The Withered Arm | Thomas Hardy | A Bitesized Audiobook

[Music] hello and welcome to bite-sized audio on YouTube I'm Simon Stanhope actor audiobook narrator and curator of this channel on the channel you can hear my narrations more than a hundred to date and more to come of classic short stories mostly from the Victorian and Edwardian eras including vintage ghost stories detective stories and other classic Tales of mystery and suspense to accompany the narrations I put a short profile of the authors in the video description as well as some general ba

ckground notes on the stories for those who'd like to know more if you enjoy this content please hit subscribe like share leave a comment if you'd like to and thank you for listening thank you foreign [Music] [Music] by Thomas Hardy one a lawn milk made it was an 80 Cow Dairy and the troop of milk is regular and supernumery were all at work for though the time of year was as yet about early April the feed lay entirely in water Meadows and the cows were in full pale the hour was about six in the

evening and three-fourths of the large red rectangular animals having been finished off there was opportunity for a little conversation they do bring home his bride tomorrow I hear they've come as far as angleberry today The Voice seemed to proceed from the belly of the cow called cherry but the speaker was a milking woman whose face was buried in the flank of that motionless Beast have anybody seen her said another there was a negative response from the first though they say she's a rosy-cheeke

d tasty tosty little body enough she added and as the milkmaid spoke she'd hand her face so that she could glance past her cow's tail to the other side of the Barton where the thin fading woman of 30 milked somewhat apart from the rest years younger than he they say continue the second with also a glance of reflectiveness in the same direction how old you call him then 30 or so more like 40 broke in an old Milkman near in a long white pinafore or wrapper and with the brim of his hat tied down so

that he looked like a woman I was born before our great where was builded and I hadn't man's wages when I laid water there the discussion waxed so warm that the pear of the milk streams became jerky televoice from another cow's belly cried with authority now then what the Turk do it matter to us about farmer Lodge's age or farmer lodges new misses I shall have to pay him nine pound a year for the rent of every one of these milkers whatever his age Horrors get on with your work what will be dark

of all we have done the evening is pinking in already this speaker was the dairyman himself by whom the milkmaids and men were employed nothing more was said publicly about farmer Lodge's wedding but the first woman murmured under her cow to her next neighbor it is hard for she signifying the thin worn milk made a horse head oh no said the second he had spoke to Rhoda Brook for years when the milking was done they washed their pails and hung them on a mini forked stand made as usual of the peel

ed limb of an oak tree set upright in the earth and resembling a colossal antler horn the majority then dispersed in various directions Homewood the thin woman who had not spoken was joined by a boy of 12 or there about and the twain went away up the field also their course lay apart from that of the others to a lonely spot high above the water Meads and not far from the border of eggton Heath whose dark countenance was visible in the distance as they drew nigh to their home they've just been sa

ying down in Barton that your father brings his young wife home from angleberry tomorrow the woman observed I shall want to send you for a few things to Market and you'll be pretty sure to meet him yes mother said the boy is Father married then yes you can give it a look and tell me what she's like if you do see her yes Mother if she's dark or fair and if she's tall as tall as I and if she seems like a woman who has ever worked for a living or one that has always been well off and has never done

anything and shows marks of the lady on her as I expect she do yes they crept up the hill in the Twilight and entered the cottage it was built of mud walls the surface of which had been washed by many rains into channels and depressions that left none of the original flat face visible while here and there in the thatch above a rafter showed like a bone protruding through the skin she was kneeling down in the Chimney Corner before two pieces of turf laid together with the Heather inwards blowing

at the red hot ashes with her breath till the turfs flamed the radiance lit her pale cheek and made her dark eyes that had once been handsome seem handsome and you yes she resumed see if she is dark or fair and if you can notice if her hands be white if not see if they look as though she had ever done housework or a milk his hands like mine the boy again promised inattentively this time his mother not observing that he was cutting a notch with his pocket knife in the beach-backed chair two the

young wife the road from angleberry to homestoke is in general level but there is one place where a sharper scent breaks its monotony Farmers Homeward Bound from the former Market Town who Trot all the rest of the way walk their horses up this short incline the next evening while the sun was yet bright a handsome new gig with a lemon-colored body and red Wheels was spinning Westward along the level Highway at the heels of a powerful mayor the driver was a yeoman in the prime of Life cleanly shav

en like an actor his face being toned to that bluish Vermilion Hue which so often Graces a thriving Farmer's features when returning home after successful dealings in the town beside him Sat a woman many years his Junior almost indeed a girl her face too was fresh in color but it was of a totally different quality soft and evanescent like the light under a heap of rose petals few people traveled this way thought it was not a main road and the long white ribbond of gravel that stretched before th

em was empty save of one small scarce moving spec which presently resolved itself into the figure of a boy who was creeping on at a snail's pace and continually looking behind him the heavy bundle he carried being some excuse for if not the reason of his dilatoriness when the bouncing gig party slowed at the bottom of the incline above mention The Pedestrian was only a few yards in front ing the large bundle by putting one hand on his hip he turned and looked straight at the farmer's wife as tho

ugh he would read her through and through pacing along a breast of the horse the low sun was full in her face rendering every feature shade and color distinct from the curve of her little nostril to the color of her eyes the farmer though he seemed annoyed that the boy's persistent presence did not order him to get out of the way and thus the lad preceded them his hard gaze never leaving her till they reached the top of the ascent when the farmer trotted on with relief in his lineaments having t

