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 Eight On the morning of a fine June day my first bonnie little nursling and the last of the ancient Earnshaw stock was born,
Continued Mrs Dean.
We were busy with the hay in a far away field when that girl that usually brought her breakfast came running an hour or two soon across the meadow and up the lane calling me as she ran.
Oh such a grand bane,
She panted out,
The finest lad that's ever breathed.
But the doctor said Mrs must go.
He says she's been in consumption this many months.
I heard him tell Mr Hindley and now she's nothing to keep her and she'll be dead before winter.
You must come home directly,
You're to nurse it Nellie,
To feed it with sugar and milk and take care of it day and night.
I wish I were you because it will all be yours when there's no Mrs.
But is she very ill?
I asked,
Flinging down me rake and tying me bonnet.
I guess she is but she looks bravely and she talks as if she thought of living to see it grow a man.
She's out of her head for joy he's such a beauty.
If I were I'm certain I shouldn't die.
I should get better at the bare sight of it,
Spited Kenneth.
I was fairly mad at him.
Day Marcher brought the cherub down to master in the house and his face began to light up when the old croaker steps forward and says Earnshaw it's a blessing your wife has been spared to leave you this son.
When she came I felt convinced we shouldn't keep her long and now I must tell you the winter will probably finish her.
And what did the master answer?
I inquired.
I think he's swole she said but I didn't mind him I was straining to see the bairn.
When we got to Wuthering Heights there he stood at the front door and as I passed in I asked how the baby was.
Nearly ready to run about now he replied.
And the mistress?
Damn the doctor he interrupted.
Frances is quite right she'll be perfectly well by this time next week and if you're going upstairs tell her I've come.
I delivered this message to Mrs Earnshaw and she seemed in flighty spirits.
I hardly spoke a word Ellen and there he's gone out twice crying she said.
Poor soul till within a week of her death that gay heart never failed her and her husband persisted furiously in affirming her health was improving every day.
He told his wife the same story and she seemed to believe him but one night while leaning on his shoulder in the act of saying she thought she should be able to get up tomorrow fit a coffin took her.
He raised her in his arms she put her two hands about his neck her face changed and she was dead.
That was when the child Helton fell wholly into my hands.
Mr Earnshaw provided he saw him healthy never heard him cry and he was content as far as that regarded him.
For himself he grew desperate his sorrow was that of a kind that will not lament.
He neither wept nor prayed for his wife but he cursed and defied.
He gave himself up to reckless dissipation.
The servants couldn't bear his tyrannical and evil conduct long.
Joseph and I were the only two that would stay with him.
I had not the heart to leave him and besides you know I had been his foster sister and excused his behavior more readily than a stranger would.
Joseph remained a hector over tenants and laborers and because it was his vocation to be where he had plenty of wickedness to reprove.
The master's bad ways and bad companions formed a pretty example for Catherine in Heathcliff.
His treatment of the latter was enough to make a fiend of a saint.
Truly it appeared as if Heathcliff were possessed of something diabolical.
He delighted to witness Hitley degrade himself past redemption and he became daily more notable for savage soulless and ferocity.
I couldn't half tell what an infernal house we had.
The curate dropped calling at that point and no one decent came near us.
Unless Edgar Linton's visit to Miss Cathy might be an exception.
At 15 she was the queen of the countryside.
She had no peer and did she turn out a haughty headstrong creature.
I own I didn't like her after infancy was past and I vexed her frequently by trying to bring down her arrogance.
She never took an aversion to me though.
She had a wondrous constancy to old attachments.
Even Heathcliff kept his hold on her affections unalterably and young Linton with all his superiority found it difficult to make an equally deep impression.
He was my late master.
That's his portrait over there.
It used to hang on one side of the fireplace and his wife's on the other.
But hers has been removed or else she might see something of what she was.
Can you make that out?
Mrs.
Dean raised the candle and I discerned a soft featured face exceedingly resembling the young lady at the heights but more pensive and amiable in expression.
It formed a sweet picture.
The long light hair curled slightly on the temples,
The eyes large and serious,
The figure almost too graceful.
I did not marvel how Catherine Earnshaw could forget her first friend for such an individual.
I marveled how much he with a mind to correspond with his person could fancy my idea of Catherine Earnshaw.
