[00:00.19] Chapter 3.
[00:02.73] Kathy at Thrushcross Grange.
[00:05.47] The next evening, I could hardly wait for Nelly to arrive with my tray and her knitting.
[00:12.42] But, at last, the hour came.
[00:15.56] Catherine was here at Thrushcross, I reminded her.
[00:20.99] But my storyteller needed no prompting.
[00:24.91] Indeed, she was, sir, said Nelly, and Heathcliff stood shivering at the gate, his clothes wet through.
[00:34.98] They had not the manners to ask me, he said.
[00:39.96] I hurried him into the kitchen, by way of the washhouse, and after he had changed his clothes, he told me what had happened.
[00:50.02] Cathy and I had been on the Moors all day, he said.
[00:54.39] When night fell, we saw the lights come on in Thrushcross Grange.
[01:03.82] Let's go and see if the little Lintons spend their Sunday evenings shivering in corners, I said, while their elders eat and drink in comfort.
[01:16.17] Linton was the name of the family who owned Thrushcross Grange in those days.
[01:22.73] We ran from the top of the heights to the grounds of the house.
[01:28.05] I beat Kathy in the race.
[01:31.24] Then we crept through a broken hedge and climbed up onto the big flower pots that stood beneath the window.
[01:38.99] Oh, Nelly, what a beautiful place it is, all crimson carpet and sparkling lights.
[01:49.80] The little Lintons, Edgar and his sister, had the room to themselves.
[01:56.64] Don't you think they ought to have been happy?
[01:59.94] We would have thought ourselves in heaven.
[02:05.68] But Isabella, who was 11, a year younger than Kathy, was lying on the hearth rug, shrieking, and Edgar stood weeping close by.
[02:17.20] In the middle of all this sat a little dog, the cause of the upset.
[02:23.97] Each had wanted to hold it, and now neither held it.
[02:28.00] Oh, we laughed aloud, Kathy and I at the sight.
[02:34.75] The Lintons heard us, looked up and saw our faces at the window.
[02:39.95] They shrieked in earnest then, and their parents rushed into the room.
[02:45.38] I pulled Kathy down from her perch, and we ran back over the gardens, but suddenly she fell.
[02:53.57] Run, Heathcliff, run, she whispered.
[02:57.94] They have let the bulldog loose, and he's got me.
[03:02.79] The devil dog had seized her by her ankle.
[03:08.29] I took up a big stone and tried to thrust it between his teeth, but the creature held on until the servants came running and took him by the collar.
[03:20.07] The man then lifted Kathy and carried her to the house.
[03:25.55] I followed.
[03:28.74] What have you got there, Robert? called Mr.
[03:32.30] Linton from the steps.
[03:35.62] Skulkas caught a little girl, sir.
[03:39.76] Mr.
[03:40.41] Earnshaw's daughter, answered Robert, and there's a lad here too, a regular Gypsy by the look of him.
[03:49.26] Why, it's that half savage creature that Earnshaw brought back from Liverpool.
[03:55.87] Be off with you, cried Linton, as Kathy was carried into the house, and the door was slammed in my face, but I didn't leave.
[04:05.08] Not I.
[04:07.42] I went back to the window and watched as Kathy was laid on the sofa, and her ankle bathed and bandaged.
[04:18.54] Then they wheeled her chair to the fire and gave her a glass of wine to sip.
[04:24.84] Isabella emptied a plate of little cakes into her lap, while that baby, Edgar, stood close by, speechless with admiration.
[04:36.28] And so he ought to be, for isn't she far better than anyone else on this earth, Nelly?
[04:43.87] I stayed for a while until I was sure that she was settled and happy.
[04:49.26] For had she not been, I would have smashed the window to have got her away.
[04:54.91] But she did seem happy, and so I left and came back here.
[05:01.91] He threw himself down on the settle, and, looking at him, I thought, yes, you would do anything for Kathy.
[05:12.40] She is your life, and you are hers.
