Wuthering Bites (13 page)

A
s soon as I read this letter, I went to the master and informed him that his sister had arrived at the Heights. I told him of the letter expressing her sorrow for Mrs. Linton's situation, and her ardent desire to see him, with a wish that he would transmit to her, as early as possible, some token of forgiveness by me.

‘Forgiveness!' said Linton. ‘I have nothing to forgive her. You may call at Wuthering Heights, if you like, and say that I am not
angry,
but I'm
sorry
to have lost her, especially as I can never think she'll be happy. It is out of the question my going to see her, however. We are eternally divided, and should she really wish to oblige me, let her persuade the villain she has married to leave the country.'

‘And you won't write her a little note, sir?' I asked imploringly. Had he no pity for his own flesh and blood, that he could leave her alone to suffer at Wuthering Heights with that monster? If only I could convey to him her true pitiful condition, but I was bound by my lady's privacy. She had written to me, not to her brother, and my lips were sealed.

“'Tis a weighty thing to be a good servant, sir, as you may not realize, but we have our own code of honor and we are bound to it.

‘I will not see her,' the master repeated firmly.

‘I see,' I said, although in truth I did not, but my curiosity was not satisfied and I urged him to continue listening to her woeful tale.

‘It is needless. My communication with Heathcliff's family shall be as sparing as his with mine. It shall not exist!'

Mr. Edgar's coldness depressed me, and all the way from the Grange to the Heights, I puzzled my brains how to console Isabella. I proceeded down the road that ran between the two properties, keeping my eyes and ears keen. When Heathcliff and Isabella ran off, the vampire attacks had increased, but the road was pleasantly serene. I had nearly made it all the way to the Heights without an encounter with any bloodsuckers, when at the gates I spotted a tall, slender, almost handsome beastie wearing a black cloak, and top hat of all things! He stood as if he were waiting for a coach or perhaps a train, completely comfortable in his surroundings.

‘Good morning to you, madam,' he called, tipping his hat.

I stopped in my tracks, fingering the dagger I carried in my skirt pocket. It was small, but sharpened to a fine point, I will guarantee you that. I sharpened it every night on a whetting stone soaked in garlic oil as I said my prayers.

My first thought, upon seeing the creature, was to turn and run, of course. But I set out to see poor Isabella and see her I would…if I survived to pass these gates. Besides, what would be the point in running? The beasties were lightning quick, quicker than a middle-aged woman, even a beastie wearing a top hat.

‘Step aside,' I commanded with all the authority I could muster. ‘I have business with Mr. Heathcliff and I carry sufficient protection.' I dug down in my bodice and produced a woollen sack containing more than a pint of crushed garlic.

“Crushed?” I grimaced. “Doesn't it smell awful?”

“Nay, Mr. Lockwood, not when you're used to such measures. Clears the head, it does, and what would a little stench be compared to having every drop of blood drained from your body and having your lifeless body cast upon the moor like an empty husk?”

“I suppose,” I agreed with a sigh. “But do go on. This tall and elegant cloaked creature. You got a good look at him? You're certain it was a vampire?”

She snorted. “As certain as I am that two of the beasts are staring through the panes at us.” She hurried to the window and drew the drapes. “Off with you!” she cried. “Go suck a dead goat! Beggin' your pardon, sir, but the young beasties do wear upon my nerves. Scraping their fangs on the glass and drooling down it until the window must be scoured with vinegar and dew from a fresh grave to make it fit to see through again.” She shook her head. “I vow, they are worse than the grown ones. Four at once did set upon Goody Hedger's mother-in-law. They came down her chimney and pushed through the chain mesh into the old lady's bedchamber. Carried her shrieking from her bed and kept her all night in the church choir loft, passing her back and forth like a bottle of cheap Port-a-gee wine.” She shuddered. “They say when they found what was left of her, you could have folded her skin into a gentleman's riding glove. Weighed no more than a new-hatched chick.”

I cleared my throat. “A sad story indeed, and much do I pity Goody Hedger.”