aken no outward notice of the boy whatever how that poor lad stared at me said the young wife yes dear I saw that he did he is one of the village I suppose one of the neighborhood I think he lives with his mother a mile or two off he knows who we are no doubt oh yes you must expect to be stared at just at first my pretty Gertrude I do though I think the poor boy may have looked at us in the hope that we might relieve him of his heavy load rather than from Curiosity no no said her husband offhand

edly these country Lads will carry a hundred weight once they get it on their backs besides his pack had more size than weight in it and now then another mile then I shall be able to show you our house in the distance if it is not too dark before we get there the wheels span Rand and particles flew from their periphery as before till a White House of ample Dimensions revealed itself with farm buildings and Ricks at the back meanwhile the boy had quickened his pace and turning up a bye Lane some

nine and a half short of the white farmstead ascended towards the leaner pastures and so on to the cottage of his mother she had reached home after her days milking at the outlying dairy and was washing cabbage at the doorway in the declining light hold up the net a moment she said without preface as the boy came up he flung down his bundle held the edge of the Cabbage net and as she filled its meshes with the dripping leaves she went on well did you see her yes quite plain is she ladylike yes a

nd more a lady complete is she Young well she's growned up and her ways be quite a woman's of course what color is her hair and face her hair is lightish and her face as comely as Alive dolls her eyes then and not dark like mine no of a bluish tone and her mouth is very nice and red and when she smiles her teeth show White is she tall said the woman sharply I couldn't see she was sitting down then do you go to Homestead church tomorrow morning she's sure to be there go early and notice her walki

ng in and come home and tell me if she's taller than I very well mother but why don't you go and see for yourself I go to see her I wouldn't look up at her if she were to pass my window this instant she was with Mr Lodge of course what did he say or do just the same as usual took no notice of you none next day the mother put a clean shirt on the boy and started him off for homestoke church he reached the ancient little pile when the door was just being opened and he was the first to enter taking

his seat by the front he watched all the parishioners file in the well-to-do farmer Lodge came nearly last and his young wife who accompanied him walked up the aisle with the shyness natural to a modest woman who had appeared thus for the first time as all other eyes were fixed upon her the youth's stare was not noticed now when he reached home his mother said well before he had entered the room she is not tall she is rather short he replied ah said his mother with satisfaction but she's very p

retty very in fact she's lovely the youthful freshness of the yeoman's wife had evidently made an impression even on the somewhat hard nature of the boy that's all I want to hear said his mother quickly now spread the tablecloth the hair you wired is very tender but mind nobody catches you 've never told me what sort of hands she had I have never seen him she never took off her gloves what did she wear this morning a white Bonnet and a silver colored gown a feud and whistled so loud when it rubb

ed against the pews that the lady colored up more than ever for very shame at the noise and pulled it in to keep it from touching but when she pushed into her seat he viewed more than ever Mr Lodge he seemed pleased and his West get stuck out and his great golden seals hung like a Lord's but she seemed to wish her noisy gown anywhere but on her not she however that will do now these descriptions of the newly married couple were continued from time to time by the boy at his mother's request after

any chance encounter he had had with them but rode a brook though she might easily have seen young Mrs Lodge for herself by walking a couple of miles would never attempt an Excursion towards the quarter where The Farmhouse lay neither did she not the daily milking in the dairyman's yard on Lodge's outlying second Farm ever speak on the subject of the recent marriage the daddyman who rented the cows of Lodge and knew perfectly that all milkmaid's history with manly kindness always kept the gossi

p in the cow about and from Annoying Rhoda but the atmosphere thereabout was full of the subject the first days of Mrs not his arrival and from her boy's description and the Casual words of the other milkers Rhoda Brook could raise a mental image of the unconscious Mrs Lodge that was realistic as a photograph three a vision one night two or three weeks after the bridal return when the boy had gone to bed Rhoda sat a long time over the turf hashes that she had raked out in front of her to extingu

ish them she contemplated so intently the new wife as presented to her in her Mind's Eye over the Embers that she forgot the lapse of time at last varied by her day's work she too retired but the figure which had occupied her so much during this and the previous days was not to be banished at night for the first time Gertrude Lodge visited the supplanted woman in her dreams Rhoda Brook dreamed since a session that she really saw before falling asleep was not to be believed that the young wife in

The Pale silk dress and white bonnet but with features shockingly distorted and wrinkled as by age was sitting upon her chest as she lay the pressure of Mrs Lodge's person grew heavier the blue eyes peered cruelly into her face and then the figure thrust forward its left hand mockingly so as to make the wedding ring it wore glitter in Rhoda's eyes maddened mentally and nearly suffocated by pressure the sleeper struggled the incubus still regarding her withdrew to the foot of the bed only howeve

r to come forward by degrees resume her seat and Flash her left hand as before gasping for breath Rhoda in a last desperate effort swung out her right hand seized the confronting Specter by its obtrusive left arm and weld it backward to the floor starting up herself as she did so with a low cry oh merciful Heaven she cried sitting on the edge of the bed in a cold sweat that was not a dream she was here she could feel her antagonist's arm within her grasp even now the very flesh and bone of it as

it seemed she looked on the floor whether she had Whirled the specter but there was nothing to be seen rode a brook slept no more that night and when she went milking at the next Dawn they noticed how pale and Haggard she looked the milk that she Drew quivered into the pail her hand had not calmed even yet and still retained the feel of the arm she came home to breakfast as wearily as if it had been supper time what was that noise in your chairman mother last night said her son you fell off the

