After the cold water, the sunshine felt very hot. ‘Is he…?’ she asked, but found herself unable to finish the question because James and Albert were looking down at her so intently.
‘He’s fine, thanks to you,’ James said. ‘The bang on the head knocked him out. But if he’d been there much longer he’d have sunk right in and drowned.’
Hope could hardly bear to turn her head to look at her friend; she was sure James was trying to spare her feelings. But as her eyes finally fell on Rufus’s bare legs and feet, and she saw one move, she felt bold enough to turn completely.
Albert was washing the wound on his forehead and she could hear Rufus whimpering.
‘Oh, thank God!’ she exclaimed. ‘I thought he was dead.’
James went round the pond and found her clothes and boots, but he had to put her dress on for her as she was shaking too much to do it herself. Albert picked Rufus up in his arms and carried him, and she and James followed on silently behind.
James’s silence on the way back was all the confirmation she needed to know that she was in serious trouble. She would surely be dismissed now, for she was to blame even if Rufus had survived. She had never needed Nell more, and although Albert had not yet laid into her, she was sure that was only because he was distracted by taking care of Rufus. Once they got back to Briargate he was certain to give her a beating.
Martha, Ruth, Baines and Rose all crowded round Rufus once they were back in the kitchen. They had wrapped him in a blanket and given him a hot drink, and Baines was telling him what a scare he’d given everyone.
‘It were Hope who found him,’ James declared as Ruth began to praise him. ‘She stripped off her clothes and went in to get him. If she hadn’t held his head out of the water he would have drowned. What a brave lass she were, she can’t swim either.’
Suddenly everyone’s attention was turned on Hope, but although this much of the story was true, she couldn’t bask in their admiration. She knew it was only a matter of minutes before Rufus spilled out about their secret meetings and how they had found the boat.
Martha put a cup of tea in her shaking hands, and smoothed her wet hair back from her face. ‘How did you know where to look for him?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Hope whimpered.
Ruth put some pans of water on the stove to heat for a bath for Rufus, and Hope saw how badly shaken she was for her face was white and her movements jerky. She let Baines dress the wound on Rufus’s forehead, but she took his hand in hers and asked in a plaintive voice why he’d gone to the woods.
At that Hope felt really sick because she realized Ruth thought her job was in jeopardy now: she was the nursemaid and she’d let the young master go off on his own. All at once Hope was sobbing; she could bear punishment herself, but not the thought of Ruth or anyone else in the room being blamed for something she’d done.
‘Why is Hope crying?’ Rufus asked, his clear, high voice ringing out.
‘Because she thought you were dead, Master Rufus,’ Baines replied. ‘You might very well have drowned if it hadn’t been for her.’
‘Let me see her?’ Rufus asked, and nudging Ruth away from him, he came padding over to Hope, still wrapped in his blanket.
‘Don’t cry, Hope,’ he said, using a bit of the blanket to dry her eyes. ‘Look, I’m fine. You were very clever to find me, and I’m sorry if I frightened you.’
He looked right into her eyes as he spoke, a faint smile playing at his lips. ‘Mama is going to be very grateful that you saved my life, because I’m sure Ruth will have to tell her what I did. But I was so excited because I found an old boat. I wanted to get it out and play in it. I didn’t stop to think it might be dangerous.’
A lump came up in Hope’s throat for she knew he was trying to tell her that their secret meetings would remain secret.
‘That’s all very well, Master Rufus,’ she said sternly. ‘But your mama will blame Ruth for not watching you more closely. She is afraid she will be dismissed.’
‘Then maybe we shouldn’t tell Mama about it?’ He looked round at the other servants. ‘I could have got this bump on the head falling over. And anyway, it might be gone by the time she gets back.’
He turned and went over to Ruth, wrapping his arms around her and leaning against her chest. ‘I’m sorry I scared you, Ruthie,’ he said. ‘I won’t do it again. Will you forgive me?’
Hope wanted to laugh then for he had the same easy charm as his father.
