MARY 1 sits very still.
A story forms in my head. A dream. I have not met the Duke but I picture a handsome, gentle man who will ride up to this terrible place with an army and take me away.
We will return to Scotland with thousands of followers in a blaze of glory. All that I have suffered – all that I have lost – this terrible, aching heart of mine will be healed, as I take back my throne and the people of Scotland welcome me.
ROSE 1. Is she alright?
SEATON. Quite alright.
LIVINGSTON. It’s perfectly normal.
MARY 2. And in time, the people of England will realise that their own sterile, empty queen is nothing compared to the vibrant, beautiful Queen of the North. They will invite me – they will beg me – to be their queen too.
As luck would have it, a tear rolls slowly down my face. It’s the most tragically brilliant performance I have ever achieved in my life.
Pause.
I am starting to think it hasn’t worked.
But then –
ROSE 1. I’ll take it for you. I’ll deliver it to the Duke of Norfolk, or whatever. I’ll do it.
MARY 1. Rose! Would you do that for me?
ROSE 1. Yeah.
SEATON. You brave soul!
LIVINGSTON. What a treasure!
MARY 2. And we hugged her, and I could see her fragile heart breaking with joy to think she finally belonged. And for a moment I felt…
No. If she must be endangered for the sake of the greater good, so be it.
MARY 2 exits.
Scene Five
Tutbury, later the same day.
Enter ROSE 2.
SEATON and LIVINGSTON help ROSE 1 tie her hair back and dress in male clothing. There is an atmosphere of excitement.
ROSE 2. Just to be safe, they dress me as a man.
MARY 1. Call yourself Borthwick. It’s the name of a castle I have in Scotland.
MARY 1, SEATON and LIVINGSTON exit together.
ROSE 2. All the other staff have been told not to speak to me, cos I’m a thief. So nobody notices I’m not at dinner, or watches me steal out of the castle. Nobody knows a thing. But even if they did stop me, all I’m carrying is an embroidered cushion cover. It doesn’t feel dangerous, just exciting.
I’m good at running through the night, and I’m good at stealing horses. Terrible at riding them. I just cling on to the horse’s neck like mad, and follow the moonlight.
Enter LESLEY, wearing a nightcap.
I reach Burton upon Trent and the house of Bishop John Lesley, Ambassador to Queen Mary, while he’s fast asleep. Safe to say he was not expecting to see a very odd-looking boy in the middle of the night.
ROSE 1 goes towards LESLEY.
LESLEY. Good gracious – who on earth are you?
ROSE 1 (deep voice). I’m Borthwick. I’m here to give you this.
LESLEY. What is it?
ROSE 1. It’s a present for the Duke of Norfolk. Will you take it?
LESLEY. I will see that it reaches him.
He looks at the cushion cover.
God save us – what has she done?
ROSE 1 stares at him.
You did well… Borthwick.
ROSE 1. Thanks! (Remembering she is meant to be a boy.) Thank you, sir.
ROSE 2. And the Bishop rides straight to the Duke of Norfolk’s the very next day, where he is greeted like an old friend.
THOMAS enters. LESLEY turns to him and they shake hands.
LESLEY. My Lord Duke, this is for you.
THOMAS. There is no letter?
LESLEY. She’s not allowed to write letters any more, so she sent this instead.
THOMAS. I don’t understand…
LESLEY. Study the picture.
He does.
THOMAS. ‘Virescit vulnere virtus.’ This means…
LESLEY. She accepts your proposal. You will be king.
THOMAS. Write to Westmoreland and Northumberland. Tell them to prepare the army in the North.
LESLEY. Very good, my lord.
Exit LESLEY.
THOMAS. I will be king.
Exit THOMAS, with the parcel.
ROSE 2. But I’ve already raced back to Tutbury. Returned the horse. Slipped in through the side entrance past the kennels and the sewers. And run quietly upstairs.
It’s only then that I remember what the Bishop said:
Enter LESLEY.
LESLEY. God save us. What has she done?
Exit LESLEY.
ROSE 1. Why did he say that?
