This scene belongs at the beginning of chapter 23. Two weeks have passed since Jane's return from Gateshead. Each day she waited to hear the announcement of Mr. Rochester's engagement to Miss Ingram. She has grown uneasy, unsure if there really is an engagement. Unaware if she would still have a home and employment at Thornfield. Living in constant anticipation of the news that would mean her permanent separation from Mr. Rochester.
The sun was setting on midsummer's eve. I stood at the open library window, indulging in a cigar. The rich scent of tobacco mixed with the fragrance of jasmine and sweet rose. I watched the arid day surrender its light to the temperate shadows. They overtook the sprawling fields that surrounded the hall as the sun fell behind a distant hill. The western sky was alight with brilliant rays. Ruby red faded into purple, then succumbed to the magnificent star blazed azure darkness.
It was then that I spied Jane. Lost in thought, she ambled along the walk below. As if she could sense my gaze upon her she glanced up at my window warily, then turned and proceeded down into the orchard.
I left the library. I quit the house and followed her into the night. My scheme had nearly played out. We had come to the final act. Using jealousy as an ally, I'd allowed her to believe I was engaged to Miss Ingram. It was time I corrected that well placed falsehood. Jane loved me; I was sure of it. I saw it in her look, felt it in her touch. There only lacked one final movement that would force her to confess the truth of it.
I approached, slowing my step. I trailed her down the row of flowering cherry trees. When I drew near, she moved away, believing she could retreat unnoticed towards the house.
"Turn back," I entreated. "On so lovely a night it is a shame to sit in the house, and surely no one can wish to go to bed while sunset is thus at meeting with moonrise."
Hesitantly, she fell into step at my side. I bid her take my arm as I led her along the laurel walk. Then down the secluded path that bordered the sunk fence, toward the large chestnut tree. I prodded her from her guarded silence into conversation, remarking how pleasant and picturesque Thornfield had become in summer.
"It is always the way of events in this life, no sooner have you got settled in a pleasant resting place, then a voice calls out to you to rise and move on, for the hour of repose is expired."
"Must I move on, sir?" she asked. "Must I leave Thornfield?"
"I believe you must, Jane. I am sorry, Janet, but I believe indeed you must."
I declared I would marry Miss Ingram. Would the bitter pain of encroaching separation suffice to break the bond she kept upon her heart? I drove the dagger in. I informed her I had found a position for her as governess to a respectable family living in Ireland. Every bit of my tale a complete fabrication.
"It is a long way off, sir," she said quietly.
"From what, Jane?"
"From England and from Thornfield, and… from you, sir." Tears began to mist her eyes.
"I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you -especially when you are near me, as now. It is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that cord of communion were snapped, I've a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly." I met her gaze. "As for you, -you'd forget me."
"That I never should, sir." Her face flushed hot with frustrated agony, she cried out fiercely, "I wish I had never come here!"
"Because you are sorry to leave it?"
"I grieve to leave Thornfield. I love Thornfield. It is where I have known you, and it strikes me with terror and anguish to feel I absolutely must be torn from you forever. I see the necessity of departure, and it is like looking on the necessity of death."
"Where do you see the necessity?" I asked.
"Where? In the shape of Miss Ingram, -your bride!" she accused.
"My bride! What bride? I have no bride!"
"But you will have!" she protested.
"Yes. I will! -I will!" I growled. We were standing under the chestnut tree. I pulled her to me, kissing her. She struggled against my hold, pressing her arms against my chest. A wild wind roared through the laurel and came sweeping over us.
"I must go!" she said.
"No! You must stay! I swear it."
"Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you, that I am a machine without feeling? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! -I have as much soul as you, -and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you."
The wind was catching her skirts, they billowed about us. I took her firmly by the shoulders.
"Jane, I summon you as my wife. It is YOU I intend to marry."
She stared incredulously at me.
"What? Me?"
"Do you doubt me, Jane?"
"Entirely!" she gasped.