‘You are going to have a bath, get into bed and stay there,’ Ruth said, but though she had clearly meant that to sound like punishment, the break in her voice implied only relief and concern. ‘And you will not go out of my sight again or I’ll lock you in the nursery.’
‘Well done, Hope. You averted a tragedy today,’ Baines said as Rose cleared away the supper things. Ruth had taken Rufus upstairs, and Albert had gone home, so they were alone in the servants’ hall. ‘I think it’s as well the young master is going away to school soon, he needs the company of other boys and some discipline.’
Hope hung her head. She had a strong feeling that Baines guessed she had more involvement with Rufus than she’d let on, and he was warning her it had to end.
‘There’s a storm brewing up,’ he said, getting to his feet and going over to the window. ‘I can feel the thunder in the air. Perhaps it’s as well – this heat has made us all somewhat irresponsible.’
Chapter Seven
1847
Hope was whipping egg whites at the kitchen table one morning in November when Martha returned to the kitchen after her usual weekly meeting with Lady Harvey about the meals for the forthcoming week.
‘The mistress will be going down to Sussex again tomorrow,’ Martha announced importantly.
Hope glanced up at this unexpected news. ‘Is her father poorly now?’
‘He’s never been right since his wife died,’ Martha said as if she knew him personally. ‘That poor man all alone in that vast mansion!’
Hope bit back a sarcastic remark. Martha was a decent enough woman, but Hope thought she ought to give her sympathy to those who really deserved it. Squire Dorville had a huge staff taking care of him and his estate, while less than a mile from here there were whole families living on a few shillings a week. They had a struggle to feed their children and could never afford to call a doctor when they were sick.
‘Did the mistress say if Nell was to go with her?’ Hope asked.
‘Of course she is, a lady doesn’t travel without her maid.’ Martha sniffed. ‘Not even here where standards are slipping a bit more every day.’
Hope didn’t ask any more questions for she found Martha’s superior attitude very irritating. Yet she was right with regard to the slipping standards at Briargate.
She hadn’t been here in the old days of course, when there were some fifteen servants, but in recent years, when anyone left, the remaining servants divided up that job between them. Martha was the only new member of staff, taken on to replace the old cook when she died.
When Rufus had gone off to school in Wells over a year ago, this situation, which they’d all accepted cheerfully enough because it wasn’t particularly onerous, suddenly deteriorated further. Within a month of Rufus leaving, Ruth departed in anger because she had been asked to become a maid of all work. James was dismissed when Sir William sold all but two of his horses, and Ruby left to get married.
Hope and Nell missed Ruth and James dreadfully, but they had to admit it had turned out for the best for their brother and sister. Ruth went to Bath as housekeeper to a widower with two daughters aged seven and nine, and within six months she was married to him.
He was a stonemason called John Pike, and although it seemed very sudden, Nell and Hope had visited Ruth twice since the wedding and found her to be very happy. John Pike was a kind and hard-working man with a very nice home, and his two daughters were thrilled to have a new mother. Just last week Ruth had written to say she was expecting a baby, which had delighted both Nell and Hope.
Sir William had secured James a new position as head groom at Littlecote Manor in Berkshire, perhaps because he felt guilty at being compelled to make cutbacks. Albert could take care of Merlin and Buttercup, the mare who pulled the trap; he had no reason to keep horses for the carriage when he could take the train from Bath to London.
Whatever reason the servants were given for the cutbacks, everyone knew the truth. Sir William was in serious financial difficulties. The London house had gone a few years earlier, and there had been a gradual decline in parties at Briargate since then. Nell said she could hardly remember what it was like to prepare for a big dinner party or even weekend guests.
Lady Harvey scrutinized the household accounts now. She suggested to Baines that maybe they didn’t need a fire in rooms that were seldom used and she shocked Martha by telling her she must cook simpler meals. On several occasions the wine merchant and the butcher had come to Briargate to demand settlement of the account, though Baines passed this off as mere oversight.
Lady Harvey’s melancholia wafted around the house, affecting them all. Nell claimed she was still grieving for her mother, and maybe she was, but she didn’t go out visiting or shopping any more and often stayed in bed all day.
