Грозовой перевал / Wuthering Heights

Later that evening, I persuaded Miss Cathy to come downstairs and say goodbye to her guests. Then I took Heathcliff to the kitchen to give him some food. He hadn’t eaten a thing since lunchtime the day before, but he soon pushed the food away, and sat at the table in silence with his head in his hands. At last, I asked him what he was thinking and he replied very solemnly, «I’m trying to work out how I shall pay Hindley back. And I don’t care how long I wait, just so long as I do it at last.»

Edgar and Cathy

The next summer, Hindley’s son, Hareton, was born. I was working in the fields when a girl came running up from the house, calling to me as she ran,

«Oh such a beautiful boy!» she panted. «The finest lad that ever breathed. But Doctor Kenneth says the mistress won’t last. He says she’s been sick for months. I heard him tell Mr. Hindley that now she’s had the baby, she won’t keep on fighting any more, and he reckons she’ll be dead before the winter. You must come home straightaway, Nelly, to look after the baby. You’re going to be his nurse, and care for him day and night, and soon he’ll be all yours when the mistress is dead!»

«But is she so very ill?» I asked, flinging down my rake.

«I guess she is, although she tries to look cheerful,» replied the girl, «and she talks as though she’ll see her son grow up to be a man. She’s out of her mind with joy because he’s such a beauty!»

I hurried home as fast as I could, excited to see the child, although I was sad for Hindley too. He loved only two people in the world – his wife and himself – and I didn’t know how he would live without her.

When I reached Wuthering Heights, Hindley was at the front door, and I asked him how the baby was.

«Nearly ready to run around!» he replied, putting on a cheerful smile.

«And the Mistress?» I dared to ask. «The doctor says she’s…»

«Damn the doctor!» he interrupted. «Frances is quite well – she’ll be perfectly fine by this time next week. But will you please tell her not to talk, so she can recover fast… Doctor Kenneth has left orders that she must be quiet»

I gave this message to his wife, who replied cheerfully, «I hardly say a word, Nelly, but each time I do, he leaves the room crying. Well, I promise I won’t talk again, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t laugh at him.»

Poor soul! Until a week before her death, young Mrs. Earnshaw was so cheerful and brave, and Hindley insisted furiously that her health was improving every day. When Doctor Kenneth warned him that his wife had reached the stage of her illness when his medicines were useless, Hindley replied stubbornly, «I know she doesn’t need them. She’s perfectly well now. She’s had a fever, but that’s all gone.»

Hindley told his wife the same story, and she seemed to believe him. But one night, while she was leaning on his shoulder and saying that she thought she would get up tomorrow, she was seized with a coughing fit[28] – just a very small one. Hindley held her in his arms and she put her arms around his neck. Then her face changed and she was dead.

As the serving girl had predicted, I was completely in charge of young Hareton after Mrs. Earnshaw died. Hindley left everything to me, only insisting that he should never have to hear his baby cry. He was desperate with grief for his wife, and spent his days drinking and cursing, blaming God and everyone around him for sending him such a punishment. The servants couldn’t bear this treatment long, and one by one they left the Heights. Very soon, only Joseph and I were left to take care of the house.

Hindley’s bad temper and drunkenness set a terrible example for the children, and his treatment of Heathcliff was enough to turn a saint into a fiend. But the boy put up with it all without complaining, and even seemed to delight in seeing Hindley sink lower and lower. Eventually, everyone stopped calling at the Heights. Miss Cathy’s tutor had long since gone, and the only visitors we had were young Isabella and Edgar Linton. Of course, Edgar was terrified of Hindley, but he would have braved anything for a chance to see Cathy.

By the time Miss Cathy was fifteen years old, she was the most beautiful girl for miles around. But she could be wild and headstrong when she didn’t get her way[29]. Heathcliff was equally stubborn, and he had become very rough. For a while he struggled to keep up his studying, but by the time he was sixteen he had given up reading and writing completely. His clothes were always filthy and he had a permanent scowl on his face. When he wasn’t working, Cathy and he were still constant companions, but he had stopped showing any affection for her, and he shrank away with angry suspicion from her hugs and kisses.