by John Fowles
I never slept that night, I got in such a state. There were times I thought I would go down and give her the pad again and take other photos, it was as bad as that. I am not really that sort and I was only like it that night because of all that happened and the strain I was under. Also the champagne had a bad effect on me. And everything she said. It was what they call a culmination of circumstances.
Things were never the same again, in spite of all that happened. Somehow it proved we could never come together, she could never understand me, I suppose she would say I never could have understood her, or would have, anyhow.
About what I did, undressing her, when I thought after, I saw it wasn’t so bad; not many would have kept control of themselves, just taken photos, it was almost a point in my favour.
I considered what to do, I decided a letter was best. This is what I wrote:
I am sorry for last night, I dare say you think now you cannot ever forgive me.
I did say I would not ever use force unless obliged. I think you will admit you did oblige me by what you did.
Please understand that I did only the necessary. I took your dress off as I thought you might be ill again.
I showed every respect I could under the circumstances. Please give me the credit for not going as far as some might in the same.
I will not say any more. Except I must have you here a bit longer.
Yours sincerely, etc.
I didn’t put any beginning. I couldn’t decide what to call her: Dear Miranda seemed familiar.
Well, I went down and took in her breakfast. It was just like I thought. She was sitting in her chair, staring at me. I said good morning, she didn’t reply. I said something—do you want krispies or corn flakes? — she just stared. So I just left her breakfast with the letter on the tray and waited outside and when I went back nothing was touched, the letter was unopened, and she was still sitting there staring at me. I knew it was no good talking, she had it in for me good and proper.
She kept it up several days. So far as I know all she had was some water. At least once a day, when I took in the food she always refused, I tried to argue with her. I took in the letter again and she read it this time, at least it was torn up, so she touched it. I tried everything: I spoke gentle, I pretended I was angry, bitter, I begged her, but it was all no use. Mostly she just sat with her back to me as if she didn’t hear me. I got special things like continental chocolate, caviare, the best food money could buy (in Lewes) but it was never touched.
I was beginning to get really worried. But then one morning when I went in she was standing by her bed with her back to me; however, she turned as soon as I came in and said good morning. But in a funny tone. Full of spite.
Good morning. I said. It’s nice to hear your voice again.
“Is it? It won’t be. You’ll wish you never heard it.”
That remains to be seen, I answered.
“I’m going to kill you. I realize you’d let me starve to death. Just the thing you would do.”
I suppose I never brought you any food these last days?
She couldn’t answer that one, she just started at me in the old style.
“You’re not keeping me prisoner any more. You’re keeping death prisoner.”
Have some breakfast anyhow, I said.
Well, from that time on she ate normally, but it wasn’t like before. She hardly spoke, if she did it was always sharp and sarcastic, she was so bad-tempered there was no staying with her. If I was ever there more than a minute when it wasn’t necessary she used to spit at me to get out. One day soon after, I brought in a plate of perfectly nice baked beans on toast and she just picked it up and hurled it straight at me. I felt like giving her a good clip over the earhole. About this time I was fed up with the whole thing, there didn’t seem any point in it, I tried everything, but she would keep on holding that evening against me. It was like we had reached a dead end.
Then one day she actually asked for something. I got in the habit of leaving at once after supper before she could shout at me, but this time she said, stop a minute.
“I want a bath.”
It’s not convenient tonight, I said. I wasn’t ready for that.
“Tomorrow?”
Don’t see why not. With parole.
“I’ll give my parole.” She said it in a nasty hard voice. I knew what her parole was worth.
“And I want to walk in the cellar.” She pushed forward her hands, and I tied them up. It was the first time I touched her for days. Well, as usual I went and sat on the steps to the outer door and she walked up and down in the funny way she had. It was very windy, you could hear it down there, just the sound of her feet and the wind above. She didn’t speak for quite a time, I don’t know why but I knew she wanted to.
“Are you enjoying life?” she suddenly came out with.
Not much, I answered. Cautious.
She walked to and fro four or five times more. Then she started to hum music.
That’s a nice tune, I said.
“Do you like it?”
Yes, I said.
“Then I don’t any more.”
Two or three more times she went up and down.
“Talk to me.”
What about?
“Butterflies.”
What about butterflies?
“Why you collect them. Where you find them. Go on. Just talk.”
Well, it seemed odd, but I talked, every time I stopped she said, go on, talk. I must have talked half an hour there, until she stopped and said, that’s enough. She went back inside and I took off the cord and she went straight and sat on her bed with her back to me. I asked her if she wanted any tea, she didn’t answer, all of a sudden I realized she was crying. It really did things to me when she cried, I couldn’t bear to see her so unhappy. I went up close and said, tell me what you want, I’ll buy you anything. But she turned round on me, she was crying all right, but her eyes were blazing, she stood up and walked towards me saying get out, get out, get out. It was terrible. She looked really mad.