bed surely did you hear anything fall at what time just when the Clock Struck two she could not explain and when the meal was done went silently about her household works the boy assisting her for he hated going afield on the farms and she indulged his reluctance between 11 and 12 the garden gate clicked and she lifted her eyes to the window at the bottom of the Garden within the gate stood the woman of her vision Rhoda seemed transfixed ah she said she would come they exclaimed the boy also ob

serving her said so when how does she know us I have seen and spoken to her I talked to her yesterday I told you said the mother flashing indignantly never to speak to anybody in that house or go near the place I did not speak to her till she spoke to me and I did not go near the place I met her in the road what did you tell her nothing she said are you the poor boy who had to bring the heavy load from Market and she looked at my boots and said they would not keep my feet dry if it came on wet b

ecause they were so cracked I told her I lived with my mother and we had enough to do to keep ourselves and that's how it was and she said then I'll come and bring you some better boots and see your mother she gives away things to other folks in the medes besides us Mrs Lodge was by this time close to the door not in her silk as Rhoda had dreamed of in the bed chamber but in a morning hat and gown of common light material which became her better than silk on her arm she carried a basket the impr

ession remaining from the night's experience was still strong Brooke had almost expected to see the wrinkles the scorn and the cruelty on her visitors face she would have escaped an interview had Escape been possible there was however no back door to the cottage and in an instant the boy had lifted the latch to Mrs Lodge's gentle knock I see I have come to the right house said she glancing at the lad and smiling but I was not sure till you opened the door the figure and action were those of the

Phantom but her voice was so indescribably sweet her glance so winning her smile so tender so unlike that of Rhoda's midnight visit and that the latter could hardly believe the evidence of her senses she was truly glad that she had not hidden away in shared aversion as she had been inclined to do in her basket Mrs Lodge brought the pair of boots that she had promised to the boy and other useful articles at these proofs of a kindly feeling towards herd and hers Rhoda's heart reproached her bitter

ly this innocent young thing should have her blessing and not her curse when she left them a light seemed gone from the dwelling two days later she came again to know if the boots fitted and less than a fortnight after paid wrote her another call on this occasion the boy was absent I walk a good deal said Mrs Lodge and your house is the nearest outside our own Parish I hope you are well you don't look quite well Rhoda said she was well enough and indeed though the paler of the two there was more

of the strength that endures in her well-defined features and large frame than in the soft cheeked young woman before her the conversation became quite confidential as regarded their powers and weaknesses and when Mrs Lodge was leaving Rhoda said I hope you will find this Heir agree with you ma'am and not suffer from The Damp of the water Meads the younger one replied that there was not much doubt of her General Health being usually good though now you remind me she added I had one little ailme

nt which puzzles me it is nothing serious but I cannot make it out she uncovered her left hand and arm and their outline confronted Rhoda's gaze as the exact original of the limb she had beheld and seized in her dream upon the pink round surface of the arm were faint marks of an unhealthy color as if produced by a rough grasp Rhoda's eyes became riveted on the discolorations she fancied that she descend in them the shape of her own four fingers how did it happen she said mechanically I cannot te

ll replied Mrs Lodge shaking her head one night when I was sound asleep dreaming I was away in some strange place a pain suddenly shot into my arm there and was so Keen as to awaken me I must have struck it in the daytime I suppose though I don't remember doing so she added laughing I tell my dear husband that it looks just as if he had flown into a rage and struck me there oh I dare say it will soon disappear yes on what night did it come Mrs Lodge considered and said it would be a fortnight ag

o on the morrow when I awoke I could not remember where I was she added till the clock striking two reminded me she had named the night and hour of Rhoda's spectral encounter and Brooke felt like a guilty thing the artless disclosure startled her she did not reason on the freaks of coincidence and all the scenery of that ghastly night returned with double vividness to her mind oh can it be she said to herself when her visitor had Departed that I exercise a malignant power over people against my

own will she knew that she had been slightly called a witch since her fall but never having understood why that particular stigma had been attached to her it had passed disregarded could this be the explanation and had such things as this ever happened before a suggestion the summer Drew on and rode a brook almost dreaded to meet Mrs Lodge again notwithstanding but her feeling for the young wife amounted well nigh to affection something in her own individuality seemed to convict Rhoda of crime y

et a fatality sometimes would direct the steps of the latter to the outskirts of homestoke whenever she left her house for any other purpose than her daily work and hence it happened that their next encounter was out of doors Rhoda could not avoid the subject which had so mystified her and after the first few words she stammered I hope your arm is well again ma'am she had perceived with consternation that Gertrude Lodge carried her left arm stiffly no quite well indeed it is no better at all it

is rather worse it pains me dreadfully sometimes perhaps you would better go to a doctor ma'am she replied that she had already seen a doctor her husband had insisted upon her going to one but the surgeon had not seemed to understand The Afflicted limb at all he had told her to bathe it in hot water and she had bathed it but the treatment had done no good will you let me see it said the milkwoman Mrs Lodge pushed up her sleeve and disclosed the place which was a few inches above the wrist as soo

n as Rhoda Brooks saw it she could hardly preserve her composure there was nothing of the nature of a wound but the arm at that point had a shriveled look and the outline of the four fingers appeared more distinct than at the former time moreover she fancied that they were imprinted in precisely the relative position of her clutch upon the arm in the trance the first finger towards get rude's wrist and the fourth towards her elbow what the impress resembled seemed to have struck Gertrude herself

since their last meeting it looks almost like finger marks she said adding with a faint laugh my husband says it is as if some witch or the Devil Himself had taken hold of me there and blasted the flesh Rhoda shivered that's fancy she said hurriedly I wouldn't mind it if I were you I shouldn't so much minded said the younger with hesitation if if I hadn't notion that it makes my husband dislike me no love me less men think so much of personal appearance some do e for one yes and he was very pro

