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Originally Posted by Bookpossum
[...] I think that Helen did appreciate and value Rachel very much. We see Rachel at first through Gilbert’s eyes, and of course to him she is “just” a servant. Though as issybird pointed out, Gilbert did work alongside his farm labourers, so he was a bit more egalitarian than many at the time.
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Now that I've finished I feel better qualified to respond. Yes, Helen appreciated and valued Rachel as a loyal servant. Helen knows that good help is hard to find (made especially clear with poor help surrounding Arthur while she nurses him). That sounds a bit overly cynical, since there is obviously some depth of affection toward Rachel, especially when she joins Helen and Arthur in their escape ... but as far as I could see there was also a big element of: what else was Rachel going to do?
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‘And what will you do, Rachel?’ said I; ‘will you go home, or seek another place?’
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Rachel nursed Helen at Wildfell Hall*! As far as we've seen, she has almost never left Helen's side. So where is Rachel's home? And she must be far from young, so what other place was she likely to find? It seemed to me almost cruel to suggest Rachel should separate from them, and so this seemed like another example of how self-absorbed Helen could be.
* Chapter 44 we are told this. There had been the question of how Arthur could not know of Wildfell Hall, but now we have the additional question of whether Rachel could or should have been recognised in the neighbourhood and so spoil the secret.