"Little skeptic, you SHALL be convinced. What love have I for Miss Ingram? None. What love has she for me? None! As I have taken pains to prove. I caused a rumor to reach her that my fortune was not a third of what was supposed, and the result was coldness. I would not -I could not marry Miss Ingram. You -you strange, you almost unearthly thing! -I love as my own flesh. You -poor and obscure, and small and plain as you are -I entreat to accept me as a husband."
She stared at my face, searching for truth. Fine droplets of summer rain began to fall.
"Accept me quickly. Say, Edward -I will marry you."
"Are you in earnest? Do you truly love me? Do you sincerely wish me to be your wife?"
"I do."
"Then, Edward, I will marry you!"
I kissed her mouth, drawing her closer still. There was a blinding flash of lightning and a resounding crack. I shielded her, pressing her face against my chest. I looked toward the calamity. The chestnut had been struck. It smoldered at the point of contact and its heavy bows groaned. The sky opened fully and the rain rushed down.
I pulled her away, hurrying up the walk. Judging the distance to the hall I realized we would both be wet through before we could pass its threshold. Instead, I turned in the direction of the coach house. It was nearer, and it would be dry at least.
I closed the door as we entered, shutting out the wind and rain, and the rattling peal of thunder beyond. I was breathing hard from exertion and excitement. Unadulterated joy sung through every nerve.
I pressed her back against the door, kissing her breathless mouth in the dark. I could smell the scent of rain on her skin. Her hands held my face, probing my features, searching what her eyes could not perceive. What would she find there? What measure of man was I, -a liar, a fraud? For the briefest moment I felt conscious of my deceit. I martialled the sentiment, setting it aside. Burying it within my heart, injudiciously acquitting my conduct.
"God pardon me, and man meddle not with me. I have her and will hold her." I whispered menacingly to the tempest fate. She would not dare deny my happiness a second time. "It will atone, it WILL. Will I not guard, and cherish, and solace her? It will expiate at God's tribunal, I know my maker sanctions what I do. For man's opinion -I defy it!"
My ravings alarmed her. She placed a hand on my chest.
"Are you well?" she questioned.
"Very well my love, forgive me. Allow me a moment -let me find a light."
I searched a nearby table where I knew a lantern was kept. I located it and the means for ignition. When that task was completed, I saw Jane standing near the carriage. She had discarded her wet shawl and was making use of the light to survey her sodden dress.
"What a state," she smiled looking back at me.
"To be sure, yet never have I found you more enchanting," I returned. I lifted the lantern, spreading its light, indicating the direction behind her. "What do you think of the carriage Jane? Do you think it will suit young Mrs. Rochester?"
"It is fine sir," she replied, "though I think I shall hardly do it justice."
I hung the lantern on its hook, grinning to myself. How could she continue to believe she was plain when she had bewitched me so thoroughly? Perhaps it was fortunate for my sake that she was yet ignorant of her power. I opened the carriage door and bowed to her. I offered my hand as I played the role of footman, assisting her into the compartment.
Stepping up, I took the liberty of installing myself beside her. I pulled her onto my lap, kissing her smiling mouth as she circled her arms about my neck. Once we were married, I would bundle her into this carriage and make good our escape. Away from the horrid secrets, and injustices of my former life, to the tranquil shores of the Mediterranean.
I leaned her back trailing kisses down her throat, pulling futilely at her bodice. Abandoning that attempt I slid my hand under her skirts, caressing her soft warm thigh with my palm.
"Jane," I whispered to her, "do you see that floral pattern up there, in the upholstery upon the ceiling?"
"Don't talk of finery now sir, it is of no import."
"It is most important. I want the image of those flowers seared into your memory. For in future, I desire you should be unable to look upon them without recalling every detail of the pleasure you had when I fucked you senseless in this fine carriage."
She gripped the hair at my temples, pulling my mouth back to hers. She kissed me urgently, thrusting her tongue into my mouth, biting my lip, and nipping my jaw. She pushed herself up, straddling my thighs. Her fingers moved quickly unfastening the hooks at the side of her bodice. She shirked out of it, letting it fall to the floor. She snatched at her laces, her breasts heaving with each frantic breath until finally she was free. I pulled her to me, pressing my face between her breasts, groping them through the fabric of her shift. She pulled at my coat, but it was impossible to remove seated as we were. She moved off, sitting back upon the opposing bench, as I quickly disposed of it and my waistcoat.