ud of mine at first keep your arm covered from his sight ah he knows that this figment is there she tried to hide the tears that filled her eyes Well ma'am I honestly hope it will go away soon and so the milk woman's mind was chained Anew to the subject by a horrid sort of spell as she returned home the sense of having been guilty of an act of malignity increased a factor she might to ridicule her superstition in her Secret Heart Rhoda did not altogether object to a slight diminution of her succ

esses Beauty by whatever means it had come about but she did not wish to inflict upon her physical pain for although this pretty young woman had rendered impossible any reparation which Lodge might have made Rhoda for his past conduct everything like resentment at the unconscious user patient had quite passed away from the elders mind if the sweet and kindly Gertrude Lodge only knew of the dream scene in the bed chamber what would she think not to inform her of it seemed treachery in the presenc

e of her friendliness but tell she could not of her own accord neither could she devise a remedy she mused upon the matter the greater part of the night and the next day after the morning milking set out to obtain another glimpse of Gertrude Lodge if she could being held to her by a gruesome fascination by watching the house from a distance the milkmaid was presently able to discern the farmer's wife in a ride she was taking a loan probably to join her husband in some distant field Mrs launch pe

rceived her and canted in her Direction good morning Rhoda Gertrude said when she had come up I was going to call Rhoda noticed that Mrs Lodge held the reins with some difficulty I hope the bad arm said Rhoda they tell me that is possibly One Way by which I might be able to find out the cause and so perhaps The Cure of it replied the other anxiously It Is by going to some clever man over in eggton Heath they did not know if he was still alive and I cannot remember his name at this moment but the

y said that you knew more of his movements than anybody else hear about and could tell me if he was still to be consulted dear me what was his name but you know not conjura trendel said her thin companion turning pale trendel yes is he alive I believe so said Rhoda with reluctance why do you call him Conjurer well they say they used to say he was a he had powers other folks have not oh how could my people be so superstitious as to recommend a man of that sort I thought they meant some medical ma

n I shall think no more of him Rhoda looked relieved and Mrs Lodge wrote on the milkwoman had inwardly seen from the moment she heard of her having been mentioned as a reference for this man that there must exist a sarcastic feeling among the work folk that a sorceress would know the whereabouts of The Exorcist they suspected her then a short time ago this would have given no concern to a woman of her common sense but she had a haunting reason to be superstitious now and she had been seized with

sudden dread that this conjura trundle might name her as the malignant influence which was blasting the fair person of Gertrude and so lead her friend to hate her forever and to treat her as some fiend in human shape that all was not over two days after a shadow intruded into the window pattern thrown on Rhoda Brooks floor by the afternoon sun the woman opened the door at once almost breathlessly are you alone said Gertrude she seemed to be no less harassed and anxious than Brooke herself yes s

aid Rhoda the place on my arm seems worse and troubles me the young farmer's wife went on it is so mysterious I do hope it will not be an incurable wound I have again been thinking of what they said about kanjara trendel I don't really believe in such men but I should not mind just visiting him from Curiosity though on no account must my husband know is it far to where he lives yes five miles said Rhoda backwardly in the heart of egdon well I should have to walk could you not go with me to show

me the way say tomorrow afternoon oh not I that is the milkwoman mermaid with a start of dismay Again The Dread seized her that something to do with her Fierce act in the dream might be revealed and her character in the eyes of the most useful friend she had ever had be ruined irretrievably Mrs Lodge urged and Rhoda finally ascended though with much misgiving sad as the journey would be to her she could not conscientiously stand in the way of a possible remedy for her patrons strange affliction

it was agreed that to escape suspicion not their Mystic intent they should meet at the edge of the heath at the corner of a plantation which was visible from the spot where they now stood five kanjara trendel by the next afternoon Rhoda would have done anything to escape this inquiry but she had promised to go moreover there was a horrid Fascination at times in becoming instrumental in throwing such possible light on her own character as would reveal her to be something greater in the occult wor

ld than she had ever herself suspected she started just before the time of day mentioned between them and half an hour's brisk walking brought her to the Southeastern extension of the egden Tractive country Where the Fur Plantation was a slight figure cloaked and veiled was already there Rhoda recognized almost with a shudder that Mrs large bore her left arm in a sling they hardly spoke to each other and immediately set out on their climb into the interior of this solemn country which stood high

above the rich alluvial soil they had left half an hour before it was a long walk thick clouds made the atmosphere dark though it was as yet only early afternoon and the wind howled dismally over the slopes of the Heath not improbably the same Heath which had witnessed the agony of the Wessex King Ina presented to after ages as Lear Gertrude Lodge talked most wrote a replying with monosyllabic preoccupation she had a strange dislike to walking on the side of her companion where hung The Afflict

ed arm moving round to the other when inadvertently near it much Heather had been brushed by their feet when they descended upon a cart track beside which stood The House of the man they sought he did not profess his remedial practices openly or care anything about their continuance his direct interests being those of a dealer in Furs Turf sharp sand and other local products indeed he affected not to believe largely in his own powers and when warts that had been shown him for cure miraculously d

isappeared which it must be owned they infallibly did he would say likely no I only drink a glass of Grog upon him at your expense perhaps it's all chance and immediately turn the subject he was at home when they arrived having in fact seen them descending into his Valley he was a gray bearded man with a reddish face and he looked singularly at Rhoda the first moment he beheld her Mrs Lodge told him her errand and then with words of self-dismanagement he examined her arm medicine can't cure it h