[05:16.65] Aloud, I said, There'll be trouble about this when Master Hindley finds out.
[05:26.19] And there was trouble, sir, but not in the way that I had expected.
[05:33.71] Hindley, when he learned of what had happened, forbade Heathcliff to even speak to Kathy when she returned.
[05:44.03] But Kathy stayed at Thrushcross Grange for five weeks.
[05:53.26] When she came back, we scarcely recognized her.
[05:58.99] Gone was the wild tangled hair and the bare feet.
[06:05.39] In their place were glossy ringlets, shoes, and a way of speaking and acting towards us all so different that we stood in silent amazement at the change.
[06:21.36] But her loving heart was not changed, sir.
[06:25.98] She would have thrown her arms round me, covered in flower as I was, for it was near Christmas and I was making the cake, had not Hindley checked her.
[06:39.06] Why, Kathy?
[06:41.07] What a little lady you have become, he cried.
[06:45.53] What a beauty!
[06:48.77] And saying this, he and his wife, Francis, led her to the fire and fussed over her in a way I never thought she would accept.
[07:00.50] But accept it she did.
[07:03.93] I never saw anyone so altered, and my thoughts flew to Heathcliff.
[07:11.67] How will he take this change? I wondered.
[07:18.67] Since Kathy's absence, he had gone from bad to worse.
[07:24.60] For days at a time, he had simply come in from his work in the fields, eaten what was set before him, and either slept or lay by the kitchen fire gazing into the flames.
[07:39.00] And I had neither the time nor the inclination to bully him into washing or to offer to wash his clothes.
[07:49.18] This was a fault on my part, sir, and one that I now bitterly regret.
[07:56.09] It put Heathcliff entirely at the mercy of Hindley.
[08:02.28] And Hindley, of course, had no mercy to show to his old enemy.
[08:10.83] Heathcliff, come, he cried.
[08:14.57] You may wish Miss Kathy welcome like the other servants.
[08:21.98] Heathcliff slowly entered the room, and at once Kathy jumped up, ran to him and threw her arms round his neck, laughing with delight and kissing his cheek over and over again.
[08:35.49] I saw Master Hindley and the mistress exchange satisfied glances.
[08:42.51] Oh, you have planned that this should happen, I said to myself.
[08:48.65] Keeping him out in the fields till the last minute, so that he looks rough and dirty beside the others.
[08:57.08] A mean trick.
[09:01.48] In the next moment, Kathy drew back and stared at her friend.
[09:06.52] Why, how dirty you are, she exclaimed.
[09:12.86] Heathcliff thrust her away from him.
[09:16.73] You needn't have touched me, he said angrily and dashed from the room.
[09:24.40] I returned to the kitchen and my baking, for the master and mistress were to have visitors that night.
[09:34.15] But, once everyone was sitting at ease with mold wine before them, and all the gossip of the day to talk over, I ran out into the yard to look for Heathcliff.
[09:46.05] I found him in the stable, grooming one of the ponies.
[09:52.78] Make haste, Heathcliff, I said.
[09:56.39] Wash yourself and change your clothes.
[10:00.46] You and Miss Kathy have the chance of the kitchen all to yourselves for an hour.
[10:09.02] He didn't turn his head or answer me, but went on brushing the pony.
[10:15.08] Come, I said.
[10:17.85] I've made some little cakes for the two of you, and you can sit by the fire and chatter together to your hearts' content, just as in the old days.
[10:29.86] Still, I got no answer, and after waiting a moment longer, I went back to the house.
[10:38.67] But the next morning, he came to find me in the kitchen.
[10:45.98] Nelly, he said, make me look decent.
[10:52.19] I think that Kathy no longer loves me, but prefers Edgar Linton.
[11:02.03] Now was my chance, thought I, to undo a little of my unfeeling neglect, for the Lintons were to visit that day.
[11:11.42] Edgar Linton?
[11:13.66] I said.
