Mrs Hyde

The Curious Testimony of Mrs. Elizabeth Jekyll

An extraordinary life and times I have led, and not a minute of it would I change unless perhaps I might wish to meet Mr. Edward Hyde a bit sooner. Though, as it were, I had known him all my life.

I have known Dr. Henry Jekyll since we were children. We grew up as next door neighbors, our families both living in a Brownstone in Central London. We played with sticks and rocks on the cobblestones while our parents worked to provide for us.

Even in those early days, Jekyll loved science. And he was kind and compassionate, even as a child. The knowledge of his goodness is what drives me to write this account now that he has passed. He was a good husband and a good man. It is paramount that my side of the story is heard so that the defamatory words of some in the community are not taken as the final words in this matter. .

While Henry Jekyll had a brilliant mind and was sent off to college to study, I stayed home to take care of my mother who was sickly and could do very little for herself. I was a randy lass, always interested in men, especially those men who were rough around the edges. I lusted after criminals and sailors and any man who might be rough with a woman.

But being at home taking care of my mother left me with few opportunities to be alone with these men. I found them when I could and gave myself to them, but always they were back in jail or off on a boat to sail the seas, and again I was alone. I lusted more than perhaps is healthy, but had little else to occupy my time.

After his return from college I sometimes visited my friend Henry, now Doctor Jekyll, and he made no secret of his interest in me. I deflected his advances. He was a good kind man, and could have paid for a nurse for my mother and kept me in a good home and treated me well. But I knew that this was not the life for me. A kind gentleman may have brought a smile to my face, but it did nothing to stir my loins.

One day I stopped by to see my friend Henry and saw a man in a black coat leaving his apartment. The man wore a black hat as well, down low over his eyes. He was tall and strong, and walked as if the world should move out of his way or pay the price. I was smitten instantly. This angry man, this dominant force of nature who knelt for no man, would know what to do with a woman like me. I was sure of it.

I knocked on Jekyll's door, planning to chat about my mother's illness before asking about the man I saw leaving his apartment. I would find out who this dark man was and seek him out as soon as I was able. It seemed as if his aura of evil hung there on the doorstep as I knocked and knocked and knocked.

Henry did not answer, and I assumed he was napping as he sometimes did. I was disappointed to have to wait, but determined to find the man in the black coat and swore to myself that I would return on the morrow to pursue the matter.

The next day I returned after telling my mother that I needed stock for soup and had to run to the grocer. My fortune was good and Jekyll was home. He was pleased to see me as always, embracing me and asking after my mother straight away. When we had finished a cup of tea, and caught up on my mother's condition, I brought the conversation around to the true purpose of my visit.

"Yesterday I came to see you as well, but there was no answer," I said.

"Ah yes, I was gone all day with a patient,' he replied.

"There was a man leaving as I arrived," I said. "A tall man in a dark coat."

He looked surprised and concerned. His countenance changed and I sensed something akin to fear. Then I watched him force a friendly smile, though he was too kind to be a good liar and it rang hollow indeed.

"Ah yes," he said. "My old friend Hyde. A disagreeable man, but an old friend nonetheless. To be avoided if you see him on the street. He can be... unpleasant."

"I found him quite interesting," I said. "At least to look at." I smiled at this because I knew that he was aware of my interest in men with a dark side.

"I was afraid you might lean in such a direction," he said. "You'll not find love with a cad like Hyde. He's no good for a charming young woman like yourself. No, he would not do well with such a kind soul."

"I should at least like to make his acquaintance," I said. "Perhaps he just needs a woman to soothe him."

"There is no soothing a man like Hyde," he said. "He is filled with a darkness that knows no end. Best to leave him be."

"Just introduce me to him," I said. "I like a man with a bit of darkness in his heart."

"More than a bit my dear," he said. "That man would be a veritable devil behind closed doors. I could not subject you to the things he might do to you. Your fair skin should not hold up well to the crack of his whip and the gnashing of his teeth."

I flushed at this. Just the thought of it made me tingle in places a lady shouldn't mention. And I know that he saw the flush on my face, and on my chest where his eyes often wandered. My pale flesh was bright pink and I cast my eyes down to my feet in shame, which made the tingle that much worse.

"You think you want a man with an air of mystery and a gleam in his eye, but that is not Mr. Hyde," he said. "He is a cruel man, a rough master, he does not play games with a pinch on the rump, he wields a whip with a stern hand. I would hate to think of that whip scarring your flesh or his unkind words stealing the brightness of your smile."

I didn't know what had intrigued me so about Mr. Hyde, but I wasn't willing to let it go. There had been something familiar about him that softened the sharp edges of his face and left me with no fear. I welcomed his wrath. I pressed on.

"I've been with men who have a dark side more than once," I said. "Rather than steal the brightness of my smile, they make it shine like a fresh cut diamond. My soul needs a hard man. To be true, I lust for it. And I am lonely. My days and nights in the apartment with my mother do nothing to fulfill me. I have needs and I am tired of fulfilling them myself under a quilt in the dark."

"While I'm sure Hyde would love to meet a charming young lady like yourself," he said. "You can't imagine the things he would do to you if he were to get you alone. I know the man well. You would find yourself in bondage, chained and whipped and humiliated. Hyde is a man of dark desires indeed."

My breath grew a bit rough at the mention of the harsh treatment I might receive at the hands of Hyde. I could see him standing above me, having his way with me, doing terrible things that drove me wild until the coming of the dawn. My flush grew so hot that I feared I might overheat and faint away there in Jekyll's parlor.

"Yes," I said. "Can't you see? This is what draws me to him. If I could be with a good man, it would be you my dear friend, but I need a man with dark desires to use me as he sees fit when night falls and doors are locked and barred."

"Let me think on this," he said. "Perhaps Hyde is the man for you after all."