e said promptly does the work of an enemy Rhoda shrank into herself and Drew back an enemy what enemy asked Mrs Lodge he shook his head that's best known to yourself he said if you like I can show the person to you though I shall not myself know who it is I can do no more and I don't wish to do that she pressed him on which he told Rhoda to wait outside where she stood and took Mrs Lodge into the room it opened immediately from the door and as the latter remained ajar rode a brook could see the

proceedings without taking part in them he brought a Tumblr from the dresser nearly filled it with water and fetching an egg prepared it in some private way after which she broke it on the edge of the glass so that the white went in and the Yoke remained as it was getting gloomy he took the Glass and its contents to the window and told Gertrude to watch the mixture closely they Lent over the table together and the milkwoman could see the opeline Hue of the egg fluid changing form as it sank in t

he water but she was not near enough to define the shape that it assumed do you catch the likeness of any face or figure as you look demanded the kandra of the young woman she murmured a reply in tone so low as to be inaudible to Rhoda and continued to gaze intently into the glass Rhoda turned and walked a few steps away when Mrs Lodge came out and her face was met By the Light it appeared exceedingly pale as pale as rotors against the sad dun shapes of the upland's garnature trendle shut the do

or behind her and they had once started Homewood together but Rhoda perceived that her companion had quite changed did he charge much she asked tentatively oh no nothing he would not take a farthing said Gertrude and what did you see inquired Rhoda nothing I care to speak of the constraint in her manner was remarkable her face was so rigid as to where an old and aspect faintly suggestive of the face in Rhoda's bed chamber was it you who first proposed coming here Mrs Lodge suddenly inquired afte

r a long pause how very odd if you did no but I am not very sorry we have come all things considered she replied for the first time a sense of Triumph possessed her and she did not altogether deplore that the young thing at her side should learn that their lives had been antagonized by other influences than their own the subject was no more alluded to during the long and dreary walk home but in some way or rather a story was whispered about the many dairied lowland that winter that Mrs Lodge's g

radual loss of the use of her left arm was owing to her being overlooked by Rhoda Brook the latter kept her own Council about the incubus but her face grew sadder and thinner and in the spring she and her boy disappeared from the neighborhood of homestoke six a second attempt half a dozen years passed away and Mr and Mrs Lodge's married experience sank into proziness and worse the farmer was usually gloomy and silent the woman whom he had wooed for her grace and beauty was contorted and disfigur

ed in the left limb moreover she had brought him no child which rendered it lightly that he would be the last of a family who had occupied that Valley for some 200 years he thought of Road a brook and her son and feared this might be a judgment from Heaven upon him The Once light-hearted and enlightened Gertrude was changing into an irritable superstitious woman whose whole time was given to experimenting upon her ailment with every quack remedy she came across she was honestly attached to her h

usband and was ever secretly hoping against hope to win back his heart again by regaining some at least of her personal Beauty hence it arose that her closet was lined with bottles packets and ointment pots of every description nay Bunches of Mystic herbs charms and books of necromancy which in her school girl time she would have ridiculed as folly damned if you won't poison yourself with these Apothecary messes and witch mixtures sometime or other said her husband when his eye chanced to fall u

pon the multitudinous array she did not reply but turned her sad soft glance upon him in such hot swollen reproach that he looked sorry for his words and added I only meant it for your good you know Gertrude I'll clear out the whole lot and Destroy them said she huskily and try such remedies no more you want somebody to cheer you he observed I once thought of adopting a boy but he is too old now and he has gone away I don't know where she guessed to whom he alluded for Rhoda Brook's story had in

the course of years become known to her though not a word had ever passed between her husband and herself on the subject neither had she ever spoken to him of her visit to kanjara trendel and of what was revealed to her all she thought was revealed to her mine and solitary Heathman she was now Five and Twenty but she seemed older six years of marriage and only a few months of love she sometimes whispered to herself and then she thought of the apparent cause and said with a tragic glance at her

withering limb if I could only be again as I was when he first saw me she obediently destroyed her nostrums and charms but there remained a hankering wish to try something else some other sort of cure altogether she had never Revisited trendel since she had been conducted to the house of the solitary by Rhoda against her will but it now suddenly occurred to Gertrude that she would in a last desperate effort at deliverance from this seeming curse again seek out the man if he yet lived he was enti

tled to a certain Credence for the indistinct form he had raised in the glass had undoubtedly resembled the only woman in the world who she now knew though not then could have a reason for bearing her ill will the visit should be paid this time she went alone though she nearly got lost on the heath and roamed a considerable distance out of her way trendel's house was reached at last however he was not indoors and instead of waiting at the cottage she went to where his bent figure was pointed out

to her at work a long way off trendel remembered her and laying down the handful of Furs Roots which he was gathering and throwing into a heap he offered to accompany her in the Homewood direction as the distance was considerable and the days were short so they walked together his head bowed nearly to the Earth and his form of a color with it you can send away warts and other expressences I know she said why can't you send away this and the arm was uncovered you think too much of my Powers said

trendel and I am old and weak now too no no it is too much for me to attempt in my own person what have you tried she named to him some of the hundred medicaments and counter spells which she had adopted from time to time he shook his hand some were good enough he said approvingly but not many of them for such as this this is of the nature of a blight not of the nature of a wound and if you ever do throw it off it will be all at once if only I could there is only one chance of doing it known to

