Jane Slayre (35 page)

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"I told her no. I'll have only you."

"Do let her go, Mr. Rochester, if you please. It would be better."

He sighed. "Then off for your bonnet, Adele, and back like a flash of lightning!"

She obeyed him with what speed she might.

"After all, a single morning's interruption will not matter much," he said, "when I mean shortly to claim you--your thoughts, conversation, and company--for life."

The hour spent at Millcote was somewhat harassing me. Mr. Rochester obliged me to go to a certain silk warehouse. There I was ordered to choose a half dozen dresses. I hated the business. I begged leave to defer it. No, he was insistent. It should be gone through with now. If I could not choose, he vowed he would select himself, and he did. He fixed on a rich silk of the most brilliant amethyst dye, and a superb pink satin. Before he chose the rest in crimson or spun of pure gold, I persuaded him to add some sober black satins and a pearl-grey silk.

According to the warehouse manager, unfortunately, one black satin was not the same as the next. There were shades of black--onyx, ebony, midnight--and satins of varying sheens. He could have his assistant, quite the expert eye in blacks, show me a few while he showed the gentleman some fine manly patterns for waistcoats and ascots. I tried to refuse, but Mr. Rochester insisted that he keep Adele with him while I had a look and chose the very ones that I preferred. I sensed the shop manager simply wanted more of Mr. Rochester's money, but there was no point in arguing. I allowed the dreary assistant to show me to the store of black satins.

After seeing skeins after skeins of black satins, I still couldn't tell a bit of difference between them.

"Perhaps if there was more light?" I said, feeling anxiously torn between them. "Could we go near a window?"

"Heavens, no," she said. Her black hair, possibly ebony but perhaps

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closer to midnight, was pulled back so tight that her eyes seemed constricted. "Natural light is the worst thing for viewing fabrics. I'll fetch a lamp."

A lamp? It occurred to me that the entire warehouse was kept rather dark for showing fabrics, but the back room was so dark I could barely tell between black and grey, let alone distinguish between shades of the same colour. That's when I knew that my anxiety was not simply brought on by nerves from shopping. My queer feeling was at work, a warning. The assistant was a vampyre!

She returned with the lamp and began to show me what she stated to be the differences between one and the next.

"I think I begin to see," I said, holding up one that looked every bit the same as the next. "This one is rather like your eyes. Quite an unnatural hue."

"Dark eyes run in my family." She might have blushed if she had the ability.

"How did you come to be working in a silk warehouse? It seems too dreary an occupation for a young woman. But perhaps there's plenty to eat."

"I don't know what you mean."

"Don't you? Travellers must come from all over to sell you their wares. I wonder, how many of them make it safely back home to their families?"

She glared, rather like Georgiana Reed used to glare at Eliza, her round face becoming sharp and shrewish. With a shrug, she lowered one skein and pretended to reach for another, but instead she gripped me by the throat and bared her fangs. "What do you know of it? Do you want a bite, then?"

"No indeed." Her grip was solid, and I knew I could not break out of it by pulling away.

Instead, I dropped straight to the ground in a move that Miss Temple once showed me and I hadn't tried in years, one leg forward, one leg back. She called it the splits. The sudden move disoriented my opponent and allowed me to reach into my skirt for

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my stakes and spring back to my feet in fighting form. I faced her, stakes extended.

"Oh, you like to play," she purred, casually strolling towards me. "Mother always warned me not to play with my food."

Before I could adequately prepare for combat, she flew through the air with acrobatic speed and delivered a solid kick to my solar plexus. It knocked me back a few feet, right to the floor. I couldn't catch my breath! I couldn't move. And she kept coming at me. I had to think fast. I remained down and let her come. At the last second, as she leapt for me, I rolled to the side and sprang to my feet. Bolts of fabric lined the walls to cushion her impact. She bounced back and snarled in my direction.

I could tell she was prepared to make another run at me. In the back of the room, on the other side, there was a door. My one hope was that the door led to the outdoors, and sunlight. I ran for it. As predicted, she ran after me, close on my heels. Vampyres, unlike zombies, were fast. My lungs burned with the effort of making it to the door before she made it to me.

My hand on the knob, I turned. So focused on devouring me, perhaps, she didn't notice I was at the door, she flew at me in a fury. At the last second, I turned the knob, opened the door, and sunlight flooded in, causing her to recoil, hands over her face.

"No!" she screamed. "No, stop! It burns. It burns!"

While she was still protecting her face from the sun, I stepped forward and stabbed the stake right through her heart. Poof! Dust. I didn't bother extricating my stake from her frock, which pooled on the floor. I had plenty more at home.

The warehouse manager peeked his head in the door at the other side of the room, followed closely by Mr. Rochester and Adele. "Was that a scream?"

"Yes." I indicated the open door. "The oddest thing. Your assistant decided that I was hopeless to choose one black satin from another. It drove her to such distraction that she ran screaming right out that door. Any black satin will do. I leave it in your capable

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hands." he would no doubt simply choose the most expensive. Turning to Mr. Rochester, I said, "Shall we go, sir?"

I moved past the men to take little Adele by the hand and lead the way back to the front of the shop.

Glad was I to get him out of the silk warehouse, and then out of a jeweler's shop. As we reentered the carriage and I sat back feverish and fagged, I remembered what, in the hurry of events, dark and bright, I had wholly forgotten--the letter of my uncle John Slayre to Mrs. Reed, his intention to adopt me and make me his legatee.

