Chapter 29

Isabella escapes

01 'Hindley had fallen unconscious with pain. Blood flowed from a large wound in his arm. Heathcliff kicked him, holding me with one hand meanwhile, to prevent me from fetching Joseph. At last, out of breath, he dragged the seemingly lifeless body on to a bench, and bound up the wound with cruel roughness. Freed for the moment, I went in search of the old servant.

02 '"Your master's mad," shouted Heathcliff, "and if he lives for another month, I'll have him put in a madhouse. Wash that stuff away." He gave Joseph a push on to his knees in the middle of the blood, and turned to me.

03 '"You shall help, too," he said. "You join with him against me, do you?"

04 'He shook me violently.

05 'Later, Hindley showed signs of life, and Heathcliff, knowing that he could not remember the treatment received while he was unconscious, blamed him for being drunk, and advised him to get to bed.

06 'This morning, when I came down, Hindley was sitting by the fire, deathly sick. His enemy, looking almost as ill, leant against the chimney. Heathcliff did not look at me. His eyes were dull with sleeplessness and weeping, and his lips closed in an expression of indescribable sadness. If it had been anyone else, I should have covered my face in the presence of such grief. In his case, I felt pleasure. I couldn't miss this chance of causing him pain.

07 'Hindley wanted some water. I handed him a glass, and asked him how he was feeling.

08 '"Not as ill as I wish," he replied. "But besides my arm, every inch of my body is sore."

09 '"Your enemy kicked you last night, and threw you on the floor," I told him. "It's enough that he has murdered one of you," I went on aloud. "At the Grange, everyone knows that your sister would have been living now, if it had not been for Mr Heathcliff."

10 'Heathcliff's attention was awakened. He wept, and I laughed.

11 '"Get out of my sight!" he said.

12 '"If poor Catherine had trusted you, and accepted the degrading title of Mrs Heathcliff," I continued, "she would soon have sunk into a state similar to her brother's. She wouldn't have borne your shameful behaviour quietly!"

13 'Heathcliff made a sudden movement. He picked up a dinner knife from the table and threw it at my head. It struck beneath my ear, and stopped the words I was about to say. I sprang to the door. The last sight I had of him was a furious rush by him, prevented by Hindley. They both fell together. I ran through the kitchen, knocking over Hareton, and escaped down the steep road, then straight across the moor, rolling over banks, struggling through pools of water, aiming for the blessed shelter of the Grange. And I would rather it were my fate to live for ever in torment, than even for one night, remain beneath the roof of Wuthering Heights again.'

14 Isabella ended her story, and took a drink of tea. Then she rose, and turning a deaf ear to my wish that she should remain another hour, stepped on to a chair, kissed the pictures of Edgar and Catherine hanging on the wall, did the same to me, and went downstairs to the carriage.

15 She was driven away, never to revisit the district, but when things were more settled, there was a regular exchange of letters between her and my master. I believe she lived in the south, near London. There she had a son born a few months later. It was named Linton, and from the first it was a weak, complaining little thing.

16 Heathcliff, meeting me one day in the village, inquired where she lived. I refused to tell, but he discovered, through some of the other servants, both where she was, and the existence of the child. Still he left her alone, though he often asked how the baby was.

17 'I'll have it when I want it,' he said.

18 Fortunately, the mother died before that time came.