[11:16.40] Edgar Linton will look like a doll beside you by the time I finished.
[11:23.22] You're younger, and yet I swear you're taller, and broader in the shoulder than he.
[11:34.42] And so I rattled on, and in time made him clean and handsome.
[11:40.36] I even had him change into clean clothes, some of which I borrowed from my own young brother.
[11:49.33] I had just completed this transformation when we heard the sound of wheels outside.
[11:55.67] Hurrying to the door, I saw Isabella and Edgar stepping out of the family carriage.
[12:04.08] Hindley and Francis rode by their side, and they dismounted from their horses.
[12:13.25] Catherine came running from the house and taking the hands of the two children, led them inside.
[12:21.19] I went back to the kitchen.
[12:24.85] Go now and show yourself by the side of Edgar Linton, so that Kathy may see for herself who is the better, I told Heathcliff.
[12:37.07] He did as I bade him.
[12:40.13] But, as luck would have it, when he opened the door to the living room, he found Hindley standing on the other side.
[12:52.23] Hindley at once thrust him back.
[12:59.27] Now, sir, I had made a meal for our visitors, and it lay spread on the table, a roast goose, tarts, fruits, and hot savory sauces.
[13:12.08] He'll be sticking his filthy fingers into the food, said Hindley, seeing my expression.
[13:22.03] Yes, he does look something of a savage, piped in Edgar Linton, who had peeped at Heathcliff from his seat by the fire.
[13:35.31] This remark brought a giggle from Isabella, and encouraged him to try further, for he had not received the response he had hoped for from Kathy.
[13:48.17] And just look at the Colt's mane of hair hanging over his eyes, he cried.
[13:54.77] It's a wonder it doesn't make his headache.
[14:01.88] Straight away, Heathcliff darted back into the room, snatched up a dish of hot sauce and flung it into Edgar Linton's face.
[14:16.29] Hindley seized him and dragged him from the room, and I've no doubt, gave him a good beating.
[14:25.93] Meanwhile, I had hurried to Edgar Linton's side to wipe his face with a cloth.
[14:34.63] But Kathy turned on Linton.
[14:37.93] I saw the cold fury in her eyes, and contempt too, sir.
[14:44.94] Oh, she blazed with it.
[14:50.55] Why did you speak to him like that? she demanded.
[14:56.26] Now he'll be whipped.
[14:59.36] I can't bear him to be whipped.
[15:06.92] I didn't speak to him, sobbed Edgar Linton, pushing me aside and finishing the job with his own handkerchief.
[15:16.11] I promised mama that I wouldn't, and I didn't.
[15:22.73] Hindley came back at this point, grinning and rubbing his hands.
[15:28.62] The next time, Linton, he said, take the law into your own fists.
[15:34.44] It will give you an appetite for dinner.
[15:39.28] They sat at the table.
[15:42.99] Kathy ate little, but no one seemed to notice save I.
[15:49.52] In the evening, the Carol singers came, and later the band from Gimmerton, together with several guests from the village.
[16:00.04] Oh, we were quite a party, sir.
[16:06.73] Kathy loved it too, but said that she thought the music sounded sweetest from the head of the stairs.
[16:17.55] I followed her up to the top, but she did not stop there.
[16:23.91] Instead, she climbed the steps to the Garrett where Heathcliff had been imprisoned by Hindley.
[16:31.46] Feeling sorry for them, I left them to talk with the Garrett door between them.
[16:39.18] But, when I returned to warn Miss Kathy that the dancing and the music were coming to an end, imagine my astonishment to find that their two voices came from behind the door.
[16:55.91] How had this come about? I asked Nelly, feeling astonishment myself at this turn that the story had taken.
[17:05.48] Why, sir, she told me, gathering up her work basket and my tray.
[17:12.57] The little monkey had crept out of the skylight of one attic and into the skylight of the attic where Heathcliff lay.
[17:26.79] With that, she prepared to take her leave.