Ann-Marie MacDonald - Belle Moral - A Natural History

O, what a panic’s in thy breastie.

Thou need na start awa sae hasty,

Wi’ bickering brattle.

I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,

Wi’ murd’ring pattle.

I’m truly sorry man’s dominion

Has broken Nature’s social union,

An’ justifies that ill opinion

Which makes thee startle

At me, thy poor earth-born companion

An’ fellow-mortal.

Pause .

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,

In proving foresight may be vain;

The best laid schemes o’ mice and’ men

Gang aft a-gley.

An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain

For promised joy.

Still thou art blest, compared wi’ me.

The present only toucheth thee.

But och! I backward cast my e’e

On prospects drear.

An’ forward, tho’ I canna see,

I guess an’ fear.”

A beat . VICTOR is awestruck .

VICTOR. Are you my real father?

YOUNG FARLEIGH. Are you askin’ me if you’re a real bastard?

They laugh . YOUNG FARLEIGH gets up, crosses to VICTOR, hands him the flask, then punches him in the nose . VICTOR cries out in pain .

That’s for insulting your mother.

He goes to leave but VICTOR stops him, and speaks from the heart:

VICTOR Young Farleigh. Who was she? She was beautiful. She was a painter. That’s all I have of her. I haven’t even got the old shawl she wrapped me in.

A beat .

YOUNG FARLEIGH. Aonaibh ri cheile. [pron. ehnev ree kaylee]

Scene 6 The Attic Stairs

A closed door at the top of a narrow staircase. The door opens . DR REID. emerges. He descends a few steps, then stops, sets down his medical bag and sits, devastated . FLORA emerges, pulls the door closed, then turns and sees DR REID.

FLORA. Seamus … Come. I’ll make you cup of –

DR REID. Flora.

A beat. She sits next to him, as he tries to collect his thoughts .

This is her haim.

FLORA. Seamus. She canna byde here, not if –

DR REID. No, of course not, you’re right, it’s too too much to ask of you –

FLORA. ’Tisn’t that. Ramsay said she was to be cared for — elsewhere — throughout the course of her natural life.

DR REID. To be sure, to be sure, but … what do we know of the place where she has been housed all these years?

FLORA. It’s … decent.

DR REID. But you’ve ne’er seen it, ne’er –

FLORA. Young Farleigh –

DR REID. And he is the only one who ever visited.

FLORA, ashamed .

Now, now, that was Ramsay’s decision.

FLORA. But I didna wish to visit, Seamus. I kept awa’. I promised Régine I would look after the children. But the truth is, all these years, I’ve wished her dead. And God forgive me, I wish it still [weeping] .

DR REID. You’re only human, Flora, you did your best. [regretful] And so did I. But we’ve a chance now to do a bit better, eh? [a beat] Flora, what if she were to come live with me? As my patient? She would have the best of care. My laboratory overlooks the sea. You could visit, or not, as you pleased. And you could rest easy in your mind.

A beat .

FLORA. Victor would have to agree.

DR REID. That’s certain. I may need your help on that front. The lad has conceived a mistrust of me as a physician — not surprising, given his mental … [delicate for FLORA’S sake] fragility.

FLORA. Fragility? Surely he’s more headstrong than fragile.

DR REID. I’d have said so myself before the events of this morning. [urgent] Flora, he is so like his mother. Sensitive, passionate …

FLORA. Niver say it, Seamus.

DR REID. I dread the morrow. For the lad will be master here and, as such, he’ll have to be told.

FLORA. I dinna relish the telling.

DR REID. Nor do I, lest the shock precipitate another fit.

FLORA. Why must he be told at all? Ach, I ought ne’er to’ve brought the poor creature haim–

DR REID. Nay, Flora, you did the right thing. The humane thing.

FLORA. I ought to’ve turned to you sooner, Seamus, I know it, but I beg of you now, dinna desert us in our hour of need.

DR REID. I’ll never desert this family, Flora.

Scene 7 Pearl’s Study

Night . PEARL is at her desk with the jar and a pile of open books . PUPPY’S nose jostles her elbow from behind the desk .