We had a second cup of tea and chatted, and he promised to consider my request to meet the mysterious Mr. Hyde. I know now that his reticence was only out of concern for me. He had loved me since we were quite young and I suspect he wanted desperately to meet me as Hyde and have his way with me. But, as I have said, he was a good man and he knew better than anyone how dark Hyde's desires truly were.

I came calling on him a few days later, having thought of nothing but Mr. Hyde for every waking minute and indeed in some of my dreams. He answered the door without his usual enthusiasm, a bit more reserved than I was used to.

"Come in my dear Elizabeth," he said. "I've been expecting you would soon grace me with your presence. Have you thought better of your wish to meet the illustrious Mr. Hyde? Please tell me you have."

"Quite the opposite," I said. "I've thought of virtually nothing but. You must introduce us or I will go mad."

"Well then consider yourself properly warned," he said. "Mr. Hyde will be at the house this evening if you wish to make his acquaintance."

"Then so shall I. I shall see both of you then," I said.

"He will be here, but I myself will not," he said. "He sometimes watches the house while I am at my lab in the evenings. If you come by around eight o'clock he should be here and I will let him know that a charming young lady will be arriving around that time."

"I shall look forward to it," I said. "Thank you."

"Please be careful with Hyde," he said, looking directly into my eyes and speaking slowly. "He is a dangerous man."

"Excellent," I said, already thinking about what I would wear to meet the object of my lust. I was soon headed home, eager to get ready for the evening. I bathed and washed my hair, and my mother guessed that I had a date. She was a bitter old woman and cursed me for leaving her home alone, intent on shaming me into staying with her, but her shame was nothing compared to the way my heart fluttered at the prospect of meeting the brute, Hyde.

I didn't have fine clothing. We had enough to eat but naught for fancy clothes. My best dress was nothing special, but I hoped that Hyde would be more interested in what was under the dress than the lack of lace and finery woven into it.

I arrived at Jekyll's home just before eight o'clock and rang the bell. The door opened almost immediately and I got my first look at Hyde up close. He bore a passing resemblance to my friend Jekyll, and I wondered if they were related somehow, but he had harder features, a chiseled jaw, and dark hooded eyes that took me in from head to foot. His gaze took me in like a hungry wolf eyeing a newborn calf.

"You must be Elizabeth," he said. "Jekyll told me you would come. Why the fool didn't keep you for himself I can not imagine, but I'm glad for it."

I offered my hand like a lady, but he took hold of it like he was leading a child and drew me into the house. Before I knew what was happening my dress was on the floor, my underclothes torn off me, and I was on my knees looking up into his dark eyes as he grinned down at me.

The things he did to me that night shocked me to my core. I had been with rough men, nearly every time I had the chance. Some of them were harsh indeed, leaving me bruised and sore. But none of them matched Hyde's intensity, ferocity, and his nearly insatiable desire. He used every inch of me and did things I had not known were possible. And I liked nearly all of them.

The few things I didn't enjoy in the moment, I enjoyed a great deal once I got home to my own bed. Thinking of the things he had done to me kept me up most of the night. For a week when I looked in the mirror in my bathroom and saw a bruise or a scratch that he'd left somewhere that no one else would see, I had to retire again to my bed.

We kept meeting, once or twice a week, for a few months. It wasn't enough for me, I wanted the beast to ravage me every night, to use me like a terrier with a ragdoll whenever he saw fit, but Hyde would tell me nothing about himself, never meet me anywhere outside of Jekyll's home, and wouldn't speak of anything but what I must do for him and when I could see him next.

Then I arrived one night, prepared to spend a few hours with Hyde, only to see my friend Jekyll's smiling face open the door. I was always glad to see him, but where was my Hyde? The disappointment must have been clear on my face.

He explained it to me, the change in him that you've now heard about from Mr. Utterson's newspaper articles. The chemicals he'd taken that caused his personality and even physicality to split into two. I think even his very soul cleaved the night he took the concoction. But while many may lament the change, it was salvation for me, and possibly for Jekyll himself.

I would have stayed with men who mistreated me and never returned. I would have made bad decision after bad decision, tossing myself at the feet of heels and highwaymen, only to be rejected when they were done with me. But with Jekyll and Hyde I had it all. Once he revealed the truth to me, my world expanded in ways I could never have imagined.

When Hyde was done with me, Jekyll would return to salve my wounds and wipe the sweat from my brow. The gentle doctor fixed everything the brute injured and I was left with the perfect man no matter what mood I was in. For more than fifty years this went on. The raging fire within us burned down to embers by the end, but it never went out. When Jekyll passed this last year at eighty-four, he left me a widow who will never find a love like his again, for there are no men like Jekyll and Hyde.

Jekyll controlled Hyde, his dark side, completely. He only let the brute loose when I wished it, though in the early days this was quite often. Hyde never hurt anyone but me, and even then I knew what I was getting and yearned for every second of it.

Let it not be said that my husband was an abomination or a monster. He was a good kind man with a dark side like any other, but he controlled his dark side better than most, and I enjoyed it more than I can ever describe. Between the two of them, I was so horribly in love that I followed whichever of the men that was present about the house like a lovesick puppy.

I'll not wed again. I'm too old and no man could compare. But I'll remember my Jekyll for his kindness and Hyde for his appetite. I've a few scars to remind me of the roughest nights with Hyde, and the memory of how quickly they were healed to warm my heart when I think of Jekyll.

Everyone has a match. I found mine. No one else could have been everything I needed. Nor could many other women have been so good for Jekyll and Hyde. Few women share my needs for such extremes in different ways. And wherever they have gone in the afterlife, I'll follow them there, like a lovesick puppy again. I know they wait for me beyond the veil, one with a whip, one with a loving smile, both forever mine.