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 17 That Friday made the last of our fine days for a month.
In the evening the weather broke.
The wind shifted from south to northeast and brought rain fast,
Then sleet and snow.
On the morrow,
One could hardly imagine there had been three weeks of summer.
The primroses and crocuses were hidden under wintry drifts.
The larks were silent,
The young leaves of the early trees smitten and blackened.
And dreary and chill and dismal,
That morrow did creep over.
My master kept his room.
I took possession of the lonely parlour,
I took possession of the lonely parlour,
Converting it into a nursery.
And there I was,
Sitting with a moaning doll of a child laid on my knee,
Rocking it to and fro,
And watching meanwhile the still driving flakes build up the uncurtained window when the door opened and some person entered out of breath and laughing.
My anger was greater than my astonishment for a minute.
I supposed it one of the maids,
And I cried,
"'Ad done,
How dare you show your giddiness here?
What would Mr.
Linton say of your urger?
' "'Excuse me,
' answered a familiar voice,
"'but I know Edgar's in bed,
And I cannot help myself.
' With that the speaker came forward to the fire,
Panting and holding her hand to her side.
"'I have run the whole way from Wuthering Heights,
' she continued after a pause,
"'except where I've flown.
I couldn't count the number of falls I've had,
And I'm aching all over.
"'Don't be alarmed,
There shall be an explanation as soon as I can give it.
Only just have the goodness to step out and order the carriage to take me on to Gimmerton,
And tell a servant to seek up a few clothes in my wardrobe.
' The intruder was Mrs.
Heathcliff.
She certainly seemed in no laughing predicament,
Her hair streamed on her shoulders dripping with snow and water.
She was dressed in the girlish dress she commonly wore,
Perfitting her age more than her position,
A low frock with short sleeves and nothing on either head or neck.
The frock was of light silk,
And clung to her with wet,
And her feet were protected merely by thin slippers.
Add to this a deep cut under one ear,
Which only the cold prevented from bleeding profusely,
A white face scratched and bruised,
And a frame hardly able to support itself through fatigue,
And you may fancy my first fright was not much allayed when I had leisure to examine her.
"'My dear young lady,
' I exclaimed,
"'I'll stir nowhere and hear nothing till you've removed every article of your clothes and put on dry things,
And certainly you'll not go to Gimmerton to-night,
So it's needless to order the carriage.
' "'Certainly I shall,
' she said,
Walking or riding,
Yet I've no objection to dress myself decently,
And,
Ah,
See how it flows down my neck now,
The fire does make it start.
' She insisted on my fulfilling her directions before she would let me touch her,
And not till after the coachman had been instructed to get ready,
And a maid set to pack up some necessary attire,
Did I obtain her consent for binding the wound.
"'Now,
Helen,
' she said,
"'you sit down opposite me and put poor Catherine's baby away,
I don't like to see it.
You mustn't think I care little for Catherine,
Because I behave so foolishly on entering.
I've cried,
Too,
Bitterly,
More than anyone has a reason to cry.
We parted unreconciled,
You remember,
And I shan't forgive myself,
But for all that I was not going to sympathise with him,
The brute beast.
Oh,
Give me the poker,
This is the last thing of his I have about me.
' She slipped the gold ring from her third finger and threw it on the floor.
"'I'll smash it,
' she continued,
Striking it with childish spite,
"'then I'll burn it,
' and she took and dropped the misused article among the coals.
"'There,
He shall buy another if he gets me back again,
He'd be capable of coming to seek me,
To tease Edgar,
I dare not say.
And besides,
Edgar has not been kind,
Has he,
And I won't come suing for his assistance,
Nor will I bring him more trouble.
Necessity compelled me to seek shelter here,
Though,
If I had not learnt he was out of the way.
I'd have haunted at the kitchen,
Washed my face,
Warmed myself,
And got you to bring what I wanted.
"'And of that incarnate goblin!
He was in such a fury,
If he'd caught me!
It's a pity Earnshaw's not his matching strength.
I wouldn't have run till I'd seen him all,
But demolished had Hindley been able to do it.
"'Well,
Don't talk so fast,
Miss,
' I interrupted,
"'you'll disorder the handkerchief I've tied round your face and make the cup bleed again.
