Love Letters Page #5

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Victoria Singleton.

When she was 12 years old,

Beatrice Remington

brought her to England.

Who is Beatrice Remington?

A lonely bitter old maid

who owns Meadow Farms.

She worked hard all her life.

Made a lot of money.

And cared for no one on earth.

In old age, she allowed herself

her first luxury.

A trip to Canada.

There she found Singleton,

who won her completely.

She adopted her.

And brought her up as her own.

A kind of idol. Guarded and ferocious.

She was determined no one would

ever hurt Singleton in any way.

How'd you come to know her?

I was brought up in Longreach.

I was Singleton's only friend.

Did you know Roger Morland?

Oh, yes.

We met him together

at an officers' dance.

Singleton thought he was amusing,

good-looking. Nothing more.

Then he went away. And he wrote to her.

And she fell in love.

She fell in love with those letters.

With your letters, Alan.

I know.

Beatrice objected.

She didn't trust Roger.

Nothing would stop Singleton.

She married him

three days after his return.

I don't know what happened between them.

I only know that Singleton wasn't happy.

She grew silent.

Withdrawn in a strange sort of way.

And then it happened.

The night before I left for London.

I was taking a wardrobe.

I was home alone packing.

Suddenly, there came

a knock at the door.

Miss Carson! Come over.

Come over right away.

What happened?

I don't know. I wasn't there.

I don't know what to do.

When I entered the room,

the first thing I saw was Roger

lying on the floor... dead.

Singleton was sitting

by the fireplace in a white dress.

The white dress had stains all over.

Victoria! Victoria!

Who are you?

She didn't recognize me anymore.

Then I saw on the floor...

part of the burned letter.

It read:

"I think of you, my dearest,

as a distant promise of beauty

untouched by the world. "

Aunt Beatrice!

She's had another stroke.

Her second stroke. It's her heart.

She'd always been afraid of it.

What happened?

Did you hear me?

He...

struck...

her...

"He struck her"

were the only words that Miss

Beatrice Remington was able to speak

before paralysis made it

impossible for her to testify.

Or throw any light on the case.

You're the only ones

who can help us find the truth.

Do you remember

that your husband struck you?

Who was my husband?

Please, Mrs. Morland. Don't be afraid.

You can trust me.

I'm your defense counsel.

And I'm anxious to help you.

Please try to think.

You do realize that you're on trial

for the murder of your husband?

Yes I understand that.

And I'm not afraid.

Not now.

But you see I have sworn

to tell the truth.

And I don't remember

that I had a husband.

Don't you want to try and help me?

Don't you want to remember?

No...

I know I should.

And I'm trying as hard as I can.

But I must tell the truth.

And I don't want to remember.

I don't know what I did.

Or what happened.

So long as I don't know it,

it never happened.

Not really. Not to me.

Of course, you can't consider that.

You must do what you must.

You know what happened. I don't.

Try to think back.

Think of Roger Morland

before you married him.

Think of the time when you loved him.

I never loved him.

How do you know that

if you don't remember him?

Because I remember the man I loved.

Who was he?

I don't remember his name or his face.

It seems very long ago.

He wrote to me.

I remember his letters.

Tell me, Mr. Phillips, are you happy?

Why do you ask that?

Because you see,

I think very few people are happy.

They wait all their lives

for something to happen to them.

Something great and wonderful.

They don't know what it is.

But they wait for it.

Sometimes it never happens.

What they want...

is the kind of spirit

I found in those letters.

The spirit that makes life beautiful.

I loved that man.

I loved him more than my own life.

I still love him.

So you can see,

I couldn't have loved Roger Morland.

A man whom I killed.

She was found guilty.

Guilty of manslaughter.

The fact that Roger struck her

was a mitigating incident.

Two doctors examined her.

And found that she was perfectly sane.

She suffered a terrible shock.

She lost her memory.

But not her life.

Amnesia victims are not insane,

you know.

She was sentenced to one year in prison.

- They sent her to jail?

- Yes.

She spent most of her sentence

in the prison hospital.

Oh, I don't believe she suffered.

I don't believe she knew

where she was or cared.

She must've known.

If she did, she's forgotten it now.

Forgotten everything?

Roger. Meadow Farms. The trial.

The prison. Everything.

Even her own name.

The only thing she remembers

now about her past

is her childhood in the orphanage.

And the name they gave her there.

Singleton. Nothing else.

She remembers you.

Only because

I visited her regularly at the hospital.

What about Aunt Beatrice?

She doesn't remember

Aunt Beatrice at all.

Where is Aunt Beatrice now?

She's in a nursing home in London.

Oh, she recovered. She can speak again.

Will Singleton ever recover?

What do the doctors think?

They warned me

never to speak to her about her past.

If she regains her memory,

it will have to come back gradually,

from within, of her own accord.

If any one told her about her past now,

the shock would be so terrible that

she'd probably lose her mind.

You realize why I was so terrified

when I found you alone with her?

And you were

questioning her about Victoria Morland?

But why did you send for me

in the first place?

Roger had spoken about you.

And I read in the paper

that you'd been decorated.

You were wounded and coming home.

I wanted someone to help me,

to advise me.

Someone I could trust...

who wasn't connected to her past.

Now I'm not so sure I'm glad I did.

Well, Alan. That's the whole story.

I bet you haven't told the worst of it.

You know who the real criminal

is in this story, don't you?

I didn't until I heard you

talking the night of the party.

Then I realized what happened

to Singleton after their wedding.

I knew she'd come to hate Roger if she

ever found out his real character.

I'm responsible for it all.

I'm the guilty one.

I've made her a murderer.

You're the man she loved.

You the man she felt she married.

She doesn't know it.

But you can never tell her.

Does she remember my letters?

I don't know.

If she does,

she's still in love with me.

But if she finds out that...

She'll have to despise me

And you? What do you feel for her?

Do you mind if I don't answer that?

- It's hopeless, isn't it?

- Yeah.

If you go on like this,

it'll be like skating on thin ice.

Only the ice will be

her life and her sanity... and yours.

I know.

You won't be happy with a ghost.

And you won't be able to face

the day when she ceases to be a ghost.

What will you say to her

when she comes back?

Don't worry. I'll think of something.

Tell her I left because

I'm in love with Victoria Morland.

- Hello, Captain Quinton.

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