RAVEN HOUSE #1
CHUCK DIXON
and
LEONARDO MANCO
PAGE ONE
SPLASH
We begin on a
medieval battlefield circa the 1200's.
A knight in
chain armor full-face helmet holds a
banner aloft.
His apron is blood-stained and torn as
he leads a
charge across spiked earthworks. His men
are howling
mad and muddied as they all race toward
pikes held out
toward them from the extreme
foreground.
The banner is
of great importance to us. It features
yellow and
blue stripes down one side and a row of
three ravens down
the other with a fleur de lis in
the center.
CAPTION: (MERDEDITH'S JOURNAL)
It was
in service to Henry II that the
first father of the house of De Le Mer received a
knighthood and was granted lands in the faroff
Cornish holdings of what would become Valleymore.
In
Later years, when all things of a French nature
fell
from fashion, the family named was changed to
Dalamar. The only vestige from those days of
service
was to be the trio of black ravens that adorned the
crest of that lineage and so their manor also took
the
name Raven House.
PAGES TWO AND
THREE
INSERT PANEL
ONE
The stone
crest of a gateway as seen in the rain. It
is old and
crumbling and has an open arch in which a
bell hangs.
The night is dark and the gateway is
shadowed.
CAPTION:
Ravens, creatures of the graveyard,
eaters of the slain, the earthly eyes of the gods
of
old.
INSERT PANEL
TWO
Repeat panel,
only now a sheet of lightning
illuminates
the stone gateway and we can plainly see
the crest with
ravens and fleur de lis worked into it.
CAPTION: I was soon enough to learn that
the naming of this house was no idle whim, no
fleeting fancy.
BIG SPREAD
A horse drawn
carriage rumbles under the arch on its
way toward a
large manor house, estate home, that has
only a few
windows lit in the gloom. The house sits
at a higher
elevation but not on a cliff or anything
like that.
There are trees about the house and lining then road.
The carriage
is covered but the coachman sits atop it in
drooping,
broadbrimmed hat and oilskin coat.
CAPTION: For this house that was to be my
new home was a place of the dead that sat athwart
this world and the next. I recall with humility my
vain worries that it would be the weather at Land's
End that would discomfit me most.
INSERT PANEL
THREE
A shot inside
the carriage of a beautiful young woman in period
travelling
clothes and bonnet and clutching a bag on her lap. She looks
tense as
lighting plays across he interior of the carriage.
CAPTION: How well I know now that I had so much more to
fear from this house and its environs.
PAGE FOUR
PANEL ONE
She parts the
curtain on the carriage to look out, wincing against the
rain.
CAPTION: Scarce could I imagine on that first evening at
Raven House what lay before me.
PANEL TWO
From her POV,
through the parted curtain, the lightning reveals a figure
standing in
the dark woods along the road. The figure wears a long
leather coat
and his head is bare with hair worn long behind a receding
hairline. he
is in a long leather coat cinched with a broad belt. He
stands with a
long, double-barreled shotgun over his shoulder and small
steel traps
hang from chains on the belt. Don't show him too clearly
here.
CAPTION: I cautioned myself against the feelings of unease
that troubled me, saying that they were only due to the anticipation of my new
position and the change in climate.
PANEL THREE
Reverse angle.
The carriage rolls on and the man stands in the
foreground
with his back to us in the shadowed woods as he watches the
carriage roll
toward the big house. VERY spooky.
CAPTION: Only now do I know that these emotions were more
primitive. They were forebodings of what was to come in the days ahead.
PANEL FOUR
Meredith has
pulled back from the curtained window with a look of alarm.
CAPTION: If I had but heeded them what might have happened
in place of the destiny of which I was to play so vital a part?
PAGE FIVE
PANEL ONE
The carriage
is pulled up to the house and a stocky man holding a
lantern stands
in the dim light from an open doorway. The driver of the
coach tosses
down carpet bags and a trunk.
THOMAS: MISS PARK?
THOMAS: MISS PARK, IS IT?
PANEL TWO
Meredith exits
the carriage to meet Thomas, the stocky servant that she
will come to
know well. He's dressed in a dingy shirt and vest and has
an oilskin
coat over his shoulders. He smiles in the lantern light and
we can see
he's missing some teeth and needs a shave. He's a good deal
grubbier than
you'd expect a lord's house servant to be.
