(#Thirty-one: Revelations) Wuthering Nights: Inspired by Wuthering Heights

Chapter Thirty-one

Revelations

    Once Kate heard about the trouble in Annabelle’s marriage, Kate decided it was time to speak to Heath, alone.

    Kate was rugged up in her usual riding gear and had the car keys in her hand, making a rattling noise which woke her sleeping husband. She’d woken up early and told Edmund that she was going for a walk.

   ‘At six in the morning, darling?’ he asked sleepily. ‘Should you really be going out in your condition? The air is like ice outside.’

   ‘Of course,’ Kate said. ‘I have the car. I intend to walk the easy path. It’s my new regime,’ she said, sarcastically. ‘Besides, exercise is good for the baby. Now go back to sleep…darling,’ she added as an afterthought.

    Kate pulled on her overcoat and looked into the mirror. At eighteen, when Kate had married Edmund, she’d felt older than her years. Now she was barely twenty-one and she had never told Heath why she had married Edmund so quickly; never told Heath why the pictures hadn’t been splashed all over the papers; why the marriage hadn’t been announced. He probably guessed and didn’t care. There were so many mistakes that had been made and more than enough time to put them right, even if somebody got hurt in the process. They were meant to be together and that was that. She had telephoned him, asked him to meet her.

    When Heath arrived at the glass house, having pulled up in one of his sleek sports cars, Kate knew she had to gauge his behaviour.

    She moved to touch him but he pulled away and turned his face. Kate wondered if he had already fed that morning on Magenta or… if his tastes had become more refined and… diverse. Kate would have offered her blood to him there and then if she’d felt it would fix the situation between them and not harm the baby. 

    ‘Why did you want to meet me here Kate?’ Heath asked in a weary tone. Heath noticed her messed up hair. 

    ‘Look at you. You’ve just got out of Hunt’s bed. I never thought I’d see the day…’

    ‘Heath…he’s my husband…If it makes you feel any better, we have separate bedrooms.’

    Heath’s eyes combed her face, her body, her round belly hidden under the coat. Kate must  have thought he was really stupid.

    ‘Why do you need to talk to me when you’ve got him?’

    ‘I needed to see you again.’

     Kate touched his hand, and all the emotions were like before. She could not deny this passion and Kate wondered if Heath felt the same.

    If he did, he didn’t show it.

    ‘I’m asking you not to…hurt Annabelle. She’s been a good sister-in-law to me, a good friend to us both.’

    ‘Oh, this is rich, sticking up for the other woman. What do you call this then? I’m sure if she knew we were meeting in secret she’d be thrilled,’ Heath added sarcastically. Then he moved towards Kate. At first, it seemed like he was going to kiss her. Instead, he was distracted by the baby’s heart beat and placed his hands over his ears.

   ‘Having a baby…makes it impossible for me to leave now. It does not mean I love you less.’

    Heath looked at her, ‘And you brought me here to tell me that? As if I didn’t already know? How could you Kate? You should have waited for me. I just wanted proof that Harrison had lied, and then nothing would have kept me away from you.’

    ‘I…I know,’ Kate said, weeping.

    He was so angry he moved to shove her, but thought better of it, though she didn’t resist his touch or step back. Instead he moved in close, swayed almost as if he was going to kiss her. Kate moved towards him at the same time.

    ‘Now, we meet as equals, Mrs Hunt,’ Heath said. ‘Now you get to be the jealous one.’

     That was the problem. Heath had all but ignored her since the night after the dinner party.  The closeness of her, the nearness of her almost touch, was enough to set him off. His mouth watered, his teeth sharpened. Kate stumbled and moved to sit down.

    ‘A fine mess we have made of our lives,’ she whispered. She looked at Heath and realized her love for him was like the air that surrounded them, ever-changing but eternal, always. Her love for Heath transcended time and space and even themselves. She couldn’t believe it had been so fragile, that she had been foolish enough to believe it would survive betrayal. Now Heath was married to another and gone forever.

    Kate moved to stand up but sat down again, quickly.

    ‘Are you alright?’ Heath asked, suddenly spooked.

    ‘Yes, I’m…I’m just upset, that is all. Please, Heath, don’t go, please come. Put your arms around me one last time. I…I would give up Hunt if only you’d ask me to.’

    And it was then, that Heath realized he’d finally gotten to her.

    Now was his chance.

    ‘You must be kidding,’ Heath said. ‘Do you really think I’d want you now? About to give birth to another man’s child…’

    ‘I wish it were your child,’ Kate said.

    ‘Well, it isn’t,’ Heath said, ‘and I don’t want you,’ he lied.