The next day she was very quiet. Not a word. I got the planks up and everything ready and sure enough she showed she was all ready when she had had her walk (all in silence that time). So I gagged and corded her and took her upstairs and she had her bath and then she came out and put her hands out at once to be tied again and for the gag.
I always went out of the kitchen first with my hand on her just in case, but there was a step there, I fell over it once myself, perhaps that was it, when she fell it seemed natural, and natural that the brushes and bottles and things she carried in a towel (her hands were done in front, so she always carried things up against her front) should all fall out with a noise on the path. She got up all innocent, bending and rubbing her knees and like a proper fool I knelt down to pick the stuff up. Of course I kept a hand on her dressing-gown, but I took my eyes off her which was fatal.
The next thing I knew was I got a terrible blow on the side of the head. Luckily it missed my head, my shoulder or rather my coat-collar took the force. Anyway I fell sideways, half to try and escape the next attack. I was off balance and couldn’t reach at her arms, though I still held on to her dressing-gown. I could see her with something in her hands, I suddenly knew it was the old odd-jobs axe; I used it in the garden only that morning where a branch came away off one of the old apple trees with the wind the night before. I knew like in a flash I had slipped at last. Left it out on the sill of the kitchen window and she must have spotted it. Just one mistake, and you lose everything.
For a moment she had me at her mercy, it was a miracle she didn’t do me in. She struck down again and I only half got my arm up and I felt a terrible gashing blow in the temple, it made my head ring and the blood seemed to gush out at once. I don’t know how I did it, instinct I suppose, but I kicked out sideways and twisted and she fell sideways, nearly on me, I heard the axe hit the stone.
I got my hand
on it and tore it away and threw it on the grass and then I got her hands before she could tear the gag off, that was her game. Well we had another fight, only a few seconds, she must have decided it was no good, she’d had her chance and missed it, she suddenly stopped fighting and I got her in her door and down. I was rough, I was feeling very bad, the blood pouring down my face. I pushed her in, and she gave me a very queer look before I slammed the door and got the bolts home. I didn’t care about her cords and the gag. Teach her a lesson, I thought.
Well upstairs I went and washed it, I thought I was going to faint when I saw my face, there was blood everywhere. However I was very lucky, the axe wasn’t all that sharp and it glanced off my head, it looked a horrible jagged wound but it wasn’t deep. I sat a long time with a cloth pressed on it. I never thought I could stand blood like I did, I really surprised myself that evening.
Of course I was bitter about it. If I hadn’t felt a bit faint I don’t know what I wouldn’t have done. It was just about the straw that broke the camel’s back, as the saying is, and certain ideas did come into my mind. I don’t know what I mightn’t have done if she’d kept on as before. Still, that’s neither here nor there now.
The next morning I went down, I still had a headache, I was ready to get really nasty if she was, but you could have knocked me down with the feather, the first thing she did was to stand up and ask me how my head was. I knew by the way she asked that she was trying to be different. Kind.
I’m lucky not to be dead, I said.
She looked all pale, serious too. She held out her hands, she had got the gag off, but she must have slept with the cords (she was still in her dressing-gown). I undid them.
“Let me look at it.”
I backed away, she had me very jumpy.
“I’ve nothing in my hands. Did you wash it?”
Yes.
“Disinfectant?”
It’s all right.
Well she went and got a small bottle of Dettol she had, she diluted some with cotton wool and came back.
What’s the game now, I said.
“I want to dab this on. Sit down. Sit down.” The way she said it you knew she meant well. Funny, sometimes you knew she couldn’t be lying.
She took the plaster and lint off, very gentle, I felt her wince when she saw it, it wasn’t very pretty, but she washed it very softly and put the lint on again.
Thanks very much, I said.
“I’m sorry I did … what I did. And I should like to thank you for not retaliating. You had every right to.”
It’s not easy when you’ve been like you’ve been.
“I don’t want to talk about anything. Just to say I’m sorry.”
I accept your apologies.
“Thank you.”
It was all formal, she turned away to have her breakfast, and I waited outside. When I knocked on the door to see if I could clear away, she was dressed and the bed properly made, I asked if she wanted anything but she didn’t. She said I was to get TCP ointment for myself, and she handed me the tray with just the ghost of a smile. It doesn’t seem much, but it marked a big change. It almost seemed to make the head worth it. I was really happy that morning. Like the sun was coming out again.
After that for two or three days we were neither one thing nor the other. She didn’t say much, but she wasn’t bitter or cutting at all. Then one day after breakfast she asked me to sit down as I used to in the beginning so she could draw me. It was just to give herself an excuse to talk.
“I want you to help me,” she said.
Carry on, I answered.
“I have a friend, a girl, who’s got a young man in love with her.”
Go on, I said. She stopped. To watch me walk into it, I suppose.
“He’s so much in love with her that he’s kidnapped her. He’s keeping her prisoner.”
What a coincidence.
