrew of the Royal Hussars, a cousin of the Pettigrews who lived in Chelwood House about two miles away.
She couldn’t of course tell her brother why she wanted to know about him, or indeed ask any further questions for fear of alerting him to her anxiety. She wasn’t even sure what she wanted any information for. All she knew was that she felt threatened.
But by what? She had asked herself that question dozens of times tonight, and had found no answers. But now she’d left her master and mistress together, clearly happy, she thought maybe the Captain might only have called here while he was visiting his relatives because it would have been impolite not to.
Yet Nell was still troubled about her mistress’s request for Hope to come and play with Rufus. If Bridie was here now she’d have thrown up her hands in horror. But Nell couldn’t refuse, or make an excuse. She’d just have to hope that the visit wouldn’t go well, that Lady Harvey would decide Hope wasn’t a fit companion for her son, and that would be the end of it.
Nell’s hopes that the visit would be a failure were dashed. It was raining on Monday, so the children had to stay in the day nursery. Hope was so thrilled by Rufus’s toys, the like of which she’d never seen before, that she was only too happy to play with whatever he wanted. She built him castles with his building blocks and laughed when he knocked them down. They rode on his rocking-horse together, and Hope looked at Rufus’s picture books with him.
Lady Harvey joined them for tea, and Hope turned on her charm shamelessly, admiring the delicate china, eating and drinking far more daintily than she usually did, even reprimanding Rufus for not eating the crusts on his bread and jam.
It was clear Rufus thought she was the best thing ever to come into his young life, and when it was time for Nell to take Hope home, he clung to her tearfully, making his mother promise she could come again the following week. As Nell walked across the paddock with Hope she could imagine Bridie shaking her fist at her and asking why she had been so stupid as to take the child there in the first place.
On Sundays as many of the Briargate staff who could be spared from chores and preparing luncheon were expected to go to church in Compton Dando. All those who came from the surrounding villages were also allowed one Sunday in a month to go home after church to visit their families. James and Ruth often got the same Sunday off, but because Nell had to stand in as nursemaid for Rufus when Ruth was not there, she always went home alone.
It was three weeks since Hope’s first afternoon at Briargate