The Stuart Family Values
Part 2
The Captain's Daughter Or Time To Grow UpSetting: London, year 1931 A.D. (3 years after Part 1)
Apartment at Bloomsbury, 14. New Year Eve.
Scene 1 Sitting–room at the Stuarts' placeMrs. Wendy Stuart (alone, adding final touches here and there, trying to make the room look more presentable)
Wendy: So, we've made it through another year…Oh, my goodness, how the time flies! It's as if only yesterday John, Michael and I were mere children – merry, innocent and heartless – and what now? I'm almost forty and a mother of 3 children who are no longer small, John is well-off, married and settled (shame on him! pretending not to know a single story to tell their only daughter!) and as for Michael (sighs)..the grass has been green over him for almost 13 years by now…(Notices the falling garland on the wall and climbing the ladder to fix it) So when did it all happen – just yesterday or an eternity ago? When I was a little girl, forty seemed to me the end of lifetime – old and done for – but now I'm approaching this age myself, and still stupid enough to feel so young, as if my life is only beginning now, as if something very important is yet to happen ! (Laughs bitterly) Curious, isn't it?
(Unseen by her, enters James Stuart, her husband, the former Captain Hook)
James Curious and curiouser, Mrs. Stuart! May I ask, my lady, what are you actually doing up there?
Wendy (startled):Oh, it's you, James! Well, actually trying to make the room look more presentable and save our dearest Aunt another 30 minutes of criticism… (Smiles)And, darling, I believe that after 18 years of marriage and birth of 3 children we could more often stick to the first name basis!
James: Still I do hope Old Girl won't show up in my…er..in our study. However, I was laboring under delusion you rather enjoyed the old-fashioned gallantry, my beauty.
Wendy: (teasingly) And you see I'm not denying this fact either! Sometimes I do regret coming back from Neverland to our era instead of yours! (Dreamingly)Just imagine a poor clerk's daughter being addressed as Duchess of Monmouth, Countess of Doncaster, spouse of Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire… Ouch! (nearly falls down from the ladder)
James (catching her): And as you always say referring to your unworthy husband, "pride always has a fall", my dear madam. (Fixes the garland without using the ladder)So perhaps better for my wife to have less ambition? And besides, you are forgetting, my beauty, that in my former life I actually was married, and even had 7 children from Duchess Anne, no less
Wendy (chuckles): So yes, in your former life it'd never occur to you to complain that no children loved you, honey!
James (wisely pretending not to have heard the comment): …so it would be silly of me to add bigamy to my numerous other transgressions…
Wendy: (mockingly) What do I hear? – my husband actually admitted he had done certain transgressions in his life – unbelievable! Haven't you always thought yourself to be quite flawless, my lord?
James (in the same manner): And what do you expect from your "Old Vanity" – after having heard your righteous reprimands for nearly two decades? (Laughing) Still, it's New Year Eve – a time to make a fresh start…
Wendy (also laughs): One morefresh start, darling. And that's what we are doing every year!
James : Exactly! Turning a new leaf and making new resolutions!
Wendy: Do you believe the resolution we'd made long ago wasn't enough?
James: I wasn't saying that, my beauty. But old habits die hard, you know. (grins)And you are unfortunate enough, my lady, to have a very old husband…
Wendy (chortles): Now I see the man I had married!
James :So, Mrs. Stuart, why are we in a not exactly festive mood tonight? Surely your precious Aunt won't be as overbearing as she used to be years ago? And your charming sister-in-law is hardly her competitor, I dare say…
Wendy (getting serious again)Oh, James, but sometimes I also feel as if I was from another age myself! Everything is so different now – ideas, viewpoints, politics, fashions, even music, - everything has changed in quite a short time period!
James (looking with understanding). Now, now, my lady, it won't do to be so dismal tonight. We may be not on the throne by now, but we Stuarts are still not defeated either, are we? And don't you think I am not worrying about our eldest daughter….
Wendy (with a faint smile): Who'd have imagined the Scrouge of the Seven Seas to be so overprotective! (A final look at the room)Perhaps we could continue this talk in the kitchen? I haven't finished there yet..
James : Suggestion accepted, my lady. As for Jane, it is evident she considers herself to be quite grown-up…
Wendy : Eventually,darling,as you had put it in our book, all children grow up, except …
James(frowning):Beg pardon, Mrs. Stuart,but I'd prefer not to develop this subject tonight…
Wendy (gives him a light kiss): Oui, mon capitaine!
James (now in afar better mood) So, as I was saying…
(They exit)
Scene2 Nursery
Jane (pacing nervously to and fro): No, it's not fair! It'. Isn't. Fair!!! How mean of them to make me stay indoors as if I were some little girl like Mary Anne ! And that's for my helping Ma with the supper and putting rooms in order and all that stuff! So here I am sitting in this stupid nursery when ALL my friends are having fun at Kathy Holmes'! (Caresses a big Persian cat with a deep sigh)Just imagine, Davy Jones: a huge New Year gathering; a really great dancing party with an invited jazz band, a presenter form Music Hall…Such glamour!
Michael (from his desk, unexpectedly):And Charlie Parkinson as well!
Jane (startled): Michael George Stuart! Were you here all the time, little eavesdropper?
Michael: I was reading, as a matter of fact. And then how could I leave and miss you playing a drama queen?
Jane: Oh, were you? And what can a six years my junior bookworm possibly know about my private affairs and Charlie in particular?
