Dragonwyk Page #6

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Johanna?

Dr. Turner...

I can't understand it.

It doesn't make sense.

Are you sure she took nothing

but those drops I left?

Not while I was with her, sir.

Except for Magda,

no one was with her but me.

I gave her some cake.

Acute gastritis.

It's possible, but I don't believe it.

Is it also possible that she may

have been more ill than you imagined...

when you examined her, Doctor?

Yes, that's always a possibility,

I'm afraid.

See that the pastor

is notified at once...

and have him come to me.

- She's smiling.

I'm sure he didn't mean

that you were to blame.

Whether he meant it or not,

I don't know why she died.

That's shameful, isn't it,

for a doctor not to know?

It's funny the way she ate.

Almost passionately, as if she wanted

from eating what she couldn't have...

You'd better get some sleep.

Good night.

Good night.

I remember how the chapel bell rang

on the day Johanna and I were married.

Tonight it is soft and sad...

but then it was loud and ugly,

and my head ached with the noise.

Johanna laughed

and said it was a heavenly bell...

that would ring for us until death.

We were never happy,

but our life together was tolerable...

till Katrine was born.

Then we knew that Johanna

could have no more children...

that I was to have no son...

that there were to be no more Van Ryns

after me, that I was to be the last.

I... I wish I knew something

that I could say...

that would help you.

I want to so much.

Do you, Miranda?

At an unhappy time like this it must be difficult,

I know, to think of anything else...

but what has happened was

beyond human control, Nicholas.

- You must have faith.

- In God? I intend to.

I must not feel that my life is finished.

And I won't...

as long as you are with me.

The bell has stopped now.

It must be nearly dawn.

Miranda...

you've known as well as I

that this was inevitable...

that we were inevitable.

I didn't know who you were,

or what, or where.

Out of all this world, why should I

have called to you and no one else?

And why should you have come to me

and no one else?

It's because you were meant to.

You knew it the instant our eyes first met,

and everything within us met...

and you know it now.

You have no right to say that,

to talk like this. Please!

- You couldn't help yourself any more than I.

Am I right?

Tell me that I'm wrong.

Forgive me then, if you can.

I had no right to speak as I did,

and you have every reason to be angry with me.

But I had to say it.

There was no way for me not to...

and no one but you to hear it.

Good night, Miranda.

Good night, Nicholas.

- What on earth...

- Miranda, I just heard the news

Why, Jeff Turner, I never thought you'd

go to all this trouble to say good-bye.

- That's just it. I don't want to say good-bye to you.

- But I'm going home.

That isn't what I mean. I think it's fine

that you're going back to your folks.

What I mean is, Greenwich

isn't so very far away after all, is it?

Why, no, Jeff, it isn't.

I was thinking maybe I could come there

and visit you, in a month or so?

Of course, Jeff,

whenever you're passing through.

Would next week be too soon?

Well, I...

I know our relationship

hasn't been exactly...

Well, I've teased you mostly

and sometimes made you angry...

but I've always thought that in time

I could show you how I really felt...

and that maybe...

Miranda, you understand

what I'm getting at, don't you?

- Yes, I think I do.

- I'd like to think that in time...

- Jeff, I...

- I said in time.

Is it that hopeless?

I don't know what to say.

Well, there's...

there's not very much you can, I guess.

Well, have a nice trip.

Thank you, Jeff.

Tom, see that Nat and Seth get to the pump

before they come in the house.

Come inside. I want to talk to you.

Close that door

and come over here and sit down.

That was a nice sermon today, Pa.

Strange you should say that.

Struck me you weren't listening too hard.

- I heard every word of it.

- Struck me your mind wasn't on it at all.

Where is your mind?

What's the matter with you?

- Nothing's the matter, I tell you!

- Ephraim...

- I'm going to get to the bottom of this.

- If there's nothing the matter...

You were the first to see.

For months you fretted and worried.

"Miranda can't sleep.

She won't eat. She can't smile anymore.

Talk to her, Ephraim!"

All right. I'm talking.

Since the day you drove in here

in that fancy rig...

you've been no more one of us

than if you'd never come home.

- Ephraim, please!

- You hung your fancy outfits in the closet...

and acted like you never took them off.

You won't sleep and eat

because your home's not fine enough.

You won't be happy

because we're not fine enough.

- That's not true! It's got nothing to do with that.

- What has it to do with then?

Sometimes when a woman's unhappy,

she just can't talk about it.

Are you gonna tell me it's a man?

What man?

She's given frostbite

to every mother's son in the county.

Perhaps the right one

hasn't come along yet.

She won't find him with her nose in the air,

wanting what she can't get.

A woman ought to get a man first

and then want him.

Someone rode in the gate.

This here's a message for Ephraim Wells,

Esquire, from Weed's Tavern in Greenwich.

- Who's it from?

- I don't know, but I can tell you how to find out.

Read it.

I'll be consarned if this don't beat all.

Nicholas Van Ryn is stopping in Greenwich

and is coming here this afternoon to see me...

"on a matter of the greatest importance."

Cousin Nicholas in Greenwich?

What in tucket could he want, huh?

Miranda?

Mr. Wells, how do you do?

Nicholas!

just what is the meaning of this?

May I speak with you alone, Mr. Wells?

I consider your behavior

exceedingly strange.

On the contrary, it couldn't possibly

be more conventional.

Your Mr. Van Ryn certainly handled Pa.

- That's enough of that.

What did you think of him, Ma?

I don't know.

We weren't even introduced.

That was just in the excitement

of the moment.

He's such a perfect gentleman.

He'd never be impolite to you.

I'm sure he has fine manners.

He's... He's come to ask Pa...

- He wants to marry me.

- I know.

How do you know?

Ever since you've been home,

you've never brought his name up once.

A woman's apt to be that quiet

about a man she loves.

Besides, you've ironed that dress

every week now for two months.

Oh.

- Miranda, child...

- Yes, Ma?

Do you love him very much?

Of course I do.

- Are you sure?

- Why do you ask that?

It's just...

Maybe I shouldn't have let you go.

Maybe Dragonwyck should have stayed

something to read about and dream about.

My dreams came true, Ma.

Can't you see?

Ever since I was a little girl

and built a castle in an apple tree.

But you can't marry a dream, Miranda.

What about him? Do you love him?

But it's all Nicholas.

Nicholas is all of it.

You're acting so strangely...

almost as if you were afraid.

Miranda.! Abigail.! Come on in here.

Says he wants to marry you.

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