Wuthering Heights Fanfiction.

Part One

Note: 

1.These are not my characters or setting. These characters are the works of Emily Bronte. This is a fanwork.

2. This story takes place in an alternate timeline I'm creating. Not every portion of this "book" will follow this timeline. Ill specify if it does. This one does. 

Upon one of Ms. Catherine Earnshaw's vists to the heights,she found her self in the dreary kitchen where she had spent much of her childhood. The maid, a busty woman in perhaps her mid 30's was tending to a wilting fire when she entered.

"Ellen," Said the young woman. The maid rose and turned upon the uttering of her name. Seeing the refined lady who stood beyond her sighed:

"Ms. Earnshaw, you should be in the parlor. Dinner will be ready soon." The maiden seemed to grow pail in the warm light of the dying flame.

"Nellie, I think I have made a mistake." 

A stable boy, dark and tall was passing by the open kitchen door when he heard Ms. Earnshaws familiar coo. He paused before the portal to hear what has been troubling the woman he admired so dearly.

"Sit down,child. Tell me what is the matter." Cathy took a stool and set her self upon it gingerly, her many skirts ruffling as she did. 

"I am afraid I made a mistake. I need you to tell weather I have or not."

"Well what is it then?"

"Edgar has proposed to me. And I excepted."

From outside Heathcliff heard the maid pause. "Do you love him?"Asked the tempered Nellie. 

It was Catherine's turn to think "Well, yes." she said, needing assurance.

"Why do you love him?"

"Well,...because he is handsome."

Heathcliff looked at his own reflection in the window. Sallow cheeks, sunken green eyes, tan gypsy skin and a tall nose looked at him back. 

"bad." barked Nellie.

"Because Ill be rich!" exclaimed the dame, delight in her voice.

"bad still." she sighed.

"because's hes young and cheerful."

"Well marry Mr. Edgar then, where's your obstacle?" Said Nellie, frustrated as to why this youthful dame was asking for assurance on a decision she was already heart set on. 

Catherine paused, Her beauty distorted by the fire light. "Here." she put her hand over her chest, and sunk her shoulders into her body, as if to try and retreat from the cold world encapsulating her. "If my brother hath not stooped so low, I would never have thought of it. It would be degrading-" Her black eyes rose to meet Heathcliff's, who were still staring beyond the window pane. 

The maiden and the gypsy gaped at one another for an electric beat, like an animal peering into civilization and the civilized fearing the animal starring back out.

Then abruptly, Cathy rose and vacated the kitchen through the open door. She charged the dark servant who was impeding on her private conversation with her house keeper. A fire was lit in those sultry eyes and they had a target for which they were locked. 

With all her dainty might, she attacked the gypsy.She leaped into his strong arms despite the many layers of silk petticoats, and ran her hands in his disheveled hair. As the two embraced, feverishly placing kisses and giggles on one another' necks and faces,  rain began to come down in the courtyard with fervor.

"Do you really love him Cathy?" Heathcliff spoke into her ear through gentle kisses. She pulled away abruptly, examining his face and body with a new motive. "or do you love me?"

"My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, as winter changes the trees. But, whatever your soul and mine are made of, they are the same." Her eyes penetrated him with a stoic and matter of fact answer. The meticulous priming her hair had undergone began to melt in the rain. It now lay upon her shoulders and across her face in mahogany strands. Her cheek and lip rouge also disapparated in the damp, and with the warm light emanating from the kitchen clinging to her face, she again looked like the wild dame that simultaneously made Heathcliff's boyhood miserable and wonderful. 

"Will you tell him that you wont marry him?" 

"No." 

Confusion fell over Heathcliff. "What then? Will you marry him?"

"No, well run away. Not tonight. The weather is to disorienting for that now.But next time we visit. Will you pack my things while I'm gone so we can get away quickly? And before the next time we meet, I will go into Gimmerton and see where we can go, see if any one knows of farms or shops we could work that are far from here." 

Heathcliff, overwhelmed with love, kissed her again. She kissed back, excitement for their plans filling her chest. As they embraced, Catherine peered into the kitchen window, servants were delivering dishes out of the room. "I must go." she said, pulling away.

Heathcliff grabbed her small wrist before she could evade him. "Cathy please, can you say that you feel sick and you can't dine. I want to be with you longer.  

"I cant Heathcliff! I was in good health this morning, it'll seem suspicious."

"Say your stomach is rolling with excitement from the engagement."

Catherine paused and thought. "Very well."

So through the kitchen that was currently and briefly vacant the children traveled up the flight of stone stairs, there shoes clicking against the cobble. At the landing, Catherine gasped, for as Heathcliff was wrestling the door knob, Catherine had noticed Ellen spy the pair while sweeping the hall.

"Ellen!" She whispered to the maid across the corridor"Ellen, please tell our guests I have fallen ill to anxiety regarding the engagement and have retired!" 

Ellen approached the girl, examining the both of them, Catherine's sopping hair and melted cheek rouge, Heathcliff's wet linen over shirt and unbuttoned vest, and the children's interlocked fingers. Something resembling a satisfied expression overcame her unimpressed facade. 

"I will tell Sir Linton that the Lady Catherine has retired to bed." Upon this, she pushed passed them in the narrow hallway and down the damp kitchen flight. Once the echoing footsteps seized to reverberate up the stairway, Heathcliff gingerly opened the door before his lady:

"After you," He said, letting Catherine enter before he. And once inside, Catherine was sure to put a door under the knob, so no one was to disturb them.