    Kate withdrew her hand.

    ‘Please don’t be like that.’

    ‘It was you, Kate, with all of your stupid airs and graces, the minute you were poisoned by the Hunts, you came to believe yourself one of them, better than the rest of us, better than me with my eternal…curse. I longed for immortality once but only to share it with you.

    ‘Share it with me now…’

    ‘You’d have to be joking. You’re not thinking straight in your…condition. You are so selfish you can’t even put your child first.’

     ‘Not now…later, after the baby is born.’

     ‘Forget it. No matter how miserable you are, you belong to him now…’

    ‘Never...’

    ‘And I have made another choice…’

    ‘I don’t believe you.’

    ‘Oh, I could never lie to you and tell you I love Annabelle. I don’t even like her, though I’ve tried hard enough. But hating you, Kate…is almost as good as loving you and how I have wished for this moment, to see you as you really are…empty and alone but for your selfish choices.’

     ‘It was not selfish, Heath. I couldn’t find you.’

     ‘You should have looked harder.’

     ‘I did. But I was lied to…Harrison convinced me you no longer lived.’

     ‘Well, he was wrong and he’s always plotted against us. You were foolish to believe him in the first place.’ Heath said, the morning’s gorge from the blood bank fresh in his veins. He felt empowered. There was strength in such a lack of desire. 

     ‘It was your fault too,’ Kate said, ‘for leaving me, for doubting us.’

      Heath remained silent. ‘Harrison swore we were…blood relations…’

    Kate looked shocked.

    ‘But it is not true. Here,’ Heath said, he unfolded a paper from his pocket. ‘There is no connection. I also spoke to my…mother. It appears my biological father disappeared one night after drinking… the blood of others. He has not been sighted since. Heath pulled out his original birth certificate, written in Spanish. The date was clear.

     ‘I’m a year older than I thought.’

     ‘Oh Heath, what have we done?’

     ‘If I did wrong, we both did wrong and now you are paying for it. Revenge is sweet.’

     ‘Really? Greta used to say revenge is a dish best served cold.’

     ‘Well, she always had a cliché at the ready.’

      Both the lovers were spent in their argument.

      ‘Please…Heath… Don’t do anything you will regret.’

      ‘Like what? Like leaving Annabelle? No, Annabelle will go of her own accord just like all the women in this family. I’m surprised it has taken her this long to work out that I only married her to hurt you and get my hands on The Grange.’

     ‘I don’t believe that. Annabelle loves you. She won’t go anywhere unless you force her to.’

    ‘She’s left me once already. You really think you can control all our lives Kate? I despise you for marrying Hunt. I despise you for not believing in me enough to wait.’

     ‘I… never stopped believing in you. I never stopped loving you. I wanted to do what was best for… Katarina.’

     ‘And yet you married another.’

      ‘I was told you’d gone forever!’

     ‘Mmm… a convenient excuse. How could you ever be with another man?’ Heath spat.

     ‘Like I said, he’s my husband.’

      ‘I was your husband.’

      ‘I know, but we were so young, I thought you’d changed your mind, abandoned me...’

      ‘Stop, stop crying. This is not the Kate I wish to see.’

      ‘It is the one you created. I have never stopped loving you…will never stop loving you Heath,’ Kate said as she stood up, ‘but I think this argument is going nowhere... Edmund…’

     ‘Ah yes, the wonderful Hunt…’

     ‘Don’t…be jealous. He has never taken your place.’

     ‘That’s exactly what he has done,’ Heath laughed bitterly. 

      ‘When I first saw you, Heath, I loved you. It is almost as if we are the one soul and that doesn’t change, no matter what. After the baby is born I want to be with you, forever.’

       Kate stood in the open doorway of the glass house as the wind began to howl and swept up her hair. ‘I can see there is no point in continuing to discuss this until then…’

      ‘You sound just like him…’

      ‘And you have become so much worse, swindling Harrison out of his own fortune…marrying my sister-in-law to hurt me…’

      ‘Your brother was a vicious drunk and a liar. He deserved it. Besides, it wasn’t a difficult thing to accomplish…and Annabelle knew what she was getting herself into.’

       ‘And making his child your own…’

       ‘Hinton needed a home after he was…abandoned by his own father…’

       ‘A home? You sent him to boarding school…’

       ‘From where he shall return once he is…educated…’

       ‘Educated enough to run wild like you and I did? I could never bear to let my child be that far away from me… And as for Annabelle, I’ve seen the scars on her wrist where you bit her…’

      ‘She asked me to…she thinks blood sucking is…more of a kink and less of a need.’ 

      Kate shook her head. ‘I can see we’re getting nowhere with this conversation.’

