PART FOUR LIFE AT MOOR HOUSE
CHAPTER NINETEEN Finding a Home
After traveling for two days. I arrived on the moor, a huge area with grass and many hills. After the coach left, I realized that I had left my clothes inside it, and that I had no money. I was alone on the open moor! There were many white roads that went across the moor. I walked until I found a dry place to sleep under a small hill. Luckily it was a warm night, with no rain. The next day was hot and sunny, and I needed food and water, so I knew I had to find a village.
I walked sown one of the roads until I found a group of houses. I knocked on the doors and asked if there was any work I could do, but no one could help me. I could not beg for food, although I was extremely hungry. That night I slept outside again, but this time the air was cold. The next day I looked for work again, but there was nothing for me to do. I was now very weak from hunger. I began to wonder why I should try to stay alive, when I did not want to live.
It was getting dark again, and I was alone on the moor. Suddenly I saw a small light nearby. I guessed that the light meant there was a house, so I decided to try and find it. And finally I arrived at the house. Standing by the door, I could see into a small window. An old woman and two young ladies were sitting by the fire. The room looked so bright and clean and the women looked so kind that I decided to ask for their help. The old woman opened the door, but she would not let me speak to young ladies. She closed the door firmly, leaving me alone in the darkness and cold. I fell on to the wet doorstep, worn out and hopeless. No one would help me, and I was so miserable that I was ready to die. But the young ladies’ brother found me, when he came home a few minutes later. He brought me into the house, where the ladies gave me a meal and asked my name.
“Jane Elliott,” I replied. I did not want anybody to know who I was, or where I had come from. Finally they took me upstairs to a bedroom, and I fell into a warm , dry bed.
For three days and nights I lay in bed, tired from the awful experience at Thornfield. I hardly knew where I was. When I began to feel stronger, Hannah, the old lady, came to sit with me and told me all about the three people in the house. She had cared for them since they were children. Their family name was Rivers, and both their parents were dead. Their father, sadly and died only three weeks before this. The girls were named Diana and Mary. They had no money and had to work as governesses. Their brother, St. John, worked at the church in the nearest village. He was a Christian, and very serous. The house I had found was called Moor House, and the Rivers family did not come here often.
Diana and Mary were very kind to me when I became stronger. However, their brother St. John seemed very serious and not friendly. He was young and very handsome. I knew that Diana and Mary wanted to know all about me, but they did not want to ask questions that would hurt me, so we did not talk of the past. But St. John asked me many questions. I only told him a little about myself. I said that after going to Lowood School. I became a governess for a rich family. Then an unfortunate event, that was not my fault, made me have to leave the house. That was all I would tell him. I offered to do any kind of work, such teaching, sewing, or cleaning, so that I could make my own money. St. John very glad that I wanted to work, and promised to find me a job. |