Jamaica Inn Page #9

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JAMAICA INN EP1 FIRST REVISION SET PINK 25.9.13

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*

52 INT. MARY’S BEDROOM, JAMAICA INN - NIGHT 4 52

MARY lies in bed, but cannot sleep. She’s too distracted by

recent events. She turns over in bed again, fretting. But

then the distant sound of hooves outside and she lifts her

head to listen.

*

*

*

*

They’re getting closer so MARY moves to the window in her

nightdress and lifts the blind in time to see *

*

JOSS (OUTSIDE)

Well Abe? Gonna tell us where

you’ve been?

-MARY’s furtive POV of HARRY and ELI dragging red-headed ABE

from a horse, wrists and ankles bound. *

ABE:

I ain’t bin nowhere Joss! *

JOSS:

That’s why we had to ride all round

the countryside looking for you.

*

*

*

ABE:

I’s sick! Thass all! I’s sick!

*

*

But the MEN manhandle him inside, and JOSS nods to HARRY and

ELI that they can go, done for the night.

ELI slinks away, but MARY sees HARRY narrow his eyes at JOSS

for a second and hesitate, and then he also goes.

Only JOSS and ABE are inside the inn and outside all is quiet

and dark. MARY hears a creak in the upstairs corridor and is

about to step back from her window to see what it is, when -

- she suddenly glimpses someone standing in the darkness just

beyond the courtyard.

MARY freezes, heart pounding in case it is the ‘ghost’ -

- but as the moon comes out from behind a cloud and lights

his face, she sees it’s JEM.

Thinking he’s unseen, he steps quietly forward into the

shadow of the inn, towards the door.

MARY tries to make sense of it.

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JAMAICA INN EP1 FIRST REVISION SET PINK 25.9.13

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53 INT. UPSTAIRS LANDING, JAMAICA INN - NIGHT 4 53

The murmur of voices from the front bar downstairs as MARY

sneaks out onto the landing. No-one is there so she -

54 INT. STAIRWELL/PASSAGEWAY, JAMAICA INN - NIGHT 4 54

- creeps slowly down the stairs, still in her nightdress,

wincing at their creak and groan, freezing now and then for

fear of being caught.

*

She pads to the bar door, presses her eye to a crack and can

just see JOSS, pacing up and down, but no-one else as ABE

OOV:

I swear to thee on my mother’s

grave, I ain’t no snitch Joss!

JOSS:

So how’d the revenue know we was

coming, eh?

He lunges forward, out of sight, and ABE cries out, been hit -

JOSS (CONT’D)

I cut Zephania out last night

‘cause I thought it was him, so

there ain’t many choices left.

*

*

ABE mumbles something that MARY can’t hear. She strains to

listen, but a creak on the stairs behind her makes her turn.

She is shocked to see a man’s feet slowly creeping down.

Could it be JEM?

MARY had assumed he was in the bar with JOSS and ABE… but

maybe she’s wrong. Or is somebody else here too?

A second before he sees her, MARY darts into a storeroom55

INT. STOREROOM, JAMAICA INN - NIGHT 4 55

- pulling the door to.

Through the crack she glimpses the dark FIGURE step down the

passageway but with terror sees that he’s heading in here.

MARY throws herself down to hide behind a dresser just in

time, as the door opens and the MAN slips inside.

From her hiding place she can see his feet as he waits at the

door peering out a crack to watch the passageway.

MARY’s frozen, and in the most uncomfortable position,

certain that she’ll have to move and then he’ll hear her,

certain he can hear her pounding heart.

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JAMAICA INN EP1 FIRST REVISION SET PINK 25.9.13

40

As she tries to calm herself and keep very still, she strains

to hear the muffled voices in the bar, but is it two or three

MEN there? MARY can’t tell.

The clock in the passageway suddenly whirrs and clicks, then

chimes the hour, 3 am. A moment, then the door to the bar is

heard opening followed by JOSS’s footsteps -

-and a coded ‘knock, knock, knock’ on the storeroom door.

MARY cranes to peer up through the junk, and we share her POV

of JOSS glimpsed in the doorway, but the MAN still can’t be

seen as he’s obscured and has his back to her.

JOSS speaks in a low growl, shakes his head, confused -

JOSS:

I half believe him. It’s up to you. *

The MAN mutters something back unheard and JOSS goes silent.

Then protests, doesn’t want to do what he’s been told to -

JOSS (CONT’D)

I’ve known the man a long time. *

He’s got a wife and child

The MAN hisses something, and JOSS nods but is reluctant -

JOSS (CONT’D)

Alright. I heard you. I’ll bloody

do it.

MARY has a horrible sense that JOSS has just been told to

kill him but she holds her breath as JOSS goes

-his footsteps heard moving back to the front bar and the

door shutting.

The unseen MAN is still in the room with MARY, but he starts

to step slowly away

-when MARY knocks something that grates on the flagstones.

MARY freezes, certain he must find her, scrunching herself

down as small as she can to hide and barely breathing.

Slowly, torturously, her glimpsed POV of the MAN’s feet as

they step closer. She shrinks back further, can’t bear it -

-but then, with a yowl, a mangy cat shoots out from

somewhere in the room and runs to him. Is MARY off the hook?

With shock she watches as the cat arches its back and rub

itself against the MAN’s leg, purring.

It knows him.

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JAMAICA INN EPISODE 1 SHOOTING SCRIPT 23.9.13

The MAN seems to accept that the cat was what he heard and he

steps out and shuts the door behind him, his soft footsteps

padding up the passageway to vanish.

MARY exhales silent relief at her deliverance. For a long

beat she can’t bear to move, but as she waits, she hears

-the sound of a chair clattering over in the bar, then a

horrible choking, lynching sound. MARY is horrified but dare

not move. It goes on for a few long seconds. Then it stops.

MARY tiptoes to the door and listens - nothing. Slowly she

opens it a crack, but the passageway beyond is now clear.

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