me it has never failed in Kindred afflictions that I can declare but it is hard to carry out especially for a woman tell me said she you must touch with the limb the neck of a man who's been hanged she started a little at the image he had raised before he's cold just after he's cut down continued the Cantera impassively how can that do good it will turn the blood and change the Constitution but as I say to do it is hard you must go to the jail when there's a hanging and wait for him when he's b

rought off The Gallows lots have done it though perhaps not such pretty women as you I used to send dozens for skin complaints but that was Informer times the last I sent was n13 near 12 years ago he had no more to tell her and when he had put her into a straight track Homeward turned and left her refusing all money as at first 7. a ride the communication sank deep into Gertrude's mind her nature was rather a timid one and probably of all remedies that the white wizard could have suggested there

was not one which would have filled her with so much aversion as this not to speak of the immense obstacles in the way of its adoption casterbridge the county town was a dozen or 15 miles of and though in those days when men were executed for horse stealing arson and burglary and a size seldom passed without a hanging it was not likely that she could get access to the body of the Criminal unaided and the fear of her husband's anger made her reluctant to breathe a word of Crandall's suggestion t

o him or to anybody about him she did nothing for months and patiently bore her disfigurement as before but her woman's nature craving for renewed love through the medium of renewed Beauty she was but 25 was ever stimulating her to try what at any rate could hardly do her any harm what came by a spell will go by a spell surely she would say whenever her imagination pictured the ACT she shrank in Terror from the possibility of it then the words of The Conjurer it will turn your blood were seen to

be capable of a scientific no less than ghastly interpretation the mastering desire returned and urged her on again there was at this time but one county paper and that her husband only occasionally borrowed but old-fashioned days had old-fashioned means and news was extensively conveyed By Word of Mouth from Market to Market or from fair to Fair so that whenever such an event as an execution was about to take place few within a radius of 20 miles were ignorant of the coming site and so far as

homestoke was concerned some enthusiasts had been known to walk all the way to casterbridge and back in one day solely to witness the spectacle the next two sizes were in March and when Gertrude Lodge heard that they had been held she inquired stealthily at the Inn as to the result as soon as she could find opportunity she was however too late the time at which the sentences were to be carried out had arrived and to make the journey and obtain permission at such short notice required at least he

r husband's assistance she dared not tell him for she had found my delicate experiment that these smoldering Village beliefs made him Furious if mentioned partly because he half entertained them himself it was therefore necessary to wait for another opportunity her determination received a Philip from learning that two epileptic children had attended from this very Village of homestoke many years before with beneficial results though the experiment had been strongly condemned by the neighboring

clergy April May June passed and it is no overstatement to say that by the end of the last named month Gertrude well and I longed for the death of a fellow creature instead of her formal prayers each night her unconscious prayer was O Lord hang some guilty or innocent person soon this time she made earlier inquiries and was altogether more systematic in her proceedings moreover the season was summer between the hay making and the Harvest and in the Leisure thus afforded him her husband had been

holiday taking away from home their sizes were in July and she went to the Inn as before there was to be one execution only one for arson her greatest problem was not how to get to casterbridge but what means she should adopt for obtaining admission to the jail though access for such purposes had formally never been denied the custom had fallen into disaritude and in contemplating her possible difficulties she was again almost driven to fall back upon her husband but on sounding him about the as

sises he was so uncommunicative so more than usually told that she did not proceed and decided that whatever she did she would do alone Fortune object hitherto showed her unexpected favor on the Thursday before the Saturday fixed for the execution Lodge remarked to her that he was going away from home for another day or two on business at a fair and that he was sorry he could not take her with him she exhibited on this occasion so much Readiness to stay at home that he looked at her in Surprise

time had been when she would have shown deep disappointment at the loss of such a jaunt however he lapsed into his usual Tac eternity and on the day named left homestoke it was now her turn she at first had thought of driving but on reflection held the driving would not do since it would necessitate her keeping to the 10-pike road and so increased by tenfold the risk of her ghastly errand being found out she decided to ride and avoid the Beaten Track notwithstanding that in her husband's Stables

there was no animal just at present which by any stretch of imagination could be considered a ladies mount in spite of his promise before marriage to always keep a mayor for her he had however many cart horses find ones of their kind and among the rest was a serviceable creature an equine Amazon with a back as broad as a sofa on which Gertrude had occasionally taken an airing when unwell this horse she chose on Friday afternoon one of the men brought it round she was dressed and before going do

wn looked at her shriveled arm ah she said to it if it had not been for you this terrible ordeal would have been saved me when strapping up the bundle in which she carried a few articles of clothing she took occasion to say to the servant I take these in case I should not get back tonight from the person I am going to visit don't be alarmed if I'm not in by 10 and close up the house as usual I shall be home tomorrow for certain she meant then to tell her husband privately the deed accomplished w

as not like the deed projected he would almost certainly forgive her and then the pretty palpitating Gertrude Lodge went from her husband's Homestead but though her goal was cast a bridge she did not take the direct route through stickleford her cunning course at first was in precisely the opposite direction as soon as she was out of sight however she turned to the left by a road which led into egdon and on entering the heath wheeled round and set out in the true course Drew Westerly a more priv

ate way down the county could not be imagined and as the direction she had merely to keep her horse's head to a point a little to the right of the Sun she knew that she would lie to bonifer's Cutter or Cottage of some sort from time to time from whom she might correct her bearing though the date was comparatively recent negden was much less fragmentary in character than now the attempts successful and otherwise add cultivation on the lower slopes which intrude and break up the original Heath int

