Hope - Lesley Pearse [66]
Sometimes she wished she was like Martha and Rose, for their minds didn’t stretch beyond Briargate and the local gossip. They couldn’t read, and everything they knew came from equally limited people. They grumbled a lot, especially now there was such uncertainty around the house, but neither of them seemed to have any desire to move on.
Hope was well aware she had even less experience than them of the world beyond Briargate, but she read the periodicals, newspapers and the occasional book which found their way down to the kitchen. She knew many working people were brave enough to challenge the government about the unfairness of the laws, and up and down the country there was rioting as there had been in Bristol the year before her birth. She could see that it wasn’t right that only property owners could vote. They elected men to Parliament who would only look after their interests, and the poor had to shift for themselves.
‘So you’re going away with Lady Harvey?’ Hope said later when Nell came down. Fortunately, Martha was talking to Baines in the servants’ hall so they had the kitchen to themselves.
‘Don’t look so glum about it,’ Nell smiled. ‘It will only be for a few weeks.’
‘I hate it when you aren’t here,’ Hope sighed. She was often lonely since Ruth and James had left, but with Nell gone too she knew she was going to feel very alone and isolated.
Nell patted her sister’s cheek affectionately. ‘I think we’ll have to find a sweetheart for you. You wouldn’t be thinking about your old sister if a young man took your eye.’
‘There’s about as much chance of me meeting a young man working here as there is of becoming Queen,’ Hope said grumpily.
Nell looked anxious then and Hope felt ashamed of herself. ‘I’ll be fine really,’ she said quickly. ‘Just be back before Christmas.’
‘Will you go down to the gatehouse now and then and tidy up for Albert?’ Nell asked. ‘And if I can’t get back before Master Rufus comes home for the Christmas holiday, will you promise me that you’ll keep an eye on him?’
Hope nodded and smiled. She knew what Rufus would make of that request. He said Nell treated him as if he were still five or six, but he was a strapping lad of almost thirteen now, and his school had hardened him up considerably.
‘And don’t go anywhere near Sir William when he’s drinking,’ Nell said warningly. ‘If he rings the bell, let Rose or Baines go.’
‘Will Lady Harvey stand up to losing her father too?’ Hope asked. She sensed Nell was worried about something and thought perhaps it was that.
‘I think so – she isn’t as close to him as she was to her mother,’ Nell replied. ‘But his death will give her more problems.’
Hope raised one eyebrow questioningly.
‘I shouldn’t really tell you this, especially as Squire Dorville hasn’t even gone yet. But Sir William is assuming that the estate will be divided between the three sisters.’
‘It will, won’t it?’ Hope said.
‘Lady Harvey thinks not. Her father doesn’t approve of Sir William’s spendthrift ways.’
Hope knew exactly what Nell meant by that. A wife’s money became her husband’s, and possibly Sir William was banking on Lady Harvey’s inheritance to get him out of his problems. If that didn’t come about, he would be savage.
‘So neither younor Lady Harvey will have a lot to come home for?’ Hope said archly. She didn’t mean to be sarcastic, but it had struck her over the past year that the mistress and her maid had a great deal in common as far as their husbands were concerned.
‘I’ve got you, and Lady Harvey has Rufus,’ Nell retorted. ‘And that’s all either of us needs.’
Hope felt ashamed then for she knew that Nell thought of her as her own child rather than a much younger sister. She put her arms around Nell and held her tightly. ‘I love you, Nell,’ she whispered. ‘You’ve always taken