Jane Eyre

There would be no walk that day: since morning a cold wind had driven the rain against the windows without stopping.Jane Eyre was ten years old, an orphan, and lived with her aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her three cousins at a house called Gateshead.That afternoon Mrs. Reed sat by the fire with her own children around her, and told Jane to keep away until she learned to behave like a pleasant, contented child.

Jane was not sorry to be sent away.She slipped into the empty breakfast-room, took down a book full of pictures of birds, and climbed onto the window seat.She pulled the heavy red curtain almost shut, so that she was hidden in her own small, quiet corner, half reading and half watching the grey rain outside.

The peace did not last.John Reed, her fourteen-year-old cousin, was a large, rough boy who bullied Jane whenever he could, and no one in the house ever stopped him.He hunted through the room, found her behind the curtain, and ordered her to come out and stand in front of him.

He reminded her that she had no money and no home of her own, and that she had no right to live with a gentleman’s family or to touch his books.Then he threw the heavy book straight at her.It struck her, and she fell and cut her head against the door, so that it began to bleed.

Something in Jane broke that day, and for the first time she shouted back: “You cruel, wicked boy — you are like a murderer!”John rushed at her, seizing her hair and her shoulder, and this time she did not stay still — she fought him with her hands.She hardly knew what her hands were doing; she felt only the blood on her face and a wild, reckless anger.

Two servants ran in and pulled the children apart, crying that Jane had flown at Master John like a mad thing.Mrs. Reed did not ask what had happened; she only said, “Take her away to the red-room, and lock her in,” and Jane was carried off, still struggling.