Secret Ceremony Page #2

I keep on retaining all this

terrible water. It puffs me up so.

- Is that necessary?

- Keep still.

What's the matter with your hair?

I... I never could stand

anyone mucking around with my hair.

It makes me fidgety.

It gives me goose bumps.

Please stop!

But we can't have you walking about

looking like a whore.

No.

Who's that?

Aunt Hannah and Hilda, I suppose.

- We've been to the cemetery.

- Lovely blowing weather.

There wasn't a flower

on your mother's grave.

Do you think that's proper?

It's too cold for flowers.

Cenci, your mother is dead.

You mustn't wander the streets

looking for her.

- No.

- Are you listening?

- Yes.

- Don't interrupt. I can't get a word in.

Mother's in the garden pruning roses.

There isn't a soul in the garden.

One of your morbid jokes again.

Very well, two can play.

Daddy Albert was arrested in Philadelphia.

- I don't know what you mean.

- For interfering with a minor.

Leave me alone!

Why can't you leave me alone?!

You're all nerves, Cenci.

You haven't even offered us any coffee.

These young people! No discipline.

And when did you last have a bath?

We have a perfect right

to visit your mother's bedroom.

You've lit the fire.

Why a fire when it's unseasonably warm?

- Wasting all that money.

- It's stifling hot in here.

Stifling.

Oh... Ooh!

Look! Hannah, look!

All these dresses!

Cenci, they'll hang here till they rot.

Cenci, you might as well get rid of them.

You might give us one or two.

This one, for instance,

looks just right for me.

Oh, the black fox!

Oh, dear, the black fox.

Christmas '55, everyone sloshed...

and Gustav still alive.

- Ah, dear Gustav.

- Carving the roast.

The most generous brother that ever...

Gave me an electric razor by mistake.

And sang.

Oh, Cenci, the moths will get at it.

It's too middle-aged for a girl like you.

What would you want with a thing like this?

Isn't it, Hannah?

Oh...

No! You can't have the mink.

Look at your mother's bed!

It's warm.

At 11 o'clock in the morning.

No, it's nearly noon.

A decent bed isn't supposed to be warm.

Cenci, are you alone?

Yes.

Have they left?

You didn't tell them about me, did you?

They think you're dead, Mummy.

Hello! Anybody home?

Hello. Margaret, is that you?

Hi there.

How have you been?

No, no, don't tell me.

Aren't you going to let me in?

You know I'm harmless before lunch.

Now, for Christ's sake, come on out.

I'll see you around the campus.

Where have you been?

Christ! Who gave you all that money?

- I've been to the bank.

- What bank?

It's Tuesday. If you don't want me to go

to the bank any more, just say so!

No need to shout.

Sorry.

Did you... go anyplace else?

Did you... meet anyone... else?

No?

Darling, you know you can trust me.

I wouldn't trust you with a crooked penny.

Somebody... called.

Who?

Albert.

- I don't know anyone by that name.

- Give Mummy a kiss.

Oh, my God!

Was...?

Was... Daddy Albert a great lover?

What do you mean?

Was he greater than Daddy Gustav?

I guess so.

Was he... stupendous?

Stupendously... gentle?

And also brutal?

Did he make you give out...

a sound?

What kind of sound?

Let me hear you do it.

Are all men clever like that?

They're just little boys

that... need to have their...

bottoms wiped.

I'm going out.

- Can I come too?

- No, darling.

Please, let me come with you.

- Will you put that bloody thing down?

- Please?

- It's laundry day.

- I wouldn't touch your filthy laundry.

Cenci, you do the laundry

or no telly this week.

- Ha! We haven't got a telly!

- Oh, you're impossible today!

- You're coming back, aren't you, Mummy?

- Oh, don't be silly, of course I am.

- Come back soon!

- I will.

Coming...

Coming...

Oh, my God!

Hilda!

- Hilda!

- Yes? What is it?

Oh, really... Oh, all right.

Who the hell are you?!

Um... I'm Leonora.

Leonora? Who?

Margaret's cousin.

You and your damned apparitions.

I could have sworn

it was our dear departed sister-in-law.

Poor Margaret was smaller.

Her eyes were a different colour.

- She was skinnier too.

- Especially towards the end.

Poor Margaret wasn't exactly

what I'd call thin,

but towards the end,

she looked like an umbrella.

I really don't know

how you could have made the mistake.

That's Margaret's purple velvet!

Yes. Cenci gave it to me.

Would you care for some tea?

Thank you.

- So you're poor Margaret's cousin?

- Yes.

I wonder

why she never mentioned you.

My dear,

you know what she was like.

It's very odd, isn't it?

Poor Margaret insisted, especially after

Albert went back to the States,

that she and Cenci

were quite alone in the world.

She never counted us.

We were always the poor relations.

She never forgave us

for being... slightly Jewish.

Like our Saviour on his mother's side.

Actually, we didn't get along either.

- Oh?

- It was just... misunderstandings.

What about?

Well, I'd rather not discuss it.

- Money?

- Family matters.

What money?

Surely you know Cenci was heiress

to the Engelhard fortune.

Stinking rich, she is.

- She's never given me a red cent.

- A what?

You're not American, are you?

Yeah. Why? Any objections?

- Small world, isn't it?

- They do get around, don't they?

Well, I have problems of my own.

I wasn't even informed of Margaret's illness.

I mean, can you believe that?

I live in Tunbridge Wells

but that's no excuse.

They had my address.

They could have sent me a postcard.

I mean, I'm not one to nurse grudges but...

Did she suffer?

Didn't Cenci tell you?

Well, she didn't go into detail.

Spent her last three months

shut up in that house.

- Didn't want to see anyone, not even us.

- Sacked the servants.

- The nurses.

- Even the doctor.

- Said they were trying to poison her.

- She talked a lot of rubbish.

Her mind was neither here nor there.

Poor Cenci had to do everything.

She was nurse, cook, housemaid, the lot.

She simply idolised her mother.

I remember the night before the funeral.

She sat there by the coffin.

I'll never forget her face as long as I live.

In my opinion, it was then or thereabouts

that she became unhinged.

She had such a demented look.

A little smile... You know?

We were petrified.

Then she started babbling utter nonsense,

saying her mother had gone

to the hairdresser.

She'd been away from home a long time.

Perhaps she was lost.

- She never turned up at the funeral.

- Locked herself in the loo. With a doll.

That poor child.

She never had it easy in that big house.

- Dotty mother of hers.

- And Gustav.

Dear Gustav.

You met Gustav, didn't you?

Er... only once.

- The most generous brother that ever lived.

- Dropped dead when Cenci was... nine.

And his poor body's

still warm in the grave...

When poor Margaret picks up that Albert.

Huh! Albert.

His stinking pipes,

his tweeds, his books...

His walk...

his terrible, languorous, insinuating walk.

His hands.

- What do you mean?

- I don't want to hear about it.

Let her know. Let the world know.

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