Грозовой перевал / Wuthering Heights

Everyone at the Grange was delighted to see me – and relieved to hear that my mistress was still alive. I hurried up to Mr. Edgar’s room to give him the news and was horrified to see how much he had changed. It was clear he couldn’t last much longer[85].

«Catherine,» he murmured, as he heard me walk over to him.

I touched his hand. «Catherine is coming, dear master!» I whispered. «She’s alive and well, and I hope she will be here tonight.»

He half rose up, and looked eagerly around the room, but then he sank back again. I told him as much as I dared about what had happened up at the Heights.

Mr. Edgar gave orders for four servants to go up to the Heights and bring back his daughter immediately. They were gone for hours, but eventually they returned without her – Heathcliff had frightened them away. I began to be afraid that Mr. Edgar would never see Catherine again, when I heard a noise at the door. It was my brave mistress, who had managed to escape from the Heights. And she ran, sobbing, into my arms.

«Nelly! Nelly! Is papa still alive?»

«Yes, he is, my angel,» I cried. «Thank God you’re safe with us again!»

She wanted to run straight up to her father’s room, but I made her sit quietly and catch her breath[86]. I begged her to tell her father that she was happy with Linton, so he could die peacefully, and she promised me that she would.

I stood outside the bedroom door and heard Edgar and Catherine talking quietly together. Everything was calm. Catherine kept her despair to herself and her father died a happy man. Kissing his daughter’s cheek, he murmured, «I am going to be with Cathy now, and one day you, my darling child, shall come and join us too!»

Heathcliff allowed Catherine to stay at the Grange until the day of Mr. Edgar’s funeral, but that evening he came to take her back to the Heights. I begged him to let her stay at the Grange and send Linton to live with us, but he refused.

«I’m looking for a tenant for Thrushcross Grange,» he answered, «and I want my children near me. Besides, I’m going to make sure that Catherine works for her living.»

«I shall work,» said Catherine, bravely. «And I shall look after Linton, because he’s the only person I have to love in the world. But you, Heathcliff, have no one to love you, and nobody to cry for you when you die!»

«Don’t you talk to me like that, you little witch,» said her new father-in-law grimly. «Now go off and get your things.»

While Catherine was gone, Heathcliff looked around the room, and took down the portrait of Cathy to keep for himself.

«Do you have any idea, Nelly, how Cathy has haunted me over the years?» he said. «Every time I leave my house, she’s waiting for me on the moors, and whenever I come home I see her at the door. I tried sleeping in her room for a while, but it was pure torment. She was always there, crying to be let in, but as soon as I opened the window she was gone. She’s been teasing me like that for eighteen years – killing me by inches until I’m insane with grief.»

After a while, Miss Catherine came in, ready for her journey. When she kissed me goodbye, her lips felt like ice.

«Come and see me soon, Nelly. Please don’t forget.»

«You’ll do no such thing!» thundered Heathcliff. «I’ll have no more prying in my house![87]»

I watched the two of them walk away with a very heavy heart.

Since Miss Catherine left the Grange, almost a year ago, I have never seen her face. But Zillah, the housekeeper, has given me some news. I believe that Catherine tried her hardest to look after her husband. Heathcliff refused to call a doctor, and Linton only lasted a few weeks after their marriage. In the end, he died in agony, with only Catherine by his side. Heathcliff inherited all his son’s property and Catherine has nothing of her own.

It must be so lonely for my dear Catherine up at Wuthering Heights. Joseph and Zillah won’t talk to her because they think that she’s too proud, and Heathcliff despises her. Only Hareton shows her any kindness, but she takes no notice of him because he’s so rough and uneducated. What would make me happiest of all would be to rent a little cottage and live with Miss Catherine again, but I know that Heathcliff would never allow it.

That was the sad end of Nelly Dean’s story. After weeks of listening to her memories, I wanted to leave the moors and return to my life in London again. So I decided to ride over to Wuthering Heights the very next day and tell my landlord about my plans. I certainly don’t intend to spend another winter in this wild and desolate place.

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