The Reunion at Ferndean — Jane Eyre

Jane reaches Ferndean on a wet evening after walking the last mile on foot through dense woods. The house is half swallowed by trees, decaying and still as a church. She asks whether life can exist in such a place, then sees Rochester on the step: blind, one hand hidden, groping in the rain like a caged eagle or sightless Samson. She watches unseen, feeling hope mixed with sorrow, and does not speak yet.

Mary and John, former Thornfield servants, receive her. Jane explains why she has come, arranges to stay, and carries Rochester's water tray into the parlour herself. Pilot leaps on her at once. Rochester senses a stranger, gropes for her, and when she takes his hand he knows her fingers. The reunion is physical and desperate: he fears she is a dream, she proves she is flesh, and she tells him she is an independent woman with five thousand pounds and her own mistress. She offers to stay as nurse and companion. He wants more than pity, shows his mutilated arm and scarred face, and she refuses to be revolted.

They sup together that night in ease and tenderness. Next morning he calls her his skylark; they walk in the fields and she tells her year apart, softening the worst of her suffering. Rochester cross-examines her about St. John Rivers until jealousy gives way to relief when Jane says she will never marry him. Rochester compares himself to a lightning-struck tree; Jane answers that he is still green and vigorous. He asks her to choose, then proposes marriage. She accepts three times over: blind, crippled, twenty years older, most truly yes. He tells how he cried Jane's name in prayer and heard her answer on the wind. Jane keeps silent about hearing the same call. They walk home through the wood, her hand guiding his.