     ‘Everything that went wrong Kate, we did to each other. If you had just waited…if you had just believed in me like you promised you would…we said we’d never abandon one another…’

    ‘You abandoned me…’

    ‘I never stopped loving you…’

    ‘…Until now.’

    ‘You married another…’

    ‘So did you.’

    Heath shook his head, ‘To make you pay…’

    ‘I must go…’

    ‘Yes,’ Heath said, ‘your husband must miss you.’

     ‘I see you are determined to stay with Annabelle and ruin all our lives.’

     Heath raised an eyebrow angrily, ‘She is my wife.’ 

     ‘Just don’t hurt her,’ Kate said as she walked away. She did not wish to tell him the full truth about their child tonight. It had been a mistake to call him. Heath was left in the dark once again; his vow of revenge seemed hollow and pointless. 

(#Thirty-two: Birth) Wuthering Nights: Inspired by Wuthering Heights

Chapter Thirty-two

Birth

    Nights later, Kate woke in the dark. Her stomach grumbled as she listened to the rain lick the roof.  It was two in the morning. Hunt was sleeping soundly, as Kate crept silently to the wardrobe and removed her long, winter coat, her woollen hat, scarf and gloves. Instead of slippers she slid on her waterproof boots as she prepared for the winter night after many months of clear weather. Kate could hardly breathe she felt so cooped up. She couldn’t explain her need to get out of the house. Her mind was overworked. She was not thinking clearly. Kate wished she had told Heath about Katarina. She woke up, dreaming of Heath and thought if she didn’t get a breath of fresh air there was no way she’d have the strength to deliver the child that kicked inside her. She knew Heath had rejected her, yet she was compelled to find him.  

     Kate grabbed the keys to her car then realized she probably shouldn’t drive. Besides, her car was at the garage getting serviced. She knew Edmund’s Range Rover would make a loud scraping noise coming out of the gravel driveway. Instead, Kate walked quietly downstairs, found the keys to the house in the kitchen and walked very quietly out the door.   It was a good distance from the Grange yet she knew a shortcut across the heath towards Hareton Hall that she hadn’t used in months. She needed to see Heath again; she would wait for him - forever, if she had to. Tell him it was a mistake, that they belonged side by side, that she never wished to be parted from him again.

   Kate was not prepared for the cold air that slapped her face as she stepped into the night. She wasn’t far from the beginning of the trail that led between the two houses and she was sure she could find it. Rain started to spit down and the irrational part of Kate did not think about the stupidity of walking in the dark, alone, in her condition.

     The manicured garden formed a pattern - a maze that she remembered from childhood -and led the exact way across the heath towards Hareton Hall. The lone house was filled with secrets and lies. Kate was determined to find Heath, to talk to him about Katarina, to make him understand that she had made a stupid mistake. She knew this track, knew the way by dark and from memory. 

    Kate peered through the midnight air. She caught her breath for the first time in hours and pulled her overcoat tight around her. Kate knew she shouldn’t do it, but she thought, if she could just get a glimpse of her old home, the place she now missed, the only place she really belonged to, everything would be all right. She’d had a bad dream, about herself, about Heath and the baby. She needed to know that Heath was alright, needed to tell him about Katarina and wanted to see him again. It had been almost a week since they’d talked. Kate walked on.

     The baby stirred inside her and the rain spat down suddenly but softly from the sky. Kate kept going as crystal tears, like the ones from her childhood, began to roll down her cheeks. She put one foot in front of the other, driven. The wind howled, the night closed in on her. She stumbled and hit her head on the rocks. Kate was as far from The Grange as she was close to The Hall. The pain was unbearable as she screamed into the dark. 

  

   Hunt woke, restless in the night.

  ‘Kate,’ he called.

   He wondered which part of the house his beautiful, thankless wife had roamed off to. He saw that her cream dressing gown lay crumpled on a chair and something about the emptiness of the room, the silence in the hallway, bothered him. Hunt got out of bed, put on his slippers in his ordered way and walked downstairs to the kitchen.

   ‘Kate,’ he called again, ‘Kate.’

    In response, there was howling wind and an open window. He walked over to pull it down and latch it shut as the rain fell and the wind seemed to gather momentum. Then he noticed his keys were missing, which meant his wife had gone out driving (a ridiculous notion given that she could barely fit behind the wheel) or walking in the rain. Hunt was beside himself with worry and looked at the telephone. He knew where she had gone just as surely as if she had told him herself. Although the last thing he wanted was to talk to his sister, he picked up the receiver and dialled Hareton Hall.