ROSE 2. Alarm bells start to ring. I suddenly realise: I don’t really have a clue what’s going on.
ROSE 1. What have you done?
ROSE 2. Or, more to the point:
ROSE 1. What have I done?
Scene Six
BESS 1 is working in the accounts room.
BESS 2 watches her.
BESS 2. For the first time, Rose has not come to the accounts room to report, and I know that something is wrong.
Every so often I see again my hand on the side of her face. It is years since I have hit a servant.
Enter GEORGE.
GEORGE (mock-formal). May one enter the hallowed room?
BESS 1. George – I think I have made a mistake.
GEORGE (jovial). I doubt it. You are the most efficient accounts-woman I have ever seen.
BESS 1. I have upset one of the maids.
GEORGE. Since when did you ever care for the sensitive feelings of a maid?
BESS 1. You remember the girl I found in Tutbury – the one who turned out able to draw? I asked her to assist the Queen with designs for her embroidery.
GEORGE. Yes?
BESS 1. Each night she has been coming here to tell me what they speak of, so that I am fully / informed –
GEORGE. What? She reports on the Queen’s conversations?
BESS 1. Of course.
GEORGE. You are spying on her?
BESS 1. Yes, George. At Bolton Castle she made three escape attempts. What did you imagine –
GEORGE. She promised me she would never try to escape.
BESS 1. She doesn’t keep her promises! How can you be so / obtuse –
GEORGE. She promised – and in return I…
BESS 1. In return, you what?
GEORGE. I swore to respect her privacy.
Beat. BESS 1 breathes out in frustration.
You must do the same.
BESS 1. No. She has manipulated you, / George –
GEORGE. That is an order! Good God, Bess, I ask very little of you, but sometimes I wish you would remember your wedding vows. You do a great wrong to treat her with such suspicion. She is a kind, gentle, vulnerable woman.
BESS 1. You like her.
GEORGE. Yes – I like her! –
BESS 1. You like her.
Beat.
GEORGE. How dare you?
They are both staring at each other, very angry.
Then GEORGE exits.
Pause. BESS 1 picks up a small piece of material and begins to embroider.
BESS 2. The Queen of Scots is not the only one capable of sewing fury onto silk.
Pause.
I am sewing a memorial of my own, to a life I have lost.
BESS 1 hears a quiet noise, and lifts her head. She looks offstage.
Late, late into the night, I see Cecily slide past the sleeping grooms, and run off into the dark.
Enter CECILY, holding a candle, with a ring on her finger.
I worry that she will not be safe. That she will not return at all.
I wonder if I am doing the right thing.
As she goes, I see a glint of candlelight flashing. It’s the ring on her finger.
Exit BESS 1 and BESS 2.
Scene Seven
CECILY is alone.
CECILY. People don’t really remember me.
I don’t know why.
Even my mother – she had seven children, and I was the last, so maybe she was just tired. She’d l
ook at me vaguely and then say, ‘Oh, yes – Cecily.’ She left me with Lady Shrewsbury when I was ten and forgot to come back. At first it made me so angry I would punch the earth, but then I realised. It makes me strong.
I listen to everything. Secret conversations in the night. Whispered arguments in the Accounts Room.
I have learned what people want.
The steward, Mr Cromp, pays me a small weekly bonus to know all the servants’ gossip. But he doesn’t want the truth, just nice things about himself. I told him once I heard Mistress Seaton confess she thought him a fine figure of a man, and he walked about like a cat full of cream for days. Across England there is a network of spies and informants who report back to Whitehall. Everyone knows this. What people don’t expect, is that some of them are women. I didn’t know that, until I received my first mission in The Dog and Partridge.
And then all I had to was to make some friends.
She steps back and watches as SEATON and LIVINGSTON enter. They don’t see her at first.
SEATON (to the audience). I have many good qualities. For example: I am a very organised person. I also have an excellent memory and am simply remarkable at quizzes. I possess many other ‘quiet’ skills that might not be as noticeable as, say –
LIVINGSTON. Being a really good dancer –
SEATON. Overt, showy abilities –
LIVINGSTON. Or a super horse-rider –
SEATON. That some men seem to find attractive. Nevertheless, let nobody say I haven’t had any offers.
