Prue Phillipson - Hordens of Horden Hall (24 page)

It was the longest speech she had heard him make and she wanted to laugh in his face, but this was no laughing matter. “This, William, is my home. This is where I live with my father. I’d be wretched in London. If he needs any help managing this place
I
will do it. He told me himself Robert didn’t do things the way he wanted. I can learn all about the farms and the crops and the leases. I
know
the tenants. I can see my life ahead now and it’s good.” She was bubbling suddenly with excitement. Ursula had come to her. Everything now was possible. She had a goal in life. Maybe if she could do some good here the black cloud, made blacker still today, could lift at last. She would help the poor, she would ...

William was looking away, embarrassed. His father and mother were both talking at once.

Bel wanted to walk out and leave them to it but instead she moved away from them and sat down on the couch below the window and folded her arms.

To her annoyance Clifford followed her and took a seat beside her. “Arabella, you are a child –”

“Far too young to marry, then,” she snapped at him.

“I was about to say ‘a child in these matters’.” He was exuding an air of strained patience. “I can put this estate on a firm foundation. It is burdened with debt largely because of the Scots occupation. The farms have been plundered and the tenants cannot pay their rents. We hope the situation in the country will now settle down. The King is making concessions to the Edinburgh Parliament which we trust will bring lasting peace. Now all that remains is for our lawyers to approve the final settlement, so that you and William can marry in the spring. A six month interval after this tragedy is all that is necessary. Then the two families will be happily united.”

Bel was fighting tears. “Robert didn’t want you meddling in his inheritance,” she burst out, thinking of how he had sat on the clothes chest in her room, one of the few times he had been pleased with her. Her only ally in fact. How alive he had been! She knew she could never grieve deeply for him, but this sudden snatching him away from her life was a fearsome shock. She stood up, afraid that she would give way to sobs. They were all looking at her. She choked out, “Can you not let us alone to get over this? William doesn’t want marriage and neither do I.”

“But William will do as he is told,” Clifford Horden said as she fled to the door.

She heard Celia exclaim, “Oh Cliff, she is upset,” and then she was running up to her room, determined to come down no more that day.

Nurse came to seek her eventually and said Adam had ridden to Newcastle with her father’s letters to speed them on their way. “Sir John is too worn out to sit at dinner, but he said you should go down.”

“Oh Nan, I can’t. Let me see if Ursula is still asleep and if she is hungry let me take another bowl of that beef broth to her and have some myself. The cousins speak of nothing but my marrying William and I can’t stand it.”

Nurse shrugged her shoulders. “You’ll come round to the marrying business, but they shouldn’t press it now. Well, slip down the back stair and take two bowls up. There’s the doctor come to see how poor Mr Robert died – as if it wasn’t plain to everyone his head hit the statue and his neck broke. But it’s for the coroner I suppose. Your father never liked that statue. I was here when it was put up, you know. I thought it a grand thing, though the likeness to Sir Ralph was not so good.” She went out still talking to herself.

She has seen so much of our history, Bel thought, births, deaths and marriages. What is one more death in the catalogue of the past?

Ursula was still deeply asleep so Bel finished both the bowls, returned them to the kitchen and took a mug of ale and some oatcakes up to the attic and left them by Ursula’s bed. Not much later she put herself to bed but sleep was far from her until the early hours of the morning.

When she rose next day she found out that Ursula had been up in the early morning and had found the wood basket and the coal store and had cleared and relaid the hearths downstairs, swept the kitchen floor, lit the fire there and boiled the big kettle before either Mary, Tom or Adam were up.

Nurse went to inform Sir John of this when he appeared, white and haggard, before noon and she told Bel afterwards what had passed. “I said to your father, ‘We know nothing of her, sir, except she has a face nobody would want to look at, but if you’ll keep her on she could be a godsend, especially as Mary will want to leave soon to wed that Turner lad.”

Mary and Sam! Bel thought with a bitter pang. Of course, why would they not wed? He is a fine young farmer’s son and she is a capable pretty girl from the village. They have no hateful baggage round their necks, no dowries, no settlements, no estates, no lawyers and they are attracted to each other. How sweet and right and simple that is! Marriage is in the air. All I have to do is follow suit.

“What did my father say?” she asked Nurse.

“Eh well, he’s not saying much at all, but he waved his hand at me and nodded so I reckon he’s leaving it to me to decide. Poor soul, I suppose her family cast her off when they took a look at her. But if she can cook too, I’ll be happy. All this work is not how I expected to live out my last years.. Will there be many mouths to feed after the funeral, do you reckon?”

“I don’t know, Nan. I don’t know what’s proper. We’ll have to let all the tenants drink at The Crossed Swords I suppose.” Overjoyed though she was at Nurse’s acceptance of Ursula she was exasperated by her question. Is father so helpless now that I must be in charge as the mistress of the house but at the same time I am still a girl who must do as I am told?

But it was her father, despite his brittle state, who gave orders for the funeral. Though there were to be hangings at the windows and yards of black ribbons on the horses and two hired carriages, the trestle tables were not to be laid out in the medieval hall for the tenant farmers and their families to be feasted. As she had supposed, some money was distributed after the service of burial for the mourners to go to the inn, but her father was not prepared to go any deeper into debt, so it was only the Hordens and the vicar of the parish who were to dine afterwards.

Small as the numbers were, several courses were prepared in the kitchen and Sam was there in his livery to help Mary serve. Bel took note of their glances as she watched them lay out the best silver she had herself polished and it was obvious that they were in complete accord. She would have tormented herself watching them during the meal but her father, having asked the vicar to say grace and waited till the first dish had been served, sent the servants out.