“Oh, no, sir. No need to pity her. With her mother-in-law's passing, she and her husband came into a fine bedstead, two pewter spoons, a china chamber pot, and a Jersey cow. Of course, the cow was dry. The beasties had sucked her blood until she was in such a state that she wouldn't give a thimble of milk.”

“The vampire in the top hat at the gates of Wuthering Heights?” I reminded her. “You were saying…”

“Oh, him. I was shaking in my boots, I can tell you that. Handsome, he were, in a gaunt and devilish way, but I was not fooled by his sweet talk.

‘Business with Mr. Heathcliff, have you?' he inquired, looking me straight in the eye.

I have to confess to you, Mr. Lockwood, that he possessed a fine jawline and a handsome nose. And spoke quite charmingly, so charmingly that I was tempted to stop and chat. It was frightening how well they were assimilating into English society in such a short period of time. I could easily see from this man how they were making their way into respectable parlors in the countryside.

‘Let me pass,' I said, reminding myself of my intention to see Miss Isabella at once. ‘Let me pass, sir, or consume me here and now and be done with it.'

‘Consume you?' he said, sounding rather convincingly appalled. ‘What would make you think I would
consume
you?'

‘Your fangs were the first indication.' I lifted my nose haughtily and sallied toward the gates. I would have to pass right by him to proceed any farther.

He smiled down on me, seeming greatly amused. ‘And the second?'

‘It's broad daylight. Haven't you a crypt you should be attending to?'

He laughed outright, a deep, masculine laugh that, had I been younger or less wise, might have curled my feminine toes.

‘It's an overcast day, as most are in the moors,' he continued. ‘I've no need for a crypt. It's only the brightest sunlight that vexes us and even then, it is rarely deadly. An abhorrence to daylight is just another silly human misconception of us from long in the past.'

‘Silly, indeed. Now, go with you,' I ordered, dismissing him with my hand. ‘Mr. Heathcliff would not like you loitering here, scaring off good maids bound on good deeds.' I patted my sack of garlic, in case he had forgotten.

Just as I was about to pass the creature, he stepped directly in front of me. ‘Is Mr. Heathcliff a good friend of yours, madam?'

I couldn't tell now if he was making fun of me or not.

‘Raised him, I did.'

‘And did you know what he was, then?'

‘What he was?' I looked the handsome beastie right in his black eyes. ‘He was a gypsy orphan boy.'

‘Is that what he told you?' He had a queer look on his face.

‘Sir?'

He stepped aside to let me pass and tipped his hat. ‘Good day, madam.'

‘Good day, indeed,' I muttered and then hurried on my way, not even looking over my shoulder as I went. I didn't know what the bloodsucker was trying to insinuate about Heathcliff, and my sense of survival told me I did not want to know.

I dare say Isabella had been watching for me since morning. I saw her looking through the shutters, as I came up the garden causeway. I entered without knocking. There never was such a dreary, dismal scene as the formerly cheerful house presented! I must confess, that if I had been in the young lady's place, I would, at least, have swept the hearth, wiped the tables, and chased away the three mice that were partaking of the morning bread and cheese. But she already partook of the pervading spirit of neglect that surrounded her. Her pretty face was wan and listless, her hair uncurled and carelessly twisted around her head. She looked as if she had slept in her dress.

Hindley was not there. Mr. Heathcliff sat at a table going through some papers, but he rose when I appeared, pushed the nasty little terrier down off his lap, and asked me how I did, quite friendly.

I shuddered myself, remembering how the dog had tormented me when I was last a guest at Wuthering Heights, but what could I expect of that cursed place? “Mr. Heathcliff was the only thing there that seemed decent,” Nelly continued, “and I thought he never looked better. So much had circumstances altered their position, that he would have struck a stranger as a born and bred gentleman, and his wife a little slattern!”

She came forward eagerly to greet me and held out one hand to take the expected letter.

I shook my head. She didn't understand the hint, but followed me to a sideboard, where I went to lay my bonnet. The terrier followed, worrying at my stockings, but I gave it such a stare that it fled yipping into a corner.