She slid her skirts down her hips. I went to my knees on the bed of discarded clothing. I groaned, rooting boorishly between her thighs, savagely spreading her scent and her nectar upon my face. I moved lower, protracting her seduction by gently stroking my tongue over her arsehole. I felt her stiff reaction, protesting my indecency. Smiling inwardly, my spirit rose to meet her challenge. I probed my tongue inside her taut ligature. My sweet innocent girl, I vowed tonight I would fully claim her.
"Jane, abandon your prudish notions. You have nothing to fear from me. I only wish to bestow all the pleasure you deserve."
I moistened my fingers with my mouth. I slid them into her dewy cunt as I kissed and teased her bud. I waited until she was fervent, keening, involuntarally grating her sex against my face. Only then did I slowly advance a finger into her arse.
To my relief she did not remonstrate, she allowed herself the liberty of indulging in the sensation. I was elated when I heard her sigh of pleasure. She began to quiver.
"Edward, please," she begged.
I continued my barbarous assault of her swollen bud with my mouth as I dually worked both arse and cunt. Spurred on by her cries, I did not cease until her body convulsed with pleasure.
I dragged her onto the floor. I arranged her carefully in the cramped confines of the carriage, pulling her legs up, resting her calves against my shoulders. She grabbed my cock as I freed it from my breeches.
"Hurry," she urged.
I slid into her. Her eyes closed, and she rolled her head back as she moaned with satisfaction. How I cherished that deep luxuriant sound. I wrapped my fingers around her neck, feeling her cries resonate in her throat. I withdrew and thrust hard into her. Her head wrapped the side wall, and a clapping din rung out as my thighs struck against her arse. I impaled her again and again watching her breasts bounce with each heady thrust.
"Yes, -yes" she cried in time with my movement.
My prize, my redemption, MY WIFE, to have and to hold, to claim as my own.
"I want you, I need you, all of you," I raved.
"Yes."
I withdrew, and pressed the throbbing head of my cock against her arsehole. Her eyes flashed warily to mine. I paused.
"Jane, give yourself to me."
"...Yes."
I spat repeatedly on my cock, easing my entrance. I rubbed the pad of my thumb over her tender bud to soothe any trepidation. Patiently, I advanced as her tight ring of flesh gradually yielded to me.
"Edward, it's..." she began. Then my cock finally slipped into her.
"Ohhhh..." she moaned.
My God she was wondrous, inconceivably tight. I was overcome, both humbled, and exalted as she unreservedly surrendered herself to my hedonistic need. She was the desire of my heart, she matched me point for point. My equal in every way, our bodies now undeniably one flesh.
"Oh God Jane -you are mine -truly MINE," I groaned. My spirit soared as my soul raced across the Elysian Fields.
"I'll make you come like this," I vowed. "I'm going to fuck you like a whore, -fill your arse with my seed -and you, my darling little wife, are going to relish every moment of it."
I drove into her. Her hands gripped my thighs. She urged me on, begging me to fuck her harder until she moaned in ecstasy. She was coming. I could have died in that moment and left the earth without a shred of remorse. Her body arched and her arse clenched still tighter on my cock. In a heartbeat I was undone. I poured my seed into her luscious body, crying out with the unmitigated pleasure of release.
I sat back against the side wall, panting, forcing my brain to form some coherent thought. Jane clambered into my lap and I brought my arms around her. She laid her head against my chest and sighed contentedly.
"My love," I sighed.
The storm raged on as I held her in our makeshift sanctuary. It showed no signs of stopping. Eventually we resigned that we could not remain as we were all night. I helped Jane to dress in the lamplight. When we were ready I held my coat above us and we dashed across the courtyard and into the house. The lamp was lit. The clock was on the stroke of twelve.
"Hasten to take off your wet things," I said, as I kissed her repeatedly. "Goodnight my darling."
Jane hurried down the hall. I heard a door close and looked toward the sound. Mrs. Fairfax was staring at me incredulously. Her expression grave, her mouth pressed into a firm disapproving line. I nodded to her, then proceeded into the house.