Read Hope for Free Online Page B

be intensely interested in everything that went on.
    As Nell had spent her first few weeks at Briargate feeling overwhelmed by how the gentry lived, she wanted Hope to have some preparation for when the time came for her to go into service. So she related how Ruby, the upstairs maid, had slipped on the backstairs with a full slop bucket in her hand, and that Cook had forgotten to put sugar in a rhubarb tart on a day when Lady Harvey had guests for luncheon.
    Nell went on then to describe Lady Harvey’s new rose-pink silk ballgown which had been sent down from the dressmakers in London the previous day.
    ‘It’s got hundreds of tiny seed pearls on the bodice and along the train,’ she enthused.
    ‘When I’m a lady I’ll have lovely gowns,’ Hope said, getting to her feet and holding out the skirt of her worn cotton dress as if she were about to sweep into a ballroom.
    ‘Then we’ll have to find you a rich husband,’ Nell said affectionately. When her other sisters wished for things she knew they could never attain she’d always been quick to put a dampener on them. But for some reason she could never do that to Hope. There was something about her, the boldness in her eyes, the tilt of her head, that suggested she might find her way back to where she belonged.
    ‘Maybe I could marry Master Rufus,’ Hope giggled. ‘Then I could live at Briargate.’
    ‘Don’t be foolish, child,’ Meg said sharply. ‘The only way you’d get to live at Briargate is by working there like Nell does.’
    Although Nell understood why Meg had to squash that particular idea, she felt sorry for Hope when she saw her face fall. She hadn’t been brought up in ignorance about the world beyond this village as her brothers and sisters had. She not only knew about Briargate, she had been to Bristol once on the cart with her father. For weeks she talked of nothing but the ships, the crowded streets, fancy carriages and shops full of things she’d never seen before. Was it surprising she had fanciful notions?
    ‘Why don’t you, Joe and Henry walk back with me to Briargate later?’ Nell suggested impulsively. ‘I’m always telling Cook about you, and she’d love to meet you. You could see Ruth and James too.’
    Hope clapped her hands gleefully. Meg shot Nell a disapproving look.
    ‘Better for her to learn her place is only in the kitchen there,’ Nell said as Hope rushed headlong down the field to tell the boys.
    Meg sighed but made no comment. That was her way.
    Mrs Cole had left Briargate soon after Rufus was born, and Lady Harvey decided she didn’t need another housekeeper. As Nell had moved into Bridie’s old position as Lady Harvey’s personal maid, she had become third in line after Baines and Cook in the household hierarchy. There weren’t so many staff now – when someone left they weren’t necessarily replaced – which meant they all had a few more duties. Rose, who had been the upstairs maid, was now the parlourmaid, and Ruby the kitchenmaid had taken Rose’s old position. Cook had a new kitchenmaid called Ginny, and all the roughest work was now done by Ada, who came in daily from Woolard. Ruth as nursemaid and James, now the only groom since John Biggins retired, plus the new gardener, Albert Scott, and his assistant Willy, made up the full complement of staff.
    Nell took some pleasure in knowing she had the easiest and most pleasant job of all. Lady Harvey wasn’t demanding, and Nell had only to dress her and look after her hair and clothes. If the mistress went visiting, shopping in Bath, or even just for a ride in the carriage, Nell went too. When there were visitors at Briargate, Nell filled her time with mending or pressing clothes but if she had no chores to do, the time was her own. Mostly she felt she was very fortunate.
    Yet on the way back to Briargate later in the afternoon, with the children trotting along beside her, she was thoughtful. That feeling she’d had of aging ten years the night Hope was