Hello.
Welcome to Sleep Stories with Steph,
A romantic bedtime podcast guaranteed to help you drift off into a calm,
Relaxing sleep.
Come with me as we travel back to a time long ago where Helen Huntingdon is sacrificing everything she knows in order to protect her son.
But before we begin let us take a moment to focus on where we are now.
Take a deep breath in through your nose then let it out on a long sigh.
It is time to relax and really let go.
Feel your shoulders melt away from your ears as you sink into the support beneath you.
Feel the pressure seep away from your cheeks as your breath drops into a natural rhythm.
There is nothing you need to be doing right now and nowhere you need to go.
We are together and it is time for sleep.
The Tenant of Wildfelm Hall Read and abridged by Stephanie Poppins Chapter 41 Mr Huntingdon returned about three weeks ago.
His appearance,
His demeanour and conversation and my feelings with regard to him I shall not trouble myself to describe.
The day after his arrival,
However,
He surprised me by the announcement of an intention to procure a governess for little Arthur.
I told him it was quite unnecessary not to say ridiculous but he said I was not fit to teach children or to be with them.
I had already reduced the boys a little better than an automaton,
He said,
And I had broken his fine spirit with my rigid severity.
And poor Rachel too came in for her share of abuse.
As usual,
Arthur cannot endure Rachel because he knows she has a proper appreciation of who he really is.
I calmly defended our several qualifications as nurse and governess and still resisted the proposed addition to our family.
But he cut me short by saying it was no use bothering about the matter for he had already engaged a governess and she was coming next week.
She is a very estimable,
Pious young person,
Said he,
You needn't be afraid.
Her name is Myers,
I believe,
And she was recommended to me by a respectable old dowager.
All this was grievingly and quietly spoken but there was a laughing demon in his half-averted eye that boded no good,
I imagined.
When Miss Myers arrived,
I was not prepared to give her a very cordial reception.
Her appearance was not particularly calculated to produce a favourable impression at first sight,
Nor did her manners and subsequent conduct remove the prejudice I already conceived against her.
Her attainments were limited,
Her intellect scarcely above mediocrity.
She had a fine voice and could sing like a nightingale,
As well as accompany herself on the piano,
But these were her only accomplishments.
There was a look of guile and subtlety in her face,
A sound of it in her voice.
In her behaviour she was respectful and complacent,
Even to civility,
But her fondness for her little pupil was overstrained and I was obliged to remonstrate with her on the subject of overindulgence and injudicious praise.
She would not gain his heart.
Her piety consisted in an occasional heaving of sighs and uplifting of eyes to the ceiling,
And the utterance of a few cat phrases.
She told me she was a clergyman's daughter and had been left an orphan from her childhood,
But had the good fortune to obtain a situation in a very pious family.
I asked the name and residence of the kind and pious family and she mentioned a common name and an unknown and distant place of abode.
I never saw her speak much to Mr Huntingdon,
But he would frequently look into the schoolroom to see how little Arthur got on with his new companion when I was not there.
She was very attentive to his wants and watchful to anticipate them,
Though she talked only to me.
Indeed,
He was seldom in a condition to be talked to.
Had she been other than she was,
I should have felt her presence a great relief to come between us thus,
Except,
Indeed,
That I should have been thoroughly ashamed for any decent person to see him as he often was.
I did not mention my suspicions to Rachel,
But she,
Having sojourned for half a century in this land of sin and sorrow,
Had learned to be suspicious herself.
She told me from the first she was down of that new governess,
And I soon found she watched her quite as narrowly as I did,
And I was glad of it,
For I longed to know the truth.
The atmosphere of Grasstale now seemed to stifle me,
And I could only think of living alone in Wildfell Hall.
At last,
One morning,
Rachel entered my chamber with such intelligence that my resolution was taken before she had ceased to speak.
While she dressed me,
I explained to her my intentions,
And what assistance I should require from her.
