Hello.
Welcome to Sleep Stories with Steph,
Your go-to romantic podcast that guarantees you a calm and entertaining transition into a great night's sleep.
Come with me as we immerse ourselves in a romantic journey to a time long since forgotten.
Emily Bronte was born in Yorkshire in 1818,
And along with her brother and sisters Anne and Charlotte,
Wrote from childhood onwards.
Wuthering Heights is the story she is best remembered for.
But before we begin,
Let's take a moment to focus on where we are now.
Take a deep breath in through your nose and let it out with a long sigh.
Now close your eyes and feel yourself sink deeper into the support beneath you.
It is time to relax and fully let go.
There is nothing you need to be doing now and nowhere you need to go.
Happy listening.
Chapter 28 On the fifth morning,
Or rather afternoon,
Continued Nellie,
A different step approached,
Lighter and shorter,
And this time the person entered the room.
It was Zilla donning her scarlet shawl with a black silk bonnet on her head and a willow basket swung to her arm.
Mrs.
Deane,
She exclaimed,
There's talk about you in Gimmerton.
I thought you were sunk in the Black Horse Marsh and messy with you till Master told me you'd been found and he lodged you here.
Your Master Heathcliff is a true scoundrel,
I replied,
But he shall answer for it.
He needn't have raised that tale.
It'll all be laid bare in the end.
What do you mean?
Asked Zilla.
It's not his tale.
They'll tell that in the village about you being lost in the marsh.
There's queer things that's happened since I went off,
I said.
Heathcliff stared.
He thought he'd not heard out so I told him the rumour.
And then he said,
You can better go to the Grange at once if she's able and carry a message from me that a young lady will follow in time to attend the Squire's funeral.
Miss Geredka's not dead,
I gasped.
Oh,
Zilla.
You sit down,
My good mistress,
He replied.
He's not dead.
Dr.
Kenneth thinks he may last another day.
I met him on the road and I asked.
And instead of sitting down,
I snatched my outdoor things and hastened below.
But at this moment the way was free.
The place was filled with sunshine and the door stood wide open,
But nobody seemed at hand.
I hesitated whether to go off at once or return and seek my mistress.
Linton lay on the settle,
Sole tenant sucking a stick of sugar candy and pursuing my moments with apathetic eyes.
Where is Miss Catherine?
I demanded sternly.
He sucked on like an innocent.
Is she gone?
I said.
No,
He replied.
She's upstairs.
She's not to go.
We won't let her.
You won't let her,
You little idiot,
I exclaimed.
Direct me to a room immediately or I'll make you sing out sharply.
Papa would make you sing out if you attempted to get there,
He answered.
He said I'm not to be soft with Catherine.
She's my wife and it's shameful she should wish to leave me.
He says she hates me and wants me to die that she may have my money,
But she shan't have it and she shan't go home.
She never shall.
She may cry as much as she pleases.
Then he resumed his former occupation,
Closing his lids as if he meant to fall asleep.
Master Heathcliff,
I resumed.
Have you forgotten all Catherine's kindness to you last winter when you affirmed she loved her and when she bought you books and when she sung you songs she wept to miss one evening because she would be disappointed and you felt then she was a hundred times too good to you.
That's fine gratitude,
Is it not?
I watched the corner of Linton's mouth fall and he took the sugar candy from his lips.
Did she come to Wuthering Heights because she hated you?
I continued.
Think for yourself and as to your money she doesn't even know you'll have any and you say she's sick and yet you leave her alone up there in a strange house.
You who felt what it's like to be so neglected.
I shed tears Master Heathcliff,
You see an elderly woman and a servant merely and you after pretending such affection and having reason to worship her most store every tear you have for yourself and you lie there quite at ease.
You're a heartless selfless boy.
Now can you get the key if you choose?
I said.
When I'm upstairs?
He answered but I can't walk upstairs now.
In what apartment is it?
I asked.
I shan't tell you where it is,
It's our secret he said.
Nobody,
Neither Hairton nor Zilla is to know.
Now you've tired me out go away and he turned his face onto his arm and shut his eyes again.
I considered it best to depart without seeing Mr Heathcliff and bring a rescue for my young lady from the Grange.
On reaching the Grange the astonishment of my fellow servants to see me and their joy was intense and when they heard their little mistress was safe.
Two or three were about to hurry up and shout the news at Mr Edgar's door but I bespoke the announcement of it myself.
How changed I found him even in those few days.
He lay an image of sadness and resignation awaiting his death.
Very young he looked although his actual age was 31.
One might have called him 10 years younger at least.
He thought of Catherine I'm sure for he murmured her name.
Catherine is coming dear master I whispered.
She's alive and well and will be here soon tonight.
Then as soon as he recovered I related our compulsory visit and detention at the heights.
I told him Heathcliff forced me to go in there which was not quite true.
I uttered as little as possible against Linton and I didn't describe all his father's brutal conduct either.