“We will call you when we require your services.”

As soon as the door was shut he declared, “I have to tell you that when Adam took my letters to Newcastle a ship had just come in with letters for me from France. Knowing they were likely to contain only frivolities I couldn’t bear to look at them but I resolved to do so when I had said farewell to my son.” His voice shook and he took a sip of wine and continued. “I find they do in fact contain news which ought to lift our spirits. My daughter Henrietta is with child. Let us toast the unborn infant and pray for a safe delivery which is expected in early March.”

Amid the exclamations of congratulation from the others Bel sipped her wine and studied her father’s face to see if he was taking comfort from the prospect of a grandchild. It was hard to tell, so drawn and pale he still appeared. Her own mind was busy with speculation. How did this affect her situation? Surely it would lift the pressure to marry William. There would be a direct heir.

Clifford seemed to have read her thoughts. “We thank God for this, John, and will pray for a son, but of course he will be brought up a young French nobleman. It is most unlikely he would ever come to England to manage this property.”

Her father drew a sharp breath and winced. He laid his hand momentarily against his left side. Bel watched him in alarm.“You are no doubt right, Cousin,” he said huskily. “And I know too well the fragility of infants. Maria and I lost two sons.”

Celia cried out, “And our William is the sole survivor of our four. Three girls succumbed to sickness.”

In healthy London? Bel itched to say.

Celia reached a hand to her across the table. “This is why I long for a daughter.”

Bel stared down at the table cloth. What wretched suffering lies ahead for married women, she was thinking. They become bloated creatures, they give birth in pain and like as not their child is dead or lives a while only to be taken from them. I had rather die an old maid than go through such torment. She began to feel very sorry for Henrietta.

The vicar now intervened. “Alas, our thoughts are morbid, after today’s sad ceremony. Let us rather rejoice in the glad tidings of a new life. I am sure, Sir John, that your daughter, who I remember as a fine strong young lady, will have the best care. No doubt you will be making a journey to France in the spring as she and Lady Horden will not be risking a sea voyage themselves.”

Bel saw her father smile wistfully. “I cannot look so far into the future.” He clapped his hands for Mary and Sam to clear the dishes and bring the leg of mutton. Bel saw it had been dressed with fresh mint just as Ursula presented it at Cranmore House when they had meat on Sundays. She was sure the dear soul was very busy, but keeping in the background behind her newly-made bonnet.

The presence of the vicar kept the talk from the marriage controversy, but when it turned to the political situation it seemed unlikely to be any more harmonious.

Clifford was certainly in favour of Parliament and what he called ‘our precious English liberties’ while her father and the vicar spoke up for their duty to the King.

Celia raised her hands in mock despair. “Oh if the men are going to speak of these things, Arabella, we shall have no peace” but as Bel would give her no help she was unable to make any other conversation on her own. William of course said nothing but he ate well, especially of a handsome apple pie that was brought in.

Bel wondered if plans had been made for their leaving, now that the funeral was over. Her fear that the marriage negotiations would break out again, despite the news from France, spoilt her appetite when she would have loved to match William mouthful for mouthful.

It was the next day that her father sent for her to his study in the middle of the morning and she thought, this is the moment. I am once more to be told my duty and will have to hurt and disappoint him all over again.

She stood warily before him and he said, “It is time I saw the new maid. Nurse speaks well of her. Will you bring her to me?”

She almost skipped with relief. “Oh yes, Father, at once.” And off she ran to find Ursula who put on a clean apron and adjusted her bonnet.

“Will I do, Bel?” She was calm and composed. In the study she bobbed very low and with eyes down waited to be spoken to.

“Look at me,” he said and she lifted her face. He studied it a moment with knitted brows. “Can you speak?”

“Oh yes, sir. But I try to keep away from long words.”

“What was your position at Cranmore House?”

“I did what I was asked. The Mistress took me in off the streets when she started the school. I can cook, clean, make fires, do the beds. I can read if it’s writ large and write a little.”

“My daughter is very fond of you. I am ashamed at the way you were treated when you came here.”

Then Ursula became her animated self, “Oh sir, I am ashamed at how I looked that I provoked your son. It is terrible what happened and I am so very, very sorry.”

He waved this away. “No, no. It has happened and that is it. I believe you are called Ursula. Have you another name?”

“I never knew one, sir.”

“Very well. I would like you to stay with us, but as you may know already my daughter should marry her cousin soon and will leave us. She calls you her friend. Would you stay here if she went away?”

Bel who had waited by the door sprang forward. “No one is to separate us ever again.”

He held up his hand and she thought he had never looked so sternly at her. “Be silent, Arabella. Pray answer me, Ursula.”

“I would be happy to serve you, sir, as long as Bel lived here, but if she went away and wanted me, I believe the good Lord would say that was my duty, my duty and my joy, if I may say so, sir, because I love her.”

Bel felt tears choking her.

“You call my daughter Bel?”

“I beg your pardon, sir, but my lips are not good at Arabella.”

“Well, I let that pass. You must understand if my daughter goes away, any decision about her bringing a servant would be as her husband and his family wished since she would live with them.”

“Oh father,” Bel burst out, “Ursula is my
friend
, not my
servant
and I am not going away anywhere, so she doesn’t have to choose at all.”

“I have told you to be silent.” He leant back in his chair and Bel saw red spots of anger glowing in a face that suddenly appeared white with exhaustion. “You leave me no choice,” he began after a few moments in a voice grown faint and husky. “If you do not consent to the marriage I will have to send Ursula away. If you comply I will do my best to persuade my cousins to accept that she accompanies you.”