Belle Moral: A Natural History (7 page)

Y
OUNG
F
ARLEIGH
. “Wee, sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie,

V
ICTOR
. Are you my real father?

Y
OUNG
F
ARLEIGH
. Are you askin’ me if you’re a real bastard?

V
ICTOR
Young Farleigh. Who was she? She was beautiful. She was a painter. That’s all I have of her. I haven’t even got the old shawl she wrapped me in.

Y
OUNG
F
ARLEIGH
.
Aonaibh ri cheile.
^{[pron.
ehnev
ree
kaylee]}

A closed door at the top of a narrow staircase. The door opens
. D
R
R
EID
.
emerges. He descends a few steps, then stops, sets down his medical bag and sits, devastated
. F
LORA
emerges, pulls the door closed, then turns and sees
D
R
R
EID.

F
LORA
. Seamus … Come. I’ll make you cup of –

D
R
R
EID
. Flora.

F
LORA
. Seamus. She canna byde here, not if –

D
R
R
EID.
No, of course not, you’re right, it’s too too much to ask of you –

F
LORA
. ’Tisn’t that. Ramsay said she was to be cared for – elsewhere – throughout the course of her natural life.

D
R
R
EID
. To be sure, to be sure, but … what do we know of the place where she has been housed all these years?

F
LORA
. It’s … decent.

D
R
R
EID
. But you’ve ne’er seen it, ne’er –

F
LORA
. Young Farleigh –

D
R
R
EID
. And he is the only one who ever visited.

F
LORA
. But I didna wish to visit, Seamus. I kept awa’. I promised Régine I would look after the children. But the truth is, all these years, I’ve wished her dead. And God forgive me, I wish it still
[weeping]
.

D
R
R
EID
. You’re only human, Flora, you did your best.
[regretful]
And so did I. But we’ve a chance now to do a bit better, eh?
[a beat]
Flora, what if she were to come live with me? As my patient? She would have the best of care. My laboratory overlooks the sea. You could visit, or not, as you pleased. And you could rest easy in your mind.

F
LORA
. Victor would have to agree.

D
R
R
EID
. That’s certain. I may need your help on that front. The lad has conceived a mistrust
of me as a physician – not surprising, given his mental … 
[delicate for
F
LORA’S
sake]
fragility.

F
LORA
. Fragility? Surely he’s more headstrong than fragile.

D
R
R
EID
. I’d have said so myself before the events of this morning.
[urgent]
Flora, he is so like his mother. Sensitive, passionate …

F
LORA
. Niver say it, Seamus.

D
R
R
EID
. I dread the morrow. For the lad will be master here and, as such, he’ll have to be told.

F
LORA
. I dinna relish the telling.

D
R
R
EID
. Nor do I, lest the shock precipitate another fit.

F
LORA
. Why must he be told at all? Ach, I ought ne’er to’ve brought the poor creature haim–

D
R
R
EID
. Nay, Flora, you did the right thing. The humane thing.

F
LORA
. I ought to’ve turned to you sooner, Seamus, I know it, but I beg of you now, dinna desert us in our hour of need.

D
R
R
EID
. I’ll never desert this family, Flora.

Night
. P
EARL
is at her desk with the jar and a pile of open books
. P
UPPY’S
nose jostles her elbow from behind the desk
.

P
EARL
. Lie down. Down.

F
LORA
. Do go to bed, pet.

P
EARL
. I can’t, Auntie, I’m working.

F
LORA
[sees the dog]
. There it is, oh thank goodness. Here, come now, come. Come.

P
EARL
. He won’t come, he’s stupid as a post.

F
LORA
. Well he canna stay, not with Victor’s phobia.

P
EARL
. I’ll not allow him near Victor, Auntie. F
LORA
. You’re no thinkin’ to keep him?

P
EARL
. Certainly not.
[Concealing her eagerness.]
Just overnight.

F
LORA
. I dare say Dr Reid would disapprove.

P
EARL
. What were you two whispering about so passionately this morning?

F
LORA
. You don’t? You do? What don’t you know?

P
EARL
[teasing, affectionate]
. He’s courting you. Holding hands, and who knows what joukerie-pawkerie –

F
LORA
. Pearl –

P
EARL
. And you needn’t be jealous of the ear. It was a purely platonic gift.

F
LORA
. Ach, Dr Reid never – he was merely – he was comehitherating with me over some woman’s trouble.

P
EARL
. What woman?

F
LORA
. Why, me.