    Heath never expected a call in the middle of the night so he hadn’t bothered to take the telephone off the hook. He couldn’t believe someone would bother to ring so he tried to ignore the noise until, restless and unable to sleep himself, he picked up the telephone.

    ‘Yes,’ he said, sleepily and irritated. Annabelle was asleep at the other end of the hall but woke when she heard raised voices. Belle wandered into the room, wrapped in a blanket.

    Heath had spoken only a few sentences before he handed the phone to Annabelle and left the room. He dragged on his boots, riding britches and a long coat. He’d had barely any time to dress because he knew, as surely as if Hunt had told him, where Kate was.

   ‘Is it Kate? What’s wrong?’

   ‘She’s gone missing. Your brother said she’d been acting strange. She’s been cooped up. He’s worried she was coming here and something’s happened…here, you talk to him…’

    ‘Shouldn’t you ring the police?’

    ‘It will be hours before they do anything, but yes, you do that. I’m going out, I think I know where she might have gone - it will be quicker.’

    It was moments later that Annabelle realised Heath had picked all of this information up from one sentence. If Annabelle hadn’t known better she would have said her husband was a mind reader. Annabelle looked both put out and worried as she walked over to the telephone. 

    Heath could read Hunt’s mind but he’d also dreamt about her. He dreamt about Kate every night. 

    In his dream they were running along Hampstead Heath together. They were children, again. It was summer. They were bare footed and laughing as the sun shone. Heath only needed a hat and sunglasses. His dream became a nightmare as the sky darkened and the rain came down and Kate, older, turned to him with rain on her face and said, ‘Remember…when I’m missing...when we  are parted…look harder…I’ll be there… I love you…I’ll always love you…When you find me we’ll be together…forever…’

    Then he must have woken and fallen asleep again and in the next dream he was lying in Kate’s old room with all her photographs on the dressing table where she’d left them, trying to sleep but constantly woken up by a tap at the window. Rain poured down and the rattle of her tiny fingers became harder and louder until the glass shattered and a voice, Kate’s voice snarled, ‘Let me in, let me in!’ Her neck was red with blood, her skin white as snow. Venom-filled fangs were bared as she hissed…I’ve been away for eighteen years…’

     Heath had woken and gone to touch the small hand of his beloved but just as her icy fingertips moved on the broken glass of the window pane, cut and bloody, she disappeared.

    Rain poured down as Heath walked, ran, and then merged speedily through the park. The meadow was becoming an ocean of water and mud.

    ‘Kate! Katherine!’ Heath yelled, shining a torch into the mist. ‘Katherine!’ He merged faster then ran towards the glass house. A bundle of shawl, overcoat, boots and wet hair lay waiting for him, shivering in the shelter. There was a gash on her forehead. Heath walked to her and put his arms around her, holding her in an embrace that locked them together like one person.

   ‘Kate, my darling Kate, what have you done? No one knew where you were. You shouldn’t have gone out on a night like tonight…’

   Kate looked pale and her face was wet from the rain and cold which was perhaps even worse. He knew he had to normalize her body temperature and although he was getting colder by the day, his coat would warm her. He bundled her up inside it.

  ‘I’m taking you to the car, Kate. I parked it not far from here. I knew where you would be.’

   Kate stumbled to her feet as Heath helped her. ‘You wouldn’t speak to me, Heath. You stopped talking to me…’

   ‘I was desperate. I tried to forget you.’

  ‘I know. We’ve both made mistakes…’

  ‘I should never have left you. It’s all my fault…’  

   ‘No, it’s mine,’ Kate said, half delirious. ‘Oh Heath, I came back to you…’ She put her arms around his neck. He leant in and whispered, ‘I never stopped loving you’. Her voice was fading. Then she curled up in pain and cried. Heath scooped her up and lifted her from the ground. Normally, carrying a heavily pregnant woman would be difficult but Kate was surprisingly light.

   ‘We have to get you home, get you warm,’ Heath said.

   ‘I’m…I’m sorry. Forgive me for what I did. I made a mistake, should never have married Hunt…but Katarina…’

    ‘Hush,’ Heath said, ‘I know, you’re delirious.’ He placed his hand on her brow, worried that her skin was burning. ‘None of that matters now…’

    ‘It is…as if we are the same person…I cannot exist without my love…I cannot exist without you…’

   ‘Nor I you,’ Heath whispered but it wasn’t clear if Kate could hear him. He knew he had to get her to a doctor, quickly.

    Heath bundled her into the car and rang emergency.

    ‘Kate, you’re not thinking straight. Try to stay awake. We’re almost…there,’ Heath looked over, and touched her forehead which was still warm but Kate’s eyes were closed, she was slumped into the seat belt and her breath was laboured.   