Upon hearing this Mr Edgar divined that one of his enemy's purposes was to secure the personal property and the estate to his son or rather himself.
Yet why I did not wait till his decease was a puzzle to my master.
However he felt his will better be altered instead of leaving Catherine's fortune at her own disposal and he determined to put it in the hands of trustees for her use during life and for her children if she had any.
By that means it could not fall to Mr Heathcliff should Linton die.
Having received his orders I dispatched a man to fetch the attorney and four more provided with serviceable weapons to demand my young lady of her jailer.
Both parties were delayed very late.
The single servant returned first.
He said Mr Green the lawyer was out when he arrived he had to wait two hours.
Then Mr Green told him he had a little business in the village but he'd be at Thrushcross Grange before morning.
The four men came back unaccompanied also.
They brought word Catherine was too ill,
Too ill to quit her room and Heathcliff would not suffer them to see her.
I scolded the stupid fellows well for listening to that tale.
I would not carry that to my master and I resolved to take a whole berry up to the heights at daylight and storm it literally unless the prisoner was quietly surrendered.
Her father shall see her I vowed if that devil be killed on his own doorstones in trying to prevent it.
Happily I was spared the trouble.
I'd gone downstairs at three o'clock to fetch a jug of water and was passing through the hall with it in my hand when a sharp knock at the front door made me jump.
It's green I said recollecting myself.
I went on intending to send somebody else to open it but the knock was repeated.
Then to my surprise my only sweet little mistress sprang on my neck sobbing Ellen,
Ellen is Papa alive?
Yes I cried yes my angel he is.
God be thanked you're safe with us again.
She wanted to run breathless as she was upstairs to Mr Linton's room but I compelled her to sit down on a chair and made her drink and washed her pale face chafing it into a faint colour with my apron.
I couldn't abide to be present at their meeting.
I stood outside the chamber door a quarter of an hour and hardly ventured near the bed.
All was composed though Catherine's despair was as silent as her father's joy and she supported him calmly in appearance and he fixed on her features with eyes that seemed dilating with ecstasy.
He died blissfully Mr Lookwood said Nellie he died so kissing her cheek murmured I'm going to her and you darling child shall come to us.
He never stirred or spoke again after that but continued his gaze until his pulse imperceptibly stopped and his soul departed.
None could have noticed the exact minute of his death it was so entirely without a struggle.
As for Catherine whether she'd spent her tears or whether the grief were too weighted to let them flow she just sat there dry-eyed until the sun rose.
It was well I succeeded in removing her for at dinner time appeared the lawyer having called at Wuthering Heights to get his instructions how to behave.
He had sold himself to Mr Heathcliff that was the cause of his delay in obeying my master's summons.
Fortunately no thought of worldly affairs crossed the latter's mind to disturb him after his daughter's arrival.
Mr Green took it upon himself to order everything and everybody about the place.
He gave all the servants but me notice to quit.
He would have carried out his delegated authority to the point of insisting Edgar Linton should not be buried beside his wife but in the chapel with his family.
There was the will however to hinder that and my loud protestations against any infringements of its directions.
The funeral then was hurried over.
Catherine,
Mrs Linton,
Heathcliff now,
Would suffer to stay at the Grange until her father's corpse acquitted it.
She told me her anguish had last spurred Linton to incur the risk of liberating her.
She heard the men I sent disputing at the door and she gathered the sense of Heathcliff's answer.
It drove her desperate.
Linton,
Who'd been conveyed up to the little parlour soon after I left,
Was terrified into fetching the key before his father came back up.
He had the cunning to unlock and relock the door without shutting it and when he should have gone to bed he begged to sleep with Hairton and his petition was granted.
Catherine stole out before the break of day.
She dared not try the doors lest the dog should raise an alarm so she visited the empty chambers and examined their windows and luckily,
Lighting on her mother's,
She got easily out of its lattice and onto the ground by means of the fir tree close by.
The evening after the funeral my young lady and I were seated in the library musing mournfully,
One of us despairingly on our loss.
We just agreed the best destiny which could await Catherine would be permission to continue resident at the Grange,
At least during Linton's life,
But that seemed rather too favourable an arrangement to be hoped for.
If we'd been mad enough to order that proceeding we had not time.
Heathcliff made no ceremony of knocking or announcing his name.
He was master now and he availed himself of the master's privilege to walk straight in to Mr.
Edgar's house without saying a word.
No more runnings away,
He said,
Arresting Catherine by the arm.
Where would you go?
I've come to fetch you home and I hope you'll be a dutiful daughter and not encourage my son to further disobedience.
Why not let Catherine continue here,
I pleaded,
And send Master Linton to her.
As you ate them both you'd not miss them.
They can only be a daily play to your natural heart.
But,
He answered,
I'm seeking a tenant for the Grange and I want my children about me to be sure.
Besides,
That lass owes me services for her bread.
I'm not going to nurture her in luxury and idleness after Linton's gone.
So make haste and get ready now and do not oblige me to compel you.
