The Little Stranger

by Sarah Waters

The words used to drive me into secret rages, because on the one hand I wanted desperately to live up to my own reputation for cleverness, and on the other it seemed very unfair,

that that cleverness, which I had never asked for, could be turned into something with which to cut me down.

Rod’s relief was

so palpable, it was almost painful to observe it.

They were complaining about the weather, and Betty was loaded with their wet coats and hats. She showed them

into the saloon, her own cap straight again; the touch of temper seemed to have passed. I caught her eye, and gave her

a wink. She looked startled for a second, the...

chin and smiled like...

well, now I dare say I’m showing my age, but the modern dances always seem to me so vulgar. So much hopping about; like a scene from a mental ward! It can’t be good

for one. What do you say, Dr Faraday?’

We might have been anywhere, or nowhere at all.

Oh, I had felt it, hadn’t I? I think I had felt it the very first time I’d met her, watching her work her bare brown

toes through the fur of Gyp’s belly; and I had felt it a hundred times since then, catching sight of the flare of her hips, the

swell of her bosom, the easy, solid movement of her limbs. But—again, I was ashamed to ...

to remember it now—the feeling stirred something else in me, some dark current of unease, al...

the difference in our ages. I don’t think I ...

that. It was as if what pulled me to her also rep...

desired her despi...

my faltering desire almost dwindled completely.

Again, I think I understood her just a beat too late; or perhaps it was simply that, having got so far with her, I found

myself suddenly desperate to see the thing through. I put down my hands and caught hold of her hips. With a violence

that astonished me, she twisted free. For a moment we actually tussled. Then she drew in h...

me, blindly. Her heel caught my jaw, an...

I said miserably, ‘For God’s sake! I thought you wanted it. ’

She answered, after a moment, ‘So did I. ’

The subliminal mind has many dark, unhappy corners, after all. Imagine something loosening itself from one of those corners. Let’s call it a—a germ. And let’s say conditions prove right for that germ to develop—to grow, like a child in the

womb. What would this little stranger grow into? A sort of

shadow-self, perhaps: a Caliban, a Mr Hyde. A creature motivated by all the nasty impulse...

mind had hoped to keep hidden away: things like envy, and malice, and frustration . . . Car...

‘Caroline’s a clever girl. I always thought she got the thick

end of things in that family.

But the night was dark at the window, too, and a few miles away through the wintry darkness stood Hundreds Hall, where

things were different.

So much

has changed. But in other ways, nothing seems to be changing at all. ’