A very agreeable portrait I observed Mrs.
Dean.
But he looked better when he was animated,
She said.
That's his everyday countenance.
He wanted spirit in general.
Catherine had kept up her acquaintance with the Linton since her five weeks residence among them.
Mrs.
Dean went on.
She shirked her temptation to show a rough side in their company.
They had the sense to be ashamed of being rude where she experienced such invariable courtesy.
She gained the admiration of Isabella and the heart and soul of her brother.
Acquisitions that flattered her first.
She was full of ambition.
That led her to adopt a double character without exactly intending to deceive anyone.
In the place where she heard Heathcliff termed a vulgar young ruffian,
She took care not to act like him.
But at home she had small inclination to practice politeness that would only be laughed at.
Mr.
Edgar,
Meanwhile,
Seldom mustered courage to visit Wuthering Heights.
He had a terror of Earnshaw's reputation and shrunk from encountering him.
And the master himself avoided offending him,
Knowing why Mr.
Edgar came.
And if he could not be gracious,
He just kept out of the way.
I rather think Mr.
Edgar's appearance was distasteful to Catherine.
She was not artful and she never played the coquette.
I think she had an objection to her two friends meeting at all.
When Heathcliff expressed contempt of Mr.
Edgar in his presence,
She couldn't half coincide,
As she did in his absence.
And when Mr.
Edgar in disgust and antipathy to Heathcliff,
She dared not treat his sentiments with indifference,
As if depreciation of her playmates were scarcely any consequence to her.
Mr.
Hindley went from home one afternoon,
And Heathcliff presumed to give himself a holiday on the strength of it.
He came into the house to announce his intention of doing nothing,
While I was assisting Miss Cathy to arrange her dress.
She had not reckoned on his taking it into his head to be idle,
And imagining she'd have the whole place to herself.
She managed to inform Mr.
Edgar of her brother's absence,
And was preparing to receive him.
"'Cathy,
Are you busy this afternoon?
' asked Heathcliff.
"'Are you going anywhere?
' "'No,
It's raining,
' she answered.
"'Why have you that silk frock on then?
' he said.
"'Nobody coming here,
I hope?
' "'Not that I know of,
' she stammered.
"'But you should be in the field now,
Heathcliff.
It's an hour past dinner time.
I thought you were gone.
' "'Hindley doesn't often free us from his accursed presence,
' offered the boy.
"'I'll not work any more today.
I'll stay with you.
' "'But Joseph will tell,
' suggested Cathy.
"'You'd better go.
"'Joseph's loading lime on the further side of Penistone Crags.
He'll take him till dark,
And he'll never know.
' Heathcliff persisted.
Then he lounged at the fire and sat down.
Catherine reflected an instant with knitted brows.
She found it needful to smooth the way for an intrusion.
"'Isabella and Edgar Lington talked of calling this afternoon,
' she said at the conclusion of a minute's silence.
"'As it rains,
I can hardly expect them,
But they may come,
And if they do,
You run the risk of being scolded for no good.
"'Order Ellen to say you're engaged,
Cathy,
' he persisted.
"'Don't turn me out for those pitiful silly friends of yours.
I'm on the point sometimes of complaining that they—' But are not.
"'That they what?
' cried Catherine,
Gazing at him with a troubled countenance.
"'Oh,
Nellie,
' she said to me,
Jerking her head away from my hands.
"'You've combed my hair quite out of curl.
That's enough.
Let me alone.
' "'What are you on the point of complaining about,
Heathcliff?
' "'Nothing.
Only look at that almanac on the wall.
' He pointed to a framed sheet hanging near the window and continued,
"'The crosses are for the evenings you've spent with the Lintons.
"'The dots for those you've spent with me.
"'Do you see?
I've marked every day.
' "'Yes,
Very foolish as if I took notice,
' replied Catherine in a peevish tone.
"'And where's the sense of that?
' "'To show that I do take notice,
' said Heathcliff.
"'Should I always be sitting with you?
' she demanded,
Growing more irritated.
"'What good do I get?
What do you talk about?
"'You might be dumb or a baby for anything you say to me,
Or for anything you do,
Either.
