followed her into the large kitchen. Furnished with a huge dresser, the shelves of which were crammed with china, glass and pans, also a long pine table and chairs, a black cooking range, several painted cupboards and chests of drawers, it was as clean as a new pin, the red tiles on the floor polished and gleaming.
‘Your kitchen is spotless,’ Madeline said. ‘You must work hard to keep it so clean.’
‘I have some help, but Bess is away at the moment. Her mother took sick and she asked me to let her go until the good lady recovers.’
‘I should be glad to stand in for her,’ Sally said at once. ‘I can scrub floors and wash dishes, Mrs Jenkins. I’ll be glad to earn my keep—and Thomas will help your husband in the yard, if he would be of use.’
‘Well, bless you, my love,’ the kind woman said. ‘I won’t say no to a bit of a hand now and then, Sally. I shan’t take advantage, but an offer of help now and then won’t be refused.’
‘I can help, too,’ Madeline said, but Hattie shook her head.
‘Now that you won’t, my dove—leastwise, not with the rough work. We don’t want to spoil your pretty hands. I might find you a bit of sewing, if you need employment. I never find the time for it and you always did set a neat stitch.’
‘That is why I thought I might earn my living with my needle,’ Madeline said. ‘I must do something after all.’
‘But why?’ Hattie asked, looking puzzled. ‘You’ve run away from your husband, I know, for the message your groom sent me told me so—but surely you have a little money of your own? Did neither the count nor your father settle anything on you when you married?’
‘You do not know what happened after you left us,’ Madeline said. ‘I did not tell you when I wrote for there was nothing anyone could do—Papa lost everything to Lethbridge at the card tables and I was forced to accept him. My father made no settlement himself, for he could not, and the money Grandfather left me went to Lethbridge. It was meant to be my pin money, but my husband gave me only a few guineas when he felt like it. I do not know what happened to the capital, though I think it was put in a trust in my name.’
‘Cry shame on him,’ Hattie said in high disgust. ‘How could he treat you so ill? It is no wonder that you left him.’
‘You do not know the half of it,’ Madeline said. ‘I shall tell you later when we have a little time to talk.’
‘I’ll take you up to your rooms,’ Hattie said. She looked at Sally. ‘You’ll be next to your mistress—and your man can sleep over the stables for the moment. If you would care for it, you’ll find the things for making tea on the dresser. We’ll be down again by the time you’ve boiled the kettle.’
She took Madeline by the arm and steered her from the welcoming kitchen up a wide staircase to the landing above and then led the way to the end of the right-hand passage. Opening the door, she ushered Madeline inside a neat, pretty room furnished in cool colours of blues and greens with a dash of white.
‘It isn’t quite what you’re used to, Maddie, but it will do until we can sort you out,’ she said. ‘So tell me why you decided to leave him. Something must have happened.’
‘Yes, it did,’ Madeline said and described the last scene with her husband.
Hattie listened in silence, saying nothing, but shaking her head sorrowfully from time to time. ‘I never heard such wickedness in my life,’ she said when Madeline had finished. ‘The man deserves to be flayed alive, so he does. Any decent man would take a horsewhip to him for his treatment of you. Well, if he comes looking for you, my Bert will see him off.’
‘I do not think he will know where to look. I never told him where you lived, but of course my father might do so, for he may guess where I have gone.’
‘Surely he would not? Knowing what that man did to you he could not wish you to return to him.’
‘I hope that he would not, but I would rather he did not know where I am, at least until I am ready to move on.’
‘Is there no one to help you, Maddie?’
She hesitated, then sighed. ‘I believed there was, but I wrote to him and he did not come. I fear he may have been wounded or killed...’ A tear ran down her cheek. ‘Otherwise...he would have come for me, I am sure.’
‘Well, perhaps he was prevented by some circumstance you know naught of,’ Hattie said in a practical tone. ‘Does he know where to find you?’
‘No, for we thought it best to tell no one. Thomas is to return his brother’s chaise in a few days and he will try once more to contact Major Ravenscar.’
Hattie stared at her for a moment, looking surprised. ‘Would that be the Honourable Mr William Ravenscar’s son by any chance? My Bertie speaks of Major Ravenscar highly. He says that if he’d been in England at the time, his father would never have got in with a bad crowd and lost his money at the tables.’
‘Oh!’ Madeline stared at her. ‘Does the family own an estate near here? I had not realised.’
‘It is not the family estate—for that is nearer Hampshire, so Bertie tells me—but the house and land in Fenstanton came to the major through his mother. It is not a large place, but a pleasant family house and some acres of land.’
‘I did not know.’ She bit her lip. ‘Does Hal come down often?’
‘He was here a few weeks back, just before his cousin Captain Miller was married. He was talking to my Bertie about the possibility of selling the place. His father’s estate is mortgaged to the hilt and he thought selling Highgroves Hall might help pay the debts.’
‘Oh, I see. Has it been sold yet?’
‘No, for my Bertie advised him against letting it go. He thinks the major would be better off selling his father’s property and settling here. It’s good fertile land and the house is sound. Only needs a spring clean to make it a lovely family home... It’s about the same size as this house and Bertie said he would buy it if he had a son, but we’ve no children yet and it looks as if we shall not.’
‘I am sorry to hear that,’ Madeline said. ‘I know what a sadness that is. I felt I could have borne my marriage more easily had I had a child.’
‘You are still young,’ Hattie said. ‘We married late, but Bertie has a nephew who will inherit this place. He is still considering buying Highgroves, but isn’t sure whether it would be of use to him, because it is a bit too far from us to make it viable. Besides, the major said he would consider taking Bertie’s advice and keeping it rather than his late father’s estate.’
‘Then perhaps he will come again soon,’ Madeline said, praying that he was still alive. If he came down to visit his mother’s estate, he might learn where she was staying and then surely he would call on her? Even if he no longer wished to marry her, he might know someone who would give her a position as a companion or a seamstress. She desperately wanted to see him again to know that he was alive and unharmed.
‘I’ll leave you to tidy yourself,’ Hattie said. ‘The kettle will be boiling so come down when you’re ready.’
‘Yes, of course.’
Left
