Hope - Lesley Pearse [273]
‘I was only dancing with them,’ Hope pointed out, looking round at the rest of the company. ‘Bennett always likes to make out he was so hard done by that night, but as I recall he drank a whole bottle of rum.’
‘You three talk about the war as if it were a jolly picnic,’ Rufus remarked. ‘I can’t pin any of you down to tell me what it was really like. Angus and Bennett haven’t even said anything about the nurse Florence Nightingale, yet the newspapers are full of her heroics.’
‘Maybe that’s just because we are a little weary of the public’s adulation being centred on her,’ Angus retorted. ‘We sawsoldiers’ wives risking their lives on the battlefields to help the wounded. They, Hope and doctors like Bennett were there from the start of the war, doing what they could without medical supplies or any facilities, hamstrung by governmental bungling. Miss Nightingale is undoubtedly a good woman – she brought about better conditions in the hospital at Scutari, and I’m sure she has turned the tide so that nursing will from here on in be seen as a noble profession. But those of us who were at the sharp end of the action would rather like to see less illustrious people honoured for their courage and self-sacrifice. They gave everything they had for their country and their fellow man. Of those who have survived, many will come back here with missing limbs to find their wives and children in the workhouse. That is where many of those brave men will end their days too. But Miss Nightingale won’t share that indignity.’
Hope shared Angus’s views and she knew Bennett did too, but this wasn’t the appropriate time for airing them.
‘Come now, Angus,’ she wheedled, giving him an arched look. ‘As Nell would say, “That’s not a suitable subject for the dinner table.” ’
‘It certainly isn’t,’ Nell said indignantly. ‘Conversation at the table should be light and frothy.’
Rufus snorted with laughter. ‘Hark at you, Nell! I bet if you said that down at Matt’s they’d fall off their chairs with laughter. They talk about butchering pigs and castrating bullocks at the table.’
Hope smiled. ‘What about you, Uncle Abel? What do you talk about?’
‘He’s been known to discuss the contents of someone’s stomach after he’s done a post-mortem,’ Alice said impishly. ‘At one dinner party one of his guests came running out as green as grass!’
Abel looked faintly embarrassed. ‘That was unfortunate but I was under the impression he was a doctor too.’
‘I count myself rebuked.’ Angus smiled at Nell. ‘War, medical matters, religion and politics are best avoided at dinner.’
‘That’s good for me as I knowvery little about any of those subjects,’ Rufus said lightly.
‘You’d better brush up on religion if you are going to marry the rector’s daughter,’ Hope retorted. ‘And when is it going to be?’
‘Well, that brings us back to the ticklish subject of blood ties,’ Rufus said, suddenly looking more serious. ‘Before I ask Lily to marry me we have to decide whether I should tell her that Hope’s my sister.’
Before dinner they had informed Uncle Abel and Alice about the recent developments. Both had been so astounded they said they needed time to think about it before they could comment. But Hope had sensed Abel much preferred the idea of her being the love child of aristocrats than the legitimate child of peasants.
‘If you do tell her, we’ll also have to tell Matt and the rest of the family,’ Nell said, looking worried.
In the discussions before Christmas they had all felt that the ultimate decision about this had to be made by Rufus, as he was the one most likely to be affected by the scandal.
Angus pointed this out to him. ‘Much as I’d like to acknowledge Hope as my daughter,’ he said, ‘I do not wish to tarnish your mother’s name.’
‘Does that matter now she’s no longer with us?’ Rufus shrugged. ‘I would gain a sister, a niece and a brother-in-law, all of whom are important to me, and are likely to be important to my future children too. Hope would gain a father.