MEREDITH: I AM. I APOLOGIZE FOR THE
LATE HOUR. I MIGHT HAVE STAYED AT AN INN IF THIS VILLAGE HAD SUCH.
THOMAS: NO INN AT VALLEYMORE, MISS.
NOT FOR MANY A YEAR.
THOMAS: I AM THOMAS. YOUR ROOM IS
PREPARED, MISS.
PANEL THREE
Thomas drags
the trunk, with bags atop it, into the house. Meredith
stands looking
about the vast interior of the main foyer of the house.
It's very dim
and shadowy but there are suits of armor and portraits on
the walls.
MEREDITH: I PRAY THAT I HAVE NOT
AWAKENED THE HOUSE?
THOMAS: NO CAUSE FOR WORRY, MISS.
THE MASTER IS AWAKE UNTIL ALL HOURS.
THOMAS: AND THE YOUNG LORD SLEEPS
SOUND.
PANEL FOUR
Elspeth,
Thomas' wife, bustles forward from somewhere within the house
to approach
Meredith. Thomas is dragging the trunk toward the stairs.
Elspeth is
short and stocky like her husband and dressed in simple
clothes with a
cloth cap the only sign that she is a house servant to a
lord.
ELSPETH: I AM ELSPETH, MISS PARK.
THOMAS IS MY HUSBAND.
MEREDITH: GOOD EVENING TO YOU,
ELSPETH.
ELSPETH: I TRUST YOUR JOURNEY WAS
WEARYING AND YOU WISH TO RETIRE.
MEREDITH: MY FONDEST WISH, ELSPETH.
THOMAS: unnh!
PAGE SIX
PANEL ONE
Elspeth leads
Meredith up the grand staircase of the house and lights
the way with a
candleabra. The lantern only serves to throw even more
shadows
outside of the pool of light it provides. Thomas struggles with
the trunk
below them.
THOMAS: unrnh!
MEREDITH: YOUR HUSBAND SAYS THAT
LORD DALAMAR IS YET AWAKE. DOES HE CARE TO SPEAK TO ME?
ELSPETH: YOU’LL FIND THAT THE MASTER
KEEPS MUCH TO HIMSELF, MISS.
PANEL TWO
Meredith
speaks with Elspeth in the lead as they move down a hallway.
MEREDITH: I THOUGHT HE MIGHT WISH TO
DISCUSS THE LESSONS SCHEME I HAVE FOR HIS SON.
ELSPETH: ALL IN GOOD TIME, I
IMAGINE, MISS.
MEREDITH: BUT IF I AM TO TUTOR
YOUNG---
PANEL THREE
Elspeth leads
her into a room that is better lit than the rest of the
house. There's
a canopy bed and wash basin and pitcher for water along
with a
mirrored wardrobe and dresser.
ELSPETH: YOUR ROOMS, MISS. I TRUST
YOU WILL FIND THEM TO YOUR SATISFACTION.
MEREDITH: QUITE COMFORTABLE,
ELSPETH.
ELSPETH: THOMAS AND I WILL BE BACK
IN THE MORNING TO SERVE BREAKFAST.
PANEL FOUR
Elspeth pulls
a sheet from a chair as Meredith looks about the room.
MEREDITH: ‘BACK?’
ELSPETH: TOM AND I DO NOT LIVE IN
THE MANOR HOUSE, MISS.
MEREDITH: THEN WHO LOOKS AFTER LORD
DALAMAR?
ELSPETH: HE HAS HIS OWN PRIVATE
STAFF.
PAGE SEVEN
PANEL ONE
A young boy
sleeps in a bed in a dark room. He's about seven and wears a
dressing gown
and is asleep with a number of painted toy soldiers lying
on the
coversheets. Meredith and Elspeth peek in on him from the next
room.
ELSPETH: IT’S TOM AND I LOOK AFTER
ONLY YOU AND YOUNG ALEXANDER.
MEREDITH: IT SEEMS STRANGE.
PANEL TWO
Thomas drops
the trunk on the floor of the room with a sigh of relief.
Meredith and
Elspeth speak to one another as Elspeth closes the door
that leads to
the boy's room.
