Wuthering Bites (24 page)

As soon as I entered, I hastened to change my soaked shoes and stockings, but sitting such a while at the Heights had done the mischief. On the succeeding morning, I found myself ill. Perhaps it was from the fright of seeing the vampires taking so freely from Joseph his life's blood and the knowledge that the moors were not as safe as we thought they had become. Or perhaps it was the wet stockings, I do not know.

For three weeks I remained incapacitated, a calamity never experienced prior to that period, and never, I am thankful to say, since.

My little mistress behaved like an angel in coming to wait on me and cheer my solitude. The moment Catherine left Mr. Linton's room, she appeared at my bedside. Her day was divided between us; she neglected her meals, her studies, and her play. I said her days were divided between us, but the master retired early, and I generally needed nothing after six o'clock, thus the evening was her own.

Poor thing! I never considered what she did with herself after tea. And though frequently, when she looked in to bid me good night, I noticed the fresh color in her cheeks and a pinkness over her slender fingers, instead of guessing the hue was a result of a cold ride across the moors, I laid it to the charge of a hot fire in the library.

I
t was three weeks before I was able to leave my chamber. The ague was such that the rumor went around in Gimmerton that I had been bitten, but of course it was only the dreadful damp and the soaking I'd received. I had not the faintest sign of fang marks. The doctor was quite pleased about that, but concerned about my weakened condition, and prescribed a poultice of dried mouse and graveyard moss from the west side of the church to be steeped in sour milk and applied warm to my chest three times a day. Some physicians don't understand the importance of such modern treatment, but due to his careful and learned advice, I made slow but steady recovery. And on the first occasion of my sitting up in the evening, I asked Catherine to read to me because my eyes were weak. We were in the library, the master having gone to bed. She consented, rather unwillingly I think, because my sort of books did not suit her. But I bid her read anything she liked and she was quick to choose.

She selected a book I did not—nor did her father, I would guess—even know she possessed. I have no idea how she obtained it, but thought maybe it had come from the library at Wuthering Heights. It was called
Modern Vampires, the Lexicon,
written by a scholar turned vampire slayer after his entire family and household in Essex were sucked dry by a family of bloodsuckers passing through on their way to London to see the sights. She read steadily for about an hour, describing the bloodsuckers' origins, what they ate (which was self-explanatory, I would have thought), what they wore, where they slept, and all manner of other details one might be curious about. The book held my attention at once, but as Cathy read, she asked frequent questions of me.

‘Nelly, are not you tired? Hadn't you better lie down now? You'll be sick, keeping up so long, Nelly.'

When that did not work to rid herself of me, she began yawning, and stretching, and—‘Nelly, I'm tired.'

‘Then stop reading and talk with me,' I suggested. ‘I've learned far more about vampires than any housekeeper need know, anyway.'

That was worse. She fretted and sighed, and looked at her watch till eight, and finally went to her room.

The following night she seemed more impatient still, both with me and the
Vampire Lexicon,
and on the third, she complained of a headache, and left me.

I thought her conduct odd, and after leaving her alone for some time, I decided to go up to her room and check on her.

No Catherine could I discover upstairs, and none below. The servants affirmed they had not seen her. I listened at Mr. Edgar's door, but all was silent. I returned to her apartment, extinguished my candle, and seated myself in the window.

The moon shone bright; a sprinkling of snow covered the ground, and I reflected that she might have taken it into her head to walk about the garden. After a time, I detected a figure creeping along the inner fence of the park, but it was only one of the grooms with a shiny pitchfork chasing a wayward bloodsucker back over the wall. My master had ordered that the prongs of all the pitchforks on the property be replaced with those of pure silver—quite expensive, as you can imagine, but what can you do when the beasties grow so bold as to hurl themselves over the walls?

The groom, however, did not return to the stable, and I soon saw him start off at a brisk pace, as if he had detected something. Thinking it might be the vampire trying a different entry onto the property again, I watched closely. We usually gave them one chance, in order to be neighborly, but my master made it clear that bloodsuckers that could not be trusted had to be impaled. Usually the stable hands would corner the trespassers with a pitchfork, injure them with the silver tines, and then run the wooden handle through their hearts once they had successfully knocked them to the ground. The groom disappeared from my view, but soon reappeared, not carrying a vampire corpse on the end of the pitchfork, but leading Miss's pony with her astride.