o small detached heaths had not been carried far enclosure acts had not taken effect and the banks and fences which now exclude the cattle of those Villages who formally enjoyed Rites of commonage thereon and the carts of those who had turbo privileges which kept them in firing all the year round were not erected Gertrude therefore rode along with no other obstacles than the prickly first bushes the mats of Heather the White watercourses and the natural Steeps and declivities of the ground her h

orse was sure if heavy footed and slow and though a draft animal was easy paced had it been otherwise she was not a woman who could have ventured to ride over such a bit of country with a half dead arm it was therefore nearly eight o'clock when she Drew rain to breathe her Bearer on the last outlying high point of heathland towards casterbridge previous to leaving egden for the cultivated valleys she halted before a pool called rushy pond flanked by the ends of two hedges a railing ran through t

he center of the pond dividing it in half over the railing she saw the low Green Country over the green trees the roofs of the town over the roofs a white flat facade denoting the entrance to the county jail on the roof of this front specks were moving about they seemed to be workmen erecting something her flesh crept she descended slowly and was soon Amid cornfields and pastures in another half hour when it was almost dusk Gertrude reached the white heart the first Inn of the town on that side

little surprise was excited by her arrival Farmer's wives rode on horseback then more than they do now though for that matter Mrs Lodge was not imagined to be a wife at all The Innkeeper supposed to have some Harem scaram young woman who would come to attend hang Fair next day neither her husband nor herself ever dealt in casterbridge market so that she was unknown while dismounting she beheld a crowd of boys standing at the door of a harness Maker's shop just above the Inn looking inside it wit

h deep interest what is going on there she asked of the Osler making the Rope for tomorrow she throbbed responsibly and contracted her arm two sold by the inch afterwards the man continued I could get you a bit Miss for nothing if you'd like she hastily repudiated any such wish all the more from a curious creeping feeling that The Condemned wretch's Destiny was becoming interwoven with her own and having engaged a room for the night sat down to think up to this time she had formed about the Vega

s Notions about her means of obtaining access to the prison the words of the cunning men returned to her mind he had implied that she should use her beauty impaired though it was as a pass key in her inexperience she knew little about jail functionaries she had heard of a high sheriff and an undersheriff but dimly only she knew however that there must be a hangman and to the hangman she determined to apply eight a Waterside hermit at this date and for several years after there was a hangman to a

lmost every jail get rude found on inquiry that the casterbridge official dwelt in a Lonely Cottage by a deep slow river flowing under the cliff on which the prison buildings were situate the stream being the self-same one though she did not know it which watered the stickleford and home Stoke medes lower down its course having changed her dress and before she had eaten or drunk before she could not take her ease till she had ascertained some particulars Gertrude pursued her way by a path along

the Waterside to the cottage indicated passing thus the outskirts of the jail she descend on the level roof over the Gateway three rectangular lines against the sky where the specs had been moving in her distant View she recognized what the erection was and passed quickly on another hundred yards brought her to the Executioner's house which a boy pointed out it stood close to the same stream and was hard by a weir the Waters of which emitted a steady Roar while she stood hesitating the door open

ed and an old man came forth shading a candle with one hand locking the door on the outside he turned to a flight of wooden steps fixed against the end of the cottage and began to ascend them this being evidently the staircase to his bedroom Gertrude hastened forward but by the time she reached the foot of the ladder he was at the top she called to him loudly enough to be heard above the Roar of the Weir he looked down and said what do you want here to speak to you a minute the candlelight such

as it was fell upon her imploring pale upturned face and Davis as the hangman was called backed down the ladder I was just going to bed he said early to bed and early to rise but I don't mind stopping a minute for such a one as you come in the house he reopened the door and preceded her to the room within the Implements of his daily work which was that of a jobbing gardener stood in a corner and seeing probably that she looked rural he said if you want me to undertake country work I can't come f

or I never leave casterbridge for gentle nor simple not I my real calling is Officer of Justice he added formally yes yes that's it tomorrow ah I thought so well what's the matter about that there's no use to come here about the knot folks do come continually but I tell them one nut is as merciful as another if you keep it under the ear is the unfortunate man a relation or I should say perhaps looking at her dress a person who's been in your employee no what time is the execution the same as usu

al 12 o'clock or soon after is the London mail coach gets in we always wait for that in case of a reprieve oh a reprieve I hope not she said involuntarily well he has a matter of business so do I but still if ever a young fellow deserve to be let off this one does only just turned 18 and only present by chance when the Rick was fired how some ever there's not much risk of that as they are obliged to make an example of him there having been so much destruction of property that way lately I mean s

he explained that I want to touch him for a charm a cure of an Affliction by the advice of a man who has proved the virtue of the remedy oh yes Miss now I understand I've had such people come in past years but it didn't strike me that you looked of A Sort to require blood turning what's the complaint the wrong kind for this I'll be bound my arm she reluctantly showed the withered skin ah there's all a scram said the hangman examining it yes said she well he continued with interest that is the cl

ass a subject I'm bound to admit I like the look of the wound it is a suitable for the Cure as any I ever saw The Knowing man that sent he whoever he was you can can try for me all that's necessary she said breathlessly you should really have gone to the governor of the jail and your doctor with he and given your name and address that's how it used to be done if I recollect still perhaps I can manage it for a trifling FEI oh thank you I would rather do it this way as I should like it kept privat

e love her not to know hey no husband aha very well I'll Getty a touch of the corpse where is it now she said shattering it he you mean he's living yet just inside that little small window up there in the glum he signified the jail on the cliff above she thought of her husband and her friends yes of course she said and how am I to proceed he took her to the door now do you be waiting at the little Wicket in the wall that you'll find up there in the lane not later than one o'clock I will open it

