31 Plays in 31 Days, #17 - "Reginald Managed It"

[breakinglight11]

For Mrs. Hawking part 4, a big part of it is going to be revealing more about the relationship between Mrs. Hawking and the Colonel. Most of it is going to be seeing their interactions in the past in flashback form. But I also want to have a little bit in the present-- a rare moment where Mrs. Hawking talked about him in different manner than her usual anger and resentment. Her feelings are complicated, but she's usually so mad at him that she doesn't like to think about him with any nuance, much less discuss him that way.

I don't really know what the plot of part 4 is going to be. But I needed a set up for this scene, so I wrote it on the assumption that the client discovers, in the course of her case, that some bad decision her husband made brought about the death of her child-- which I guess would be the focus of the case itself. I don't know if I actually want to go for that, but it was a convenient assumption for this moment.

Something I want to establish is that, other than when using his full name, she never refers to him as "Reginald"-- only "the Colonel." So when she does it here, it's meant to be striking and meaningful.

Day #17 - “Reginald Managed It”
From Gilded Cages
By Phoebe Roberts

London, England, 1885

VICTORIA HAWKING, lady’s society avenger
MARY STONE, her protégé
~~~

(The client curtseys and MARY shows her out of the door. MRS. HAWKING drops into a chair as MARY returns.)

MRS. HAWKING: That is the end of that marriage.

MARY: It’s a hard thing, to forgive the person who killed your child.

MRS. HAWKING: Hm. Reginald managed it.

(MARY looks away in discomfort.)

MARY: You mustn’t talk like that, madam, you know that’s not true.

MRS. HAWKING: Isn’t it?

(MARY stares.)

MRS. HAWKING: I suppose I can’t be certain. But I always wondered. I still operated, you know, as long as I could. Right up until I was too damned fat to maneuver. It could have been anything. A rough landing, a blow from some ruffian… even just the strain of it all. And if wishing were enough, well, I murdered him a hundred times over.

(MARY struggles for something to say.)

MARY: Still. You can’t know. And he couldn’t have known that either.

MRS. HAWKING: Indeed. And perhaps that’s why he could forgive.

(She rises from her chair.)

MRS. HAWKING: I never could believe it. After everything he put me through, I could hardly bear of the sight of him. But as miserable as I made him… his regard never changed. Whatever I did, he never stopped forgiving me.

(MRS. HAWKING looks to the portrait above the mantlepiece. For a moment weariness makes her uncharacteristically soft.)

MRS. HAWKING: Oh, Reginald. We ruined one another, didn’t we?

(Pause. She grows stern again.)

MRS. HAWKING: But he chose it. Not me.