Read Online Hideous Love: The Story of the Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein by Stephanie Hemphill - Free Book Online

bid him come in a letter.
I surmise
that along the way
he stops to see Claire,
who lives now in Livorno
supposedly healing from scrofulo,
a form of tuberculosis.
She has been prescribed
to bathe in the sea.
This upsets me
like a boat tossed
about by a wicked storm.
I have no recourse
and there is little I can do
but wait it out.
Claire does not know
that Shelley travels to visit Byron,
but believes that Shelley
only stops to check in on Allegra
and her well-being.
Shelley finds the four-and-a-half-year-old
spritely, treated kindly
by all of the nuns.
Byron says he has no intention
to leave Allegra indefinitely
in the convent,
which also reassures us,
and should especially
comfort Claire.
Byron remains in Ravenna
for the time being
though he has said
he wants to follow
his mistress Teresa
and her brother and father
out of town.
When Shelley arrives
in Ravenna, Byron tells
him of the terrible gossip
that the Hoppners have spread
like manure about us.
Elise, our former nursemaid,
alleges that Claire is Shelley’s mistress
and that the baby born in Naples
and left with foster parents
is the daughter of Shelley and Claire.
Further, the Hoppners claim
that Shelley tried to get
an abortion for Claire
and when that failed
Shelley tried to have the baby adopted.
Shelley begs me to write to Byron
to clear up these matters.
How could anyone suppose that Shelley
would abandon his own child?
I cry tears to fill an urn.
My face stains with sadness.
Then I take out my quill
and refute point by point
everything that Elise
and the Hoppners said.

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    DOUBT
    August 1821
When the winds
of a great storm
bend down trees
and uproot my garden,
I wonder if I shall
cower or stand
amidst the ferocity.
When my child,
hot with fever
and cold with tears,
calls out for aid
I wonder if I shall
hinder or help
him to recover.
When my husband
requests that I refute
rumors that
he has been unfaithful,
I wonder if
my pen lies
or tells truth.

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    A LETTER FROM MY SHELLEY
    Late Summer 1821
My Shelley writes
with a bit of good news,
much needed relief
amidst this landscape of disarray.
He convinces
Byron to come to Pisa
with Teresa. I delight
because Claire shall
certainly want to keep
distance between herself
and the man she so loathes
for sending her daughter
to the convent.
Lastly, Shelley suggests
that Byron and Leigh Hunt
begin a new journal called
the Liberal . The Hunts
will now join us in Pisa as well,
and stay with Lord Byron.
My heart expands
like a purse full of pounds.
I will see my dear friends again.

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    JUGGLING MISTRESSES
    Autumn 1821
Byron does not come
directly to Pisa, but remains
in Ravenna for two months.
His mistress, Teresa,
arrives straightaway
and I am the one
who is to visit her
and make her feel
welcome as the wind
on a stifling summer day
here in Pisa.
Claire is also in Pisa.
Happily we are
getting along like
rhythm and drum
as Shelley and I
entreated Byron to allow Claire
to see her daughter.
Even though we failed
to be granted permission for Claire,
Claire in a mature manner
shows gratitude.
She has been a dear
helping me with little Percy.
The only trouble is
that I must also
attend like a handmaid
to Teresa, Byron’s latest mistress.
Claire kindly assists me in choosing
furniture for our new home
on the Lung’Arno,
and for Byron’s palazzo
across the river.
She never complains
that she does work
for one she so dislikes,
but cloaks her despair
as though it were
a hideous scar.
Teresa worries that Byron
may never arrive,
as I often did with Shelley.
But come November
Byron shows up in grand fashion
complete with a traveling carriage,
mountains of