The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë (27 page)

11 July 1848.

At dawn, I emerged gradually from sleep to find Mrs. Grimshaw at my bedside. She whispered, “Get dressed, then meet me in the school hall.”

Her stealthy mien lent a sinister air to her command, but I obeyed. Inside the silent, deserted school, Mrs. Grimshaw lit candles for us both, unlocked the cellar door, and led me down the stairway to a dungeon of passages with dirt floors and damp, rank stone walls. I shuddered, for I sensed the place to be evil. We entered a cell carved out of the earth. A little girl stood tied to a wooden pillar by ropes that bound her wrists and ankles. It was Frances Cullen, my shy pupil. She wore a thin white shift, and her feet were bare. Her hair was disheveled, her face tearstained. She cringed from us and whimpered. I stared in shock.

“Frances has been naughty,” Mrs. Grimshaw said, “and naughty girls must be punished.” She handed me a leather strap. “Whip her twenty lashes. Do it hard enough to hurt, but not to leave permanent scars.”

This was how I must pay her for excusing my theft! Dumbstruck with horror, I stood frozen. Mrs. Grimshaw walked out of the room and shut the door; her footsteps mounted the stairs. I turned to Frances. She was watching me, her eyes huge with terror. I flung away the strap, set down my candle, knelt beside Frances, and put my arms around her.

“Don’t be afraid,” I said. “I won’t hurt you.” Frances’s rigid, quaking body went limp against me, and she sobbed. Her misery tore my heart. “Why does Mrs. Grimshaw want you punished so harshly?”

“I made the Reverend Grimshaw angry,” Frances whispered.

“How?” I asked, wondering what wrongs this meek, gentle child could have done. She gulped, as if choking on the recollection. “What happened, Frances?” I said urgently.

“I’m not supposed to tell!” she cried.

“I won’t tell anyone you did,” I promised.

This seemed to reassure Frances. “He bade me accompany him to the windmill,” she said in a quavering voice that was so low I could barely hear. “He . . . he ordered me to take off my clothes and lie on the floor and—oh, I’m ashamed to say any more!”

She underwent a spate of trembling, and I felt sick with dismay. It now seemed certain that the Reverend Grimshaw used the windmill for immoral relations with pupils, including Jane Fell and now Frances. I then noticed the blood that trickled down her bare legs, and fresh horror assailed me. Such blasphemy!

“I started to cry,” Frances continued in a whisper. “He told me to stop. He said he’d sheltered me and fed me, and I should be glad to repay him.” She began to weep. “He hit me and held me down. He said I must learn how to please men and not complain. He hurt me so much.” Frances’s sobs rose to a hysterical pitch. “He . . . he told Mrs. Grimshaw I’d been bad. She brought me here and tied me up. I’ve been alone in the dark for hours.”

Rage at the Grimshaws burned in me as I unknotted the ropes. “Fear no more,” I said. “I won’t whip you.”

“But you must!” Frances protested, to my surprise. “If you don’t, Mrs. Grimshaw will, and she’ll do it harder.”

We heard footsteps on the stairs: Mrs. Grimshaw was coming to see how the punishment progressed. “Please!” Frances cried.

I took up the strap, raised my skirt, and said, “Scream and cry as loudly as you can.”

Twenty times I lashed the strap hard against my own leg and endured the pain, while Frances screamed as though I struck her. After it was done, I felt sore but virtuous for having spared Frances. She later appeared at breakfast looking chastened, and Mrs. Grimshaw gave me a nod of approval. My hatred for the school burgeoned. I could not bear to stay in this place where children were tortured; yet I didn’t want to abandon Frances. Though I yearned for home, I couldn’t forsake my mission. It seemed likely that Isabel White had suffered the same evils as Frances, but perhaps the school harbored more secrets that I must learn for the sake of Charlotte and our family. Hence, I resolved to stay and persevere.

But after the pupils retired to the dormitory, Mrs. Grimshaw waylaid me. “I saw Frances undressing, and there’s not a mark on her,” she said, bristling with anger. “You didn’t whip her. Next time, do as you’re told, or I’ll ’ave the police on you.”

She left me shaking with dread. I realized I must leave the school, no matter my regrets. That midnight, I quietly dressed, then packed my satchel. I crept outside, intending to walk to town and board the earliest train home. A cool, restless wind blew clouds across the stars and the full moon. The trees in the garden tossed their boughs; shadows stirred. As I sped down the path, I noticed a light. It came from the forbidden windmill.

Curiosity delayed my flight. I crept up to the windmill. Its door was closed, but the lighted window was open. Through it I heard men’s voices inside the mill. I peered through the window and saw the Reverend Grimshaw standing in the light from a lantern he held. I had a clear view of his face, but the two men opposite him stood with their backs to me.

“Gentlemen, I no longer wish to do business with you,” the Reverend Grimshaw said, his manner at once pompous and fearful.

“It’s too late for you to terminate our association,” one of the other men said in a high, cultured voice.

“But this has become too dangerous. Rumors about the school are circulating in town. The Church has sent officials to inspect the premises. And the more girls who pass through the school, the greater the chance that one will talk.” The Reverend Grimshaw seemed on the verge of weeping. “Please, good sirs—if you don’t release me, I shall be ruined!”

“If you renege on your promise, you’ll have worse to fear than that the Church will discover the fate of the girls in your charge,” said the other man. His voice was deeper, and menacing. “Would you like everyone to know that you satisfy your carnal desires with your pupils?”

Even in the meager light I could see the Reverend Grimshaw’s complexion turn pale.

“You can either fulfill your obligations to us,” his adversary said, “or be exposed as a foul sinner.”

The Reverend Grimshaw cast his gaze upward, as though he expected the heavens to rain fire. Defeat settled upon him. His pomposity deflated, he seemed aged and shrunken. I pitied him not. “I’ll fetch her,” he said.

He and his companions left the windmill; I followed, undetected. The Reverend Grimshaw entered the house. The two men walked to the front of the school. I hastened after them, my heart beating fast, my blood racing. In the road stood a carriage and horses. The two men waited beside the carriage, while I hid in the moonlit woods. Presently, down the lane from the school came the Reverend Grimshaw with his lantern. Beside him walked Abigail Weston, once friend to the now-absent Jane Fell. They halted at the carriage. The driver opened its door.

“Where are you taking me?” Abigail asked the men.

Giddy excitement, tinged with fear, inflected her voice. One of the men said, “You’re going to London, to live in Paradise.”

Was she following in the footsteps of Isabel White? I felt certain that both young women had been mistreated in the same manner as had Frances, and both schooled for some evil purpose. Isabel White’s path had led to the criminal she called her master, and a life of sordid intrigue. Alas, I believed that Abigail, Jane, Frances, and other girls at the school were destined for the same.

Abigail and the men rode away in the carriage. The Reverend Grimshaw returned to the school. I trudged along the road until I reached the village.

I write this account as the train carries me homeward. Morning sun now gilds the countryside, but my thoughts dwell in the dark realms of uncertainty. Will my discoveries be of any use to Charlotte and Mr. Slade?