P
EARL
. Auntie, you’ve no taken ill. You have.
[stricken]
Oh, Auntie –

F
LORA
. Now, pet I’ve no’ took ill, it’s just … the change.

P
EARL
. Oh.

F
LORA
. Ay.
[Mopping her brow.]
No need to worry your head, that’s a long way off for you.

P
EARL
. Any of your shortbread about, Auntie?

F
LORA
. Victor ate it up.

P
EARL
. Damn him.

F
LORA
. Pearl!
[covering]
It’s bedtime. You don’t want to be baggy-eyed and forfochen when Mr Abbott arrives first thing in the morning.

P
EARL
. What on earth does it matter? Although you’d do well to get your beauty rest, Auntie, if Doctor Reid is to join us.

F
LORA
. Hush your haiverin’, noo.
[embarassed, pleased]
Pearl. You dinna truly reckon Dr Reid … harbours a speecial regard for your auld auntie?

P
EARL
. In my scientific opinion, it could not be more obvious.

F
LORA
. Go on with you.

P
EARL
. Goodnight, Auntie.

F
LORA
. Goodnight, pet.
[Exit.]

P
EARL
. Puppy, did you know that the name of Dr Darwin’s ship was The Beagle? Darwin sought to penetrate that “mystery of mysteries”, the appearance of new species. He proved that all life transforms by slow degrees into all other life. You came from the wolf. I came from the ape. But if the dinosaurs hadn’t mysteriously vanished, we mammals might have remained a race of rodents. And in the absence of man, might the dinosaurs have developed higher consciousness? Perhaps certain traits are like secrets that will out, ideas that are bound to surface. If Darwin hadn’t gone to the Galapagos, he’d have been a scientific footnote; if Shakespeare hadn’t been caught poaching, he’d have been a wool merchant. But I’ll wager there’d still be a father of evolution – or even a mother –and someone whom we call the Bard. Behave, now, or it’s into the cellar with you. Lots of people thought of evolution before Darwin took all the seemingly unrelated bits and put them together in just the right way, at just the right time. His own grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, believed in the mutability of species. But his reasoning was flawed: he put a piece of vermicelli in a jar and wait
ed to see if it would come to life. No one could take him seriously after that.
[chuckle]
Vermicelli. Dr Reid might have feared the same fate when he put his jar aside forever.
[About to place the jar back on the desk, a thought occurs to her.]
Puppy … have you ever seen an ape with the ear of a wolf? Nor have I …

The next morning
. M
R
A
BBOTT
is waiting. He is fastidiously groomed, wears a pince nez, and carries a leather briefcase
. D
R
R
EID
enters
.

D
R
R
EID
. Ah, Mr Abbott, a word sir –

A
BBOTT
. Good morning, Doctor –

R
EID
. It appears you failed to receive the note I sent you, last –

A
BBOTT
. I received it.

D
R
R
EID
. Why, then, your reply must have gone astray.

A
BBOTT
. No, my reply is forthcoming, to wit: it is more than a little irregular to seek to embargo a will before the contents are known.

D
R
R
EID
. But you know the contents –

A
BBOTT
. I do not, Doctor. My late father drew up Judge MacIsaac’s will –

D
R
R
EID
. Forgive me, I ought to have –

A
BBOTT
. Not at all.

D
R
R
EID.
A stroke, was it?

A
BBOTT
. Thrombosis.

D
R
R
EID.
He didn’t linger.

A
BBOTT
. Nay.

D
R
R
EID
[sympathetic aspirated, “ay”]
.

A
BBOTT
[corroborating aspiration]
.

D
R
R
EID.
The fact remains, my dear Abbott, that the contents of Ramsay MacIsaac’s will are as good as known to all who knew him. The judge was a stubborn traditionalist, which is why this matter is of no little urgency; I have reason to fear that Victor MacIsaac is of unsound mind.

A
BBOTT
: The law is very clear in that case, Doctor. According to the Act Respecting Lunatics,
[intoning]
“the committee
^{[pron.
comeetay]}
of the estate, shall within six months, file in the office of the Master to whom the matter is referred, or for such officer as may be –”

D
R
R
EID.
Yes, quite, if young Mr MacIsaac is found to be mentally unfit, his estate will be administered by duly appointed guardians, but Abbott, if we proceed with the reading of the will this morning before that finding can be made, we risk tipping him into an acutely disturbed state from which he might not recover.

A
BBOTT
. You wish me to suppress the late Judge MacIsaac’s will?