Hope - Lesley Pearse [192]
‘This may seem an odd and impertinent question,’ the Captain said. ‘But tell me, was Mrs Meadows ever in service at Briargate Hall in Somerset?’
Bennett looked hard at the man, the cogs in his brain whizzing round at the unexpected question. ‘Why do you ask?’ he said carefully.
‘Because I have a housekeeper called Nell Renton who has a sister she lost track of. Her name is Hope.’
Bennett was staggered and felt he needed to sit down and think this through before replying.
‘I have disturbed you,’ Captain Pettigrew remarked, looking at him curiously when he didn’t answer. ‘I have no wish to pry or to make mischief. But I have grown fond of my housekeeper; she has been with me for seven years since leaving Briargate Hall. Her greatest sadness is losing her sister, which undoubtedly was the work of the man Nell was then married to.’
‘Nell is no longer with him?’ Bennett’s heart leapt, but realized too late that he had admitted who Hope was.
‘So your wife is Nell’s sister!’ The Captain’s grin was one of delight. ‘Nell left Albert Scott the moment she discovered Hope had disappeared from Briargate. She was convinced he had killed her sister. Personally I was never of the same opinion; I thought it far more likely he forced young Hope to leave. But when he burned down Briargate and killed Sir William—’
‘He burned down Briargate?’ Bennett interrupted.
‘You didn’t read about it in the newspapers?’ Captain Pettigrew looked astonished. ‘It was early this year. There has been a manhunt for him since.’
Bennett asked a few more questions and discovered that the fire had taken place while he and Hope had been on their honeymoon, during which time he hadn’t looked at the newspaper. Then coming out here so quickly afterwards he had taken little notice of anything other than war news. ‘I am in a quandary now,’ he said finally, his head spinning with so much dramatic news which he knew was going to shock Hope. ‘I do know everything that occurred between my wife and her brother-in-law, and there were compelling reasons why Hope was afraid to make contact with her sister. But I cannot divulge any of this to you, not without her agreeing to it.’
Captain Pettigrew nodded in understanding. ‘This is hardly the right place or time for any of us,’ he said as he prepared to remount his horse. ‘You have so many sick men to deal with; I’m awaiting orders to move my company on. Talk to your wife, and if she is agreeable, send a message to me and we can arrange a meeting.’
Bennett stood for some time watching the Captain riding off. He had a natural distrust of all cavalry officers, for it was well known that they were to a man arrogant, interbred aristocrats, and the ones he’d met had only confirmed that this was true.
Yet Pettigrew didn’t appear that way, and he wouldn’t knowor care about his housekeeper’s family problems unless he was a kindly man.
But there was something more in Bennett’s heart, a fear that once Hope knew her sister was no longer with Albert, she would want to go home. He felt ashamed of such selfishness, but in truth it was Hope’s spirit that was keeping him going.
He had had bad feelings about this campaign from the start, but he had expected to be posted to one base hospital where he would stay. Instead, they’d just get settled in one place when they’d have to move again, and even now he had no idea where they would end up. He had anticipated grimness, that went with the job, but he hadn’t imagined there would be so little equipment or medicine. How could any doctor help the sick and injured without basic necessities?
Even the camp beds he’d brought out from England for himself and Hope hadn’t turned up until a month ago. It seemed that like other equipment and stores, they had gone back to England, only to be sent out yet again. Hundreds of horses had perished on the ships coming over here, but now it seemed there wasn’t enough forage for the remainder.
None of the troops were in good health; along with cholera there was dysentery and malaria. Unless they were moved quickly to