from the inside as I shan't come home to dinner till he's cut down good night be punctual and if you don't want anybody to know he wear a veil ah once I had such a daughter as you she went away and climbed the path above to assure herself that she would be able to find the Wicket next day its outline was soon visible to her a narrow opening in the outer wall of the prison precincts the Steep was so great that having reached the Wicket she stopped a moment to breathe and looking back upon the Wat

erside cot saw the hangman again ascending his outdoor staircase he entered the loft or chamber to which he'd LED and in a few minutes extinguished his light the town Clock Struck 10. and she returned to the white heart as she had come 9. a ren counter it was one o'clock on Saturday Gertrude Lodge having been admitted to the jail as above described were sitting in a waiting room within the second gate which stood under a classic Archway of ashlar then comparatively modern and bearing the inscrip

tion County Jail 1793. this had been the facade she saw from the heath the day before near at hand was a passage to the roof on which the Gallows stood the town was thronged and the market suspended but Gertrude had seen scarcely a soul having kept her room till the hour of the appointment she had proceeded to the spot by a way which avoided the open space below the cliff where the spectators had gathered but she could even now here the multitudinous babble of their voices out of which arose at

intervals the horse croak of a single voice uttering the words last dying speech and confession there had been no reprieve and the execution was over but the crowd still waited to see the body taken down soon the persistent woman heard a trampling overhead then a hand beckoned to her and following directions she went out and crossed the inner paved Court beyond the Gatehouse her knees trembling so that she could scarcely walk one of her arms was out of its sleeve and only covered by her shawl on

the spot at which he had now arrived were two trestles and before she could think of their purpose she heard heavy feet descending stairs somewhere at her back turn her head she would not or could not and rigid in this position she was conscious of a rough coffin passing her born by four men it was open and in it lay the body of a young man wearing the Smock frock of a rustic and fustian breeches the corpse had been thrown into the coffin so hastily that the skirt of the Smock frock was hanging

over the burden was temporarily deposited on the trestles by this time the young woman state was such that a gray Mist seemed to float before her eyes on account of which and the veil she wore she could scarcely discern anything it was as though she had nearly died but was held up by a sort of galvanism now said a voice close at hand and she was just conscious that the word had been addressed to her by a last strenuous effort she advanced at the same time hearing persons approaching behind her

she bared her poor cursed arm and Davis uncovering the face of the corpse took Gertrude's hand and held it so that her arm lay across the dead man's neck upon a line the color of an unripe Blackberry which surrounded it Gertrude shrieked the turn of the blood predicted by the kandra had taken place but at that moment a second shriek rent the air of the enclosure it was not gertrudes and its effect upon her was to make her start round immediately behind her stud Road a brook her face drawn and he

r eyes red with weeping behind Rhoda stood Gertrude's own husband his countenance lined his eyes dim but without a tear damn you what are you doing here he said hoarsely hussy to come between us and our child now cried Rhoda this is the meaning of what Satan showed me in the vision you are like her at last and clutching the bear arm of the younger woman she pulled her unresistingly back against the wall immediately Brooke had loosened her hold the fragile young Gertrude slid down against the fee

t of her husband when he lifted her up she was unconscious the mere sight of the twain had been enough to suggest to her that the dead young man was Rhoda's son at that time the relatives of an executed convict had the privilege of claiming the body for burial if they chose to do so and it was for this purpose that Lodge was awaiting the inquest with Rhoda he had been summoned by her as soon as the young man was taken in the crime and at different times since and he had attended in court during

the trial this was the holiday he had been indulging in of late the two wretched parents had wished to avoid exposure and hence had come themselves for the body a wagon and sheet for its conveyance and covering being in waiting outside Gertrude's case was so serious that it was deemed advisable to call to her the surgeon who was at hand she was taken out of the jail into the town but she never reached home alive her delicate vitality sapped perhaps by the paralyzed arm collapsed under the double

shock that followed the severe strain physical and mental to which she had subjected herself during the previous 24 hours her blood had been turned indeed too far her death took place in the town three days after her husband was never seen in casterbridge again once only in the old Marketplace at englebury which he had so much frequented and very seldom in public anywhere burdened at first with moodiness and remorse he eventually changed for the better and appeared as a chastened and thoughtful

man soon after attending the funeral of his poor wife he took steps towards giving up the farms in homestoke and the adjoining Parish and having sold every head of his stock he went away to Port Brady at the other end of the county living there in solitary lodgings till his death two years later of a painless decline it was then found that he had bequeathed the whole of his not inconsiderable property to a Reformatory for boys subject to the payment of a small annuity to Rhoda Brook if she coul

d be found to claim it for some time she could not be found but eventually she reappeared in her old Parish absolutely refusing however to have anything to do with the provision made for her monotonous milking at the dairy was resumed and followed for many long years till her form became bent and her once abundant dark hair white and worn away at the forehead perhaps by long pressure against the cows here sometimes those who knew her experiences would stand and observe her and wonder what somber

thoughts were beating inside that impassive wrinkled brow to the rhythm of the alternating milk streams foreign [Music] [Music] you've been listening to a bite-sized audiobook read by me Simon Stanhope if you'd like to help me to keep producing new content you can find links in the video description to my patreon page or to buy me a coffee another way to support me is through my bandcamp page bite-sizedaudio.bandcamp.com where you can hear my narrations of many more classic short stories and yo

u can also purchase and download them to keep this recording is copyright bite-sized audio 2023 thank you for listening