PEARL. Lie down. Down.

PUPPY jostles her once more .

[matter-of-fact] I’ll have to get Young Farleigh to drown you, I suppose.

PUPPY’S tail wags from behind the desk. She pats him on the head .

There. [business-like] Now bugger off.

A knock at the door .

What?!

The door opens , FLORA puts her head in .

FLORA. Do go to bed, pet.

PEARL. I can’t, Auntie, I’m working.

FLORA [sees the dog] . There it is, oh thank goodness. Here, come now, come. Come.

PEARL. He won’t come, he’s stupid as a post.

FLORA. Well he canna stay, not with Victor’s phobia.

PEARL. I’ll not allow him near Victor, Auntie. FLORA. You’re no thinkin’ to keep him?

PEARL. Certainly not. [Concealing her eagerness.] Just overnight.

FLORA. I dare say Dr Reid would disapprove.

PEARL. What were you two whispering about so passionately this morning?

FLORA doesn’t answer .

Nevermind, Auntie, I know and I don’t mind a bit.

FLORA. You don’t? You do? What don’t you know?

PEARL [teasing, affectionate] . He’s courting you. Holding hands, and who knows what joukerie-pawkerie –

FLORA. Pearl –

PEARL. And you needn’t be jealous of the ear. It was a purely platonic gift.

PUPPY sniffs the jar , PEARL taps his nose .

FLORA. Ach, Dr Reid never — he was merely — he was comehitherating with me over some woman’s trouble.

PEARL. What woman?

FLORA. Why, me.

PEARL. Auntie, you’ve no taken ill. You have. [stricken] Oh, Auntie –

FLORA. Now, pet I’ve no’ took ill, it’s just … the change.

PEARL. Oh.

FLORA. Ay. [Mopping her brow.] No need to worry your head, that’s a long way off for you.

PEARL. Any of your shortbread about, Auntie?

FLORA. Victor ate it up.

PEARL. Damn him.

PUPPY knocks over the jar with his paw .

Off, I said. [On second thought: ] Here. [Holding the jar out to him.] What do you make of that?

FLORA. Pearl! [covering] It’s bedtime. You don’t want to be baggy-eyed and forfochen when Mr Abbott arrives first thing in the morning.

PEARL. What on earth does it matter? Although you’d do well to get your beauty rest, Auntie, if Doctor Reid is to join us.

FLORA. Hush your haiverin’, noo. [embarassed, pleased] Pearl. You dinna truly reckon Dr Reid … harbours a speecial regard for your auld auntie?

PEARL. In my scientific opinion, it could not be more obvious.

FLORA. Go on with you.

PEARL. Goodnight, Auntie.

FLORA. Goodnight, pet. [Exit.]

PEARL. Puppy, did you know that the name of Dr Darwin’s ship was The Beagle? Darwin sought to penetrate that “mystery of mysteries”, the appearance of new species. He proved that all life transforms by slow degrees into all other life. You came from the wolf. I came from the ape. But if the dinosaurs hadn’t mysteriously vanished, we mammals might have remained a race of rodents. And in the absence of man, might the dinosaurs have developed higher consciousness? Perhaps certain traits are like secrets that will out, ideas that are bound to surface. If Darwin hadn’t gone to the Galapagos, he’d have been a scientific footnote; if Shakespeare hadn’t been caught poaching, he’d have been a wool merchant. But I’ll wager there’d still be a father of evolution — or even a mother — and someone whom we call the Bard. Behave, now, or it’s into the cellar with you. Lots of people thought of evolution before Darwin took all the seemingly unrelated bits and put them together in just the right way, at just the right time. His own grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, believed in the mutability of species. But his reasoning was flawed: he put a piece of vermicelli in a jar and wait ed to see if it would come to life. No one could take him seriously after that. [chuckle] Vermicelli. Dr Reid might have feared the same fate when he put his jar aside forever. [About to place the jar back on the desk, a thought occurs to her.] Puppy … have you ever seen an ape with the ear of a wolf? Nor have I …