I felt better when, at last, I did get a letter from him. Jonathan said that he was coming home and was at Bistritz. But again it was a short, strange letter. "Perhaps he's ill," I thought.

While Jonathan was away, I was very unhappy. He did not write to me often, and when he did, his letters were strange and very short. I knew that something was wrong. But what? Was Jonathan in danger? I thought about him all the time. Why didn't he come back to England and to me?

Lucy met me at the station, and it was wonderful to see her again. She was full of life and talked happily of her plans. "Oh, Mina," she said to me. "I am really happy. I love Arthur very much."

My friend, Lucy, also wrote to me. "I know that you will be happy for me," she wrote. "Arthur has asked me to marry him! Isn't it wonderful? I love him very much. He's away just now, and you know that Mother and I are staying at Whitby, by the sea. Please come and stay with us, and I can tell you all about it."

Arthur Holmwood loved Lucy very much. I was really pleased to hear her news and I decided to go immediately. And it would help me not to think about Jonathan all the time.

The next morning there was a ship on the beach.

But sometimes it was hard for me, because when Lucy talked of Arthur, I thought of Jonathan again.

The weather was good and Lucy and I walked a lot, sometimes by the sea, but we often went up to the old church on the hill.

At night, Lucy and I slept in one room, but sometimes she walked in her sleep. She began to sleep badly, and her mother and I decided to lock the bedroom door at night.

Then one day the weather changed. The sky was black and heavy, and that night there was a terrible storm. Lucy was very excited by it, and she sat by the window all night and watched the sea.

"It's a Russian ship, from Varna on the Black Sea," Lucy's servant told us. "There are coffins on it, and they're full of earth. And a big black dog jumped off the ship and ran up the hill!"

"That's the strange thing about it," the servant replied. "There was no one on the ship, either dead or alive."

Everybody in the town was very excited by this strange ship, but there were no answers to the mystery. And nobody saw the big black dog again.

"And is everyone on the ship alive?" Lucy asked.

I knew that Lucy sometimes liked to go and sit quietly in the churchyard, so I hurried out into the night to look for her. And I found her. She was sitting in the churchyard, white in the moonlight, and I thought I saw something dark behind her -- something dark and horrible. Slowly, its head moved nearer to Lucy. Afraid, I called out, "Lucy! Lucy!" A white face and burning red eyes looked up at me -- and then, nothing! Lucy was alone, asleep in the moonlight. I woke her, and she gave a little cry. She put her hands to her neck, and I saw that there were two little drops of blood there.

That night I woke up and found that the bedroom door was open and Lucy was not there. I looked for her everywhere in the house, but I could not find her. "I'm afraid for her, I don't know why," I said to her mother.

After that night Lucy was worse. She left her bed every night and her lovely face was white. I was afraid for her and locked the door at night. And I still did not hear from Jonathan. I was unhappy and did not sleep well myself, so one night I went for a walk alone. "Lucy will be all right," I thought. "The door is locked. She can't get out, and no one can get in." But when I came back, I found Lucy by the open window. "Lucy!" I cried. But she did not reply. She was asleep, and near her, just outside the open window, there was something black, like a big bird.

A day or two later, I had a letter. Jonathan was ill and in hospital in Budapest. "Of course, I must go to him immediately," I said to Lucy. I did not want to leave her, but Jonathan was everything to me. "He needs me," I said.

And when at last I arrived in Budapest and held Jonathan in my arms, I felt happy. Jonathan was very ill but he was getting better every day. He did not want to talk about his time in Castle Dracula, but he gave me his diary to read. And so I learnt about Count Dracula and Jonathan's terrible adventure in the castle. But he escaped! And when he fell ill in the mountains, some workmen found him and took him to the hospital. Poor Jonathan! His face was white and thin, and he was still very afraid, but now we were together again and everything was all right.

Jonathan and I were married on September 1st, and then we began our journey home. We arrived back in England on September 18th, and it was wonderful to be home again. Everyone looked happy on that warm autumn evening, when we drove through the streets of London. Jonathan smiled and said softly, "Oh Mina, I love you."

Jonathan put his head in his hands and said nothing for the rest of the journey. I was very afraid for him. Was it really true -- that this horrible Count Dracula was here in London?

"I love you, too, Jonathan," I replied. I was truly happy.

And then, suddenly, Jonathan's face went white, and he cried out. He was looking at a carriage, outside a shop. In it there was a pretty girl with dark hair. She was waiting for someone. And near the carriage, watching the pretty girl, there was a man -- a tall, thin man, with long white teeth and a very red mouth. "It's the Count!" Jonathan cried. "Here in London!"

Later we read the letter again.

When we arrived home, there was a letter from Arthur Holmwood. Lucy was dead! My dearest Lucy, dead! It could not be true!

"Soon after you left," Arthur wrote, "Lucy began to get worse. I did not know what to do. I knew only that I must do something quickly, so I asked our old friend, Jack Seward, to come and see her. "He's a doctor," I thought. "Perhaps he can do something to help Lucy." He came at once, but in the end nobody could help poor Lucy, and she died yesterday."