Hope - Lesley Pearse [86]
As Baines was leaving the room he heard Rufus speak up again. ‘Mama, you shouldn’t ask Rose to fill a bath for you this late at night. She’s been working so hard today and she must be very tired!’
Baines didn’t linger long enough to hear his mistress’s reply but he was moved by the boy’s compassion. He could also guess that it was Hope who had made him see the unfairness of the master and servant system.
Nell sobbed as she walked down the drive to the gatehouse. Baines, Rose and Martha had done their best to comfort her, but there was nothing anyone could say that would make her feel better about Hope running off.
Nell remembered what she was like at sixteen, so naive, so eager to experience everything, especially the mysteries of courtship and kissing. If it hadn’t been for Bridie suddenly telling her that Lady Harvey was having a baby, she would have gone off that same afternoon to meet Ned Travers in Lord’s Wood.
She didn’t know why she’d never considered that Hope might be just the same as she was then, thinking about lads all the time and aching to have a sweetheart. If only she’d told Hope about Ned it might have encouraged her to reveal her own girlish dreams.
Was it because she’d become so bitter and dried-up that unconsciously she didn’t want Hope to find love and happiness either?
As she opened the door of the gatehouse, she could hear Albert snoring upstairs and there was an acrid smell which could only be from an unemptied chamber pot. Groping her way blindly in the darkness, she came to the table and found the candlestick and matches. As the match flared she saw the room was chaotic and her heart sank further.
By the time she had three candles lit, she felt like turning round and going back to Briargate for the night, for the mess was appalling. Dozens of empty bottles were strewn around. Great clumps of mud from Albert’s boots lay all over the floor, chunks of mouldy bread littered the table and there were unwashed dishes everywhere, many of which she recognized as belonging to the big house.
She hadn’t for one moment expected Albert to welcome her home with open arms, but surely to goodness any man knowing what lay in store for her on her return would try to do something to ease the pain of it. But he hadn’t even had enough respect for her feelings to tidy up for her.
Remembering all the times he’d berated her for the rug in front of the stove not being straight, or the chairs not being pushed under the table, she was suddenly furious with him.
As she stood there looking at the filth her anger grew stronger than her fear of Albert. Taking the candle, she marched up the stairs and kicked the bedroom door open. ‘Wake up, Albert. I want to talk to you,’ she screamed at him.
‘What is it?’ he said sleepily, and Nell wrinkled her nose at the stink of sweaty clothes and the full chamber pot.
‘You filthy wretch,’ she yelled. ‘How could you leave the place like this for me to come back to?’
He sat up and rubbed his eyes. ‘Cleaning is women’s work,’ he said sullenly.
‘Then you should have got a woman in to clean it,’ Nell snarled at him. ‘I saw Martha has been feeding you, so you could have asked her to clean up after you too.’
‘Shut yer mouth, woman,’ he said, and lay down again as if intending to go back to sleep.
‘You pig!’ she exploded. ‘Wasn’t it bad enough for me to get home and find Hope gone, without this too? And where’s the letter she left?’
The question seemed to wake him fully. ‘How dare you come in here screaming at me?’ he said, swinging his legs out of the bed. ‘A working man needs his sleep.’
Nell had always backed away before when he made a move towards her, but she didn’t intend to now. ‘A woman needs her sleep too, but do you expect me to sleep in that rats’ nest?’ she retorted, pointing to the bed. The candle didn’t give much light, but there was enough to see the sheets were dirty. The white counter pane Albert had always insisted must be smooth and crinkle-free was thrown on the floor and had been trampled over with dirty boots. ‘Now, get downstairs and tell me about