Free Deborah Goes to Dover by MC Beaton Page B

must not,’ said Hannah firmly. ‘Only think. She might send another letter ahead to say that you are pining to see Mr Clegg or some such thing. People do not like to be crossed, particularly matchmaking mamas once their minds are made up.’
    ‘You have given me hope,’ said Abigail.
    Hannah felt a stab of conscience. Abigail’s eyes were full of admiration. But the idea had been Benjamin’s. But were she to tell Abigail that, Abigail might decide it to be a disastrous plan. In straitened circumstances she might be, yet she still belonged to a class who considered servants had no brains to speak of.
    ‘And now I think we should both get some sleep,’ Hannah affected a yawn. She wanted to make sure Benjamin had written that note to the earl.
    ‘You are so lucky to have a footman,’ said Abigail wistfully. ‘We had two, then one, then none. It doeslower one’s consequence so dreadfully not to have a footman. But I am surprised your maid does not travel with you.’
    ‘Got the cold,’ said Hannah.
    Abigail rose and look her leave. Hannah went through to Benjamin’s bedchamber. He said he was just finishing the note. Hannah retired satisfied. She had done all she could do. Benjamin was a good lad, and better than that, he was a footman.
    People set more store by footmen than they did by maîtres d’hôtel, house stewards, masters of the horse, grooms of the chamber, valets, butlers, under-butlers, clerks of the kitchen, confectioners, cooks or any other of the miscellaneous assortment of servants that usually graces a large establishment. For footmen were definitely the lotus eaters of the servant class. Hannah’s admonitions to Benjamin that a footman’s duties included humble housewifery reflected on her own skills as a first-class housekeeper. Once the butler had gone, along with some other servants who were never replaced, Hannah had had the management of the footmen at Thornton Hall and had made sure they did their fair share of the work. But in grand households, footmen were there simply as a reflection of the wealth of the master. They were chosen as carefully as horses, for height, strength and appearance. The other servants on their time off dressed like ordinary civilians, but footmen hardly ever put off their grand livery, usually being as proud as peacocks and preferring to strut the streets in the glory of plush breeches, braided coat and powdered hair, ratherthan stoop to dressing like ordinary mortals. A lady with a footman in attendance, Hannah knew, made people think that she must come from a household full of servants, for in hard times, the gorgeous footmen were the first to go.
    Before Hannah finally went to sleep, she wondered uneasily whether Lady Carsey planned any attack and hoped the Earl of Ashton could get the irrepressible twins off the stage-coach before they ran into danger.
     
    Lady Carsey, lying in bed in one of the Langfords’ guest bedchambers, was not asleep. She had felt fate was looking after her by sending that horrible Pym woman and Benjamin into her reach. As the earl had correctly guessed, she had no intention of mounting any attack herself. Men would have to be hired. But then, there was the question of money.
    Like most landowners who managed their estates badly, Lady Carsey could not understand why she was suddenly short of money. She employed an agent, and when she needed money, it was the agent’s duty to screw even more money out of the tenants. Not being in the slightest interested in the welfare of her tenants or in any agriculture whatsoever, it was enough for Lady Carsey when she rode out on her estates to think that all the land as far as she could see was hers. She did not care whether the land was growing gorse or grass, wheat or weeds. To a practised eye, the condition of her estates would spell ruin. There was the worn-out character of the soil, thepoverty-stricken appearance of the tenants, and the dilapidated state of the farm buildings. The hedges