' "'You never told me before I talked too little,
Or that you disliked my company,
Cathy,
' exclaimed Heathcliff in much agitation.
"'There's no company at all.
When people know nothing and say nothing,
' she muttered.
"'Then,
' went on Mrs Dean,
Her companion rose up,
But he hadn't time to express his feelings further,
For a horse's feet were heard on the flags,
And having knocked gently,
Young Linton entered.
Edgar Linton.
"'The contrast resembled what you see in exchange in a bleak,
Hilly,
Cold country for a beautiful,
Fertile valley,
And his voice and greeting were as opposite as his aspect.
He had a sweet,
Low manner of speaking,
And pronounced his words as you do,
That's less gruff than we talk here,
And softer.
"'I'm not too soon to come,
' said he,
And I began to wipe the plate and tidy some drawers at the far end in the dresser.
"'No,
' said Cathy.
"'Then she answered what I was doing there.
"'My work,
Miss,
' I said.
"'Then she stepped behind me and whispered crossly,
"'Take yourself and your dusters off.
"'When company in the house servants don't commence scouring and cleaning "'in the room where they are.
' "'I didn't take kindly to that.
"'Then supposing Edgar couldn't see her,
"'she snatched a cloth from my hand and pinched me.
"'Very spitefully on the arm.
"'I said I didn't love her and rather relish mortifying her vanity now and then.
"'Besides,
She hurt me extremely.
"'I didn't touch you,
You lying creature,
' she cried back,
Her fingers tingling to repeat the act,
And her ears red with rage.
"'She never had power to conceal her passion,
' did Cathy.
"'It always set her whole complexion in a blaze.
"'Then she stamped her foot,
She wavered a moment,
"'and impelled by the naughty spirit within her slapped me on the cheek,
"'a stinging blow that filled both my eyes.
' "'Mr Edgar couldn't believe it.
"'Catherine loved Catherine,
' he interposed,
"'shocked at the double fault of force and violence which his idol had committed.
"'Leave their own,
' she screamed at me.
"'A little hairtain who followed me everywhere "'and was sitting near me on the floor.
"'See,
My eyes!
' "'Crying!
Commence crying himself!
' "'He sopped out complaints such as Wicked Aunt Cathy,
"'which drew her fury onto his unlucky head.
"'She seized his shoulders and shook him till the poor child waxed livid.
"'Edgar thoughtlessly laid hold of her hands to deliver him,
"'and in an instant one was wrung free,
"'and the astonished young man felt it applied over his own ear "'in a way that couldn't be mistaken for jest.
"'The insulted visitor moved to the spot where he laid his hat,
"'pale and with a quivering lip.
"'Where are you going?
' demanded Cathy,
Advancing to the door,
"'but he swerved aside and attempted to pass.
"'You must not go!
' she exclaimed energetically.
"'I must and I shall,
' he replied.
"'No!
' she persisted,
Grasping the handle.
"'Sit down.
You shall not leave me in that temper.
"'I shall be miserable all night,
And I won't be miserable for you.
"'You've made me afraid and ashamed of you,
' he said.
"'I'll not come here again.
' "'Then her eyes began to glisten and her lids began to twinkle,
"'and she dropped down on her knees by a chair "'and set to weeping in serious earnest.
"'You'd best be riding home,
"'or else you'll be sick only to grieve us,
' I warned him,
"'and he looked askance through the window "'as if he possessed the power to depart "'as much as a cat possesses the power to leave a mouse half-killed "'or a bird half-eaten.
"'Oh,
' I thought,
"'there'll be no saving him now.
"'He's doomed and flies to his face.
' "'So it was.
"'He shut the door behind him,
"'and with the return of Earnshaw,
Blind drunk,
"'I saw that quarrel had merely affected a closer intimacy between them.
"'It had broken the outworks of youthful timidity "'and enabled them to forsake the disguise of their friendship "'and confess themselves lovers.
"'After that,
Mr.
Edgar ran speedily to his horse "'and Catherine to her chamber.
"'I went to hide little Hairton away from Earnshaw "'and to take the shot out of the master's fowling-piece "'which he was fond of playing with his insane excitement,
"'and there and then I hit upon a plan of removing that gun,
"'that he might do less mischief if he did go the length of firing it himself.
'
