Hope at Holly Cottage (8 page)

‘Not much to tell.’ Ethel paused for a minute while the woman brought the tray of steaming tea and hot mince pies. ‘Nort’s ’appened really. Bert an’ me is still going strong. I really thinks I loves ’en,’ she admitted coyly. ‘An ’e says ’e loves me, too. I knows it’s a bit early to say, an’ we’ve no money to set up ’ome as yet, but I feels certain there be a future for us.’

‘Oh, that’s wonderful!’ Anna cried, thrusting aside a little prick of envy. ‘Will you be able to be together over Christmas?’

‘We’ve agreed to ’ave Christmas dinner with our own families, but see each other after that. You knows Bert only lives a few minutes away, so there’s no problem.’ Ethel bit lustily into her mince pie and noisily savoured the taste. ‘What about you?’

‘Oh, all time off is cancelled over Christmas,’ Anna scoffed. ‘Sir Gilbert, Lady Ashcroft’s son, that is, arrived about a week ago and he’ll be staying until well into the
new year. Lady Ashcroft has invited some friends of hers. And also some distant cousin with his wife and entire family. There’ll be nine adult guests and a toddler. So we’re going to have our work cut out. I’m dreading it, to be honest.’

‘Oh dear, Annie, that don’t sound like much fun.’

Anna gave a rueful sigh. ‘I don’t suppose it will be. Mrs Davenport’ll be in a dreadful temper, bossing me about and expecting me to do a dozen things at once. I’ll be run ragged. Still …’ she paused, her face brightening, ‘at least Sir Gilbert’s very nice. He talks to me sometimes. I told him the other day how I’d been doing my A levels but had to leave school when Mum … when Mum …’

Whether it was chatting to Ethel again, Anna wasn’t sure, but sorrow suddenly gripped her throat again and, for a split second, she thought she might start to cry. But she really mustn’t when Ethel had been good enough to come all that way and make such an early start. So she managed to swallow down the feeling and smile wanly at Ethel’s concerned face.

‘Anyway,’ she went on, shaking her head, ‘Sir Gilbert said I could borrow any books I wanted from the library. Yes, the Hall has its own library! Mind you, I overheard Lady Ashcroft telling him afterwards not to fraternise with the staff.’

‘Golly, she sounds a right old whatnot!’

‘No, she’s not that bad, really. I feel sorry for her in a way. She seems very lonely to me.’

‘Not surprising if she won’t even let her son talk to you.’

‘Well, there you are.’ Anna sighed, pushing aside her empty cup. ‘Pity, though.’

Ethel raised a teasing eyebrow. ‘Likes ’en, does you, this Sir Gilbert? An’ mortal handsome, I suppose?’

‘Oh, well, he is rather nice,’ Anna stammered, feeling herself flush. ‘I just enjoy having a few moments of proper conversation instead of being ordered about all the time. Still, never mind. It won’t be for long. Even if I buy a bicycle, I reckon in about six months I’ll have saved enough to be able to move on. Rent somewhere of my own and get a more suitable job. In an office or something. I could learn shorthand and typing at evening classes and still become a proper secretary. Which … reminds me.’ She hesitated as the old fears came crashing down around her again. ‘Do you … do you see my dad at all?’

She noticed a shuttered look come over Ethel’s face.

‘Oh, we sees ’en going to an’ from work sometimes,’ she muttered evasively.

‘He’s still in work, then?’

‘Seems so. Maybe you leaving brought ’en to ’is senses, like.’

‘Nothing … happened, then, when he found I’d gone?’

Ethel pushed forward her bottom lip and shrugged. ‘No,’ she lied convincingly, feeling as if she was back at school and talking her way out of some mischief she’d been up to. ‘But my mum saw your last letter arrive, so Mum and Dad knows I knows where you’m be. An’ they wanted to know where I was going today.’

Anna drew in a breath. ‘I suppose they’d have had to find out sometime.’

‘Yes. But no matter.’ Ethel suddenly pushed back her chair and got to her feet. ‘You can show me around this yere Princetown an’ tell me all about this Sir Gilbert fellow. Unattached, is ’e?’

‘Oh!’ Anna looked up in surprise from taking somef coins
out of her purse. ‘Do you know, I’ve no idea.’

‘Maybe you’m in with a chance, then,’ Ethel winked.

