Woman in Hiding

1

All right, Fred, reload.

You better not let that thing

get too hot.

She's liable to blow up and kill

the lot of you.

Not this cannon. You point her north

and she'll start fighting

Yankees all over again.

Say, this isn't the cannon

from the Town Hall Memorial, is it?

Yep. Gonna raise that poor girl,

you'll see.

You can't beat firing a cannon to

bring up a drowned body. What?

Law of nature, young feller.

Light'er up.

Boy, I haven't heard that gag

since Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

That's my body they're looking for.

Those people, the boats, the cannon...

they're dragging the river for my body.

The body of Deborah Chandler.

No...

Deborah Chandler Clark,

They're looking for the body

of Mrs Selden Clark.

Selden, please.

There's nothing you can do here.

She's dead, Selden.

Don't say that, Lucius.

I've got to say it.

And you've got to face it.

I won't believe it.

I can't.

Not until they find her.

Pardon me, Mr Clark.

I'm from the Gazette.

Not now.

I thought you'd like to make a statement.

No. Please. No statement.

And no pictures.

You're making a big mistake, gentlemen.

After all, a bride leaves the house

alone on her honeymoon night...

Young man, have you ever been horsewhipped?

Are you kidding? Sheriff!

Maybe you don't see

how this looks to other people, Mr Clark.

I mean, human nature being what it is...

A bride goes driving

in the middle of the night.

A good caning might teach you

a decent respect for grief.

Take it easy, Mr Maury.

All right, son. You better run along now.

Okay.

Anything I can do for you, Mr Clark?

No, thank you.

I'm sorry about that, Mr Clark.

But I'm afraid

there's gonna be a lot more of it.

Papers calling up from all over the South.

Some of the big northern papers too.

I'll do what I can to keep them

from bothering you too much.

Thanks.

You won't be going back

to Clarksville right away, will you?

No.

They'll have to have an inquiry tomorrow.

Maybe the next day.

Just a formality, you know. But you

will have to answer a few questions.

What will you tell them, Selden?

Accident?

Suicide?

What would I tell them?

The truth?

The impossible truth

that even I can hardly believe.

No. No one would believe it.

Your secret is safe, Selden.

No one will pry into your grief.

No one will ever dream that your

heart is burdened, not with sorrow

but with murder.

When was it that murder

first entered your mind?

Was it that afternoon I drove

up to the plant?

Was it then?

Deb.

Deborah.

Deborah, weren't you even

going to say hello?

Well, you seemed very busy.

What?

I said that you seemed...

Wait a minute.

Now, what were you saying?

Oh, I just said you seemed very busy.

Well, it's lunch hour.

I'm not busy now.

Well...

hello.

Come on, you can't be

in that much of a hurry.

I haven't seen you here at the mill

for six months.

You haven't seen me at all

in much longer than that.

I know.

I haven't been very attentive but...

it's kind of hard to explain.

Yes, I know.

I've tried explaining it to myself.

Well, dad's waiting.

Now wait a minute, Deb.

You know how I really feel about you.

I thought I did, once.

It's just that...

Well, it's just that I've been busy,

that's all.

Things have been kind of

hectic here at the mill.

I've been working day and night,

spending a lot of time out of town...

It really isn't necessary to explain,

Selden. It's kind of embarrassing.

Hello, Debbie, what are you doing here?

Wasn't I supposed to meet you downtown

for lunch?

I thought I'd drop in for a last look.

After all, I won't be seeing the place

for a long time.

You won't? Why not?

Well, I'm going to New York for a while.

To live there. New York?

But why didn't you...

You might have mentioned it to me, John.

Why?

Well, I...

I just think you might have.

I don't think so.

You're general manager of my mill, Selden.

Not general manager of my family.

Yes, of course.

Goodbye, Deborah.

Goodbye.

If you were rude with him for my sake,

it wasn't necessary.

If I'm being rude,

I'm doing it for the good of my own soul.

There's no law

he has to be in love with me.

I might have mentioned it to him.

Why, the impudent young...

Yes, dad, you've told me

how you feel about him.

Not lately I haven't.

Selden Clark IV.

You'd think it was a line of kings.

Well it is a good family.

He has a right to be proud.

Proud? Of what?

Selden Clark III, who was killed

in a saloon brawl in New Orleans?

It was a duel. Or Selden II,

who cut off all the forests

and didn't put back so much as a weed?

What a family.

You're not forgetting the general, dad.

I'm coming to the general.

That fearless warrior, Selden I.

That hero who threw himself and 5.000 troupes

on the Union bayonets at Ridge Creek.

Oh, dad, please.

That's what he did.

Deliberately threw himself.

No rhyme or reason.

He was crazy, I tell you.

My grandfather always said so and...

And he was there.

Oh, dad, do we have to go into it?

Sure we do, Deb.

This boy here...

he's the general all over again.

I watch him charging around the plant

like it was a battlefield.

Well, he does keep it running for you,

doesn't he?

No hydro-electric dynamo

would keep it running even better.

But I wouldn't want one for a son-in-law.

Well, don't worry.

You're not gonna have him for a son-in-law.

Operator, operator, are you sure

you're ringing the right number?

But it's the mill,

somebody's got to be in the office.

Oh, Josh, did my father say anything

this morning that he might be delayed?

No, he didn't, Miss Deborah.

He's expected to be back

long before train time.

Yes, please keep ringing. I'll hold on.

It's all right, Miss Deborah,

it sounds like him right now.

Good.

Operator, never mind. Thank you.

Something... something

terrible has happened, Deb.

Your father...

He was on a high catwalk with Selden

inspecting a machine.

He must have gotten dizzy.

He fell.

I was only a few feet away.

I ran to him, but...

Oh, no.

No.

Where is he?

At the mill. He couldn't be moved.

He's bad, dear. He's bad.

He hasn't regained consciousness.

Oh...

No...

You can take her bags upstairs.

Miss Deborah won't be going away now.

When mother died,

dad and I came home together.

He stopped here at the door...

I was nine years old.

He took my hand and said:

Look at the trees, Deborah.

Feel the wind.

And remember, people die...

a world doesn't.

It feels so empty.

Deb, these past few days...

how I've wished we had been close

to each other like we used to be.

But I had... No, don't, Selden.

Not because you're sorry for me.

But it's not that at all, Deb.

You only make me sorry for myself.

And that's one thing I won't be.

Only that's not true.

I am sorry for myself.

And in a way...

for you too.

For me?

Why should you feel sorry for me?

Out there today...

all those tombstones...

So many Chandlers and so many Clarks.

And now...

only the two of us.

Deb, listen to me.

This is not the end of us

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