Hope by Lesley Pearse Read Free Book Online Page B

you?’
    ‘Hope Renton,’ she replied without any hesitation. ‘I came to see the roses, but there aren’t any.’
    Nell rushed over and grabbed Hope’s hand. Lady Harvey had gone in and closed the door behind her. ‘I’m sorry, sir,’ she said.
    ‘No need to apologize for a polite child.’ His voice was deep but it held a hint of laughter at her embarrassment.
    Nell looked into his handsome smiling face and blanched. His almost black eyes and hair were identical to Hope’s and she was so shocked that she could only stare at him open-mouthed.
    ‘You must be a sister of the young groom who took my horse,’ he said with an easy smile. ‘You are very alike.’
    Nell pulled herself together rapidly. ‘Yes, sir, that’s James. I’m Nell, Lady Harvey’s maid,’ she managed to get out. ‘I’ll tell James to bring your horse round for you.’
    Nell ran off then, holding Hope securely by the hand.
    After telling James to take the gentleman’s horse round to him, Nell said goodbye to the children and warned them to go straight home. She stayed at the stile by the paddock waving to them for some little while because she didn’t dare go back into the house while she was so shaken.
    She hadn’t ever allowed herself to wonder about Hope’s father, just as she didn’t look for similarities between her mistress and the child. She had decided long ago that it was better never to think about such things.
    There were many male visitors at Briargate; some came with wives, sisters or even mothers, and some alone if they were friends of Sir William. But Nell had never seen anyone that looked remotely like Hope, and she’d never expected to. After all, a man who had done that to her mistress wasn’t likely to be welcome here.
    Yet the underhand way Lady Harvey showed this gentleman out was almost proof of intrigue, for why hadn’t she called Rose? And what was she doing having gentlemen callers anyway when her husband was out?
    What if the man had recognized himself in Hope? If Nell could see the similarity, surely anyone could?
    Nell went up to the nursery a little later to see Ruth, so befuddled that she forgot her ladyship was often in the nursery at this time of day.
    ‘Ruth was just telling me that your young brothers and sister came back with you this afternoon,’ she said pleasantly.
    ‘I’m sorry, m’lady,’ Nell replied. ‘I should have asked if it was all right for me to bring them here.’
    ‘Nonsense, you don’t need my permission for them to see their brother and sister.’ Lady Harvey lifted Rufus on to her lap and began bouncing him up and down. ‘I wish I’d seen them too, and I’m sure Rufus would have enjoyed a visit. He could do with some little playmates.’
    The nursery was the place where Lady Harvey was always at her most relaxed, and she welcomed Nell coming in there too, saying she had never liked the idea of small children being cloistered away from people. Nell wished she hadn’t come in now, but she could hardly leave immediately without it looking suspicious, so she bent down to pick up some building blocks off the floor.
    Nell felt relieved that her mistress looked perfectly normal. She wasn’t flushed or excited, and she was wearing a plain, dove-grey gown which was entirely suitable for a mother, but hardly the kind of dress a woman would choose to wear to meet a lover. Her hair was still as neatly pinned up as it had been this morning when Nell fixed it for her. So maybe she was wrong about the man?
    ‘We wouldn’t dare bring our brothers up here to meet Rufus,’ Nell ventured, trying very hard to act and speak normally. ‘They are too rough for a little gentleman like him.’
    Rufus looked like a little girl with his long blond curls, blue eyes and the customary long baby dress. Only a few days ago Nell had heard Sir William saying he thought that at three it was time his son was put in breeches, but so far Lady Harvey hadn’t instructed Ruth to do so.
    ‘But your