It would indeed be a relief, I thought, to have a small independency, some income of my own. I would feel more of an equal to my husband and less like his dependent. Yes, that would be ideal! I decided to write to Madeira at once, as soon as I got home, to tell my uncle John that I was alive and to be married, and to whom. Feeling better at the thought, I ventured once more to meet my future husband's eye.

He smiled. I settled little Adele, who also had some new things and was quite content now to sleep on the way home, on the seat to my other side and looked with a serious air at Mr. Rochester.

"I will have you know," I said, "that I do not want to be crushed by obligations. Do you remember what you said of Celine Varens? Of the diamonds, the cashmeres, you gave her? I will welcome a few presents, like the dresses today, which will be needed for our travels, and I thank you. But I will not be your English Celine Varens. I shall continue to act as Adele's governess; by that I shall earn my board and lodging, and thirty pounds a year besides. In future, I'll furnish my own wardrobe out of that money, and you shall give me nothing but--"

"Well, but what?"

"Your regard. And if I give you mine in return, that debt will be quit."

"Well, for cool native impudence and pure innate pride, you haven't your equal." We were now approaching Thornfield. "Will it please you to dine with me today?"

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"No, thank you, sir."

"And what for 'no, thank you?' if one may inquire."

"I never have dined with you, sir, and I see no reason why I should now until we are married."

"Do you suppose I eat like an ogre or a vampyre, that you dread being the companion of my repast?"

"I simply want to go on as usual for another month."

"You will give up your governessing slavery at once."

"Indeed, begging your pardon, sir, I shall not. I shall just go on with it as usual. I shall keep out of your way all day, as I have been accustomed to do. You may send for me in the evening, when you feel disposed to see me, and I'll come then, but at no other time."

"Very well, little tyrant. It is your time now, but it will be mine once we're wed."

He said this as he helped me to alight from the carriage, and while he afterwards lifted out Adele. I entered the house and made good my retreat upstairs.

The month of courtship fled by, its very last hours being numbered. I had nothing more to do. My trunks were packed, locked, corded, arranged in a row along the wall of my little chamber. Tomorrow, at this time, they would be far on their road to London, and so should one Jane Rochester, a person whom as yet I knew not.

My wedding clothes hung in the closet, the pearl-coloured robe and the vapoury veil. I shut the closet to conceal the strange, wraith-like apparel it contained. I paced, then decided to go out for a walk, though it was nine o'clock. Not only did the hurry of preparation make me restless, or the anticipation of the great change--the new life that was to commence tomorrow. Both these circumstances had their share, doubtless, in producing that excited mood that hurried me forth at this late hour into the darkening grounds--but a third cause influenced my mind more than they.

The previous night, something had happened that I could not

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comprehend, perhaps did not want to accept. Mr. Rochester that night was absent from home, and he remained absent for the next few hours. Business had called him to a small estate of two or three farms he possessed thirty miles off, business it was requisite he should settle in person, before his meditated departure from England. I waited now his return, eager to seek of him the solution of the enigma that perplexed me. Stay until he comes, reader; and when I disclose my secret to him, you shall share the confidence.

CHAPTER 28

I SOUGHT THE ORCHARD, DRIVEN to its shelter by the wind, which had all day blown strong and full from the south. Descending the laurel walk, I faced the wreck of the chestnut tree. The cloven halves were not broken from each other, for the firm base and strong roots kept them together below.

"You did right to hold fast to each other," I said, as if the monster splinters were living things and could hear me.

As I looked up at them, the moon appeared momentarily in that part of the sky that filled their fissure. Her disk was bloodred and half overcast. She seemed to throw on me one bewildered, dreary glance, then buried herself again instantly in the deep drift of cloud.

"I wish he would come!" I exclaimed, seized with hypochondriac foreboding. Not my usual queer feeling. I was certain no vampyres roamed. But I had expected his arrival before tea. Now it was dark. What could keep him?

I set out for the gate, thinking to meet him there. I walked fast, but not far ere I heard the tramp of hooves. A horseman came on, full gallop. A dog ran by his side.

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"There!" he exclaimed as he stretched out his hand and bent from the saddle. "You can't do without me. Step on my boot toe. Give me both hands, mount!"

I obeyed. Joy made me agile. I sprang up before him. A hearty kissing I got for a welcome, and some boastful triumph, which I swallowed as well as I could.

"I thought you would never come. I could not bear to wait in the house for you, especially with this rain and wind."

"Yes, you are dripping like a mermaid. Pull my cloak around you." He nestled me closer. "But I think you are feverish, Jane. Both your cheek and hand are burning hot. I ask again, is there anything the matter?"

"I'll tell you all about it once we get warm before the library fire."

He helped me down once we reached the stable. John took his horse. He followed me into the hall, told me to make haste and put something dry on, then to return to him in the library, where I met up with him not long afterwards. He sat with a small supper waiting for us both.

"Take a seat and bear me company, Jane. Please God, it is the last meal but one you will eat at Thornfield Hall for a long time."

I sat down near him, but told him I could not eat. "I cannot see my prospects clearly tonight, and I hardly know what thoughts I have in my head. Everything in life seems unreal."

"Except me. I am substantial enough. Touch me."

"You, Edward, are the most phantomlike of all. You are a mere dream."

"Is that a dream?" he said, laughing, placing his hand close to my eyes.

"Yes, though I touch it, it is a dream." I put it down from before my face. "Have you finished supper?"

"Yes, Jane."

I rang the bell and ordered away the tray. When we were again alone, I stirred the fire, then took a low seat at his knee.

"It is near midnight," I said.