Cathy dismounted and the man took his charge stealthily across the grass toward the stable. My young miss entered by the casement window of the drawing room, and glided noiselessly up to where I awaited her.

She pulled the door gently to, slipped off her snowy shoes, untied her hat, and was proceeding, unconscious of my espionage, to lay aside her mantle when I suddenly rose and revealed myself. The surprise petrified her an instant; she uttered an inarticulate exclamation, and stood fixed.

‘My dear Miss Catherine,' I began, too vividly impressed by her recent kindness to break into a scold. By this point, I was greatly enjoying the book on vampire particulars and did not wish her to cease reading to me in the evenings. ‘Where have you been at this hour? Have you become suicidal? Do you not know it will break your papa's heart if he finds your carcass hanging on the gate in the morning? Where have you been? Speak!'

‘To the bottom of the park,' she stammered.

‘And nowhere else?' I demanded.

‘No,' was the muttered reply.

‘Oh, Catherine!' I cried sorrowfully. ‘You know you have been doing wrong, or you wouldn't be lying to me.'

She sprang forward and, bursting into tears, threw her arms round my neck. ‘Please don't be angry with me, Nelly,' she said. ‘Promise not to be angry, and you shall know the very truth. I hate to hide it.'

We sat down in the window-seat and I assured her I would not scold, whatever her secret might be. I guessed it, of course, so she commenced—

‘I've been to Wuthering Heights, Nelly, and, until three days ago, I've never missed going a day since you fell ill. I was at the Heights by half past six, and generally stayed till half past eight, and then galloped home. It was not to amuse myself that I went, but because I had promised.

‘On my first visit alone, Linton seemed in lively spirits. Zillah, their housekeeper, made us a clean room and a good fire, and told us we might do as we like. Hareton Earnshaw was off with his dogs—robbing our woods of pheasants, as I heard afterward. And Joseph was off trapping hedgehogs. Baked hedgehog with garlic stuffing is one dish that dear Linton will eat, so long as the head is removed before serving. He has a delicate stomach. Don't you find that attractive in a young gentleman, Nelly, that he cannot bear to dine on small intact mammals? So…so romantic.'

I rolled my eyes but allowed my charge to continue without telling her what I truly thought of Linton.

‘She brought me some warm wine and gingerbread, and appeared exceedingly good-natured. Linton sat in the arm-chair, and I on the little rocking chair on the hearth-stone, and we laughed and talked so merrily, and found so much to say. We planned what we would do when it grew warm again and talked some of the school in Paris. I won't give you the details because I know you will only call me silly.

‘One time, however, we were near quarrelling. He said that he agreed with you, that women had no business fighting vampires. I argued that the moors were mine as easily as they were his, but he did not see to my way of thinking. At last we agreed to disagree, at least for the present, and then we kissed each other and were friends. Minny and I then went flying home as light as air, and I dreamt of Wuthering Heights and my sweet, darling cousin, till morning.

‘On the morrow, I was sad, partly because you were feeling poorly, and partly that I wished my father knew and approved of my excursions. But there was a beautiful moonlight after tea, and, as I rode on, the gloom cleared.

‘
I shall have another happy evening,
I thought to myself,
and what delights me more, my pretty Linton will.
I trotted up their garden and was turning round to the back when Hareton met me, took my bridle, and bid me go in by the front entrance. He patted Minny's neck, and said she was a bonny pony, and appeared as if he wanted me to speak to him. I told him to leave my horse alone, or else it would kick him.

‘He answered in his vulgar accent, “It wouldn't do much hurt if it did,” and surveyed its legs with a smile.

‘I was half inclined to make it try; however, he moved off to open the door and, as he raised the latch, he looked up to the inscription above, and said, with a stupid mixture of awkwardness and elation—

‘“Miss Catherine! I can read that.”

‘“Wonderful,” I exclaimed. ‘“Pray let us hear you—you are grown clever!”

‘He spelt, and drawled over by syllables, the name—“Hareton Earnshaw.”

‘“And the figures?” I cried encouragingly, thinking that he came to a dead halt.

‘“I cannot tell them yet,” he answered.

‘“Oh, you dunce!” I said, laughing heartily at his failure.

‘The fool stared, with a grin hovering about his lips and a scowl gathering over his eyes, and I told him to walk away, reminding him that I had come to see Linton, not him.