Heathcliff guessed the meaning of the lady's maneuvers, and said, ‘If you have got anything for Isabella, give it to her. You needn't make a secret of it; we have no secrets between us.'

‘I have nothing,' I replied, thinking it best to speak the truth at once. ‘My master bid me tell his sister that she must not expect either a letter or a visit from him at present. He sends his love, ma'am, and his wishes for your happiness and his pardon for the grief you have occasioned, but he thinks that after this time, his household and the household here should drop inter-communication, as nothing good could come of keeping it up.'

Mrs. Heathcliff's lip quivered slightly, and she returned to her seat in the window. Her husband took his stand on the hearth-stone, near me, and icy fingernails scraped down my spine as he gave as close to a smile as I have ever seen on his graven features. His teeth, sir, his teeth were terrible white. Too white. I shuddered as he began to put to me questions concerning Catherine. I am, good sir, after all, but a meek woman, and what had passed before my eyes in the last few weeks and days would have overcome one much stronger.

I told him as much as I thought proper of her illness, and he extorted from me, by cross-examination, most of the facts connected with its origin. I told him how I had thought she might have been infected by a vampire bite, and he turned quite frightfully furious, but I was quick to explain that I had been wrong as she was still quite human when I left the Grange.

‘Mrs. Linton is now just recovering,' I went on quickly. ‘She'll never be like she was, but her life is spared, and if you really have a regard for her, you'll not cross her way again. Catherine Linton is different now from your old friend Catherine Earnshaw. Her appearance is changed greatly, her character much more so, and Mr. Linton will only sustain his affection by common humanity, and a sense of duty.'

‘That is quite possible,' remarked Heathcliff, forcing himself calm. ‘Quite possible that your master should have nothing but common humanity and a sense of duty to fall back upon. But do you imagine that I shall leave Catherine to his
duty
and
humanity?
Can you compare my feelings for Catherine to his? Before you leave this house, I must exact a promise from you, that you'll get me an interview with her.'

‘Mr. Heathcliff,' I replied, ‘you must not come, and you never shall through my means. Another encounter between you and the master would kill her.'

‘With your aid, that will be avoided,' he continued. ‘You may not believe me, but I never would have raised a hand against Linton had I not been so provoked. I never would have banished him from her society as long as she desired his. The moment her regard ceased, I would have torn his heart out, and drank his blood!'

I cringed at those words, but he went on.

‘But, till then—if you don't believe me, you don't know me—till then, I would have died by inches before I touched a single hair of his head!'

‘And yet,' I interrupted, ‘you have no scruples in completely ruining all hopes of her recovering by thrusting yourself into her remembrance when she has nearly forgotten you, and stirring in her a new tumult of discord and distress.'

‘You suppose she has nearly forgotten me?' he said. ‘Oh, Nelly! You know she has not! You know as well as I do that for every thought she spends on Linton, she spends a thousand on me! At a most miserable period of my life, when I was gone from here, I feared she had forgotten me, but only her own words could make me consider the horrible idea again. And then, Linton would be nothing, nor Hindley, nor all the dreams that ever I dreamt. Two words would comprehend my future—
death
and
hell.
Existence, after losing her, would be hell.

‘I was a fool to think for a moment that she valued Edgar Linton's attachment more than mine. If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn't love as much in eight years as I could in a day. Catherine has a heart as deep as I have. He is scarcely a degree dearer to her than her dog, or her horse. It is not in him to be loved like me.'

‘Catherine and Edgar are as fond of each other as any two people can be,' cried Isabella, with sudden vivacity. ‘I won't hear my brother depreciated, in silence!'

‘Your brother is wondrously fond of you, too, isn't he?' observed Heathcliff scornfully. ‘So fond that he turns you adrift on the world.'

‘He is not aware of what I suffer,' she replied. ‘I didn't tell him that.'

‘You have been telling him something. You wrote to him.'

‘To say that I was married.'

‘And nothing since?'

‘No.'

‘My young lady is looking sadly the worse for her change of condition,' I remarked.