(#Thirty-three: Reborn) Wuthering Nights: Inspired by Wuthering Heights

Chapter Thirty-three

Reborn   

      Heath had stayed with Kate in her room and refused to be moved until Hunt barged in and demanded to see his wife. Heath was asked to leave. He reluctantly agreed to wait in the hall after he was assured by the nurses that Kate would live through the night and the child would be safe.

    At six in the morning he was told the child had been born and both mother and baby were sleeping. Relieved, Heath sighed. Hunt walked out of the room and said, ‘She wanted to see you. They say she will be alright…she’s sleeping now. I have a son.’

     Afterwards, when he had assured himself Kate was resting peacefully, Heath went home, and fell asleep on the couch as the sun came up. He was wrapped in Kate’s old blanket. Greta pulled the drawing room curtains shut, shielding him from the harsh light that made his pale skin sizzle.

     Greta woke Heath from a slumber he never thought he’d fall into, almost as if he were drugged from lack of sleep. Greta had her coat wrapped around her. Her face was downcast yet welcoming. Heath’s mind was a sea of nothingness. Morning rose like a cloud as the faintest trickle of sun shone through the imminent afternoon storm that would lead to yet another wild night. 

      Heath rubbed his eyes.

      ‘How is she?’

     ‘The baby, the boy, is well and healthy. They have named him Edmund after his father. Annabelle has gone to help her brother with the baby…’

     ‘I wasn’t asking about the child.’ Heath said wearily.

     ‘I know you weren’t. Kate is weak. She asked to be transferred home, she asked for you.’

     Heath pulled on his sweater and drove with Greta back to The Grange. He’d never had any desire to come here again, to the house with perfectly manicured gardens. Heath had always preferred the wild, unkempt beauty of Hareton Hall. The Grange held no secrets, until now.

    Hunt was standing at the door.

   ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘it’s you. She’s been asking for you, they say there is nothing I can do except let her rest. She lost a lot of blood but she insisted on coming home. There is a medical team with her…’

    Heath knew she hadn’t meant her home, here, at The Grange. He knew she’d meant her childhood home, Hareton Hall.

    In Hunt’s arms lay a sleeping baby with fair hair, like Edmund’s. Heath brushed past Hunt and the baby and bounded up the stairs, two at a time.

    Kate lay on the bed covered in a pale duvet. Her pain was dulled by the drip in her arm. Kate smiled when she saw Heath.

    ‘Oh Heath, you’ve come back to me,’ she whispered as he leant over her.

     Kate pulled him into her, his warm, strong body giving her the strength to speak.

    ‘I wanted to see you one last time…’

    ‘Quiet Kate…you need to rest.’

    ‘Plenty of time for that,’ she whispered. ‘I wanted to say how much…I loved you…love you still and that I have paid for my mistake…’

     ‘Quiet Kate, it is I who has paid also…for loving you…’

     ‘No…no…you don’t understand,’ Kate leant in close to him ‘…the baby is your child. I’ve named her Katarina. Please…please don’t take her from Hunt. I know he will be a…good father, but I wanted you to know the truth before I…so you can always keep a close…eye on her… my last wish is for Hunt to raise her Heath…because…’

    ‘Hush,’ Heath said, ‘You’re delusional. I know…all that is past.’

     Heath tried to hide his anger.

     Kate continued, ‘I know how…ambitious you are… there would be no place for a child in the world you seek…and because I know it will be hard for you to raise her, reminding you of me. Hunt will love her… as if she is his own.’

     Heath pushed his face into Kate’s cheek.

    ‘No Kate, you are talking madness. Don’t leave me…don’t leave us…’

    ‘I can’t…stay,’ she swallowed. ‘I’m so tired…no choice…’ A tear dropped down Heath’s face and onto her lips, paler than chalk. ‘I want you to know, there was no one in this world I loved more than you and I will love you beyond this earth...’

   ‘Don’t go…’ Heath whispered, ‘Fight…’

   ‘I dreamt, when I was under the anaesthetic, when they took the baby…I dreamt that I didn’t go to Heaven, Heath…’

    ‘Stop talking this way, Kate.’

    ‘I dreamt that I stayed with you…forever…here at The Hall…’

    ‘You’re at The Grange, Kate...’

     Kate continued, deliriously. ‘I dreamt that I haunted you…and we went to the heath every day and lay in the sun and it didn’t hurt us… we rode our horses…and had picnics and…raised Katarina…and it was as it always should have been. I never cared about…my career or travel or any of those things you enjoyed…I only ever wanted to be loved by you…to love…you. We are the same person you and I. We were never meant to be parted.’

