Hope - Lesley Pearse [85]
Baines flopped down on to a chair and put his head in his hands. ‘She ran off with her sweetheart.’
‘Sweetheart! She didn’t have one!’
‘That’s what we all thought.’ Baines looked up at her, his face wreathed with sorrow. ‘But she left a note. Albert brought it up and showed me.’
‘When was this?’ Nell felt as if all the blood had drained from her body and her legs were going to give way.
‘Sit down.’ Martha pushed her on to a chair. ‘I’ll make you some tea.’
Baines explained that it happened back in November about two weeks after Nell left with Lady Harvey. He said there were no warnings or farewells; Hope had been here in the kitchen one minute and gone the next.
‘She must have been planning it for some time,’ he said wearily, pushing back a lock of hair from his face. ‘But I never sensed anything, she didn’t act suspiciously, didn’t even say anything that I might later take for her way of saying goodbye.’
‘She went empty-handed too,’ Martha said. ‘All her things are still up in her old room. We’ve left it all there for you.’
‘But why didn’t you write and tell me?’ Nell asked, beginning to cry.
‘Albert said it was better not to.’ Baines shrugged. ‘He thought you’d get distressed and as you couldn’t leave Lady Harvey that would make it worse.’
‘Did he go looking for her?’ Nell’s voice rose in despair.
‘He went and told your brothers, I know that,’ Baines said. ‘Reverend Gosling came calling and said that they’d been to him and almost everyone in the village to try and find out who the young man was.’
‘And did they find out?’
Baines shook his head. ‘Everyone says the same, that it’s a mystery. There’s been no soldier round these parts.’
‘A soldier!’ Nell exclaimed. ‘She ran off with a soldier?’
The bell rang from the drawing room and Baines went to answer it. Lady Harvey was sitting by the fire, Rufus on the rug at her feet, and she turned her head as Baines came in.
‘Is this true what Rufus has been telling me? That Hope left without a word?’
‘Yes, m’lady,’ Baines said. ‘I’ve just been telling Nell, she’s very upset.’
‘What an ungrateful little minx!’ Lady Harvey said indignantly. ‘After all Nell has done for her! Clearly you are giving the servants too much free time, Baines, if they have opportunities to meet men.’
Baines bristled. It was bad enough that she should think servants weren’t entitled to a private life, but considering every one of them here at Briargate had been doubling up on jobs because Lady Harvey couldn’t afford to hire more staff, he didn’t know how she had the brass neck to say such a thing.
‘With all due respect, m’lady,’ he said, gritting his teeth, ‘Hope had no free time other than her afternoon off which she always spent with her brother and his family. Neither he nor I can imagine how and when she met this man. It was out of character too, she wasn’t a flighty girl, and she is very close to Nell.’
‘Nell may as well go home and talk to Albert,’ Lady Harvey said dismissively. ‘She won’t be any good to me if she’s upset; Rose can attend to me.’
Baines felt a surge of anger at his mistress’s callousness. Nell had worked for her since she was Hope’s age, no one could have a more loyal and devoted maid, and she deserved better than to be told to go home without even a few sympathetic words.
‘I don’t believe Hope left willingly,’ Rufus suddenly piped up.
His mother and Baines looked at him in surprise. His overlong fair curls made him look very young, but his expression was adult. ‘I’d say Albert forced her to go.’
‘Oh, whatever do you mean?’ Lady Harvey said sharply. ‘You told me she left Nell a letter.’
‘She did, Albert showed it to me,’ Baines said.
‘It is quite possible to force someone to write a letter,’ Rufus said stubbornly. ‘I’ve seen boys do it at school. Hope cared too much for Nell to run off when she wasn’t here.’
‘You are just a child, and you were at school when this happened,’ Lady Harvey retorted scornfully. ‘That will be all, Baines, please pass my message on to Nell and Rose. I would like a bath tonight before going