"'Drink your tea and take breath,
And give over laughing,
"'and after I sadly outplace under this roof,
And in your condition.
' "'An undeniable truth,
' she replied.
"'Listen to that child,
It maintains a constant wail.
"'Send it out of my hearing for an hour,
I can't stay any longer.
' "'I rang the bell and committed it to a servant's care,
And then inquired what had urged her to escape from Wuthering Heights in such an unlikely plight,
And where she meant to go as she refused remaining with us.
"'I ought and wish to remain,
' answered she,
"'to cheer Edgar and take care of the baby for two things,
"'and because the Grange is my right home,
But I tell you he wouldn't let me.
"'Do you think he could bear to see me grow fat and merry?
"'Could bear to think we were tranquil and not resolve on poisoning our comfort?
"'Now I have the satisfaction of being sure he detests me,
"'to the point of it's annoying him seriously to have me within earshot or eyesight.
"'I notice when I enter his presence,
The muscles of his countenance involuntary "'distort into an expression of hatred,
"'partly arising from his knowledge of the good causes I have to feel that sentiment for him,
"'and partly from original aversion.
"'It's not strong enough to make me feel pretty certain he would not chase me over England,
"'supposing I contrived a clear escape,
And therefore I must get quite away.
"'I've recovered from my first desire to be killed by him,
I'd rather he killed himself.
"'He has extinguished my love effectually,
And so I'm at my ease.
"'I can recollect yet how I love him,
And can dimly imagine I could still be loving him if.
.
.
"'No.
Even if he doted on me,
The devilish nature would have revealed his existence somehow.
"'Catherine had an awfully perverted taste to esteem him so dearly,
Knowing him so well.
"'Monster!
Would that he could be blotted out of creation,
And out of my memory.
"'Hush,
' said I,
"'be more charitable,
There's worse men than he is yet.
"'He's not a human being,
' said Isabella,
"'and he has no claim on my charity.
"'I gave him my heart and he took it and pinched it to death and flung it back at me.
"'People fill with their hearts,
Ellen,
And since he has destroyed mine,
I have not power to fill for him,
"'and would not,
Though he groaned from this to the dying day and wept tears of blood for Catherine.
"'No,
Indeed I wouldn't.
' "'Then Isabella began to cry,
But immediately dashing the water from her lashes,
She recommenced.
"'Yesterday,
You know,
Mr Earnshaw should have been at the funeral.
"'He kept himself sober for the purpose,
"'tolerably sober,
Not going to bed mad at six o'clock and getting up drunk at twelve.
"'Consequently he rose in suicidal low spirits,
As fit for the church as for a dance,
"'and instead he sat down by the fire and swallowed gin or brandy by tumblefalls.
"'Eastcliff,
I shudder to name him,
Has been a stranger in the house from last Sunday till today.
"'Whether the angels have fed him or his kin beneath,
I cannot tell,
"'but he has not eaten a meal with us for nearly a week.
"'He has just come home at dawn and gone upstairs to his chamber,
"'locking himself in as if anybody dreamt of coveting his company.
"'There is he's continued praying like a Methodist,
"'only the deity implored his senseless dust and ashes,
"'and God,
When addressed,
Was curiously confounded with his own black father.
"'Whenever Heathcliff is in,
I'm often obliged to seek the kitchen in their society "'or starve among the damp,
Uninhabited chambers.
"'When he's not,
As was the case this week,
"'I establish a table and chair at one call of the house fire,
"'and never mind how Mr Earnshaw may occupy himself.
"'He's quieter now than he used to be if no one provokes him,
"'more sullen and depressed and less furious.
"'Joseph affirms he's an altered man,
That the Lord has touched his heart.
"'I'm puzzled to detect signs of a favourable change,
But it's not my business.
"'Hindy,
Meanwhile,
Sat opposite.
"'He'd ceased drinking at a point below irrationality,
"'and neither stirred nor spoke during two or three hours.
"'There was no sound through the house but the moaning wind,
"'which shook the windows every now and then,
"'the faint crackling of the coals,
"'and the click of my snuffers as I removed at intervals,
"'the long wick of the candle.
"'Hairton and Joseph were probably fast asleep in bed.
"'It was very,
Very sad,
And while I read I sighed,
"'for it seemed as if all joy had vanished from the world,
"'never to be restored.
'
