The Lion in Winter Page #8

I give my word.

Oh, well.

Well, well.

Would you like a pillow?

Footstool? How about a shawl?

Your oaths are all profanities, your words a

curse, your name on paper is a waste of pulp!

I'm vilifying you, for

God's sake! Pay attention!

How,

from where we started,

did we ever reach

this Christmas?

Step by step.

What happens to me now?

That's lively curiosity

from such a dead cat.

If you want to know

my plans, just ask me.

Conquer china, sack the

vatican, or take the veil.

I'm not among the ones

who give a damn.

Just let me sign my lands

to John and go to bed.

No, you're too kind.

I can't accept.

Come on, man, I'll sign the thing

in blood or spit or bright blue ink.

Let's have it done.

Let's not.

No, I don't think I want

your signature on anything.

You don't?

Dear God,

the pleasure I still get

from goading you.

You don't want John to have

my provinces? Bull's-eye.

I can't bear you when

you're smug. I know, I know.

You don't want Richard, and you

don't want John. You've grasped it.

All right, then,

shatter me!

Let me have it.

What do you want?

A new wife.

Oh.

So,

I'm to be annulled.

Well,

will the pope annul me,

do you think?

The pontiff owes me one

pontificate. I think he will.

Out Eleanor,

in alais.

- Why?

- A new wife, wife, will bear me sons.

That is the single thing...

of which I would have thought

you had enough.

I want a son.

We could populate...

a country town with country

girls who've borne you sons.

How many is it?

Help me count the bastards.

All my sons are bastards.

You really mean to do it.

Lady love, with all my heart.

Your sons are part of you.

Like warts and goiters,

and I'm having them removed.

We've made them.

They're our boys.

I know, and good God,

look at them.

Geoffrey...

there's a masterpiece.

He isn't flesh, he's a device.

He's wheels and gears.

And johnny...

was his latest treason

your idea?

I caught him lying,

and I've said, "he's young."

I found him cheating, and

I've said, "he's just a boy."

I've watched him steal and whore and

whip his servants, and he's not a child.

He's the man we made him.

Don't share John with me.

He's your accomplishment.

And Richard's yours.

How could you send him off

to deal with Philip?

I was tired.

I was busy.

They were friends.

Eleanor, he was the best.

From the cradle on, you cradled

him. I never had a chance.

You never wanted one. How

do you know? You took him.

Separation from your husband

you could bear, but not your son.

Whatever I have done,

you made me do.

You threw me out of bed

for Richard.

Not until you threw me out

for rosamund.

It's not that simple. I won't

have it to be that simple.

I adored you.

Never.

I still do.

Of all the lies,

that one is the most terrible.

I know. That's why

I saved it up for now.

Oh, Henry, we've mangled

everything we've touched.

Deny us what you will,

we have done that.

Do you remember when we met?

Down to the hour

and color of your stockings.

I could hardly see you

for the sunlight.

It was raining,

but no matter.

There was very little talk,

as I recall.

Very little.

I had never seen

such beauty.

I walked right up

and touched it.

God, where did I find

the gall to do that?

In my eyes.

I loved you.

No annulment.

What? There will be no annulment.

Will there not? No, I'm afraid

you'll have to do without.

Well, it was

just a whim.

I'm so relieved.

I didn't want to lose you.

Out of curiosity, as

intellectual to intellectual,

how in the name of bleeding

jesus can you lose me?

Do we ever see each other?

Am I ever near you?

Ever with you? Am I ever

anywhere but somewhere else?

Do I write?

Do we send messages?

Do dinghies bearing gifts float up

the thames to you? Are you remembered?

You are.

You're no part of me. We

do not touch at any point.

How can you lose me?

Can't you feel the chains?

You know me well enough

to know I can't be stopped.

I don't have to stop you.

I have only to delay you.

Every enemy you have has friends

in rome. We'll cost you time.

What is this?

I'm not moldering.

My paint's not peeling. I'm

good for years. How many years?

Suppose I hold you back for one.

I can. It's possible.

Suppose your first son dies.

Ours did. It's possible.

Suppose you're daughtered next.

We were.

That, too,

is possible.

How old is daddy then?

What kind of spindly,

rickett-ridden, milky,

wizened, dim-eyed,

gammy-handed, limpy line

of things will you beget?

It's sweet of you to care.

And when you die, which is

regrettable but necessary,

what will happen to frail alais

and her pruney prince?

You can't think Richard's going

to wait for your grotesque to grow.

You wouldn't let him

do a thing like that?

Let him? I'd push him

through the nursery door.

You're not that cruel.

Don't fret. We'll wait

until you're dead to do it.

Eleanor, what do you want?

Just what you want...

a king for a son.

You can make more, I can't.

You think I want to disappear?

One son is all I've got, and you

can blot him out and call me cruel?

For these ten years, you've

lived with everything I've lost...

and loved another woman

through it all, and I am cruel?

I could peel you like a pear,

and God himself

would call it justice.

I will die sometime soon.

One day I'll duck too slow,

and at westminster,

they'll sing out "long live

the king" for someone else.

I beg you, let it be

a son of mine.

I am not moved to tears.

I have no sons. You have too

many sons. You don't need more.

Well, wish me luck.

I'm off.

To rome? That's where

they keep the pope.

You don't dare go!

Say that again at noon.

You'll say it to my horse's ass.

Lamb, I'll be rid of you by easter!

You can count your reigning days!

You go to rome,

we'll rise against you!

Who will? Richard, Geoffrey,

John and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

The day those stout hearts band

together is the day that pigs get wings!

There'll be pork in the treetops

come morning!

Don't you see you've given them

a common cause:
New sons?

You leave the country,

and you've lost it.

- All of you at once?

- And Philip too. He'd join us.

Yes, he would.

Now how's your trip

to rome?

Oh, I've got you,

got you, got you.

Should I take a thousand

men-at-arms, or is that showy?

Bluff away.

Ah, poor thing. How can I break

the news? You've just miscalculated.

Have I? How?

You should have lied. You should have

promised to be good while I was gone.

I would have let your three boys

loose. They could have fought me then.

You wouldn't keep your sons

locked up here.

Why the devil wouldn't I?

You wouldn't dare.

Why not? Let them sit in

chinon for a while. I forbid it.

She forbids it. Did your father

sleep with me, or didn't he?

No doubt you're going to tell me

that he did. Would it upset you?

What about the thousand men? I

say be gaudy and to hell with it.

Don't leave me, Henry. I'm at rock

bottom. I'll do anything to keep you.

I think you think you

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