Fingersmith Page #5

So I should be immune to what I read.

Be his librarian.

And when he lost his sight, his eyes.

So they came together.

The romance might have been

somewhat unusual,

but that gave it all the charm

of the unexpected.

And there, as the red sun tinges the sky,

and the chatter of birds

heralds the coming night,

we must leave them.

You don't care for your uncles subjects?

I'm his secretary, it's a matter of

total indifference to me.

I find it rather curious

to find a lady so cool

and unmoved by something designed

to stir the emotions.

Most ladies in those books and paintings

seem to me to be singularly unmoved by it.

You are very uncommon, Miss Lilly.

So I understand Sir.

Miss Lilly.

Dear Miss Lilly, we need to talk.

It's about your mother's will.

I know nothing of what I read from

those books, Sir.

I've not come for that, Miss Lilly.

I can get that in the street corner.

I'm here to help you.

How much do you think you'll

receive when you marry?

A few hundred.

Forty thousand pounds.

Who told you such nonsense?

Hawtrey.

You're the talk of the shady book shops

in London and in Paris.

Your readings

and the favors men imagine follow them.

Your uncle is a villain, Miss Lilly!

And you are not?

I came here to seduce you.

Secure your fortune.

But I saw what life has made of you

and I knew it wouldn't work.

To a woman like you

it would be an insult.

Instead I want to free you.

You are very gallant, Mr. Rivers.

Suppose I don't care to be freed.

I think you long for it.

Go please, go!

Good afternoon, Miss Lilly.

Good afternoon, Mr. Rivers.

Will you marry me?

How dare you?

He's lively today, ain't he Mr. Rivers?

Not as lively as me, Charles.

I swear I will not touch you

after the ceremony,

we will go our separate ways.

Why would you do such a thing?

For half your fortune.

I'd tell him his idea was nonsense.

My uncle would pursue me.

Not if he thinks you're in the

mad house he whispers.

But it would not be me who was locked up.

His plan is to install a new maid

a compliant chaperon. A thief

who will think she's cheating me.

Instead, we will cheat her.

She will take with her into the mad house

all the taint of my mothers madness,

my uncles filth,

my very name.

He is right.

I would be free.

I return to London in three days.

I must secure the maid when I go back.

We will never have this chance again!

Will you?

No. It would be foul.

Putting a girl in the mad house.

The girl's despicable, a thief.

She would do it to you.

My uncle will be here at any moment.

You must not open that.

You belong out there!

Not locked up here with this filth!

Go!

Go!

There was an obstacle to Mr. Rivers plan.

My maid Agnes.

The way he painted that fruit, Miss.

You could eat it.

He has an eye for it.

And for you Miss.

Are you all right, Miss Lilly?

I think she may have twisted her ankle, Sir.

Really, Agnes.

I have not.

Oh well, we must take no

chance of that, Miss Lilly.

It's treacherous ground here.

Allow me to assist you.

I cannot just dismiss Agnes.

Leave it to me.

Agnes, every time that I've looked

into her eyes,

I was thinking of you!

Mr. Way, Mr. Way!

Agnes!

I was shaken by what we had

done to Agnes.

But my uncle had trained me to well

to feel it for long.

Mr. Rivers returned to London.

Recommending the new maid,

whose character was as false

as her courtesy.

Here is the evil little fingersmith

who's going to make us rich.

Remember, she has to become you.

And you her.

You have one month until I return.

Is it all right, Miss?

Very satisfactory.

She has come to Briar to swallow me up.

Like clutch of eggs.

What do London ladies do this time of day?

Make visits, to other ladies like you Miss.

Ladies like me?

There are no ladies like me.

But I grew used to her,

to her life, her warmth.

She was not the gullible girl of

a villaineers plot.

But a girl with a history,

with hates and likings.

Yet to escape from Briar

I must despise her.

Must deceive her.

Miss.

It's not bad news, is it Miss?

Mr. Rivers is coming tomorrow.

Oh lord!

I must change our dresses.

This one for sure.

I want you to have that.

Me Miss? But this is your best dress?

I want to show Mr. Rivers that...

That I do so much approve of you.

Of his choice.

Oh Miss!

That's one of the nicest things

any one's ever said to me.

But really, I can't.

I can't, really, Sue.

She looked so beautiful.

I had to keep telling myself, over and

over again, what she planned to do to me.

To go on.

Oh my goodness, Miss!

I look like a real lady.

She changed even my uncles books for me.

I thought them dead

but the words came suddenly alive.

Full of meaning.

She must think we love one another!

Oh damn it, Maud!

There's another hour gone.

In two days I will leave.

And I will never see you again.

Wake her up, she'll burn.

Let go of me.

I've lost half for this.

Lost it to a wretched little fingersmith.

Let me..

She'd laugh in your face if she knew.

If I told her.

You mustn't.

I agree.

Do you want to stay here forever?

Appear to love me. Marry me!

I can't.

Maud!

- Miss Maud?

- Please.

Miss Maud?

She's coming.

Tell me..

Tell me a way..

Tell you what, Miss?

Tell me,

on her wedding night,

what must a wife do?

Aren't you a pearl.

Everything I say to myself is changed.

She has touched the life of me.

The quake of me.

But she is ashamed.

He'll be leaving here tonight Miss.

She didn't love me.

her feelings were false,

part of a trap.

Why should I not trap her

to escape from this foul place.

The night I escaped,

I needed to do one last thing.

How fast your heart beats Maud.

I told you I don't want to hurt you.

But we must show the marks of true love.

Are you by any chance bleeding

to save me the pain?

Do you mean to insult me

in every possible way?

Hold out the sheet.

The fashionable couple

on their wedding night.

Sit down here Susan.

Miss Smith.

Were you ever a maid with

Lady Stonely of Mayfair?

No Sir.

That's one of poor Mrs. Rivers fantasies.

Ever since the wedding night she's

made up these stories.

Fiction... Yes.

Does she read books?

Her passion is books.

There you have it Graves.

The over exposure of women to

literature breeds unnatural fantasies.

- Indeed.

- Unnatural?

Oh Sir, you don't know the worst of it.

It's not your shame, Susan, your guilt.

You did nothing to invite

the gross intentions

my wife and her madness tried

to force upon you.

Is this true?

Please, these tears speak themselves.

Come on Susan!

You are not to blame.

I'm so sorry you were exposed

to such horrible things.

Speak, damn you, speak!

Oh my own poor Mistress.

My heart was breaking.

That is my story.

That is what brought me here.

You were very convincing Maud.

Don't speak to me or I shall kill you.

I have betrayed her.

Mrs. Rivers.

Sit Mrs. Rivers over there, if you will.

You see, they tricked me.

She's fit, can't do it.

Hold her steady, man!

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