Pips dressed with care for dinner that evening. Alice had not appeared to help her, but Pips was not the sort of young woman to throw a tantrum because she had to manage without her lady’s maid. Besides, Alice looked after both Henrietta and Pips. No doubt she was helping her mother. Pips was thinking about Giles. She liked him, she decided. She liked him very much. After dinner, Giles intended to return to his lodgings in the city.
‘I’m on call tomorrow,’ he had explained.
They had enjoyed the day together, endlessly discussing the war on their walks and over meals, though they had paused that afternoon to engage in a game of chess.
‘Unless you’re as good as a world champion, Giles,’ Robert had teased, ‘she’ll beat you hands down. But at least if she’s playing you, she’s not beating me.’
‘I don’t stand a chance, then,’ Giles had laughed, ‘because when we play you always beat me.’
‘I don’t always win,’ Pips had said modestly.
‘No, true,’ Robert had laughed. ‘Just most of the time.’
As she ran down the stairs to the first floor, Henrietta opened her bedroom door and called to her. ‘If you’re ready, Philippa, please ask Alice to come to my room. I can’t get my hair right this evening and she has such a way . . .’
‘Alice isn’t with me, Mother. I thought she was helping you.’
Henrietta blinked. ‘No, I haven’t seen her. She had the afternoon off. I thought she should go home to be with her family for an hour or two if her brothers have volunteered. Hasn’t she come back?’
‘I’ve no idea. I’ll go to the kitchen and find out.’
When Pips entered the kitchen, she found Alice sitting at the table, her head in her hands, being comforted by Cook and Sarah, the housemaid. Even Joan, the scullery maid, was standing close by. Alice raised her tear-streaked face. ‘Oh miss, I’m sorry, I should have come up to you and the mistress, but . . .’
‘No matter.’ Pips waved aside her apology. ‘But whatever’s wrong?’
‘It’s William. He’s disappeared.’
Pips sat down at the table and reached across to take Alice’s hand. ‘Are you sure he’s not here – at the hall? He sometimes feeds the horses when the stable lad has an afternoon off.’
Alice shook her head. ‘No, I’ve asked Jake and he hasn’t seen him.’
‘When was he last seen?’
‘Yesterday.’
‘Yesterday!’ Pips was shocked. ‘Have your brothers been out looking for him?’
Alice buried her face in her hands again and her sobs increased. At last she wailed, ‘They refuse to search for him.’
‘Why?’
‘Because – because he wouldn’t go with them this morning into Lincoln to volunteer.’
‘Ah.’ Pips was beginning to understand. She stood up. ‘Cook, can you hold back dinner for half an hour? My parents and Robert should hear about this.’
‘Of course, Miss Pips.’
‘Alice, come with me.’
‘Oh miss, I can’t let the rest of the family see me looking like this. Whatever would your mother say?’
‘Mother will say nothing – in the circumstances.’
Pips led Alice through into the Great Hall where the family and Giles were already waiting.
‘I’ve asked Cook to put dinner back for half an hour, Mother. We have a problem.’
‘Oh Alice, my dear, what’s wrong?’ Henrietta came at once to the girl’s side.
‘It’s William,’ Pips explained. ‘He’s missing. The family haven’t seen him since yesterday.’
Robert now moved towards Alice and put his arm around her shoulders. ‘Come and sit down and tell us all you know.’
‘Bernard and Roy went into the city this morning to enlist in the Lincolnshire Regiment. Yesterday, they tried to persuade William to promise to go with them, but he refused. They – they were horrible to him, Ma told me. They called him a coward and Harold picked up a white feather from the ground and threw it at him. William turned and ran up the road and he hasn’t been seen since. I’ve asked everyone here and they haven’t seen him either.’
‘D’you think he could’ve changed his mind and gone to enlist?’ Robert asked.
Alice shook her head. ‘No, he won’t do that. He’s adamant he won’t kill people.’
There was silence in the room and everyone glanced at each other. Then their focus came back to Alice. Robert was the one to take charge. ‘We’ll have our dinner quickly and then I’ll organize a search party. You run back home to make sure he’s not come back, and get your father and brothers to come to the hall to help. All right?’
Alice nodded, but said tentatively, ‘I’ll ask them, but I don’t think they’ll come to help. They’re all ashamed of him.’
An unusually hurried dinner was over in half an hour and Robert and Pips rose from the table before coffee was served. ‘Please excuse us, Mother. We must look for William.’
She nodded her understanding and Giles got up too. ‘I’ll help.’
‘Shouldn’t you be getting back?’
He shrugged. ‘Another hour or so won’t hurt.’
The three young people hastened from the room leaving Edwin and Henrietta staring at each other down the length of the table.
‘Is there anything we ought to do?’
‘Leave it to Robert and Pips. They’ll get to the bottom of whatever’s been going on. But, I have to say, I don’t like the sound of it, Hetty, my love. I don’t like the sound of it at all.’