Hope - Lesley Pearse [256]
‘Your silence tells me you already knew this,’ he said. ‘And I can guess at what point you found out too. I remained in ignorance until after Briargate was burned down. I went down to Wells because I thought someone at the Bishop’s Palace might know something about Albert. Someone did, and he told me what Albert was.’
Rufus held the reins with his right hand and with his left caught hold of Hope’s chin and tilted it so he could look at her. ‘I’d had little suspicions about Father long before that. You learn about such things at boarding school, you see, and at Oxford I met men who were that way. But when I knew about Albert it all fell into place. My parents’ fear of him, the missing money, the way he strutted around Briargate and, of course, your disappearance.’
He let go of her chin and took her hand. ‘I’m sorry,’ he sighed. ‘Maybe I should have kept all that to myself the way you have. On our first meeting after you returned here, I noted how you said nothing about my father, other than the usual polite condolence. That was all the confirmation I needed that my guesswork was correct. But I’ll wager you wouldn’t ever have told me?’
‘No, I wouldn’t,’ she said in a small voice. ‘I wish to God you didn’t know.’ She leaned her head against his shoulder, feeling such sadness and sympathy for him.
‘I’m not going to ask you for any details,’ he said in a choked voice. ‘I want to put it aside, and start anew.’
Hope nodded against his shoulder.
‘I won’t come in with you tonight either,’ he went on. ‘I must get to the police and back to Mother. But in a day or two I’ll come and talk to Nell. Did she know about Albert and my father?’
‘No, and please don’t tell her,’ Hope said. ‘She’s suffered enough at that man’s hands.’
‘I won’t speak of it again to anyone,’ he said, glancing round at her. ‘It was in the past, it doesn’t matter any more.’
As soon as Nell opened the front door to Hope, she sensed the day had not been a good one for her sister’s eyes looked heavy and she was very pale and drawn. ‘Why didn’t Rufus come in?’ she asked, taking the sleeping baby from her sister’s arms. ‘I hope you haven’t fallen out?’
‘No, Nell. He just needed to get back to Lady Harvey,’ Hope said. ‘Would you put Betsy up in her crib for me?’
Nell hurriedly did as she was asked, and when she came back downstairs Hope had gone into the kitchen and was standing by the stove warming her hands.
‘Let me take your cloak and hat,’ Nell said. ‘Then I’ll make you a hot toddy, you look frozen.’
As Hope removed her cloak Nell sawthe stains down her dress. ‘What on earth is that?’
‘Blood,’ Hope blurted out. ‘Albert’s blood. I killed him.’
Nell clapped her hands over her mouth. ‘Albert? He came to Briargate?’ she exclaimed. She thought she’d misunderstood what Hope said.
‘Yes, Nell, of course he did,’ Hope said somewhat impatiently. ‘I just said, I killed him. I was in the stables when he came in. I killed him with a pitchfork.’
Nell felt as if all the blood had suddenly left her body. Over the years she’d often pondered what her reaction would be if Albert was caught and hanged for his crimes. She knew she wouldn’t like the renewed gossip it would bring, but she’d always felt that it would be like a weight off her shoulders to know he’d gone for good.
But Hope standing there with his blood on her dress, calmly telling her she’d killed him with a pitchfork, wasn’t a situation she could ever have prepared herself for.
‘Oh, my Lord,’ she exclaimed, and suddenly she was crying as though she would never stop.
‘I’m sorry I told you so bluntly,’ she heard Hope saying above the sound of her own sobbing. ‘I didn’t think you’d be so upset.’
‘I’m not upset that he’s dead,’ Nell managed to get out. ‘If I’d heard he drowned, died of a disease, or was even shot by a gamekeeper I would have rejoiced. It’s the thought that he came near you again. That once again he has hurt those I love.’
Hope made some tea and sat down with Nell, explaining