Jane Slayre

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Charlotte Brontë

and

Sherri Browning erwin

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Gall BsNew ork london Toronto sydney

Gallery BooksA Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020This book is a work of ction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either areproducts of the author’s imagination or are used ctitiously. Any resemblanceto actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.Copyright © 2010 by Sherri Browning ErwinAll rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in anyform whatsoever. For information address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department,1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020First Gallery Books trade paperback edition April 2010GALLERY BOOKS and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.For information about special discounts for bulk purchases,please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949or business@simonandschuster.com.The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event.For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster SpeakersBureau at1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.Designed by Jaime PutortiManufactured in the United States of America10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataErwin, Sherri Browning.Jane Slayre / Charlotte Brontë and Sherri Browning Erwin.p. cm.1. Brontë, Charlotte, 1816–1855. Jane Eyre—Parodies, imitations, etc.2. Governesses—Fiction. 3. Vampires—Fiction. 4. Fathers and daughters—Fiction. 5. Mentally ill women—Fiction. 6. Charity-schools—Fiction.7. Married people—Fiction. 8. Country homes—Fiction. 9. Young women—Fiction. 10. Orphans—Fiction. 11. England—Fiction. I. Title.PS3555.R95J34 2010813'6—dc22 2010000176ISBN 978-1-4391-9118-7ISBN 978-1-4391-9129-3 (ebook)

In memory of Kathleen Givens—a generous, witty, and most wonderful friend, gone far too soon. I love you, man. Always.

Chapter 1

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here waS no poSSiBility

of continuing my walk that night.We had been wandering, indeed, in the leaess shrubbery an hourafter dark, but since Mrs. Reed had picked up a scent (Mrs. Reed,when there was no company, hunted early), I was sent home so theothers could stalk their prey.I was glad of it. I never liked long walks, especially on chillyevenings. Dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw mid-night, with nipped ngers and toes, and a heart saddened by thedeath of the poor thing they’d dined on, raw, right in the middle of the wood. Not that I frequently watched as they took their meal. Iavoided accompanying them on the hunt as often as I could.In fact, I interfered with their efforts by inadvertently makingnoises to scare off whatever beast they’d settled on draining fortheir dinner. Unlike my cousins, my senses didn’t sharpen at night.My inability to see in the dark, combined with my natural lack of physical grace, led me to trip over tree roots, branches, fence posts,or even my own two feet. Most often, once Mrs. Reed’s nostrilsared to indicate a scent on the air, I ran home alone to face thechidings of Bessie, the nurse, both humbled by my consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed, and de-lighted I didn’t share their condition.The said Eliza, John, Georgiana, and their mama had returnedand were now clustered in the drawing room. Mrs. Reed lay on asofa by the reside and, with her darlings about her (for the timesated), looked perfectly happy. Me, she had dispensed from joiningthe group, saying, “I regret to be under the necessity of keeping youat a distance; but until I hear from Bessie and can discover by my