The Iron Lady Page #15

CATHERINE (CONT’D)

No matter. You must deny it.

GEORGINA:

Rumour can always be denied.

We will host Christmas here.

Invite everyone we know. Do not

worry.

Blue Revisions dated 11th June 2012 79.

CATHERINE:

And then you must stop this.

DICKENS stiffens.

DICKENS:

But what if I do not want to?

CATHERINE:

Don’t be foolish. You cannot keep

her a secret.

Hiding her hurt, CATHERINE withdraws her hand, caught

between affection and furious despair. He turns holding her

look with direct intent.

DICKENS:

Yes I can.

68 INT.DRAWING ROOM GADS HILL. KENT. 1858. DAY. 68

The squeak of tin wheels-

CATHERINE VO:

I can’t read it. Will you read

it.

Through a door, PLORN pushing a toy train along the floor,

looks up, watching-

CHARLEY takes a copy of a newspaper from CATHERINE who sits

silent and stiff on a chair. He silently braces himself,

reading aloud.

CHARLEY:

There is some domestic trouble of

mine, long standing, on which I

will make no further remark it

being of a sacredly private

nature. However-

CATHERINE turns, a look of shocked despair flickering

across her face as she sees PLORN peering through the

doorway.

CHARLEY (CONT’D)

..it has lately been brought to

an arrangement, which involves no

anger or ill-will of any kind. My

wife Catherine and I have decided

to separate.

The headline on the newspaper now clear -

CHARLES DICKENS SEPARATES FROM WIFE.

Blue Revisions dated 11th June 2012 80.

CHARLEY (CONT'D)

The whole origin, progress and

surrounding circumstances have

been throughout, within the

knowledge of my children.

The SQUEAK SQUEAK of the tin train just audible as he

wheels it away, disappearing along a distant corridor.

CHARLEY (CONT’D)

It is amicably composed, and its

details have but to be forgotten

by those concerned in it.

69 EXT. GARDEN. AMPTHILL SQUARE. 1858. DAY. 69

NELLY knelt, repotting plants. Looking up to see MARIA, on

the approach, pulling off her bonnet and hat en route,

holding up a newspaper

CHARLEY VO:

I most solemnly declare that all

the lately whispered rumors

touching upon my association with

a certain young lady are

abominably false. Upon my soul

and honour there is no-one on

earth more virtuous and spotless

than this young creature.

NELLY wipes down earthy hands, taking the offered paper,

reading with shock.

70 INT. SMOKING ROOM. GARRICK CLUB. 1858. DAY. 70

Through a haze of cigar smoke-

CHARLEY VO:

And whosoever says otherwise

after this denial, will lie as

willfully and as foully as it is

possible for any false witness to

lie, before Heaven and Earth.

A FAT GENTLEMAN sits reading the newspaper, the details of

DICKENS separation spilling out-

Several other GENTLEMAN sunk in Chesterfields, looking up

from the same newspaper, falling into comment-

DICKENS passes, cigar in hand, nodding in stiff greeting-

The GENTLEMEN resume their reading-

DICKENS moving silently on.

Blue Revisions dated 11th June 2012 81.

71 INT. DRAWING ROOM. GADS HILL. 1858. DAY. 71

CATHERINE hands sunk in her lap weeping.

CHARLEY stands, bitterly hurt and wretched, hoveringbetween consoling CATHERINE and screaming in rage.

GEORGINA stands in a doorway, looking on.

71A INT. DRAWING ROOM. AMPTHILL SQUARE. LONDON. 1958. DAY. 71A

CLOSE on NELLY with MRS TERNANMRS

TERNAN:

He has tried to protect you.

NELLY:

But yet I am humiliated.

MRS TERNAN:

There is nothing to deny.

No.

NELLY:

The SILENCE hangs-

MRS TERNAN:

What else could he do?

Yes.

NELLY:

MRS TERNAN:

He is an honourable man.

He is.

NELLY:

MRS TERNAN:

And you are-

Mama-

NELLY:

MRS TERNAN:

The most beautiful, wonderful,

clever young woman.

NELLY:

But what am I do do with these

things. He cannot marry me.

MRS TERNAN:

(beat)

No. But what is marriage?

(MORE)

Blue Revisions dated 11th June 2012 81A.

MRS TERNAN (CONT'D)

I have been married and it was at

times, the loneliest place, Nelly.

(MORE)

Blue Revisions dated 11th June 2012 82.

MRS TERNAN (CONT'D)

Do not think that it will offer you

anymore than you already have.

They hover on the edge-

MRS TERNAN (CONT’D)

I have witnessed some of the

strongest friendships, some of the

most lasting unions between men and

women who were never married. I

have envied them.

NELLY:

(close to MRS TERNAN)

What do I do?

MRS TERNAN’s hand gently smoothing back a stray lock of

NELLY’s hair.

MRS TERNAN:

Fanny and I leave for Italy at the

end of the month. Come with us if

you wish. I will book you a

passage. It is easily done.

NELLY softens, leaning her cheek into MRS TERNAN’s hand,

letting her be comforted.

MRS TERNAN (CONT’D)

This life is precarious. We must

take our chances when we can.

MRS TERNAN moving on, leaving NELLY alone.

72 INT. HALLWAY. TAVISTOCK HOUSE 1858. DAY. 72

COLLINS, clutching a copy of The Times, hurrying upstairs.

73 INT. DRAWING ROOM. TAVISTOCK HOUSE. 1858. DAY. 73

DICKENS bent over a desk, writing-

COLLINS:

Have you gone completely mad?

COLLINS, clutching a newspaper, steady on the approach.

COLLINS (CONT’D)

The Times for God sake.

Tell me you have spoken to

Catherine first?

SILENCE:

Blue Revisions dated 11th June 2012 83.

COLLINS (CONT’D)

Christ, Charles. What were you

thinking of?

COLLINS lost in fury, pacing the room. DICKENS at his desk.

DICKENS:

Catherine is the only person I have

ever known with whom I can find no

common interest. I am impulsive. I

claim no immunity from blame. But

how, Wilkie? How does one stay

married to someone one no longer

loves?

COLLINS:

With difficulty. I can see there is

no love, but there is a cruelty

here.

DICKENS:

What cruelty? Surely to continue is

cruel, Wilkie. To Catherine? An end

is an end.

COLLINS:

You’ve stirred a hive of bees,

Charles. You know how this

works.You make comment. They

print. Then twist. Silence is

surely preferable.

DICKENS:

Is that what they would prefer?

Silence..Yes..Then they will have

silence.

74 EXT. HEATH. LONDON. 1858. DAY. 74

DICKENS walking across the heath, closed within himself. A

MAN strides past, looks to acknowledge him. DICKENS, keeps

walking, head down, silent.

75 INT/EXT. GADS HILL. 1858. NIGHT. 75

CHARLEY standing at a window, watching with concern, DICKENS

through the window in the backyard, face glowing illuminated

by a huge bonfire, stoked with letters and bundles of papers

which DICKENS hurls with some speed and fury into the

towering pyre.

He stands, exhausted, yet focused on the task in hand, as he

reaches for a pile of papers, flicking through them,

rejecting them one by one as these too go into the fire, the

flames illuminating the dark night.

Blue Revisions dated 11th June 2012 84.

75A INT. DRAWING ROOM. AMPTHILL SQUARE. LONDON. 1958. DAY. 75A

NELLY alone, standing by the window the bracelet in her hand,

lost in troubled thought. She absently weaves it through her

fingers, the rubies glinting

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