“Isn’t it? Well, she wants to be free again and she doesn’t want to hurt him. And she just doesn’t know what to do. What would you advise?”
Patience, I said.
“What must happen before the young man will release her?”
Anything might happen.
“All right. Don’t let’s play games. Tell me what I must do to be set free.”
I couldn’t answer, I thought if I said live with me for ever we’d only be back where we started.
“Marriage is no good. You can’t trust me.”
Not yet.
“If I went to bed with you?”
She’d stopped drawing. I wouldn’t answer.
“Well?”
I didn’t think you were that sort, I said.
“I’m just trying to find your price.” Just like it was a new Washing-machine she was inquiring the pros and cons of.
You know what I want, I said.
“But that’s just what I don’t!”
You know all right.
“Oh, God. Look. Just answer yes or no. Do you want to go to bed with me?”
Not like we are now.
“What are we like now?”
I thought you were supposed to be the clever one.
She took a deep breath. I liked having her on a bit. “You feel I’m only looking for a way to escape? Whatever I did would be just for that? Is that it?”
I said yes.
“If you felt I was doing it for some other reason. Because I liked you. Just for fun. You would like it then?”
I can buy what you’re talking about in London any time I want, I said.
That shut her up a bit. She started drawing again.
After a bit she said, “You haven’t got me here because you find me sexually attractive.”
I find you very attractive, I said. The most.
“You’re just like a Chinese box,” she said. Then she went on drawing and we didn’t say any more. I tried to, but she said it spoilt the pose.
I know what some would think, they would think my behaviour peculiar. I know most men would only have thought of taking an unfair advantage and there were plenty of opportunities. I could have used the pad. Done what I liked, but I am not that sort, definitely not that sort at all. She was like some caterpillar that takes three months to feed up trying to do it in a few days. I knew nothing good would come of it, she was always in such a hurry. People today always want to get things, they no sooner think of it they want to get it in their hands, but I am different, old-fashioned, I enjoy thinking about the future and letting things develop all in good time. Easy does it, as Uncle Dick used to say when he was into a big one.
What she never understood was that with me it was having. Having her was enough. Nothing needed doing. I just wanted to have her, and safe at last.
Two or three days passed. She never said much, but then one day after lunch she said, “I’m a prisoner for life, aren’t I.”
I could tell she was just talking, so I said nothing.
“Hadn’t we better start being friends again?”
O.K. with me, I said.
“I’d like a bath tonight.”
O.K.
“Then could we sit upstairs? It’s this room. I get mad for a change.”
I said I’d see.
Actually, I lit the fire and got everything ready. Made sure there was nothing she could pick up and have a bash at me with. It’s no good pretending I had my old trust in her.
Well, she went up to her bath and it was all like as usual. When she came out I did her hands, no gag, and I followed her downstairs. I noticed she had a lot of her French scent on, she’d done her hair up the way she did it before, and she was wearing a purple and white housecoat I bought her. She wanted some of the sherry we never finished (there was still half a bottle there) and I poured it out and she stood by the log fire looking down into it, holding out her bare feet turn by turn to warm them. We stood there drinking; we didn’t say anything but she gave me one or two funny looks, like she knew something I didn’t
and that made me nervous.
Well she had another glass, and drank it off in a minute and then wanted another.
“Sit down,” she said, so I sat down on the sofa where she pointed. For a moment she watched me sitting there. Then she stood in front of me, very funny, looking down at me, moving from foot to foot. Then she came, twist, bang she sat on my knees. It took me right by surprise. Somehow she got her arms right round my head and the next thing was she was kissing me at the mouth. Then laying her head on my shoulder.
“Don’t be so stiff,” she said.
I was like stunned. It was the last thing.
“Put your arm round me,” she said. “There. Isn’t that nice? Am I heavy?” And she leant her head again on my shoulder, while I had my hand on her waist. She was all warm and perfumed and I have to say that her housecoat was open very low and fell apart to above the knees, but she didn’t seem to care, she just stretched her legs along the sofa.
What’s up? I said.
“You’re so unrelaxed. Just relax. There’s nothing to worry about.” Well, I tried, she lay still, but I knew there was something wrong in the situation.
“Why don’t you kiss me?”
I knew something was really on then. I didn’t know what to do, I kissed the top of her head.
“Not like that.”
I don’t want to, I said.
She sat up still on my knees and looked at me.
“You don’t want to?”
I looked away, it was difficult with her tied hands round my neck, I didn’t know what to say to stop her.
“Why not?”
She was laughing at me.
I might go too far, I said.
“So might I.”
I knew she was laughing, making fun of me again.
I know what I am, I said.
“What are you?”
Not the sort you like.
“Don’t you know there are times when every man is attractive? Eh?” She sort of gave my head a bit of a jerk, like I was being stupid.
I didn’t, I said.
“Well, then.”
It’s what it could lead to.
“I don’t care what it leads to. You are slow.” And then all of a sudden she was kissing me again, I even felt her tongue.