I told her which of my things she was to pack up,
And what she was to leave behind for herself,
As I had no other means of recompensing her for this sudden dismissal,
After such a long and faithful service.
"'And what will you do,
Rachel?
' said I.
"'Will you go home,
Or will you seek another place?
' "'I have no home,
Ma'am,
But with you,
' she replied.
"'And if I leave you,
I'll never go into a place again as long as I live.
' "'But I can't afford to live like a lady now,
' returned I.
"'I must be my own maid and my child's nurse.
' "'And what signifies?
' replied she,
In some excitement.
"'You'll want someone to clean and wash and cook,
Won't you?
"'I can do all that,
Never mind the wages.
"'I've got me bits of savings yet,
And if you wouldn't take me,
I should have to find my own "'board and lodgings out of them somewhere,
Or else work among strangers.
"'And it's what I'm not used to.
"'So you can please yourself,
Ma'am.
' "'Her voice quavered as she spoke,
And tears stood in her eyes.
"'I should like it above all else,
Rachel.
"'I'd give you such wages as I could afford,
"'such as I could give to any servant of all work I might employ.
"'But don't you see I should be dragging you down with me "'when you have done nothing to deserve it.
' "'How fiddle!
' ejaculated she.
"'And besides,
My future way of living will be so widely different to the past,
"'so different to all you've been accustomed to.
"'Do you think,
Ma'am,
I can't bear what my missus can?
"'Surely I'm not so proud and dainty as comes to that,
"'and my little master,
Too,
God bless him.
"'But I'm young,
Rachel.
"'I shan't mind it.
"'And Arthur is young,
Too.
"'It will be nothing to him.
' "'Nor to me,
Neither.
"'I'm not so old,
But what I can stand,
Hard fare and hard work.
"'If it's only to help and comfort them as I've loved my own bairns,
"'for I'm too old to bide the thoughts of leaving them in trouble and danger "'and going amongst strangers myself.
' "'Then you shan't,
Rachel,
' cried I,
Embracing my faithful friend.
"'We'll all go together,
And you shall see how the new life suits you.
' "'Bless you,
Honey,
' cried she affectionately,
Returning my embrace.
"'Only let us get shut of this wicked house,
"'and we'll do right in half,
You'll see.
' "'So think I,
' was my answer.
"'And so that point was settled.
"'By that morning's post,
I dispatched a few hasty lines to Frederick,
"'beseeching him to prepare my asylum for my immediate reception.
"'For I should probably come to claim it within a day after the receipt of that note,
"'and telling him in a few words the cause of my sudden resolution.
"'I then wrote three letters of adieu,
The first to Esther Hargrave,
"'in which I told her I found it impossible to stay any longer at Grasdale,
"'or to leave my son under his father's protection.
"'The second was to Millicent,
Much to the same effect,
"'but a little more confidential,
As befitted our longer intimacy.
"'And the third was to my aunt,
A much more difficult and painful undertaking,
"'and therefore I had left it to the last.
"'I had to give her some explanation of the extraordinary step I had taken.
"'I told her I was sensible of my error,
I did not complain of its punishment,
"'and I was sorry to trouble my friends with its consequences.
"'But in duty to my son,
I must submit no longer.
"'It was absolutely necessary he should be delivered from his father's corrupting influence.
"'I would not disclose my place of refuge,
Even to her,
"'in order that she and my uncle might be able,
With truth,
"'to deny all knowledge concerning it.
"'But any communications addressed to me under cover to my brother "'would be certain to reach me.
"'I hoped she and my uncle would pardon the step I had taken,
"'for if they knew all,
I was sure they would not blame me.
"'And I trusted they would not afflict themselves on my account,
"'for if I could but only reach my retreat in safety and keep it unmolested,
"'I should be very happy,
But for the thoughts of them,
"'and should be quite contented to spend my life in obscurity,
"'devoting myself to the training up of my child,
"'and teaching him to avoid the errors of both his parents.
'"