Anna blinked at her in amazement. The idea was preposterous. And as she realised Ethel was teasing her, the pair of them fell about with laughter as they left the café.

‘My goodness, these have kept well,’ Sir Gilbert observed appreciatively.

As Anna had entered the drawing room entrusted with the task of delivering the tray set with afternoon tea, Sir Gilbert had caught her eye as he lounged in an armchair by the blazing fire. One leg was crossed casually over the opposite knee, and without bothering to move the rest of his body, he had reached out and deftly swiped a scone from the passing plate.

‘Mmm, they taste freshly baked,’ he continued, evidently relishing the next mouthful.

Anna gave a little shiver of pleasure. She had been rushed off her feet over Christmas and the New Year, with never a word of thanks from anyone, and nothing but scolding from Mrs Davenport. And the house guests had treated her as invisible – except when they had wanted her to run some errand, of course! For two pins she would have walked out if
she’d had anywhere to go. Which she didn’t, of course. Only the odd kind word or secret, knowing wink from Sir Gilbert had kept her going.

It was the thought of those treasured, fleeting moments that filled her with courage now. ‘Oh, but they are, sir,’ she dared to reply even in Lady Ashcroft’s presence. ‘I made them myself this afternoon.’

‘Really?’ Sir Gilbert’s eyebrows lifted. ‘When you’ve so much to do with Mrs D in bed with flu? Well, I reckon they’re up to Mrs D’s standards, wouldn’t you agree, Mother? You’ve done so well, Anna, and worked so hard with all our guests that I think you should have some time off, even if we are a man down on the staff, so to speak.’

‘Really, Gilbert, that is just the time—’

‘Oh, come, Mother!’ he interrupted persuasively. ‘Poor girl looks quite exhausted. Tomorrow afternoon, instead of preparing some ridiculous evening meal we can easily do without, Anna must have a few hours to herself.’

Oh, good Lord. Anna could feel her cheeks turn pink. ‘Oh, but, sir …’ she stuttered, hot with embarrassment.

‘No, I insist. Surely we can survive on a cold evening meal for once? There must be enough cheese and cold meats and pickles left to feed us for weeks, if I know Mrs D. Isn’t that so, Anna?’

‘Oh, well, yes, I suppose there is,’ she mumbled, averting her eyes.

‘That’s settled, then,’ she heard Sir Gilbert declare since she dared not look at him again.

‘Will … will that be all for now, Lady Ashcroft?’ she asked the carpet.

‘Yes, child. We’ll ring when we wish you to clear. And I
must say that you do seem to be coping very well without Mrs Davenport. Well done, Anna.’

Well, that was praise indeed! Anna bobbed a half curtsey and scuttled out of the room. She closed the door quietly behind her and then stood for a moment to gather herself together. She felt all hot and flustered, and waited for the sensation to drain away. But in its place rose a warm contentment as her thoughts settled on Sir Gilbert and the attention he appeared to be paying her.

Three hours she was to have to herself.

After two weeks of working almost non-stop from the minute she rose at the crack of dawn to the moment she fell exhausted into bed at night, three hours seemed to stretch ahead like blissful eternity. Escape. It was the fourth of January and bitterly cold, but there was no question in her mind. Wrap up warm and go for a nice long walk on the moor.

The sky was heavy with iron-grey, slightly jaundiced clouds that raced overhead. The raw, angry wind bit into Anna’s face and she pulled her scarf up over her mouth and nose as she set off down the driveway. She must walk briskly, she decided, or she would surely freeze to a lump of ice. And she must also be careful. To walk alone on a remote part of the moor when the weather looked as if it could be closing in would be foolhardy. Already tiny pinpoints of white dust were being blown about in the air, scurrying in little swirling eddies where the wind caught them up against the stone walls that lined the roadside on that part of the moor. If it came on to snow properly, she might get lost, and so, reluctantly, she decided to keep to the road.

The one direction she hadn’t been in as yet was up towards Postbridge. She had heard it was quite a beauty spot, with the road crossing the East Dart on an old stone bridge, while just a few yards downstream, the river was also spanned by an ancient clapper bridge made of three granite slabs resting on stone pillars. It was known as a favourite spot for tourists to explore, enjoying their summer picnics on the grassy bank. It might not be quite so inviting today, but it was a suitable place for Anna to aim for, although she wasn’t at all sure she would get that far.