    ‘No,’ Heath said, ‘Kate, Kate,’ he whispered ‘… I love you. I cannot live without you…’

  ‘Then don’t…’ Kate whispered. ‘Turn me…make me like you. I know you can do it…’

    Heath held her to him gently, trying to will the life back into her aching, bruised body but her breath was fading. There was blood on the sheets when she coughed. When her breathing stopped the medical staff wrestled Kate from Heath and started administering every possible remedy to her lifeless body until there was nothing further to be done.

    Kate, in her breathless whisper, asked everyone to leave; she only wanted Heath.

    Later, Heath let out a piercing scream as he stormed past Greta, who held the quiet baby boy, in the drawing room. The infant was unaware of the tragedy and commotion that was the post-script to his birth.   

(#Thirty-four: Transition) Wuthering Nights: Inspired by Wuthering Heights

Chapter Thirty-four

Transition

    In the dark, Kate had whispered, ‘Heath, you have come back to me.’

     He lifted his head, contemplating her neck, only for a second.

     Kate stirred as he leant in to whisper, ‘Don’t leave me. I cannot live without you…come back to me, come back to me... I never stopped loving you.’

    Heath pulled her arm towards him and rested his head in the crook of her shoulder.

    ‘Nor I you, I just wanted to make you... suffer. I’m sorry Kate. Stay with me, don’t leave. I cannot be without you…’

     ‘You don’t have to,’ she whispered ‘…if it’s not too late, turn me into you, even as a ghost, let me haunt you, drive you mad...’

     ‘Your transition may take…decades. Changing you will change me. Neither of us will ever be the same.’

     ‘I don’t care.’

      He had been warned by Greta that she had only minutes left. It seemed like seconds. The doctors had done all they could.

     Heath barely paused before he lifted her towards him, plunging his teeth into her wrist, then her neck. The taste of her blood was honey and nectar to him but his tears were bitter. Without her, he felt nothing. With her by his side, they were invincible. Kate shuddered and closed her eyes.

     She did not stir. Moments passed. He could hear the doctors discuss how many more seconds they should be left alone. He’d been inside Kate’s room for less than three.

      Heath turned and looked at the blackened sky. It reminded him of their shared childhoods. He resolved to take her, drag her out of the window if he had to, but physically, her recovery was quick. Her wounds began to heal, almost immediately, but the venom of a hybrid was not as strong in transition.  Heath felt weaker. He wasn’t sure this would save her.

      Kate opened her eyes, yet her skin remained white, almost translucent. The fever, hot, began to cool. Her fingers responded to his touch as he lifted her from the bed to see the view from the window, the view in the night across Hampstead Heath and towards Hareton Hall, where she grew up.

      ‘Heath,’ she said, ‘there is no man on earth I love more than I love you…’ Then she shut her eyes. Kate’s body lay mute and lifeless in his arms and Heath let out a howl in the dark that made the staff and Edmund come rushing into the room.

    ‘And that is how the story went…’ Greta said, ‘A sad story, with no happy ending.’

     Greta looked around her as she took the keys from the kitchen fruit bowl, freshly filled with blood oranges. The older woman’s eyes filled with tears.

     ‘Katarina, your mother would have been glad that you came here, to discover more about her, but now I think you should leave and think twice about coming back…You see, when we burst into the room that day… her body was lifeless. Then, they took her from him and she was buried far beneath the ground. There is no coming back from that. But people say… no body exists where she was laid to rest. Heath was raving on about immortality for days after but he was talking to a ghost.

       I tried to placate him, but he was inconsolable. She’d whispered something in his ear before she passed; something to drive him mad. He bared his teeth and hissed at me when I found him lying beside the place she was buried and to my shame… I ran. I always knew that he was different. I thought it made him special, but that night… he was beyond help. I only imagine what he may have done to bring her back…at least, partly.’

      The wind blew a gale outside. The night closed in on them.

     ‘There are ghosts here,’ Greta said. ‘And more than that, besides… You don’t want to make the same mistakes your parents did…’

(#Thirty-five) Wuthering Nights #Family: Inspired by Wuthering Heights

Chapter Thirty-five

Family

      Katarina and Hinton were seated in the Hidden Garden.

     ‘I’ve read the file, Hinton. Of course, I can’t pretend I’m not…surprised but it doesn’t change you. Not really. It really doesn’t matter to me.’

     Hinton looked surprised and hugely relieved.

    ‘I… I’ve drawn you something. When I’m not with you, I’m thinking about you. Do you…think of me?’

    ‘Do I think of you? Always.’

