AFTER A LONG JOURNEY, THEY FINALLY ARRIVED IN England. Once there, Wilma heard about the death of her friend Lucia, and shortly thereafter she received a letter from the Dutch professor, Van Helsing, who had tended to her. Arthur had been ill since Lucia’s death and Van Helsing sent Wilma his regards. The professor wrote that he’d like to visit her and could explain more when they met. She replied that he was welcome to stay with her and Thomas. He arrived shortly afterwards and asked many questions regarding Lucia’s habits during the last period of time the girls had spent together. He brought Wilma a precious diamond ring, which he said Lucia had worn, but he begged her—for whatever his warning might be worth320—not to put it on her finger. He was very curious to learn how Harker was doing and wanted to know all about his health.
A week later, Harker’s now retired employer, the old Mr. Hawkins, died of heart disease. He’d long been prepared for his death and arranged a will, in it explaining what was be done with his worldly goods. He’d left everything to the young couple, as he had promised.
Two days later Hawkins was buried in London, as he’d stipulated in his will. The young couple attended the funeral and afterwards went for a walk in Hyde Park. On their way back to the hotel where they were staying, the route led along Piccadilly, where they came across a striking young woman. She sat in a brilliant carriage drawn by grey horses, with servants in uniform accompanying her. She was exceptionally beautiful and elegant, though her garments were somewhat pretentious. Wilma looked at her with fascination, but in that moment she felt Thomas pinch her arm, a low growl escaping from his throat. She turned around to find that he’d become deathly pale, glaring with strange frenzy at something ahead of him. She saw him staring at a gentleman who was talking with the woman. He was tall and impressive to behold but of somewhat peculiar appearance.
Wilma was startled, for there she saw Baron Székely, whom she’d met in Whitby. Thinking of Thomas above all else, she immediately hailed a hansom and rode with him to their hotel as quickly as possible.321
Thomas was so confounded that he hardly realized what was going on. Little by little, he lowered his head onto Wilma’s shoulder then nodded off. He awoke again just before the couple reached their hotel but had forgotten everything that had happened on the street.
The next day Wilma started arranging various things at their new home, which hadn’t yet been put in order since they moved in. Among other things, she looked through their suitcase that had accompanied them from Transylvania. At the bottom she found a parcel wrapped in the nunnery’s church newspaper. She remembered that when they made their farewells, sister Agatha had said she would put some of Thomas’s belongings in the suitcase; on another occasion, she’d said that he only had a few worthless things with him upon his arrival at the convent.
Wilma was understandably curious then when she began opening the package, but it contained nothing more than a rosary with a brass cross322 and Thomas’s journal, written in shorthand, which is presented in the first part of this story. On the first page she read her own name.
In the evening, when Thomas was asleep, Wilma started reading the notebook and was both frightened and mystified by what she found. Even though she believed everything in it to be a product of her poor husband’s imagination, she was still struck with apprehension upon reading it.
She also began to suspect that Count Dracula and Baron Székely might be one and the same person.
Thomas was ill the next day, and though he managed to do his work he was very distracted. That night he spoke in his sleep, and Wilma knew through his words that he was dreaming of his stay with the Count.