Hope Read Online Free PDF Page B

village. She had visited Bath, Bristol and London now, been to mansions four times the size of Briargate, and, prompted by Mr Baines, she read the newspaper most days.
    She now understood why most working men felt aggrieved with the government. All the laws seemed to be made to protect the wealthy – only men of property could vote. The Corn Laws and the enclosing of common land squeezed the poor and forced many to leave the rural areas to go to the cities and try to find work. But the hardships these people had endured in their own villages were mild compared to the ones they found in cities. Overcrowding, filth, disease and desperate poverty forced men, women and children into crime, and the punishments if they were caught were incredibly harsh.
    Nell was also less inclined to put such implicit trust in her master and mistress since Bridie’s death from pneumonia just two years after Hope’s birth. She caught a chill through sitting up in the rain beside the coachman on the long ride home from London to Somerset. No one dared remark openly that it was less than gallant for both Sir William and one of his young male friends to be inside the coach with their ladies, while an elderly maid had to brave the elements outside. But Nell was deeply shocked by such callousness, and it made her realize that the gentry held no real affection for their servants; they saw them as mere packhorses who would be worked till they dropped and then replaced.
    Since Hope’s birth, Nell and Bridie had become very close, and Bridie had taught her many accomplishments to enable her to rise beyond being just a parlourmaid. Thanks to her, Nell knew how to dress hair in the latest fashions and to sew daintily, and had learned the skills needed to be a housekeeper. Bridie had also taught her how to deal with a mistress who relied on servants for everything, yet rarely acknowledged their value.
    Bridie’s death hit Nell very hard, and she wept when Lady Harvey told her that she’d left Nell her savings, almost twenty pounds, saying that Bridie had confided in her that she’d come to think of Nell as her daughter.
    Nell guessed that Bridie had used the word ‘daughter’ to convey the hidden message that the money was for Hope’s continuing care, and to charge Nell with keeping their secret for ever.
    Lady Harvey had never once spoken of the birth, at least not to Nell, but it was clear by a heavy sadness in her during the first two years that she thought about it often. She would rally herself when her husband was home, but as soon as he left again to attend to his business interests in London she would sink back down into grief.
    Nell expected that Bridie’s death would bring her low again – after all, the older woman had been with Lady Harvey throughout her life. But somewhat surprisingly it didn’t, and just after the funeral she asked Nell if she would like to be her personal maid.
    That was the one and only time Lady Harvey ever gave any indication that she remembered Nell’s part in the events of that night two years earlier. Even then she didn’t speak of it outright.
    ‘You are the only person who could take my dear Bridie’s place,’ she said, taking Nell’s hand in hers and squeezing it. ‘You have proved yourself to be as loyal as she was, and this is my only way of showing my appreciation.’
    As Bridie’s death had made Nell look at her mistress with some cynicism, her first thought was that this was mere self-interest rather than a reward. But it was a step up the ladder, and in her first year as a lady’s maid she travelled widely.
    On her first trip to London, as the coach trundled through the city, Nell saw for herself how much worse it was to be poor there than back in Somerset. Hordes of ragged, barefoot children, their faces pinched with hunger and cold, thronged the filthy streets. She saw cold-eyed hussies with most of their breasts exposed standing around on street corners, and guessed at their occupation.