Michael(innocently) You know, sis, even the nursery walls can have ears…
Jane: Well, it doesn't matter now. "Cause Charlie Parkinson will go to the party, and I can't…(Frowns)And for sure Lucy Harker will do her best to get him. Oh, that Lucy Harker! Flirting with him as if he were her beau already! (clenches her fists)Just you wait, I'll teach you a lesson one of these days! (Throws a dictionary across the room)
Michael: (from under the desk)Wow, that's what I call a narrow escape!
Jane: OHH!!!(collapses onto her bed, exhausted ) Better for Jane Gertrude Stuart that she had NEVER been born!
Michael: Hey, that's plagiarism, sis!
Jane: What do you mean, little brat? (Suddenly suspicious)Michael! Don't you tell me that you had had a peep into Pa's old log book as well!
Michael (contentedly)Sure I had, sis. And it's our good luck that Mary Anne cannot read yet, or else she'd squeak about it to Pa and we'd be done for!
Mary Anne (entering the room)What, I can't read? I can read, I can, I can! I can read to you ANY of them fairy tales from Ma's big book!
Jane (with a patronizing air)Dear May, reading and telling from memory are different things, you know.
Mary Anne (annoyed)Don't call me May, it's a baby name. I am Marianne Eleanor Stuart, if you please!
Michael giggles.
Jane: Oh, for goodness sake, May! You are Mary Anne Stuart, without any Eleanors in the middle! Stop inventing rubbish and trifling with names!
Mary Anne (stubbornly)I'm not inventing anything ! I am MARIANNE ELEANOR, and stop aggeryvating me, you two!
Michael (snorts):Aggravating, you little niminy-piminy chit!
Mary Anne (ready to cry), Oh, I'll go and tell Ma and Pa that you are calling me names again!(Rushes out of the room)
Michael (sighs and takes his book up again, as if nothing had happened)Now she'll go and tell them that we were bullying her! A nice New Year Eve, after all!
Jane (resigned) I don't care anymore! Nothing could be worse than not going to Kathy's New Year party! Oh, it's all Pa's doing! I am sure I could have persuaded Ma to let me go, were it not for him! (Pouts like a baby)He and his 300 years old principles!
Michael 2 50 years old principles, to be more correct, sis.
Jane No need to be so precise, Michael. What I mean is that his ideas about young girls and their ways of life are terribly outdated! I love Pa, but I am just sick and tired of his meddling into my private affairs!
Michael (slyly) Still cannot forgive him for your breaking up with Fred Cunnigham, eh, sis?
Jane (blushes) And for that too. Fred was such a nice date! I am sure he would have never stopped courting me if Pa hadn't had a word with him at Music Hall !
Michael(laughing)Oh, how can anyone forget that picture – poor old Freddy taking to his heels during intermission as if the Phantom of the Opera- no, a whole bunch of ghosts were after him!
Jane : I don't see the fun of it! Neither is anything funny about Tom Randall you were teasing me about last year!
Michael: Oh, that "Angel of Music" of yours? The chap from a jazz band who played the saxophone?
Jane: (angry)Well, not mine any longer.I had my own doubts about inviting him to our place, but it never occurred to me he'd stop speaking to me at all after his first visit here! As if we were strangers, indeed!
Michael: Jane, I believe he did care for you. I guess old Tom was just scared out of his wits. You know Pa can be imposing at times…
Jane: At times, hahaha! He's ALWAYS like that – watching over me like a dragon, as if I were to elope tomorrow with some blackguard!
Michael(teasingly)So you're NOT going to elope, sis?
Jane: Of course not, stupid! I'm only graduating form school this spring! And how could I possibly do it – fly out of this window or what?
Suddenly the window curtains start trembling a little, as if a light breeze got into the roomMichael(startled)Look!
Jane (annoyed) What on Earth should I look at?
Michael: Looks like someone was at the window a minute ago ! Perhaps it was Him?
Jane Who?
Michael (excited):The Flying Boy!
Jane (bored):You mean Peter Pan ? Fiddlesticks! It goes very well for a family legend, but I'm not Mary Anne to believe in fairytales !
Michael (indignantly)Peter Pan is NOT a fairytale! Ma never lies to us! Besides, if it were not for Peter Pan, Ma would have never met Pa!
Jane (sarcastically): Oh yes, Pa fell in love with Ma when she was twelve, he made her walk the plank because she wouldn't love him in return, and when that plank affair didn't work, they got married and lived happily ever after, and had children whose Grandpa was King Charles II!
Michael (seriously)In spite of your nonsense talk, sis, we still are King Charles' grandchildren, after all! No kidding!
Jane (morosely): And what's the use of having a father with such an awesome background and such tumultuous past, if we are not allowed to utter a single word about it? Not a half –word, even to Great–Aunt Milly, let alone other relatives and friends? For outsiders, Pa is just an elderly tiresome schoolteacher crazy about Good Form!
Michael: I say,you are being too hard upon him, sis! As far as I know, Pa is far from tiresome! And Great-Aunt Milly is too keen on Good Form herself to stand any competitors by her side !
Jane(smiles)Michael George Stuart, you know how to cheer up a person! (Suddenly jumps up)And speaking of Great-Aunt, I guess she'll be here at any minute…
Michael: Oh my….
Jane:…so we must stop whining and go to the living room. I think Ma needs some more help, and Uncle John and Aunt Gladys are about to come as well.
Michael: OK, come along!
As they leave the nursery a hint of a shadow appears at the window and vanishes again….