LIVINGSTON. She hasn’t had any offers.
SEATON. I have simply turned them down.
LIVINGSTON. I’ve had six offers.
SEATON. You’re married, you’re not relevant to this conversation.
LIVINGSTON. Absolutely inundated.
SEATON. What I am trying to say… is that I do have… qualities… But I also have a weakness.
LIVINGSTON. Bad dress sense?
SEATON. No –
LIVINGSTON. Your stammer?
SEATON (baffled). I don’t have a stammer –
LIVINGSTON. A bit boring?
SEATON. Look, this isn’t even your bit. I’m trying to tell a story about what happened next with Mary, Queen of Scots and –
LIVINGSTON. Why’s it your bit? What bit am I going to get?
SEATON. I don’t know – we don’t have to do everything together –
LIVINGSTON. Why not? I like it when we do things together…
SEATON. It’s getting rather…
LIVINGSTON. What are you trying to say?
SEATON. Nothing. Just. We’re together all the time…
LIVINGSTON. But it’s brought us closer – SEATON (infuriated). You just said I was boring! Can you please stop interrupting?
Beat. LIVINGSTON presses her lips shut.
After we knew the cushion cover had been safely delivered to the Duke of Norfolk, I was restless, I couldn’t sleep. I wandered through the castle, unaccountably full of tears. I was tired, and missed my home, and felt frightened by what we had done.
I met one of the maids, who made me hot spiced milk before asking what was wrong.
And – I told her.
LIVINGSTON gasps. She backs away from SEATON in horror.
LIVINGSTON. No – you didn’t –
SEATON. I’m sorry –
LIVINGSTON. Why?
SEATON. I was scared. And she was just… there…
LIVINGSTON rushes offstage. SEATON turns to CECILY as if seeing her for the first time.
(To CECILY.) It’s an orchard, and there’s this hand coming down from the sky, and she said it was the hand of God, but it’s not, it’s hers. I recognise the embroidery on the sleeve. It’s going to get us all into a lot of trouble.
CECILY. Oh, poor you… So what did it say on the cushion cover?
SEATON. Virescit vulnere virtus.
CECILY. What does that mean, do you think?
SEATON (looking at CECILY with sudden suspicion). If I thought you spoke Latin I wouldn’t have told you. I’m not stupid, you know.
CECILY. I can see that.
She starts to put a cloak on, briskly.
SEATON. What did you say your name was, again?
CECILY turns her back on SEATON, who exits, perturbed.
CECILY (to the audience). It takes me five days to reach Whitehall.
They say that people are overwhelmed when they arrive at the palace, by the size of the tapestries and the shining of the gold. But I have lived with the second-richest woman in England since I was ten years old, I am not scared of wealth. I am not scared of anything.
Nobody even remembers who I am.
Oh, and by the way, I speak excellent Latin.
She remains onstage for the next scene –
Scene Eight
CECILY kneels. Enter ELIZABETH and WALSINGHAM, the WAITING LADIES, and COURTIERS.
CECILY. It is a marriage proposal to the Duke of Norfolk, Your Majesty. She has sewn the message into a cushion, with a Latin inscription. The cushion shows an orchard of vines being pruned by a giant female arm, and the inscription reads ‘virtue flourishes from its wounds’. The suggestion is that the Duke of Norfolk and Mary will start a new, more fruitful branch of the royal family if Your Majesty no longer lives.
ELIZABETH (to WALSINGHAM). You told me there was no harm in embroidery.
WALSINGHAM. I was wrong –
ELIZABETH. Is there a single man in the whole realm who can be relied upon?
WALSINGHAM. Your Majesty, it is worse. The Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland have banded together to raise a Catholic army in the north. They are heading towards Tutbury Castle now. Their plan is to release Mary and declare war.
Beat. ELIZABETH breathes.
WALSINGHAM. Madam, what are your instructions?
ELIZABETH. Close all the ports. Double the guard at Tutbury Castle, and notify Lord Wentworth in East Anglia – tell him to heighten his security and be on alert.