‘He reddened—I saw that by the moonlight—dropped his hand from the latch, and skulked off, a picture of mortified vanity. He imagined himself to be as accomplished as Linton, I suppose, just because he could read his own name, and was marvelously discomfited that I didn't think the same. Why ever would his name be carved above the doors, anyway? I don't know who the Hareton Earnshaw was, but—'

‘Stop, Miss Catherine, dear!' I interrupted. ‘I shall not scold, but I don't like your conduct there. If you had remembered that Hareton was your cousin as much as Master Heathcliff, you would have felt how improper it was to behave in that way. At least he is trying to learn how to read! You made him ashamed of his ignorance before, and he wished to remedy it to please you. To sneer at his imperfect attempt was very bad breeding. Had
you
been brought up in his circumstances, would you be less rude? He was as quick and as intelligent a child as ever you were, and I'm hurt that he should be despised now because that base Heathcliff has treated him so unjustly.'

‘Well, Nelly, you won't cry about it, will you?' she exclaimed, surprised at my earnestness. ‘But wait, and you shall hear if he learned his ABCs to please me, and if it were worthwhile being civil to the brute. I entered; Linton was lying on the settle, and half got up to welcome me.

‘ “I'm ill tonight, Catherine, love,” he said, “and you must have all the talk, and let me listen. Come and sit by me. I was sure you wouldn't break your word, and I'll make you promise again, before you go.”

‘I knew now that I mustn't tease him, as he was ill, and I spoke softly and avoided irritating him in any way. I had brought some of my nicest books for him; he asked me to read a little of one, and I was about to comply when Earnshaw burst the door open. He advanced directly to us, seized Linton by the arm, and swung him off the seat.

‘ “Get to thy own room!” he said in a voice almost inarticulate with passion, his face swelled and furious. “Take her there if she comes to see thee; thou shalln't keep me out of this room! Begone wi' ye both!”

‘He swore at us, and left Linton no time to answer, nearly throwing him into the kitchen. He clenched his fist as I followed, seemingly longing to knock me down. I was afraid for a moment, and I let a book fall; he kicked it after me, and shut us out.

‘I heard a malignant, crackly laugh by the fire and, turning, beheld that odious Joseph standing, rubbing his bony hands, and quivering.

‘ “Serves ye right! He's a grand lad! He knows who ought to be maister here one day!”

‘ “Where must we go?” I said to my cousin, disregarding the old wretch's mockery. How could you take a man seriously who would allow vampires to freely feed on him? Why…he's nothing more than a paramour, Nelly. A paramour to the bloodsuckers.'

I wanted to ask the young miss how she even knew what a paramour was, but suspecting the information had come from the same shelf as the
Vampire Lexicon,
I allowed her to go on with her story.

‘Linton was white and trembling. He was not pretty then, Nelly, for his thin face and large eyes were wrought into an expression of frantic, powerless fury. He grasped the handle of the door and shook it, but it was fastened inside.

‘ “If you don't let me in I'll kill you!—If you don't let me in I'll kill you!” he rather shrieked than said. “Devil! Devil!—I'll kill you—I'll kill you!”

‘I took hold of Linton's hands and tried to pull him away, but he shrieked so shockingly that I dared not proceed. At last his cries were choked by a dreadful fit of coughing, blood gushed from his mouth, and he fell on the ground.

‘I ran into the yard, sick with terror, and called for Zillah, as loud as I could.'

‘No, Cathy! What about the vampires we saw in the yard?'

‘Why would I be afraid of them, Nelly? They have Joseph to feed on, apparently whenever they wish. I had no fear they would bother with me, for I would put up a great fight and maybe even kill one of them if I had a proper wooden spike!' She frowned at me as if I was completely foolish and went on. ‘Zillah soon heard me. She was milking the cows in a shed behind the barn, and hurrying from her work, she inquired what there was to do.

‘Dragging her in, I looked for Linton. Hareton had come out to examine the mischief he had caused, and he was then conveying the poor thing upstairs. Zillah and I ascended after him, but he stopped me at the top of the steps, and said I must go home.

‘Nelly, I was ready to tear my hair off my head! I sobbed and wept so that my eyes were almost blind, and the ruffian you have such sympathy for just stood there, denying that it was his fault. Finally, frightened by my threats that I would tell Papa and that he should be put in prison and hanged, he began blubbering himself, and hurried out to hide his cowardly agitation.

‘Still, I was not rid of him. When I tried to leave, I had barely got some hundred yards off the premises when he suddenly appeared from the shadow of the roadside, like some homeless bloodsucker, and checked Minny and took hold of me.