A moment of silence after they have gone.
SEATON and LIVINGSTON fall upon MARY 1. They huddle together, then kneel on the floor and start to pray.
On her knees, MARY 1 looks at ELIZABETH. For the first time they make eye contact. For once, MARY 1 is genuinely frightened.
ELIZABETH. You will not die, for now.
But I will keep you in a living hell. Dreaming and plotting of escape and always wondering if there is something else you can try. You can sew until you are half-mad.
I would have loved you, protected you, defended you. But you are the serpent instead of Eve.
MARY 1 and ELIZABETH are finally standing face to face.
And by God I will expel you from the garden.
Scene Nine
ROSE 1 and ROSE 2 are in the Accounts Room. ROSE 1 is hiding.
ROSE 2. Apparently there’s a warrant out for my arrest.
The good thing is, they think I’m a man called Borthwick, so there’s a certain amount of confusion.
I’m hiding out in the accounts room, just in case.
Enter BESS 1.
BESS 1. Rose?
ROSE 1 comes out of her hiding place.
Thank God.
ROSE 1. They’re gonna get me, right? This is it and I’m really going to gaol this time.
BESS 1. No, they’re drunk and well fed. They will be fast asleep in a little while.
ROSE 1. I shouldn’t have done it –
BESS 1. It’s not your fault – (Hearing a noise.) hide!
ROSE 1 quickly hides.
Enter GEORGE, rapidly, angrily; he is holding a tapestry, balled up in his hands.
GEORGE. How is it possible for such a thing to happen? And how did she find out?
BESS 1. George – surely you realise now that Mary cannot be trusted?
GEORGE. The palace is in uproar. The Duke of Norfolk and Bishop of Ross are in the Tower of London.
BESS 1. It will blow over.
GEORGE. I found this.
He holds up the embroidery. BESS 1 breathes out.
An embroidery for your dead husband. What did you imagine, that you could hang it up on the walls?
BESS 1. No…
GEORGE. How am I supposed to feel?
BESS 1. I am sorry, George.
GEORGE. I am a good man, you know. I have given you enormous freedom. I think at the very least I might expect a higher degree of respect.
Was it you? That told the Queen about the marriage proposal.
Beat.
BESS 1. Yes.
Beat.
GEORGE. If people knew how it was between us, I would become a laughing stock.
BESS 1. George…
GEORGE. I cannot control my own wife.
BESS 1. It was for the best –
GEORGE. For the best? Did you anticipate Her Majesty’s heartfelt gratitude? It is the reverse. She says we cannot be trusted. She has cut our allowance. After all that we have done!
BESS 1. I will write to her –
GEORGE. You will do nothing at all.
I leave for Chatsworth in the morning.
GEORGE hands BESS 1 the fabric and exits. She holds it to her face. She closes her eyes.
BESS 1. You can see it, if you like, Rose…
Awkwardly, ROSE 1 steps out of the shadows.
BESS 1 hands her the embroidery. She looks at it.
ROSE 2. There’s a storm. But instead of rain, it’s tears, falling onto quicksand.
All around the border, images of a broken heart: a cracked mirror, a fractured chain, a fraying rope.
And then, in the bottom corner, a glove.
ROSE 1. That’s the glove you said I stole. Is that for me?
Beat.
But. You hate me. You hit me. You told me to leave.
BESS 1. She would not confide in you, until she saw me cause you pain.
ROSE 1 is crying.
ROSE 1. You said I should trust you and I didn’t.
BESS 1. Dear Rose.
ROSE 1. I love it.
BESS 1. I’m so sorry.
Fiercely, ROSE 1 flings her arms around BESS 1. BESS 1 is overwhelmed.
They hold each other for a while.
ROSE 2. She’s holding me very tight, I’m a bit crushed, and it’s a good feeling. I almost want my arms to break. Then I remember that I’m gonna need them in the future for holding paintbrushes.
ROSE 1 disentangles herself gently.
BESS 1. You will have to leave us.
ROSE 1. Yeah, I know.
BESS 1. I will give you what you need to be safe.
ROSE 1. It’s alright, I’m used to being on my own.
BESS 1. No, you are an artist now. You will never be alone.
They exit.
Scene Ten
BESS 2, MARY 2, a WAITING LADY and ROSE 2 speak directly to the audience.
BESS 2. For fourteen more years, Mary, Queen of Scots will stay in the care of Bess and her soon-to-be-estranged husband.
WAITING LADY. Eventually she will be tried by her cousin Queen Elizabeth I, found guilty, and executed.
BESS 2. The Duke of Norfolk will be tried for treason. At the trial, the embroidered cushion will be presented as evidence, and he will be found guilty and beheaded.
MARY 2. In two hundred years’ time, the embroideries will be found, sewn together into a bedspread, and preserved for centuries to come.
Enter ROSE 1. She is happy. She feels free.
ROSE 2. One day, in the pale spring dawn, a thief will slip away from Tutbury Castle without saying goodbye.
BESS 2. She has stolen a pair of boots from one of the footmen, and she’s wearing a half-decent dress. In a bag she carries some paintbrushes and canvas. On her finger is a gold ring that means she’ll get a free meal at every inn on the road to London, no questions asked.
ROSE 2. On Tutbury High Street, she stops outside The Dog and Partridge and remembers the moment it all began. How will she survive, on her own once again?
BESS 2. The same way that she always did, of course.
ROSE 1 grins at BESS 2.
She takes out a beautiful pair of gloves – the same that she was accused of stealing at the beginning.
ROSE 1 puts the gloves on.
She starts walking.
The End.
BETH FLINTOFF
Beth Flintoff trained as an actress at Birmingham Conservatoire after studying English Literature at Durham University, and is now a freelance director and playwright. She is an Associate Artist at Reading Between the Lines Theatre Company, for whom she has written Henry I of England, Oscar Wilde on Trial and Matilda the Empress. Her play and theatre installation on Greenham Common, Greenham: One Hundred Years of War and Peace, was performed by a cast of hundreds in the middle of the deserted runway in September 2017.
For seven years she worked at The Watermill Theatre, Newbury, where as Outreach Director she worked on many productions as writer, director or both, including David Copperfield, Life Lessons, Writers’ Block, The Girl Who Never Forgot, Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Othello and Doctor Faustus. She has collaborated twice with physical-theatre ensemble Rhum and Clay, on Jekyll and Hyde and Hardboiled: The Fall of Sam Shadow, which toured with The Watermill before transferring to New Diorama in London (Off West End Award Nominee for Best Director 2016). Her play The True History of Susanna Shakespeare was awarded a Tenancy at Nuffield Southampton Theatres, and longlisted for the Papatango Prize in 2017.
Beth was the founding Artistic Director of new-writing fringe ensemble Debut Theatre Company. She is currently under commission to Reading Between the Lines and Eastern Angles for plays in 2018.
A Nick Hern Book
The Glove Thief first published as a paperback original in Great Britain in 2017 by Nick Hern Books Limited, The Glasshouse, 49a Goldhawk Road, London W12 8QP, in association with Tonic
This ebook first published in 2017
The Glove Thief copyright © 2017 Beth Flintoff
Bet
h Flintoff has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work
Cover image by Kathy Barber, Bullet Creative, www.bulletcreative.com Inside cover image: The Marian Hanging, one of the Oxburgh Hangings at Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Designed and typeset by Nick Hern Books, London
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 84842 653 5 (print edition)
ISBN 978 1 78001 993 2 (ebook edition)
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