ELSPETH: YOU’LL FIND MUCH THAT IS
UNUSUAL AT RAVEN HOUSE, MISS.
ELSPETH: BUT THE MASTER WILL HAVE
HIS WAY AND WHO ARE WE TO QUESTION?
THOMAS: hunh!
PANEL THREE
Thomas rubs
his aching back and winces as Elspeth moves toward the door.
ELSPETH: WE’LL BE AWAY HOME THEN,
MISS.
ELSPETH: BUT RETURN AT FIRST LIGHT,
WE WILL.
PANEL FOUR
Thomas and Elspeth
back out the door as Meredith speaks to them.
Meredith looks
troubled.
MEREDITH: AND SHOULD THE YOUNG SIR
OR MYSELF REQUIRE ANYTHING IN THE NIGHT?
ELSPETH: TIS BEST YOU REMAIN IN YOUR
ROOMS, MISS.
THOMAS: SLEEP SOUND, MISS.
PAGE EIGHT
PANEL ONE
Meredith is
left alone in the room with her trunk and bags. Lots of negative
space to show
that she's alone.
CAPTION: And so I passed the first night of my employ at
Raven House; alone and yet not alone in a house draped in the quiet of slumber.
PANEL TWO
The house
stands dark against the night sky, only the single room on the
second floor
is lit. In the foreground, Thomas leads Elspeth away from
the house by
lantern light.
CAPTION: Quite beyond such quietude in fact. The house and
grounds lie as under a veil of silence. No hound bayed. No bird called.
PANEL THREE
Repeat panel.
But it is now very early in the morning, the hours before
the sun rises
and the house is wreathed in a low-lying mist.
CAPTION: No sound at all to waken one as morning approached.
No racket as one might expect from so rural a place.
PANEL FOUR
Meredith lies
in bed and awakens in the gloom. She is in a nightgown and
her hair is
loose.
CAPTION: There was only the smallest lessening of the gloom
to alert one to the earliness of the hour.
CAPTION: That and the soft, repetitive sound of brushing
from without.
PAGE NINE
SIX PANEL GRID
PANEL ONE
She steps into
the shadowy hall and sees a maid in finer servants' dress
than either
Thomas or Elspeth wore. The maid is down the hall with her
back to
Meredith and sweeping with a small broom into a long-handled
silent butler
made of brass. A kind of dustpan with a hinged lid like those pictured below
but with a long hand so that it could be used by someone standing.
PAGE NINE
CON’TD
MEREDITH: EXCUSE ME..?
PANEL TWO
Low angle shot
of the broom working at the maid's feet. We look past it
to Meredith
standing down the hall and speaking.
MEREDITH: I BEG YOUR PARDON…
PANEL THREE
Meredith looks
a bit cross as she strides down the hall toward the maid
who continues
sweeping.
MEREDITH: I EXPECT A REPLY WHEN I
SPEAK TO SOMEONE AND---
PANEL FOUR
Close-up of
Meredith reacting in horror at what she sees.
MEREDITH: (SMALL) MY GOD---
PANEL FIVE
The maid is
turned to us now and we see that her face is a horror of
scars and that
she has only dark sockets where her eyes should be. Her
mouth hangs
mute and slack.
PANEL SIX
Meredith backs
into the wall for support as she recoils in horror. The
maid continues
her sweeping.
PAGE TEN
PANEL ONE
Meredith turns
in surprise at the young boy from the night before
standing in
his nightshirt behind her. He yawns and rubs his eye.
ALEXANDER: ARE YOU MY NEW TUTOR?
MEREDITH: OH!
PANEL TWO
Meredith is
recovering and speaks to the boy who appears to be sleepy
still.
MEREDITH: AND YOU ARE ALEXANDER, ARE
YOU NOT?
ALEXANDER: I AM. AND YOU ARE MISS
PARK.
MEREDITH: YOU MAY CALL ME MEREDITH.
OR MERRY, SHOULD YOU LIKE.
PANEL THREE
She crouches
to speak to him. He looks at her with narrowed eyes.
ALEXANDER: MY LAST TUTOR WAS CALLED
MISS SILVERTON.
MEREDITH: WILL YOU INSIST I CALL YOU
LORD ALEXANDER?