    ‘Meaning?’

    ‘Meaning I accept you for who you are,’ Katarina said, as she ate the lunch she’d brought. She and Hinton, both dressed in long, dark coats (Katarina wore a red beret and gloves covering the expensive bracelet her father had given her for her birthday).  They’d met here for lunch to celebrate Hinton’s win – with the help of a perfectly worded essay attached to his entry.

    ‘Finally I can spell, read and write almost perfectly, thanks to you Katarina. Although I have to admit, it still takes extra effort to translate some words.’

    ‘I am so proud of you, Hinton. What words are still difficult?’

   ‘I love you.’

    Katarina smiled.

    Hinton continued, ‘they are simple words but hard for me to say.’

    ‘I love you too,’ Katarina replied.

    Hinton could not contain his smile.

    ‘I have been thinking of the future. The truth is, Katarina, I was never very interested in school. I preferred the horses and my Art and was never very big on study, nor was Heath. We were both too wrapped up in our own little worlds; Heath and his ghost, me and my cravings. Well, we shared the cravings. Perhaps Linus is the one you should congratulate. He just got accepted into Cambridge.’

    ‘Wow. That’s amazing,’ Katarina said. ‘I have to say I’m kind of surprised. He’s so into his weekend dance parties. I didn’t realize he ever studied. I’m still waiting to hear about Art College.’

   ‘Well, I’ve been thinking, wondering. I’m planning to go travelling this summer. I was going to start in Italy, and then maybe Greece…The scholarship gives me enough money for two if I travel second class. I was hoping you might come with…’

   ‘Yes,’ Katarina said. She was barely eighteen but she knew perfect when she saw it (or perfect for her) and the love she felt for Hinton was real and present. She didn’t care what her father thought of the Spencers and she had little memory of her mother apart from the ghostly young girl on the roof that day. The thought saddened Katarina so much she put the image out of her mind and convinced herself the moment could never be replicated.

    She’d demanded an explanation from Heath the next time they spoke but he’d just dismissed her sighting and said, ‘I warned you not to go up there…’

   ‘Perhaps some things are….inexplicable,’ was all Kate could think. The girl had looked so… real, so inexplicably like her. Katarina had barely seen the pyjama-clad intruder’s face, but she remembered her clear blue eyes, flashing in the dark, a ghost, a vision, a pretty little vampire.

     Katarina understood that somewhere, way back in time, near the place she and Hinton now walked, towards the glass house on Hampstead Heath, her mother had once met Hinton’s father, a meeting that created this new moment for her now.

     In her mother’s antique locket, which she always wore (it had been passed down through generations of Spencer women), Kate had placed a photograph of her mother, and herself; together. The locket, she was sure, kept her safe. Katarina looked over at the handsome young man next to her. It was hard to believe, eight weeks ago, they had barely spoken. Now, she couldn’t imagine being without him as he took her hand and they walked across the frosty mist of the Heath.

     The truth was in the final pages of the journal. That was why Linus had given it to her to read; she knew that now. The words contained strange truths but necessary ones. Her father was not her biological father. This was something she had guessed from the early chapters of the journal. To discover her heritage was a shock, to discover she had a half-brother in Linus, was revelatory. Katarina also had a younger brother but they had been in different years at separate schools and had conflicting interests. Katarina hoped they would become closer when they were both adults. 

     She thought of the last time she had spoken to Heath. She was alone on the meadow, angry and tear-stained when she went to him. Heath had had the strangest feeling he was not alone riding his horse that day. He’d lately, in his thirties, begun to hear the thoughts of every human being he came into contact with, something he found disturbing. Once it had only happened when he listened closely. Recently his specialist had warned him about it, warned him that he’d be fully immortal if he lived past thirty, free to roam the heath forever if he wanted to, free to turn himself to ash in the sun if he did not. His image would not be betrayed in mirrors or print. After twenty-six, he’d ceased to exist in photographs entirely.

    Heath heard her angry thoughts before he saw his daughter again that day and was not surprised to see her standing before him when he turned. Katarina wore the same long coat as her mother had worn, twenty years ago. Edmund must have kept it with Kate’s things. He owed her an explanation. Before she could speak, he apologized.

     ‘Here,’ he said, handing her his waterproof jacket. ‘The rain is coming down and it will protect you from the storm.’

    They rode together to the glass house in silence. When she asked him a question, instead of replying in words, he vanished in mist.  Katarina wasn’t sure if she would ever see him again.

    Months passed. There were so many questions and so few answers that Katarina had stopped asking for them. Her own father had died before she had ever challenged him on the matters of her parentage. Edmund had been a good father to her and she had loved him and mourned his loss and that was all that mattered. Katarina had inherited The Grange.

