April 3rd 1865
Second Letter
Dear Alice,
I’ve just given birth to a beautiful baby boy. He is so beautiful the nurse says he looks like me. I’ve decided to name him Nathaniel after his father’s family name. I think that Peter has been sent abroad, I haven’t heard from him for months now. You were right, when I told mother and father they shouted at me, they said I was disgrace to the family and then they sent me here to Scotland to have my baby in secret. They have disowned me and taken away my inheritance.
I knew that they always liked you better; mother is so critical of me when you’re not there to defend me. That’s why father is sending me away. He says I will have to make my own way in the world, How can I?
I have nothing now, nothing except for Nathaniel; he’s all I have left in the world. He was worth all the pain and suffering. I’ll never give him up, I’ll never give him to anyone, he’s mine all mine and no one can take him away from me, not you and not father. Yet I know that I must let him go. He cannot live in my shame, how can I keep him? He needs to be bought up as a gentleman. You have already suggested that you wished to adopt the child. How ironic that God has not blessed you with a child of your own. An adoring husband and all that money yet you could not produce an heir so you shall have him … for now.
So when will Morgan be coming to take Nathaniel from me? You remember he’s mine; you cannot take him away from me, he’s mine. He’s not you child, he’s mine all mine and he’ll never be yours! We will not be parted forever he’s my child. I would rather die first before abandoning my child. Oh sister I am sorry, I will let you take care of my beloved Nathaniel, I know you will be kind to him but promise me that if he comes to live with you that one day he will know who his real mother is. Please I’m begging you now. The only way Nathaniel can have a proper life, go to the right school, to have for him to be bought up as a gentleman is for him to be brought up by you. Then he can take his rightful place in society. I cannot provide for him the way you can now that father has abandoned me. I will have to work for my bread, Oh know that I can sew I will not starve. But it is not the life I want for my child. Please take good care of my dear Nathaniel; leave the thing that is dearest to my heart in your hands.
Yours Sincerely
Your loving sister
Jennet
Argument
(Alice finds Jennet playing with Nathaniel in the child’s room without permission. Alice is aware that the child is growing closer towards her real mother and colder towards her)
Alice: Jennet what do you think you are doing in my house? Get out get out right now! I told you not to come in here without my permission so you must leave immediately. You’re not welcome here leave Nathaniel and me alone! He's mine and you're unwelcome in this house.
Jennet: He's not yours, I gave birth to him, Nathaniel is my son, I told you he’ll never be yours you sad miserable creature! Just because you can’t have children of your own doesn’t give you the right to steal other peoples.
(Jennet picks up a small wooden bat and attempts to strike Alice who attempts to calm her)
Alice: Calm down Jennet, you’re only making things worse for yourself. You must learn to control your emotions it’s not good for you or the child. Please put down the bat you might hurt or scare Nathaniel.
(Nathaniel is sat huddled up in a corner of the room crying and looking very depressed, Jennet goes and picks him up and starts walking for the door. At this point Nathaniel breaks into a tantrum of weeps ad sobs)
Alice: What are you doing! Jennet please put Nathaniel down look at him, you’ve scared him, and you’re not doing the either of you any good!
Jennet: How do you know what’s good for my child? Leave me alone, we’ll cope I can provide for him, I’m his mother, not you! He likes me more than he likes you, he’s chosen me over you.
Alice: Then why is he so upset? Calm down and think. You can’t provide for him, what will you do you have to work, and you can’t look after him. He’s used to having all his desires, being waited on by servants; his name is down for the best school money can buy. Would you deny him all this just because you think you own him? Jennet you can’t be his mother and provide for him the way I can, if you’ll just put him down and we can work this out.
Jennet: There’s nothing to work out, he’s my child and I’m taking him with me, we should never have been separated. I don’t know how but we’ll survive, the most important thing is that we’ll have each other and that you’ll die a sad, miserable, lonely old woman.
Alice: If you walk out you’ll never be able to set foot in my house ever again, you’ll lose your only means of support. The only chance of your son having a proper gentleman’s life is if he stays here with me. You’re acting selfishly like you’ve done all your life.
(Reluctantly Jennet puts Nathaniel in his bed, Alice watches her anxiously, as she lulls him to sleep)
Jennet: You're right I can’t provide for him the way you can, but that doesn’t change anything, I’m still his mother and one day he’ll be with me remember that.
(Alice accompanies Jennet to the front door where Keckwick is waiting)
Alice: Go now and don’t come back unless you have permission, Nathaniel is highly strung and cannot deal with your erratic behaviour)
Jennet: Yet notice sister, it was I who calmed him and it was in my arms that he fell asleep. I will be back someday; I shall not be thwarted like this in an attempt to take back my child who was wrongfully taken from me. How dare you think that just because you have wealth and money you have the right to take my child and think that you’re better then me? I’ll come back someday and I’ll take what’s rightly mine!
Monologue
Jennet’s huddled form lay against the nursery window she was looking out on the marshes where her son had died the previous week. She remained there motionless at the window side blocking out all light from the window. The room was dark and immersed in a suffocating, dreadful atmosphere. Jennet had scarcely moved from the window side for over a week. She had taken no food and only sipped at water. She didn’t seem to sleep but it was difficult to tell. Suddenly the terrible silence was shattered by an eerie, piercing shriek that originated in the marshes. Quick as a hare Jennet pushed her face against the bars of the window and frantically started searching the marshes for signs of someone in distress. To her horror she saw a pony and trap, sinking slowly into an oozing bog which was a sinkhole concealed in the marshes. She heard again those desperate pleas from her terrified son as he struggled to take his last breath. Jennet stood looking and listening for a moment, still trying to recover from paralysis. She was so shocked by the event that had just taken place on the marshes that at that moment she called out in anguish. As soon as she regained control of her senses she was too late. There was no sign of the pony and trap left and suddenly she realised what had happened and fell to the ground and started weeping. It was at that moment that she realised the true extent of her pain
“Nethaniel is dead, I will never see my darling son ever again he is lost from me for ever. How will I cope? The only thing that kept me going was knowing that my son lived, that he was happy and that one-day we might be reunited and would spend the rest of our days together. But now, that cannot happen I can never be happy! It was all Alice’s fault; it was her fault that Nethaniel was on that blasted pony and trap”.
She lay on her bed weeping, being comforted by her husband. What need has she of comfort? She cannot feel a real mother’s loss! I wish she where here right now so I could make her feel the pain that I feel now .I would kill her with my bare hands! I would attack her with such malice that even Satan would bow down before me. Let her feel some of the pain, which is tearing me, apart.
If I can’t be happy no one will, I will destroy every family that I can. I had my son, my whole world was taken from me and there was nothing I could do about it. But I vow now that others will share my pain why should there be happiness for others when I was denied it?
