Hope - Lesley Pearse [46]
‘Has she complained of feeling unwell?’ Lady Harvey asked, finally getting to her feet. Her face was cold and stiff too, but Hope realized this was through anger at the interruption.
‘No, m’lady,’ Hope said, tears springing to her eyes with shock. ‘She said her legs were bad, that’s all, and she’d have a lie-down for an hour. She said I was to call her if she wasn’t down again by four.’
‘We must get a doctor of course,’ the Captain said. ‘But I have a little medical knowledge, m’lady, so maybe I could go up to see what I can do until he gets here?’
‘Yes, of course, Captain Pettigrew.’ Lady Harvey looked flustered now. She turned to Hope. ‘You go and tell James to saddle up, and fetch Nell too.’
The Captain strode out of the room, Lady Harvey following him. Hope ran out to the stables and told James what had happened, then tore back up the stairs to find Nell.
She was in the little room next to Lady Harvey’s bedroom where she did her sewing. As the door opened her eyes widened in alarm.
Hope ran into her arms and told her what had happened. ‘I think she’s dead, Nell,’ she sobbed out. ‘And Lady Harvey didn’t even care, she said I should have got Baines.’
‘That’s just her way,’ Nell said. ‘She don’t really mean it, ’spect it was a shock to her too. You go on downstairs again, I’ll go up and see what I can do.’
The house had been as quiet as a church all the time Hope had been scrubbing the kitchen floor but as Nell rushed up to the attic and Hope ran back down the stairs, suddenly there was tumult. Baines appeared in the hall demanding to know what was going on, Rose came out of the dining room and Rufus came haring out of the schoolroom, closely followed by a distracted-looking Miss Bird calling out that his lessons weren’t over yet. Ruth was there behind them too, looking startled; later she was to admit to Hope her first thought was that she’d been up to some mischief.
Ruth was still called nursemaid, and saw to Rufus before and after his lessons, but she filled in the time she wasn’t with him by standing in wherever she was needed. This meant she did Rose, Ruby and Nell’s jobs on their afternoons off, and quite often helped Cook when there was a dinner party. She was closer to Cook than any one, and looked stricken when she was told what had happened.
Everyone forgot their place, even Baines, and they were out in the big hall all talking at once when the Captain came back down the stairs.
‘Back into the kitchen with you,’ he said, but his tone was gentle and understanding. ‘Cook is not dead fortunately, but she is gravely ill. I believe it is her heart.’
He herded them all back into the kitchen and came with them, saying that sick people needed quiet. James was waiting on the saddled horse for instructions and the Captain went out and told him to ride for the doctor. When he returned he made the suggestion that Ruth should go up and stay with Cook until the doctor arrived, and that Nell should go to her mistress as she was in shock.
‘And you, little one,’ he said, turning to Hope. ‘I think you should make tea for everyone. Can you do that?’
Until then, Hope had looked upon Baines as the most admirable man she knew. Yet suddenly the Captain seemed far more impressive for he’d not only taken her part against Lady Harvey, he’d also taken command of the whole house. She could see exactly why he made Nell flustered, for he was so handsome with his large dark eyes and sharp cheekbones. She felt warm inside that he’d called her ‘little one’, for her father used to call her that. But there was something more; she thought it was wonderful the way he looked directly at each person he spoke to, taking in their name, their position in the house and even their character, as if he considered every one of them of vital importance. She’d never before met anyone quite like him; Sir William wasn’t that way at all; he walked past everyone with barely a nod. Hope didn’t think he even knew who worked for him, let alone their names.
Once the Captain had gone back into the drawing room, he said he’d wait there until the