The road towards Princetown was now so familiar that she could walk along it blindfold. She dutifully kept to the right-hand verge facing the traffic, not that there was much on such a rotten day as this! The moor appeared at its bleakest, almost in monochrome, the bare twigs of hawthorn bushes and even the pine plantations black against the pewter sky. Even the hardy sheep and ponies seemed to have disappeared. Sheltering from the wind in hidden pockets or crouching against the stone walls if they had any sense!

Anna wondered if she wasn’t being a trifle silly to go out in such weather, but despite the blustering wind, she was enjoying her walk. Release, freedom, the sense of peace that always invaded her heart when she was on the moor, even, to her surprise, on such a wintry afternoon as this. The sense of being close to her mum, even though when she had been evacuated and her mum had come to visit her, there had never been enough time to go up on the moor together. And yet Anna felt so close to her there, as if her mum was floating in that great open sky above her, and was listening to every thought that passed through her head.

She was approaching the isolated hotel nestling beside the
river at Two Bridges, but instead of dropping down to the bridge, Anna turned sharp right onto the Moretonhampstead Road. The moor on her left swept up to stark tors or rocky outcrops, while to her right, it rolled far away into the distance. Anna found herself imagining what it must have been like to live up there in the days before cars and lorries, and when there were no telephone wires strung out across the open wastes to connect you to civilisation. You must have felt cut off from the rest of the world, Anna mused, and yet those stalwart people would have known nothing else. She even remembered seeing on her map the ruins of an old gunpowder factory not far from the road, with buildings and chimneys scattered along the Cherry Brook and across the hillside beyond.

Ashcroft Hall would probably have been different then, too, with far more servants at the beck and call of whoever had lived there. And without electricity, life as a servant would have been even more difficult with candles and lamps to light and keep clean. Would the servants have been completely downtrodden, or would there have been a kind master like Sir Gilbert?

Her heart began to dance a little waltz in her chest at the thought of those bright, teasing eyes and slow, languid smile. He was quite the most handsome young man she had ever seen, she was sure, and the most gentlemanly. He didn’t treat her as a servant to be bossed around like some sort of inferior being, but appreciated her hard work and wasn’t afraid to say so. In fact, if it hadn’t been for Sir Gilbert, Anna would have been thoroughly fed up and miserable!

He worked hard, too. Although he emerged from the study for morning coffee and afternoon tea, he was constantly on
the telephone or typing business letters. With two fingers, she chuckled to herself, from the slow, deliberate tapping she sometimes heard as she passed the door. If only she had already done her secretarial course, she could have offered to do it for him and then, who knew what might come of their relationship? But, oh dear, what a ridiculous thought. And yet …

She had been so absorbed in her ponderings, her head down against the gale, that she hadn’t realised that the snow was falling hard and fast now in large flakes rather than as powder, and was quickly settling on the ground. She looked up and a little gasp caught in her throat. She was engulfed in a driving curtain of white that raced past her in vicious shafts and stung her upturned face. And the vast, wild expanse of the moor was rapidly being obliterated from sight by a savage, blinding veil.

Anna stopped dead, and slowly turned around. What an idiot not to have noticed! She could see but ten yards ahead of her, and it was suddenly getting dark. And other than the howl of the wind, there was not another sound, no sign of life. She was all alone out on the moor in what was becoming a blizzard.

Oh, crikey. Her heart gripped in panic and began to beat painfully. Thank goodness she had kept to the road and could follow it back without too much trouble. But as she trudged along, the wind was whipping about her, determined to knock her over, it seemed. She was getting cold with an icy, nervous sweat down her back and her face turning numb. Perhaps if she thought of Ethel it might help. Her dear friend would be at work, of course, serving customers in the kitchenware department; china, glass and cutlery shining in
the bright lights of Dingles store. Later, Ethel, too, would have to find her way home, probably catching a bus through the dark streets. Anna imagined her opening her front door to a fug of smoke. Mabel would be standing in the kitchen in her curlers and slippers, cigarette drooping from her mouth as she stirred some greasy stew on the stove.

Anna’s own home would hardly be as welcoming. Her dad would return to an empty house, and Anna felt a pang of guilt. A need of those familiar surroundings. But she couldn’t go back. Not now. It would never be the same again. Her mum was dead, and her dad, well, who knew?

Oh, what were those four dazzling lights coming towards her through the gloom? She had better step up onto the grass verge if she didn’t want to be run over. Any driver out in this weather would be concentrating on peering through the lashing snow and wouldn’t be expecting to come across a pedestrian!

