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.
That's it.
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 Six Mr Hindley came home to the funeral,
Continued Mrs Dean,
And a thing that amazed us and set the neighbours gossiping right and left,
He brought a wife with him.
What she was and where she was born he never informed us.
Probably she'd neither money nor name to recommend her or he would scarcely have kept the union from his father.
She was not one that would have disturbed the house much on her own account.
Every object she saw the moment she crossed the threshold appeared to delight her and every circumstance that took place except the preparing for the burial and the presence of the mourners.
I thought she was half silly from her behaviour while that went on.
She ran into her chamber and made me come with her though I should have been dressing the children and there she sat shivering and clasping her hands and asking repeatedly,
Are they gone yet?
Then she began describing with hysterical emotion the effect it produced on her to see black and started and trembled and at last fell a-weeping.
When I asked what was the matter she didn't know but she felt so afraid of dying.
I imagined her as little likely to die as myself.
She was rather thin but young and fresh complexioned and her eyes sparkled as bright as diamonds.
I did remark to be sure that mounting the stairs made her breathe very quick,
That the least sudden noise set her all in a quiver and she coughed troublesomely sometimes but I knew nothing of what these symptoms portended and I had no impulse to sympathise with her.
We don't in general take to foreigners here Miss Lockwood unless they take to us first.
Young Earnshaw was altered considerably in the three years of his absence.
He'd grown sparer and lost his colour and spoke and dressed quite differently and on the very day of his return he told Joseph and me we must thenceforth quarter ourselves in the back kitchen and leave the house for him.
Indeed he would have carpeted and pavered a small spare room for a parlour but his wife expressed such pleasure at the white floor and huge glowing fireplace,
The pewter dishes and delft case and dog kennel and the wide space there was to move about him when they usually sat that he thought it unnecessary to her comfort and so dropped the intention.
She expressed pleasure too at finding a sister among her new acquaintance and she prattled to Catherine and kissed her and ran about with her and gave her quantities of presents at the beginning but her affection tired very soon and when she grew peevish Hindley became too radical.
A few words from her,
Convincing a dislike to Heathcliff were enough to rouse him in all his old hatred of the boy.
He drove him from their company to the servants,
Deprived him of the instructions of the curate and insisted he should labour out of doors instead,
Compelling him to do so hard as any other lad on the farm.
Heathcliff bore his degradation pretty well at first because Cathy taught him what she learnt and worked or played with him in the fields.
They both promised to grow up as rude as savages,
The young master being entirely negligent how they behaved and what they did and they kept clear of him.
He would not even have seen after they're going to church on Sundays only Joseph and the curate reprimanded his carelessness when they absented themselves and that reminded him to order Heathcliff a flogging and Catherine a fast from dinner or supper.
But it was one of their chief amusements to run away to the moors in the morning and remain there all day.
The after punishment grew a mere thing to laugh at.
The curate might set as many chapters as he pleased for Catherine and Joseph might thrash Heathcliff till his arm ached.
They soon forgot everything the minute they were together,
At least the minute they contrived some naughty plan of revenge.
One Sunday evening it chanced they were banished from the sitting room for making a noise or a light offence of the kind and when I called them to supper I could discover them nowhere.
We searched the house,
The yard,
The stables but they were invisible and at last in a passion Hindy told us to bolt the doors and swore nobody should let them in that night.
The whole household went to bed but I too anxious to lie down opened my lattice and put my head out to hearken although it rained.
I was determined to admit them in spite of the prohibition should they return.
In a while I distinguished steps coming up the road and the light of a lantern glimmered through the gate.
I threw a shawl over my head and ran to prevent them from waking Mr Earnshaw up and there was Heathcliff by himself.
Gave me a start to see him alone.
Where is Miss Catherine?
I cried hurriedly,
No accident I hope.
At Thrushcross Grange he answered and I would have been there too had they not the manners to ask me to stay.
Oh you'll catch it,
I said,
You'll never be content till you're sent about your business.
When the world led you to wandering to Thrushcross Grange.
Let me get off my wet clothes and I'll tell you about it Nellie,
Said Heathcliff.
I bid him beware of rousing the master and while he undressed and I waited to put out the candle he continued.