COURTIER. Yes, Your Majesty.
The COURTIER exits.
ELIZABETH. Send the Earls of Huntingdon and Hereford to Tutbury to assist Lord and Lady Shrewsbury. While there, search Mary’s apartments, collect any evidence and bring it to Whitehall for examination.
COURTIER. Yes, Your Majesty.
The COURTIER exits.
WALSINGHAM. What shall I do with Norfolk?
Your Majesty. Do I have your consent to his arrest?
ELIZABETH. Who are they? These men who assume they know better than I? Do they think I look like this by choice? When I dance at a ball, do they think that I dance through merriment? Do they not see I am a puppet, forced to jig to show the world that I am still young? A mask, painted to reassure the world because they must not see my scars.
I tried not to go to war. I tried to tolerate religions different from my own. And because I have wit and a brain and enjoy the sensation of a smile, they think I am a mouse. That because I do not marry six times and murder my kin when it suits me, I have not the strength of my father.
I know how they speak of me. Walsingham – you do it too. Discuss my body as if I am a horse. How and when and if I shall breed. Enough, now. If they do not want a woman as their leader, they shall have a man. If they can stomach a few bones pulled out of their sockets, I can. If they require a battle, I will give it.
But I will always wonder: why could they not let me be the person I wanted to be?
WALSINGHAM. My dear Elizabeth.
They do not care.
Beat.
ELIZABETH. Do it.
WALSINGHAM exits.
(To the audience.) I have heard the screaming before. I have been the screamer. They have underestimated me, and it will be their end.
Screaming.
LESLEY is dragged in by GUARDS. He is dirty and unkempt. He throws himself at ELIZABETH’s feet.
GUARD. The Bishop of Ross, Your Majesty.
ELIZABETH. Find out everything he knows.
She motio
ns with her head to take him away. The GUARDS drag him off.
New GUARDS enter, dragging THOMAS.
They throw him on the floor; punching and kicking him. She watches.
THOMAS. Your Majesty –
ELIZABETH. You should not have lied to me, Thomas. I will tell the world what you have done, and the people will hate you. Your lands will be confiscated and your children disinherited. I will ruin you.
THOMAS. Elizabeth – I am – please –
ELIZABETH. Put him in the Tower.
THOMAS is dragged offstage.
And if they cannot love me for who I am – if they insist on relentless inspection of my outsides and endless conjecture over the issue of my body – if they cannot find me worthy of affection, I can only give them fear.
Enter MARY 1, SEATON and LIVINGSTON. They do not see ELIZABETH, instead they have their hands up and are followed on by HUNTINGDON and several GUARDS. HUNTINGDON holds a pistol. LIVINGSTON and SEATON are crying.
ELIZABETH backs away a little to watch the scene.
HUNTINGDON. Search the premises.
The GUARDS start to search the room.
Enter BESS 1. She watches.
MARY 1. I demand you give your name –
GUARD. Just a load of tapestries, sir.
HUNTINGDON. Collect them up for inspection.
He moves MARY 1 to the centre of the stage. He starts to feel her body, up and down. She is outraged, but trying to stay calm.
LIVINGSTON. Get your hands off her!
HUNTINGDON. Be quiet. You’re accused of treason, my lady.
MARY 1. I am not a subject. It is impossible for me to commit treason.
HUNTINGDON. You can explain that at your trial.
One of the GUARDS suddenly holds up a tapestry. It is the one with the apple tree that says ‘PULCHRIORI DETUR’. He passes it to HUNTINGDON.
‘Pulchriori Detur’?
HUNTINGDON approaches her with the pistol. He holds it to her head.
SEATON and LIVINGSTON are screaming.
MARY 1. It is an apple tree, my lord! A sad woman’s musings, that is all.
BESS 1. Lord Huntingdon. Won’t you join us downstairs for some supper? We long to hear the news from court.
Beat. HUNTINGDON nods and lowers his gun.
HUNTINGDON. Collect up all the tapestries. They will be used as evidence.
BESS 1 ushers HUNTINGDON and the GUARDS offstage.
The Glove Thief Page 7