ALEXANDER: NO…
MEREDITH: THEN MERRY WILL DO, YOUNG
SIR.
PANEL FOUR
She leads him
away down the hall by the hand.
MEREDITH: SHALL WE BREAKFAST,
ALEXANDER?
ALEXANDER: OH YES, MERRY!
PAGE ELEVEN
PANEL ONE
Scene change.
A formal dining room with high, vaulted ceiling. Meredith
sits at one
end of a table and the boy at the other as Elspeth serves
from a rolling
teacart. The room is dismal with only the slightest
watery light
intruding through narrow gaps in the thickly drawn
curtains.
CAPTION: I
dismissed what I had seen in the upstairs hallway as an imagining; from
exhaustion due to travel and the newness of my surroundings.
CAPTION: It was weariness of mind and nothing more, or so I
told myself.
PANEL TWO
Meredith
speaks to Elspeth as the boy, out of earshot at the far end of
the table,
eats eagerly. Elspeth looks troubled at what Meredith is
saying.
CAPTION: Except that I was possessed of a remaining frisson
of unease that I could not simply wish away.
MEREDITH: I APPROACHED AN UPSTAIRS
MAID THIS MORNING, ELSPETH.
ELSPETH: YOU DID, MISS?
MEREDITH: IS THERE SOMETHING THAT I
SHOULD BE INFORMED OF?
PANEL THREE
Elspeth forces
a nervous smile as she pours milk into a mug for
Meredith.
ELSPETH: NOT AT ALL, MISS. ONLY THAT
THE MASTER’S SERVANTS HAVE NO DUTIES IN YOUR PART OF THE HOUSE, MISS.
ELSPETH: THEY KEEP THEMSELVES TO THE
LORD’S ROOMS.
PANEL FOUR
The boy speaks
up as Meredith watches Elspeth drift from the table with
the cart.
ALEXANDER: MIGHT YOU BE VISITING THE
VILLAGE, MERRY?
MEREDITH: THE VILLAGE?
ALEXANDER: I WOULD WISH TO ACCOMPANY
YOU!
PAGE ELEVEN
CONT’D
PANEL FIVE
The boy speaks
eagerly in close-up as he rises from his chair.
ALEXANDER: THERE IS A MAN IN THE
VILLAGE WHO BREEDS DOGS.
ALEXANDER: WHEN MISS SILVERTON TOOK
ME THERE LAST THE MAN SAID HE MIGHT HAVE SOME PUPPIES SOON.
PAGE TWELVE
PANEL ONE
Meredith
smiles at the boy who grins even more broadly at her words. He
stands by her
now.
MEREDITH: PUPPIES, ALEXANDER?
ALEXANDER: I WOULD ADORE TO HAVE A
PUPPY, MERRY. DO YOU THINK I MIGHT?
MEREDITH: I DON’T KNOW. IT IS UP TO
YOUR FATHER, IS IT NOT?
PANEL TWO
Meredith turns
in surprise at a voice from off panel. The boy's smile
vanishes and
his eyes drop to look at the floor.
OFF PANEL: (LORD DALAMAR) INDEED IT
IS.
MEREDITH: YOUR PARDON, SIR!
PANEL THREE
Large,
establishing panel. The lord of House Raven stands in an open
doorway. The
double doors are thrust open and the doorway itself is ten
feet in height
or more. Lord Dalamar is in his early thirties and a
handsome devil
in the lean and huanted mode some chicks swoon over.
Daniel Day
Lewis at his most dour would be perfect. He's dressed in fine
clothes but
nothing foppish. But it's obvious he's not short on cash.
LORD DALAMAR: MISS PARK, IS IT NOT?
LORD DALAMAR: I REGRET THAT I WAS
NOT AVAILABLE TO GREET YOU THIS PAST EVENING.
LORD DALAMAR: AFFAIRS KEPT ME
CONFINED TO MY QUARTERS. I AM LORD DALAMAR.
PAGE THIRTEEN
PANEL ONE
He speaks from
the doorway to Meredith who stands now. The boy seems to
take shelter
behind her.
LORD DALAMAR: AND UPON THE SUBJECT
OF PETS OF ANY NATURE I HAVE BEEN QUITE FIRM.