    Heath had not once visited them but Linus came around often for dinner. The three young people had wild parties in the drawing room that were the talk of the borough and many friends from Italy and Europe came to visit. It was a world of lightness and socializing that none of them - Linus, Hinton or Katarina - ever experienced during their solitary childhoods. Heath had become more and more reclusive and barely spoke to his own son, let alone Hinton, when they moved out of Hareton Hall. By then, Heath had stopped going to work, repairing the now crumbling mansion, and never appeared at his own pub for dinner like he used to.

(#Thirty-six: Birthday Party) Wuthering Nights by Summer Day: Inspired by Wuthering Heights

Chapter Thirty-six

Birthday Party

   Almost twenty years had passed since the night she was born, and Heath remembered it was Katarina’s birthday. He’d had the gift wrapped. A gold necklace with diamonds tastefully worked into swans on the pendant. A fine piece of jewellery, new, not from the family crypt, Heath mused. He also had another gift, the deeds to Hareton Hall, made out to Linus, Katarina and Hinton.  He placed inside the envelope the gift of a round the world plane ticket, and access to the shares he had set aside for her since she was born. It was the least he could do, with all his money. He knew it would never be enough to make up for the neglect she’d suffered from him. The gift was merely a gesture and he expected nothing in return. Her desire to be friendly surprised him, given that there were so many unanswered questions about their... family. 

     Katarina was surprised that Heath remembered her birthday since he had ignored every other one and had refused an invitation to the party that evening. Instead, he had driven over to The Grange to see her. He explained he didn’t “do” parties anymore, especially ones with a Great Gatsby theme. Instead, he asked her to go walking with him across Hampstead Heath. Katarina smiled and said, ‘I’ll get my coat.’

     They walked in tandem across the meadow in the mild winter light.

    “I need to get some more decorations for tonight in Hampstead High Street,’ Katarina said, making small talk. ‘Linus will be there, you know. And Hinton would love to see you again. You never replied to my invitation, so I just assumed you…forgot.’

     ‘Do you honestly think I could forget the day you were born?’

    ‘No,’ Katarina said, ‘I suppose not.’

    ‘What was she like, my mother? People say you were both… inseparable. They talk of a ghostly teenaged girl…like the girl I saw in the rafters that day. Tell me what she was like…’

    ‘Well, at first I thought she was nothing like you, but I have changed my mind. You share the same curiosity about things you should not… and there is a determination in your manner that is similar.’

    Heath looked down at his feet.

    Katarina could hardly believe that this stranger was actually her father. After discovering her mother’s old journals she had always suspected there was a story she was never allowed to know.  She did not understood her need to reach out to this strange, alone man, who hadn’t really shown her any love. Only her mother’s journals filled in the blanks, shocking though they were to her. Deep down, there had always been something missing from her family history, something that she’d always suspected. Now she knew there was a vampire in the bloodline. She wanted to go far away from here, at least for a while.

    ‘Your eyes are the same,’ Heath said, reaching out to Katarina. He touched her hair when she stood in front of him, overlooking the meadow. Katarina could not feel or sense the touch. The man’s fingers were like the air.  

    ‘And you look, almost identical - so similar that it was hard for me, at first.’

    Then she understood, even slightly, that her mother had been right to let Hunt raise her. Her real father knew nothing about selflessness and love, or did he? He seemed to feel he owed her an explanation, however, and she was interested to hear it.

    Heath admitted he’d always known she was his.

    ‘I used to check on you from time to time. It was the reason I never left The Hall. Your mother thought Hunt should raise you and I did not object. I thought raising you in a house full of memories of your mother would not be in your best interests. Your mother and I were meant to be together, always…and I have never truly loved another…’

   ‘I know,’ Kate said.

  ‘Then you know, everything?’ he asked.

   ‘I read her journals. I know what she wrote in them. It made me understand her…and you, more. But I don’t love you. I don’t think I even like you. I have forgiven you. That is all.’

    ‘I understand,’ Heath said. ‘I owed you an explanation…but you found it yourself. I thought I was not fit to be your father…with the boys, I barely had a choice. It was…perhaps wrong of me not to claim you. It was Kate’s wish that you be raised at The Grange. I think she thought it was less…haunted than Hareton Hall.’

    Heath touched his daughter’s cheek and walked on. He wandered further ahead of Katarina, ending the brief moment of rare and unexpected closeness between them.

    He added as an afterthought, ‘Your mother would be very proud to see you as you are.’

     Heath moved quickly and deliberately. Katarina was left standing alone in silence once again.