Sir William didn’t seem to care what went on in the house. He was rarely home, and when he was he drank heavily and quarrelled with his wife.
Every one of the servants was too nervous about their own security to complain about the extra jobs they were expected to do now. Albert didn’t grumble that he’d lost Willy, his assistant, or that he now had grooming and driving duties too. Nell said nothing about being expected to clean the master’s and mistress’s bedrooms, and Hope bit her tongue when she was ordered to empty slop pails, carry bath water and do the bulk of the household laundry.
But it was loyal and long-suffering Baines who bore the brunt of the cutbacks. He had always acted as Sir William’s valet, lit fires and cleaned shoes. But now he was filling in everywhere – maintenance jobs around the house, even sweeping the stable yard and polishing the brass on the front door when no one else could find time for it.
As a result of all the extra duties, Hope no longer lived in the gatehouse with Nell and Albert. She had Ruth’s old room up in the attic, and though she had to work far harder now, at least when she was done for the day she didn’t have to put up with Albert’s sullen silence or his disapproving looks.
She missed Ruth and James, but she missed Rufus far more. After his accident in the pond there had been a special kind of bond between them. As the days of his departure for school grew closer and closer, Baines and Ruth had allowed her to spend much of the day with him. They did jigsaw puzzles up in the nursery, played cards and invented dozens of different guessing games. She could tell he was worried about going away to school; he would scowl at the shiny new trunk in the corner of the nursery that Ruth was gradually filling with clothes, and told her he would run away if he didn’t like it. But Hope kept telling him that all the new boys would be just the same as him and he’d soon make friends, then she’d distract him with a new game.
Lady Harvey still wasn’t back when he had to leave, but his father returned to take him in the trap. Everyone went out to the drive to wave him off, and there were tears in all their eyes as he bravely shouted his goodbyes and pretended he was happy to go.
Hope expected that he’d be influenced by his new friends and that when he came home for the holidays, he wouldn’t want a kitchenmaid for a companion. But she was wrong; as soon as he got back to Briargate he always came straight down to the kitchen to find her. Nell and Baines took the line that it was better for Rufus to be in the kitchen or going for a walk with Hope than seeing his father drunk, his mother weeping, or hearing the pair of them squabbling.
Nell would often sigh and recall the happy times when Rufus was still a baby. Sir William might have been away a great deal at that time, but when he was here he and Lady Harvey played together with their son, and the master never locked himself away in his study to drink.
Often now when he was reeling drunk, he’d go looking for Lady Harvey and pick a fight with her. Rose claimed she must have had to clear up broken china or glasses a score of times after he’d been on the rampage.
‘Those egg whites will collapse if you beat them any more!’ Martha exclaimed, bringing Hope out of her reverie.
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t notice,’ Hope replied, and handed the bowl over to the cook for the dessert she was making. ‘I wonder how long Lady Harvey will be gone this time.’
Martha shrugged. ‘Who knows? She’d better be back for Christmas, Master Rufus won’t like it if she isn’t. And let’s hope Albert can get into Bath tomorrow, the roads will be treacherous.’
There had been heavy rain throughout September and October, and now there were hard frosts every night. It had been a poor harvest this year and if it was a very cold winter too, everyone knew there would be great suffering in the surrounding villages. Even Matt was struggling now. His father-in-law had died the previous year, and with a wife, her one still unmarried sister and his mother-in-law to keep, along with three children of his own, he had a job to keep his head above water.
From time to time Hope thought of trying to find a position in Bristol or Bath, for her life here was nothing but work and more work, with no company of her own age. James would write and describe the harvest suppers and the Christmas party the servants had at Littlecote and it sounded so much fun to be in a big household.
But Baines had advised her against leaving until she was a skilled enough cook to apply for a position in that capacity, for most kitchenmaids got treated far more harshly than she was. So she watched Martha very carefully, asked questions about anything she didn’t understand, volunteered to make some of the dishes herself and jotted down the trickier recipes Martha used.
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.