1933- Living in New York with her over protective father, Olivia is a sheltered and much loved only child to a brooding widower. One day, she discovers that her perfect world is a lie. In an attempt to discover the secrets and lies of her past, she journeys to England to a strange house called Blue Rivers. To a younger sister and older step brother she hardly remembers and a mysterious, elusive writer that haunts the once great house.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur

Tom Hardy as Eames

Natalie Portman as Olivia

Keira Knightly as Felicity

Matt Bomber as Harold

~ The Bitter Fruit ~

~ Spring 1920 ~

~ New York Harbor ~

1.

~ "Is that Lady Liberty?" Olivia asked as she pointed to the large statue standing proudly in the harbor. It had it's own island and all the traveler on the ship were able to sail very close to the impressive structure.

"Yes, it is, sweetheart." Mrs. Williams told her as brushed back the little girl's dark hair as the wind on the deck kept pulling it lose.

Mrs. Williams was a widow. Her lawyer husband had passed away a year ago, leaving her with two boys Olivia's age, and in desperate need of a replacement husband.

Olivia felt a creeping suspicion that Mrs. Williams was locking her sights on her father. The child sensing that other women believed a man like him, with a little girl in tow no less, should not be without a wife.

Olivia pulled away from Mrs. Williams and was relived when her handsome father joined them on the deck.

"My dead, Mr. Bradford, how lovely to see you." the pretty young widow breathed as Arthur stalked to them and lightly plucked Olivia up; helping her to stand on the railing so she could gain a better look at the shores of America.

"Now, it's not so very lady like to have her standing in such a way. Not with the wind as it is and her wearing that pretty dress!" Mrs. Williams chastised with a smile.

"We'll do fine, Mrs. Williams." Arthur said and held Olivia closer to him so she wouldn't fall.

"I can see America!" Olivia whispered and pointed. Her back safely resting against her father as she had a new view to enjoy.

"I can to." he said in her ear and the little girl smiled.

"Arthur, you must come and see us for dinner." Mrs. Williams said in a too cheerful voice. "Your company on the voyage has been the only bright spot on our entire trip and I'd hate to think we would never see you again."

"I'm sure I'll be too busy." Arthur said as Olivia leaned closer over the railing. He held tightly to his daughter, refusing to let her go.

"I know my boys will want to see you." Mrs. Williams said hopefully. "They admire you so much."

The young widow looked at Olivia hopefully.

"Olivia and I have grown so close." she added.

Olivia wished Mrs. Williams would leave them alone. She disliked the times when her father had to do business and couldn't be with her enough. But when other people, especially women, invaded their time, it was too much to bear. She didn't like having to share her father with these desperate, needed widows and old maids. Women who wanted all his attention focused on them and not her.

Olivia glared at Mrs. Williams and shifted on the railing.

"Don't let me fall, daddy." she told her father.

Arthur's warm hands held her fast and she felt safer and better about the world.

"I won't let you go." he told her.

~ The docks of New York were too busy for Olivia's taste. She had always preferred the quite of the countryside. The big house had been a world that slumbered and rose lazily with each new day. A place where the loud and low class were kept away. Here, there was no barrier, no protection against the mass of people who walked around like a herd of cattle.

"Why does that woman keep talking to you like that?" Olivia asked as Arthur carried her past the teams of people who smelled like they didn't bath properly.

"What do you mean?" her asked.

"She keeps smiling at you and acting like you belong to her." the child told him.

Her handsome father smiled at her and didn't respond which vexed her further.

"I'm afraid Mrs. Williams is looking for a husband." he explained as he hailed a motor car and helped her in the back seat. A porter taking their trunks and luggage to the back.

"Are you going to marry that woman?" Olivia cried in fear. She hated Mrs. Williams boys and had been forced to play with them while their mother tried to get her father alone.

"Dearest, I'm not a the kind of man who marries a woman I just met, simply for convenience sake." he told her as he ordered the cab to drive them home. The little girl relived as she watched the workers construct new building.

~ Olivia didn't like her new house. It was too small and narrow, and she could hear people outside on the street if her windows were open. They were in a nice neighborhood, they had a young maid, with a heavy Irish accent. A butler, and a cook. She knew they were hardly poor, but she missed being in the big house she had been born to. The big house was like a cave it was so big and echoed loudly is she and Fel were screaming. There were always places to hide and discover. If the widows were open, you could hear birds singing and the wind rushing in. the wind would bring in the scent of spring and not the foulness that came through the windows here. The noise of boys shouting stick games and using profanities. The smells of other homes cooking and a nasty, dirty smell from motor cars and coal stoves still in use.

In the big house, Olivia and Fel would sneak and hide in the glass room. A big room that house plants and was always warm and cozy. Mother was almost always there with Papa. They would talk and there was always the clack-clack of his typewrite. Mother would tell the girls to leave Papa alone when he was working.

