Hope - Lesley Pearse [90]
‘Do you think my job means more to me than Hope’s life?’ Nell snarled, too angry now to hold back. ‘Well, I’ll tell younow, your bloody ladyship. Hope is that baby I helped deliver, here in this very room, in that bed, sixteen years ago. She’s your child!’
For a moment or two Lady Harvey didn’t react. She just stared blankly at Nell, perhaps unable to process what she’d just heard. Nell stared right back at her, hands on hips, daring the woman to insist she was lying. But then her mistress’s lower lip began to quiver. ‘But my baby died. Bridie said so,’ she said in a weak, faltering voice.
The mention of Bridie’s name was a reminder to Nell of the promise she’d made all those years ago. But even as she felt a stab of guilt on breaking that promise, she was angry and wanted to punish her mistress still further for the wicked things she’d said about Hope.
‘Bridie believed she was dead because she didn’t cry,’ she said defiantly. ‘But as I carried her downstairs I found she was alive. We knew how much trouble you’d be in if it ever got out you’d had a child, so I took her home to my mother.’
Lady Harvey’s face crumpled, her hands went up to her hair and she pulled at it like a madwoman. ‘No, no! It’s not true! I can’t believe you!’ she shrieked out. ‘You are making this up to distress me!’
‘I’m distressed because I believe Hope has been murdered,’ Nell hissed at her. ‘I’m also furious that you could be so unfeeling towards her. But do you really think I would make up such a story?’
‘It can’t be true. Bridie would have told me. One of the plans we made before the baby was born, was that if it lived we would farm it out. Bridie said that would be expensive, so she would’ve asked me for money and kept coming back for more.’
‘Don’t you dare insult Bridie’s memory by suggesting she would resort to blackmail; she would have died for you,’ Nell spat at her mistress. ‘In fact she did. You worked her to death, just like you’d do to me and Rose.’ She paused, allowing that to sink in, for now she had the upper hand she was going to get some of her old grievances off her chest.
‘All Bridie wanted was to protect your reputation, because she loved you. She also thought it would be easier for you to bear if you believed the baby died. And neither I nor my mother would have stooped to ask for money from you because we came to love Hope as if she were our own. To us she was a treasure.
‘But now she’s gone and I think she may have been killed, and if you’ve got any natural feelings, then help me to get justice for her!’
Lady Harvey wept then, but Nell could feel nothing but disdain for the woman, for she knew she wasn’t crying for the child she’d lost, or even out of sympathy for Nell. She was crying only for herself.
‘What do you want of me?’ Lady Harvey sobbed. ‘I can’t bear this. I don’t even know if I can believe what you’ve told me.’
‘You can look on the parish records and you’ll see Hope’s birthday is 25 April 1832. You can also look at your Captain Pettigrew’s face and see her face looking back at you.’
At that Lady Harvey looked really startled. Her eyes widened and she clapped her hands over her mouth.
‘Bridie didn’t tell me,’ Nell said quickly. ‘Wild horses wouldn’t have dragged it from her. I saw the Captain for the first time the day you suggested Hope come here to play with Rufus. I knew he was her father the moment I set eyes on him.’
‘Has anyone else remarked on that?’ Lady Harvey asked quickly.
‘Why would they? All us Rentons are dark, and no one else knows you had another child. But I’m surprised you haven’t seen the similarity. Didn’t you ever wonder why Hope was so beautiful, when James, Ruth and me are all so plain?’
There was no response to that question.
‘You’ve never really looked at her, have you?’ Nell sneered. ‘She’s worked in this house every day for four whole years or more, yet you’ve never noticed that beauty. But then you don’t see any of us servants as people,