‘No one but us knows the truth, so how can it erupt?’ Nell asked.
Angus put his hand over Nell’s on the table. ‘We are not all as good as you at keeping secrets,’ he said. ‘There are seven of us here today. Any one of us could let it slip sometime.’
All at once Betsy let out a bellow. Hope laughed. ‘I think Betsy wants to remind us that we aren’t just seven people to her, but family, mother, father, grandfather, aunts and uncles.’
Rufus moved to take Betsy out of the crib, and as he picked her up she stopped crying and her small face broke into a wide smile.
‘Well, Betsy,’ he said, looking down at her. ‘Far be it from me to deprive you of the dubious distinction of having a titled uncle, when you’ve already got a brace of war heroes in your family. So I guess I’d better slip round and tell Lily you will be her niece.’
Bennett got up from the table and went over to Rufus. ‘Are you absolutely sure about this, Rufus? There will be talk and it may well be hurtful to you.’
Rufus looked down at Betsy in his arms, then across the room at Hope, his blue eyes full of affection.
‘Let them talk, I’m proud to tell anyone that Hope is my sister. Maybe a few eyebrows will be raised, but what does that matter?’ He turned Betsy in his arms so she was facing everyone. ‘This little one and any other children Hope or I have matter. They must be brought up with love and honesty. And I know that Hope, like me, will tell them how we were brought up by Rentons, and that everything we learned that was good and true came from them.’
He kissed Betsy, then passed her to her father.
‘I’m absolutely certain,’ he said to Bennett. ‘Now, let’s fill our glasses one more time and drink to our family.’
Acknowledgements
To Glenn Fisher of the Crimean War Research Society, for inspiration, information and encouragement above and beyond the call of duty. Without your help and enthusiasm I would have floundered and probably sunk. My apologies to Jo, William and James for monopolizing so much of their husband’s and father’s time. Glenn, you will be mentioned in despatches.
To Sue Hardiman of the Bristol branch of the Historical Association, not just for her informative pamphlet on the 1832 cholera epidemic and its impact on the City of Bristol, which is so well written, fascinating and well researched, but also for her keen interest in my project and helping me to get my facts right.
I read dozens of books on Victorian England and the Crimean War in my research, but these ones were particularly notable and informative:
Journal Kept During the Russian War: From the Departure of the Army from England in April 1854, to the Fall of Sebastopol, by Frances Isabella Duberly (Elibron Classics, 2000)
Eyewitness in the Crimea: The Crimean War Letters of Lt Col. George Frederick Dallas, 1854–1856, edited by Michael Hargreave Mawson (Greenhill Books, 2001)
George Lawson: Surgeon in the Crimea, edited, enlarged and explained by Victor Bonham-Carter (Constable and Co., 1968)
Several works on Bristol’s history, by Peter MacDonald
Mary Carpenter and Children of the Street, by Jo Manton (Heinemann Educational, 1976)
Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands, by Mary Seacole, edited by Sara Salih (Penguin Books, 2005)
The Crimean Doctors: A History of the British Medical Services in the Crimean War, by John Shepherd (Liverpool University Press, 1991)
The Reason Why, by Cecil Woodham-Smith (Penguin Books, 1991)
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Hope
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twele
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Acknowledgements
Hope Page 62