The girls would run away, hand in hand and find Howard or James. The two boys not wanting to play with them. James was a tall boy with dark blond hair who hung out with the workers all day and who was learning to drive the shinny cars.

Howard was too little to be around James, and a boy, so he couldn't play with Olivia and Fel. It was a shame, because Howard was excellent at hide and seek. He always found them and they never found him.

Olivia suddenly missed Howard and Fel. Not James as much because he was older and a servant boy. She missed mother most of all and part of her expected her to be waiting for her here in this narrow house with too many stairs.

She had never been truly alone before. There were other children here, but she didn't know them or want to know them. At the big house, she had Mother and Papa, Howard and Fel. There were also the children in the village when she went to Sunday school. Here, she was alone.

~ Arthur tucked the child into bed that first night, the same as he did every night on the ship and at hotels. She had gotten used to him. This man she didn't remember, but who claimed to be her father was very nice and comforting.

He seemed like he would be strict, but he didn't have the temper that Papa had sometimes. He wasn't the sort the snap at her if she made too much noise. Her father's temper never rose the way Papa's did when he was writing and couldn't make it work. Her father was busy all the time, but his moods were stable and calming. He tolerated no nonsense from her, however. When he told her not to do something, she sensed her punishment would be harsh if she disobeyed him. He always seemed angry, but it was never directed at her.

He bought her new dresses in Paris. He picked out the fabrics and she didn't know how to tell him she didn't like pink and baby blue. He told her the most wonderful stories about her mother and the day she was born. Olivia loved the idea that she had communicated her own name at birth. It made her feel like maybe she was magical somehow.

For some reason, Arthur wanted her to have a finely painted china doll with clothes to match hers, and loads of picture books she was too young to read properly. He made her sit with him at dinner like she was a grown up. The server bringing them food and she pretended she was a real lady.

"Do you like your room?" Arthur asked as he gave her the heavy, china doll she had name Ivory to sleep with.

Olivia looked around the bedroom. The walls were pink and had framed water color prints of butterflies. She bit her lips and tried to be nice.

"Yes." she lied.

Her father smiled.

"Dearest, we can decorate your room any way you want." he assured her.

"Did mother live here?" she asked as he stood to let her sleep.

Her father stopped in his tracks and looked sad.

"No, Dearest." he said sadly. "I'm afraid she didn't."

"Why not?" Olivia asked.

"I'll tell you more about that when you're older." Arthur said and kissed her good night.

~ At one o'clock in the morning, Olivia heard the grandfather clock downstairs chime. She was woke out of her dreams and didn't know where she was. She didn't recognize this ugly pink bedroom.

She wanted her mother. Wanted Fel and Harold and Papa. What was this strange place? It took a few moments to recall that she wasn't home. That she was in America. That mother was dead and her sister was a long way away.

Acting with child like optimism and fearless knowledge of the world. Olivia got dressed and packed a bag. In it she stashed her doll, her picture books and the few photographs she had of her beautiful mother. Pictures of her holding a baby, of her sitting on Papa's lap. Of her holding her and her sister. She wanted to see her mother again. Moving to America had been a bad idea and she had changed her mind.

~ Bravely and foolishly, Olivia left the house in the middle of the night.

She walked to the direction of the large steamer ships before a police man, out on his rounds, spotted the well cared for little girl hauling a heavy suitcase and became suspicious.

~ Arthur felt his heart was fit to break out of his chest when his butler woke him and said there was a policeman downstairs with Olivia.

He pulled on a robe and could scarcely believe his eyes at seeing his daughter fully dressed, carrying the white suitcase he had given her for their trip, and crying.

"Sorry to wake you, sir." the police man said and touched his cap.

"What's happening? Olivia, are you alright?" Arthur asked.

The little girl shook her head.

"Child tried to run away from home, so it seems." the police man said and put a hand on the little girl's shoulder.

"What?" Arthur almost snarled and knelt down to meet the girls warm, brown eyes. "Olivia, what's wrong?"

"I want mother, I want to go back home!" Olivia sobbed.

Arthur looked at the police man.

"I'm sorry this happened. My wife recently passed and our daughter has had a long trip from England." Arthur explained.

"Understandable." the cop sighed and looked fondly at the child. "Little girl, I know you're missing you're mother, but you know she's up in heaven right now, wanting you to take care of your father. She wouldn't like you running off and leaving him alone in this world, would she?"

Olivia only cried harder as she held fast to Arthur.

"It's alright, dearest." Arthur whispered to her. "I'm not mad."

"I want to go home!" Olivia cried. "I want mother!"

"You are home." Arthur told her over and over. "You are home."