All night, half-awake, half-asleep, I dreamed of our future. Our travels in Europe, a happier place now that we were together; our return to Thornfield, which would remain my own. I imagined, even, children exploring the woods as I had once done and dawdling their way through the orchard, picking cherries or plums; running recklessly through the rooms and up and down the stairs; dragging mud through the kitchens; laughing and squealing in delight; Mrs. Fairfax, perhaps frowning in disapproval but silent, because Jane and I were delighted simply in the life we were afforded. Bertha would remain my secret, and I would guard Jane well and secure our happiness, no matter what man’s law might think of me. Had I not earned this? Had I not acquitted myself as well as or better than any man in my position would have done? Jane and I loved each other as equals: I had been willing to give up Thornfield for Jane and had convinced myself her love for me was surely stronger than her moral stubbornness. If she knew, she would forgive me. But she need never know.
I rose that morning with the sun, watching the deep shades of the orchard lighten, the shadows shorten. I made my ablutions and dressed, slowly and carefully, letting the import of the morning enter fully into my mind. In less than three hours, and then less than two, Jane would be at my side in the little church. She would be mine—all else be damned. She would want this; she loved me. I could not believe my fortune.
I fairly skipped down the broad oak staircase and peered into the dining room. The buffet was laid, but Jane had not yet made an appearance. I felt too agitated to sit and eat. I strode into the library and immediately back out, then to the drawing room. I nodded at my mother’s portrait above the mantelpiece, suddenly flooded with emotion. Then, patient no more, I went to the bottom of the stairs and called out for Jane.
She was there in a few moments, and was a vision: even in her modest silks and the simple lace square on her head, she was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. I could not even mourn the loss of the other veil. I took her elbow and hurried her to breakfast, but it seemed, as I, she was too overwhelmed to eat and sat only with a cup of tea before her.
Finally the footman informed me that all was in readiness, and at those words I nearly dragged Jane from the table and across the entrance hall, where Mrs. Fairfax stood, as still as a stone carving. She nodded a curtsy as we passed, and I returned the nod, and Jane would have paused, but I was all in a rush. It seemed that time could not fly fast enough. I wanted only for the wedding to be behind us, and Jane safely mine and I hers.
Her small hand in mine in the morning sunlight, we raced down the long drive to the wicket gate of the church, where I discovered she was out of breath. Poor wren! “Am I cruel in my love?” I asked her. “Delay an instant: lean on me, Jane.”
After a moment, I gave her a little caress on her shoulder and we walked forward. As we took our place at the communion rail, the clergyman, Mr. Wood, opened his book and began to read. In this place, where generations of Rochesters had worshipped, my heart filled with gratitude to God and to Jane for giving me this chance at happiness. I felt secure that Providence had seen my good intentions for Bertha, and my pure, true love for Jane, and was smiling on our union.
I watched my little Jane, her face on Mr. Wood’s as his voice echoed within those stone walls: “…any impediment why ye may not lawfully be joined together in matrimony, ye do now confess it; for be ye well assured that so many as are coupled together otherwise than God’s Word doth allow, are not joined together by God, neither is their matrimony lawful.”
He paused, as I suppose was required of him. The words did not arrest me, so sure was I that God himself had brought Jane to me.
But just when Mr. Wood moved to continue, a voice from behind me said: “The marriage cannot go on: I declare the existence of an impediment.”
No, I thought. No. Not with my prize seconds from my grasp. I almost turned to confront the unknown voice, but I stopped. I would will it gone.
Mr. Wood must have been as shocked as we: for how often could there have been a response to those old, familiar words? Yet he stood by his duty. “I cannot proceed without some investigation,” he said.
“The ceremony is quite broken off,” came the voice again. “I am in a condition to prove my allegation: an insuperable impediment to this marriage exists.”
I would not, I could not, turn and allow for this to be happening. I glanced down at Jane beside me, and she was staring wordlessly in return. I took her hand in mine; if the speaker revealed my secret, Jane would be lost to me forever. We shall not be overcome by this, I told myself. I forbid it.
“What is the nature of the impediment?” Mr. Wood asked, his voice hopeful. “Perhaps it may be got over—explained away?”
“Hardly,” came the voice. “I have called it insuperable, and I speak advisedly.” The speaker came forward then, and I saw he was a stranger. From whom could he have heard my secret? Not Gerald. “It simply consists in the existence of a previous marriage,” he said, slowly and clearly, so there could be no mistaking his words. “Mr. Rochester has a wife now living.”
I gripped Jane tighter still, twined my arm around her waist as if fearing the man might make her vanish with his words. “Who are you?” I thundered.
“My name is Briggs,” he said, “a solicitor of —— Street, London.”
“And you would thrust on me a wife?” I was in a fever dream—I would stave this off by force of will if I must. After all those years with Bertha, surely God had given me what I deserve!
“I would remind you of your lady’s existence, sir; which the law recognizes, if you do not.”
No, by God. No. I would not retreat. Perhaps this was a bluff. “Favor me with an account of her—with her name, her parentage, her place of abode.”
“I affirm and can prove that on the twentieth of October, A.D. 18——, Edward Fairfax Rochester, of Thornfield-Hall…” His words swirled through my head, the full account of it: my marriage to Bertha, and the place, etcetera, etcetera. “Signed, Richard Mason.”
All was lost now if I could not remove this last impediment. I scrambled for any last footing. “That—if a genuine document—may prove I have been married,” I said, “but it does not prove that the woman mentioned therein as my wife is still living.”
“She was living three months ago,” the lawyer rejoined.
“How do you know?”
“I have a witness to the fact; whose testimony even you, sir, will scarcely controvert.”
Richard. It could be none other, and damn him to eternity, after all that I had done for him. “Produce him—or go to hell.”
I heard Mr. Wood suck in his breath—such language in the house of God.
“Mr. Mason, have the goodness to step forward.”
At the name, I felt a shudder as if an earthquake had erupted beneath my feet. I clung to Jane still—I would not release her!—and I turned to face Richard. In a fit of passion I raised my arm as if to strike him, and he, seeing the movement, scuttled back away from me like a frightened spider. Pathetic, witless coward, how dare he stand in my way now? “What have you to say?” I demanded.
He, who had abandoned his sister more completely than I ever had, who had depended on my efforts for his living, could only mumble inaudibly.
“The devil is in it if you cannot answer distinctly. I again demand, what have you to say?” Goddamn it, man! Make this right—after all these years, you would not do this to me now.