LORD DALAMAR: ALEXANDER KNOWS THAT I
DO NOT ALLOW ANIMALS OF ANY KIND AT RAVEN HOUSE.
PANEL TWO
Meredith
speaks earnestly.
MEREDITH: I SUPPOSE HE WISHES THE
COMPANY OF A DOG AS HE IS WITHOUT THE COMPANY OF OTHER CHILDREN, M’LORD.
PANEL THREE
Lord Dalamar
speaks sternly.
LORD DALAMAR: NO HOUND OR HORSE HAS
BEEN KEPT AT RAVEN HOUSE IN FIVE YEARS.
LORD DALAMAR: MY SON IS AWARE OF
THIS AND ONLY WORKS HIS WILES ON YOU HOPING YOU ARE SOFT OF HEART, MISS PARK.
PANEL FOUR
Lord Dalamar
walks away from the watery light of the dining room door
and into the
gloom of the main foyer. He leaves Meredith and the boy
standing
behind.
LORD DALAMAR: I TRUST THAT, ALONG
WITH YOUR OTHER LESSONS, YOU WILL TUTOR MY SON IN OBEDIENCE TO HIS ELDERS.
LORD DALAMAR: WE SHALL SPEAK AGAIN,
MISS PARK. BUT NOT UPON THIS SUBJECT, I WARRANT.
MEREDITH: NO, M’LORD.
PAGE FOURTEEN
PANEL ONE
Meredith
stands looking off panel with a cold anger plain on her face. Alexander runs
away in the background.
CAPTION: In my few years as a tutor to the young of the
better classes I have seen my share of indifferent parents. But never have I been
treated to such a cold and hostile display of disaffection toward a child.
PANEL TWO
She turns to
see Alexander standing, facing some curtains, hands to his face.
CAPTION: I would allow the excuse that Lord Dalamar was a
widower and perhaps still in mourning for his lost wife. But should that not
have drawn him closer to his son?
PANEL THREE
The boy is
crying by the curtained window and Meredith touches his shoulder.
CAPTION:
Rather, he treated the boy as a nonentity, or
worse, a loathsome burden; a mere obligation in place of the tender feelings of
a parent.
PANEL FOUR
The boy turns
to Meredith, wiping tears from his eyes, as she stoops to speak to him.
CAPTION: What would alienate a father so toward his own
flesh and blood; his very heir?
MEREDITH: I HAVE BROUGHT ALONG A
PICTURE BOOK WITH DOGS IN IT.
ALEXANDER: AND CATS?
MEREDITH: AND CATS AS WELL, IF YOU
LIKE.
PAGE FIFTEEN
PANEL ONE
Large panel.
We’re in a
large room lined with bookshelves and Meredith sits in a chair with a book open
and Alexander stands by her leaning on an arm of the chair and regarding the
book. They are in a shaft of sunlight coming through a window and cutting into
the gloom of the library.
CAPTION: Our lesson went well that first day and I found
Alexander to be a bright and cheerful boy with a quick mind and ready wit.
Everything about this lad contrasted with the overriding gloom of life in this
house.
MEREDITH: AND THIS?
ALEXANDER: A LION.
MEREDITH: IN ITALIAN?
ALEXANDER: LEONE.
MEREDITH: IN GERMAN?
ALEXANDER: LÖWE
PANEL TWO
Meredith looks
up from the picture book depicting various animals to see a figure standing by
an archway leading into another chamber. The figure is a man in dark clothing.
Alexander seems not to notice as he looks at the book.
MEREDITH: SPANISH?
ALEXANDER: LEON.
MEREDITH: VERY…GOOD, ALEXANDER.
PANEL THREE
Closer shot of
the man. He is pale and thin and balding and dressed in the dark livery of a
manservant. He glowers in the archway.
PANEL FOUR
Repeat panel.
But now he recedes into the darkness of the adjoining room.
PANEL FIVE
Repeat panel.
But now he’s gone.
PAGE SIXTEEN
PANEL ONE
Meredith
regards Alexander as he continues to look at the book she holds.
CAPTION: This house, with its many empty rooms and chilled
hallways was home to this boy and yet he was apart from it. His own father
lived a separate life from him. The lord’s servants regarded him with naked
loathing.
ALEXANDER: TURTLE.