Cathy and I escaped from the wash house to have a ramble at Liberty and getting a glimpse of the Grange lights we thought we'd go and see whether the Lintons passed their Sunday evening standing shivering in corners while their father and mother sat eating and drinking and singing and laughing.
Do you think they do?
Says he,
All reading sermons and being catechised by their manservant if they don't answer properly.
Probably not,
I responded.
They're good children no doubt and don't deserve the treatment you receive for your bad conduct.
Don't can't Nellie,
He said back.
Nonsense,
We ran from the top of the heights to the park without stopping.
Catherine completely beaten in the race because she was barefoot.
Oh they were wild those two when they were together but funnily enough old Mr and Mrs Linton,
He told me,
Weren't even there.
Edgar and his sisters had Thrushcross Grange entirely to themselves.
Shouldn't they have been happy,
He said.
We should have thought ourselves in heaven,
Me and Cathy,
But they weren't.
I'd not exchange for a thousand lives my condition here for Edgar Linton's Thrushcross Grange,
Said Heathcliff,
Not if I might have the privilege of flinging Joseph off the highest gable and painting the house front with Hindley's blood.
Hush hush,
I told him,
Still you've not told me how Catherine's left behind.
We laughed,
He answered,
At how miserable they were and then the Lintons heard us and with one accord they shot like arrows to the door.
Oh mama,
Oh papa,
They cried.
Come here,
Come here.
They howled out something in that way.
We made frightful noises to terrify them still more.
Then we dropped off the ledge because somebody was drawing the bars and we thought we'd better flee.
Run Heathcliff,
Run,
Said Cathy.
They've let the bulldog loose and he holds me.
Devil had seized her ankle,
So Heathcliff told me.
He heard his abominable snorting but she didn't yell out.
She would have scorned to do it if she'd been spitted on the horns of a mad cow.
Then a beast of a servant came up with a lantern shouting,
Keep fast,
Keep fast.
The dog was throttled off,
His huge purple tongue hanging half a foot out of his mouth.
The man took Cathy up and she was sick,
Not from fear,
Heathcliff said,
But from pain.
He carried her in and then Heathcliff followed him,
Grumbling vengeance.
Now inside,
Mrs Linton placed her spectacles on her nose and raised her hands in horror.
The cowardly children crept nearer also to stare at Cathy and Heathcliff.
That's Miss Earnshaw,
Young Edgar,
To his mother.
Miss Earnshaw,
Nonsense,
His mother replied.
She wouldn't be scouring the country with a gypsy.
Heathcliff didn't like that.
A gypsy,
She called him.
What culpable carelessness in her brother,
Exclaimed Mr Linton,
Turning from staring at Heathcliff and Cathy.
Hindley lets her grow up in absolute heathenism.
Where does she pick up this boy?
He's wicked at all events,
Said the old lady.
Then,
Says Heathcliff,
I started cursing.
He asked me not to be angry and he said he refused to go without Cathy.
But the servant dragged him off into the garden,
Pushed the lantern into his hand and assured him that Mr Earnshaw should be informed of his behaviour.
But I,
Said Heathcliff,
Stayed outside to watch.
They dried and combed Cathy's beautiful hair and gave her a piece of enormous slippers,
He said,
And willed her to the fire.
He could see they were full of stupid admiration,
He said.
He remarked on how she was so immeasurably superior to everyone.
But I,
Of course,
Knew the trouble they were in.
There'll be more of this business than you reckon on,
I told him,
Covering him up and extinguishing his light.
You're incurable,
Heathcliff,
I said,
And Mr Hindley will have to proceed to extremities,
See if he won't.
As it happens,
My words came truer than I desired.
The luckless adventure they had made Earnshaw furious.
Then Mr Linton,
To men matters,
Paid us a visit himself on the morrow and read the young master such a lecture on the road he guided his family that he was stirred to look about him in earnest.
Heathcliff received no flogging,
But he was told the first word he spoke to Miss Catherine should ensure a dismissal.
And Mrs Earnshaw undertook to keep her sister-in-law in due restraint when she returned home,
Employing art,
Not force.
With force she'd have found it impossible.