The vehicle crawled towards her. At each sweep of the wipers, the windscreen cleared but was at once splattered with snowflakes again. Anna stopped to wait for the car to pass, but all of a sudden, she recognised the long, sleek bonnet. Somehow she wasn’t surprised when the car drew to a halt beside her and the passenger door opened.

‘There you are!’ Sir Gilbert’s voice called as he leant over from the driver’s seat. ‘Thank goodness I found you! Hop in!’

Anna was overcome with relief. She jumped into the car without hesitation, her pulse racing now not with apprehension but with excitement! ‘Oh, thank you, sir! I didn’t realise I’d gone so far, and the snow started so suddenly. You didn’t come looking for me especially, did you?’

‘Of course I did,’ he smiled, putting the car into gear and smoothly moving forward. ‘When I heard you’d gone out in this, I had to, didn’t I?’

‘Oh, that’s terribly kind of you!’

‘Not at all. I felt responsible,’ he answered without turning his head as he concentrated on the road. ‘After all, I was the one who insisted you took the afternoon off.’

‘But I didn’t have to come out in this, did I? I’m sorry, sir.’

‘Don’t be,’ he replied lightly. ‘I’m grateful for any excuse to go for a spin. Now, let’s find somewhere to turn round.’

With the soft roof of the car in place, it felt really cosy. It was beautifully fitted out inside, and Anna could understand why Sir Gilbert was so proud of it.

‘It’s a lovely car,’ she said appreciatively as they headed back in the opposite direction. She knew absolutely nothing about cars, but it would please Sir Gilbert to show some interest. And how her heart ached for him to like her even more than he evidently did already!

‘Yes, she is,’ he agreed heartily, his voice brimming with pride. ‘A Jaguar XK120. So called because she can do a hundred and twenty miles per hour. Best money can buy in my opinion. It’s a privilege to own her.’

‘Well, then, I’m most privileged to be riding in her! I suppose it’s a bit like being rescued by a knight in shining armour on a big white horse, except it’s a gleaming sports car instead!’ Anna grinned back.

There was a second’s pause when Anna thought miserably that she had offended him, but then Sir Gilbert burst out laughing.

‘I’m flattered,’ he chuckled, slowing even further as they reached the junction. ‘Do you drive?’

‘Good Lord, no. Even my father doesn’t. People can’t afford cars where I come from. Oh! Shouldn’t we have gone the other way?’

‘To go home, yes. But if we go back, you’ll start working again and we can’t have that. So I thought I’d take you for afternoon tea at the Two Bridges Hotel.’

‘Oh.’ Anna was so stunned that for a moment or two she couldn’t think of anything else to say. Sir Gilbert Ashcroft taking her for tea at a hotel! ‘Oh, but … dressed like this? And I’m wearing my wellies—’

‘I’ve got your shoes in the boot.’

‘What?’ Anna gasped in bewilderment, not knowing what to think.

‘Well, once I realised what had happened, I thought it would be a shame to waste your afternoon off.’

Anna shook her head with a smile. He was a one, Sir Gilbert. Happiness, elation began to bubble up inside her as he parked the car in front of the hotel. She quickly changed into her shoes and then, as they struggled the few yards to the main entrance, Sir Gilbert protectively took her arm. As if she was his … his … Anna almost felt giddy as the exquisite thought sizzled through her mind.

Five minutes later, they were served tea on a silver tray. Anna couldn’t believe it. She was being treated as if
she
were the lady, the waitress nodding deferentially as she left them to it.

‘I bet those scones aren’t as good as yours,’ Sir Gilbert said in a low voice, and one of his merry eyes winked at her.

‘Oh, sir,’ she mumbled, flushing with embarrassment.

‘No, it’s true. You seem to be so good at everything, Anna. Far too good to be working as a servant in my mother’s
household. So why did you leave school to come and work here when you’re so intelligent? And do drop the “sir”, at least when we’re alone together.’

Anna was sure she blushed, but
Gilbert
was so relaxed and casual that she felt her confidence growing. She found herself telling him everything. Well, not quite
everything
. She didn’t relate her father’s part in her mum’s death, or his violent threats towards herself. She simply told him that her father had said it was time she went out to work, and that after the shock of her mum’s tragic death, she had felt the need to get away for a while, and this was the only way she could afford to do so.