ALEXANDER: IN FRENCH: TORTUE.
PANEL TWO
She touches
his hair with affection and he fails to notice as he reads.
CAPTION: He was treated as an object both treasured and
envied; like a beautiful specimen of nature that was as venomous as it was
attractive.
ALEXANDER: IN GERMAN: SCHILDKRÖTE
PANEL THREE
Her face looks
sad as she raises her head to look off panel at something.
CAPTION: Was there a resentment present here; some dark
aspect of grief that turns to bitterness?
ALEXANDER: (OFF PANEL) IN ITALIAN:
TARTARUGA
PANEL FOUR
From
Meredith’s point of view we see the portrait of a woman hanging in a gilded
frame in the shadows on a far wall. The woman is in a gown and holding silk fan
in her hands. At the corner of the frame is an angle of black ribbon with a
black bow tied at the center.
CAPTION: Had the loss of Lady Dalamar poisoned the minds of
all toward her surviving child? What was the manner of her death?
ALEXANDER: (OFF PANEL) IN SPANISH:
La TORTUGA
PANEL FIVE
Closer to the
portrait. The painting is dusty and a spider has built a web in the corner
across from the black ribbon. In the picture the woman does not smile.
CAPTION: Did the way in which she passed cast the cold
shadow that lay over Raven House?
PAGE SEVENTEEN
SPLASH
Downshot of
Meredith in her bed. She wears a long dressing gown and lies on the bed as
though lost in a nightmare. Her hands are fisted above her head and the sheets
are twisted about her and blankets kicked off.
CAPTION: Sleep brought little respite from the thoughts that
troubled me throughout the day. I little recalled the sound of Thomas and
Elspeth departing for the evening as I swooned into a disturbed slumber.
CAPTION: Doubts and suspicions played at the corners of my
mind as do the dark shadows of trees at the edge of a sunny glade. My
unconscious thoughts played over the more unpleasant events of the day just
past.
CAPTION: They returned to me without form or order; only
their most sinister facets were impressed upon my somnolence.
PAGE EIGHTEEN
FOUR
HORIZONTAL OR VERTICAL PANELS
PANEL ONE
She writhes on
the bed in the foreground. In the dark room beyond we see figures standing on
the other side of a stream of moonlight.
CAPTION: Most disturbing of these incubi was the notion that
I was not entirely alone.
PANEL TWO
Repeat panel.
But now Lord Dalamar emerges into the moonlight, stepping before the other
figures.
CAPTION: I felt, rather than heard or saw, that there were
occupants in my room other than myself.
PANEL THREE
Repeat panel.
His hand reaches out for Meredith.
CAPTION: Most prominent of the phantoms was Lord Dalamar.
CAPTION: And from him I sensed either the threat of wrath---
PANEL FOUR
She sits up
suddenly, startled. The figures and Lord Dalamar are gone as though they never
existed.
CAPTION: ---or worse; longing.
PAGE NINETEEN
SPLASH
Downshot.
Lord Dalamar
sits in a dim, circular chamber lined with books. It’s a vaulted chamber with
ladders reaching to the highest shelves.
He leans over piles of open books lying one atop the other. A pen and
inkpot are at hand and sheaves of tattered papers. About him, a half dozen servants
dust and carry trays and generally seem to keep busy. But there’s something
spooky and dour about all of them. The eyeless maid is here as well.
CAPTION: What spawned these perverse ideas that ran
widdershins throughout my slumbering brain was unknown to me.
CAPTION: Other than his callous nature and chilly manner, I
knew nothing of Lord Dalamar.
CAPTION: What he did in those rooms beyond the east wing
that were forbidden to my passage remained a mystery to me.
CAPTION: Again, I quelled these troubling thoughts and
unfounded dreads as creatures of my own feckless imagination.
PAGES TWENTY
AND TWENTY ONE
PANEL ONE
"WIDESCREEN"
PANEL THAT STRETCHES ACROSS THE TOP OF BOTH PAGES.
We want to
establish the bleak landscape about the house and its proximity to the sea.
We see the
long beach of empty sand that stretches from the dunes to the waves. The house
can be seen over the dunes. A wrecked fishing boat lies half buried in the
sand. Meredith and the boy walk the sand. Meredith has a parasol over her
shoulder. Gulls drift above the sand and walk in the shallows.
