Free Hope by Lesley Pearse Page B

that was more normal.
    So putting it all together with bits Hope had learned about breeding from farm animals, she realized that this was what humans got married for, and the result was babies.
    Later, when she danced with her father, who was already staggering with drink, he’d said he hoped he wouldn’t be too old to dance at her wedding.
    ‘I won’t get married,’ she said firmly. ‘No one is going to do that to me.’
    Three months after Nell’s wedding, Matt married Amy. It was the week before Christmas, in the church at Publow, the next village. Fred Merchant, Amy’s father, had welcomed Matt into his family with open arms for he’d always wanted a son to pass the farm on to. Everyone in the village believed Matt was made for life.
    Once again Hope saw her mother cry at the service and her parents get tipsy, but she had the feeling that they were far happier about Matt marrying Amy than they had been about Nell and Albert. She had never once heard her father ask Matt if he was sure about it, the way he had with Nell. And she’d seen her mother embrace Amy dozens of times, exactly the way she did all her own children.
    Hope didn’t like Albert. He had a way of looking at people as if they had a bad smell about them, and he hardly ever spoke. Nell had said in his defence that he was just shy and he was talkative to her. That might be so, but Hope couldn’t understand why that would make Nell change. She never came home on her afternoon off now; the family only ever saw her at church on Sundays with Albert. Every time Hope came back from Briargate after playing with Rufus, her mother always questioned her about Nell.
    ‘Is she looking well? Did she say anything about Albert? When is she coming home next?’
    Hope could only ever tell the truth, that her sister looked just the same as she’d always done; that no, she didn’t say anything about Albert, and that Nell said she couldn’t come on her afternoons off now she had a home of her own to take care of.
    Ruth and James always came home when they had the afternoon off. They said they thought Nell should have more time now she was married because Lady Harvey let her go earlier in the day, and when she went out without Nell, she sent her home.
    Hope once heard Ruth say Albert was a tyrant, but her mother had put a warning finger to her lips to stop her from saying any more.
    Hope had asked the Reverend Gosling what a tyrant was, and he said it was a man who forced his will on to others.
    In the spring of ’41, Hope was up in the day nursery at Briargate playing chequers in front of the fire with Rufus when Lady Harvey came in with another lady.
    Rufus was good at chequers, so Hope didn’t have to let him win sometimes to appease him. He’d won the last two games and at the point when Lady Harvey came in, Hope was concentrating hard on the new game so she could beat him.
    Ruth leapt to her feet as she always did when anyone came into the nursery and began tidying away a puzzle they’d been doing earlier. ‘Rufus!’ Lady Harvey said. ‘I want you to meet Miss Bird, she’s going to be your governess and teach you to read and write.’
    Rufus remained kneeling on the hearthrug and looked up at the tall, stern-faced lady in a grey dress and bonnet. ‘Hope is teaching me to read and write,’ he said dismissively.
    Hope’s favourite game was ‘school’ and she had already managed to teach Rufus all the letters of the alphabet, and to read some simple three-letter words.
    ‘Don’t be so rude, Rufus, and how many times have I told you a gentleman always stands up when a lady enters the room?’
    ‘I’m sorry, Mama,’ he said, and reluctantly got up.
    Hope thought she’d better get up too, and she followed Ruth’s example by helping to pick up the puzzle pieces.
    Lady Harvey explained to the visitor that Hope was her maid’s younger sister, and she came to play with her son once a week. She then went on to tell Rufus that Miss Bird would be giving