CAPTION: I resolved to embrace only what was bright and good
in my current surroundings.
CAPTION: And that amounted to young Alexander; a jewel among
coals in this bleak landscape.
CAPTION: Though, sadly, even he mirrored the malaise that
hung over this estate.
ALEXANDER: DO YOU HAVE A MOTHER,
MERRY?
MEREDITH: EVERYONE HAS A MOTHER,
ALEXANDER.
ALEXANDER: NOT I.
PANEL TWO
Meredith
speaks to the boy who is crouched to inspect some crabs scuttling over the west
sand.
MEREDITH: HOW THOUGHTLESS OF ME,
ALEXANDER.
ALEXANDER: NO NEED FOR APOLOGIES. I
NEVER KNEW MY MOTHER.
ALEXANDER: SHE DIED WHEN I WAS AN
INFANT.
PANEL THREE
The boy turns,
squinting against the scant sunlight.
ALEXANDER: FATHER NEVER SPEAKS OF
HER.
ALEXANDER: ALL I KNOW IS THE
PORTRAIT IN THE STUDY.
PANEL FOUR
Meredith
smiles sadly in the shade of her parasol.
MEREDITH: THERE IS NO REASON TO
DWELL UPON THIS IF YOU DO NOT CARE TO, ALEXANDER.
PAGES TWENTY AND
TWENTY ONE CONTINUED---
PANEL FIVE
The boy pokes
at the crabs with a bit of driftwood and they scuttle away.
ALEXANDER: IT IS AS IF SHE NEVER
LIVED.
ALEXANDER: BUT THAT’S SILLY, ISN’T
IT? FOR HOW MIGHT I BE HERE WERE IT NOT FOR HER?
PANEL SIX
Meredith
speaks.
MEREDITH: I’M CERTAIN SHE LOOKS DOWN
UPON YOU FROM GOD’S FIRMAMENT WITH GREAT PRIDE.
PANEL SEVEN
She watches
the boy as he runs down the beach, waving his arms and startling a flock of
gulls into flight.
ALEXANDER: DO YOU THINK SO?
MEREDITH: I KNOW IT TO BE TRUE,
YOUNG SIR.
CAPTION: I believed this to be a lie.
PAGE TWENTY
TWO
PANEL ONE
We see the
legs of horses in the extreme foreground, among the sea grass growing in the
dunes. Past them we see the small figures of Meredith and the boy and the great
flock of gulls rising from where the boy has put them to flight.
CAPTION: Do not ask me how, but I felt that there was little
of Our Lord God’s love present in that house. And though I had scant cause, I
knew with growing assurance that the death of Alexander’s mother was at the
heart of it.
TRENCHER: (OFF PANEL) A NEW
GOVERNESS FOR THE LAD, eh?
PANEL TWO
Two men sit on
horseback. One of them is William Trencher, a muscular man in fine clothes and
dark hair. He wears a closely-trimmed goatee and is every inch the Bad Guy. But
he's darkly handsome as well but in a better-fed, more bluff way than Lord
Dalamar. He looks like he'd be good in a fistfight. The other man is a reedy,
nervous man named Gossage. This guy wears a threadbare suit that was once fine.
He has bad teeth and lank hair and something rodent-like about him.
GOSSAGE: SHE’S A TRIM LITTLE WITCH,
AIN’T SHE GUVNOR?
TRENCHER: WATCH YOUR FILTHY TONGUE,
GOSSAGE. THAT’S’ A PRIME BIT THAT YOU’RE NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO EVEN SPEAK OF.
TRENCHER: SHE SEEMS QUITE AT HOME
WITH THE LAD, eh? A CLOSE AFFINITY AFTER ONLY A DAY OR SO.
PANEL THREE
Trencher in a
closer shot. He smiles and reveals a gold tooth that flashes through his
mustache.
TRENCHER: PERHAPS SHE IS THE WAY IN
TO THE GOOD GRACE SOF THE YOUNG LORD.
TRENCHER: PERHAPS SHE IS THE CHINK
IN THE ARMOR OF THE GRAND AND UNAPPROACHABLE MISTER ANTHONY DALAMAR.
THE END OF
RAVEN HOUSE #1
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