13
"Are you mocking me?"
"Do you doubt me?"
"Entirely." Ianto huffs, a strange almost laugh as he tries to step away but Jack has seized him.
"You have no faith in me?"
"Not a whit." Ianto snorts.
"You little sceptic." Jack chortles.
"Your bride is Miss Cooper …"
"What love have I for Miss Cooper? What love has she for me? I caused a rumour to reach her that my fortune was lost and got instant coldness. I wanted to make you jealous, to move you to love me. It's you - you strange, unearthly thing. I love you as my own flesh. You - poor and obscure as you are - please accept me as your husband."
Ianto begins to believe him. "Are you in earnest?
"I must have you for my own."
"You wish me to be your mate?" Ianto looks startled and Jack is afraid he might bolt.
"I swear it."
"You love me." Ianto says more as a statement than a question but Jack answers anyway.
"I do."
"Then sir, I will marry you."
They embrace.
Neither Ianto nor Jack moves. Darkness is almost complete. Still the intensity of the embrace is held.
"It will atone." Jack whispers "It will atone."
A sheet of lightning momentarily lights up the sky. Some moments later a distant rumble of thunder.
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It is teeming with rain. Jack and Ianto run to the front entrance. He holds his jacket around Ianto. Lightning. They reach the dry hearth inside. Thunder. They are both euphoric, breathless, laughing.
"I must go" Ianto gasps.
Good night. Good night." Jack kisses him. They kiss again. Ianto will not let him go.
"Good night." As Ianto runs upstairs he sees Alice, deeply shocked.
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Ianto wears a lilac shirt. Alice is very concerned.
"Have you accepted him?" she enquires gently.
"Yes."
"Well I never would have thought." Alice snorts.
Ianto is hurt. "Am I a monster? Is it so impossible that Mr Jack should love me?"
"No, I've long noticed that you were a sort of pet of his." Alice sounds cruel and Ianto takes a sharp breath as she speaks "But you're so young and so little acquainted with men. I don't want to grieve you child, but let me put you on your guard. Gentlemen in his position... Let's just say they're not accustomed to marry their Handlers. Until you are wed, distrust yourself as well as him. Please, keep him at a distance …"
Ianto has heard enough. He turns away. "Thank you."
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Ianto, walking through the hall, finds himself in Jack's arms. he laughs as he raises him off the ground. "Is this my pale elf? This sunny faced boy with the radiant eyes?"
"It is I, Ianto Jones sir." Ianto chortles.
"Soon to be Ianto Harkness" Jack gushes.
"It can never be, sir." Ianto says with a serious frown "Human beings were not meant to enjoy complete happiness on this earth. It's too much like a fairy tale."
"Let the fairy tale begin."
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Jack is rolling out reams of beautiful silks. Ianto gets more uncomfortable as he looks at them.
"This morning I wrote to my banker in London to send certain jewels. In a day or two I hope to pour them into your lap …"
"Oh, no sir"
"I will put the diamond chain on your watch myself" Jack assures him.
"I don't want jewels" Ianto declares.
"I'll dress you in these satins" Jack snorts.
"Then you won't know me. I'll not be Ianto Jones any longer but an ape in a harlequin's jacket. Put them away." Ianto pushes the silks away.
"Well for cool native impudence and pure innate pride, you haven't your equal." Jack is amused.
"I'm naturally proud. And hard and flinty. You ought to know what sort of bargain you've made while you've still got time to rescind it. I want only one thing from you, Mr Jack." Ianto is flouncy now and Jack revels in his silliness.
"And what's that?"
"Your regard." Ianto puts his arm through Jack's.
Jack smiles.
"It's your time now, little tyrant but it'll soon be mine and when I have seized you, to have and to hold, I'll attach you to a chain, like this..." Jack flicks his watch into the air.
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ALICE'S PARLOUR.
A summer gale. The moan of the wind sounds almost human. The light is sickly, nightmarish.
A great box sits on the table, which Ianto is opening.
Toshiko, Sophie and Mrs Harkness are all looking on. Ianto pulls out a pearl coloured wedding suit. He is dismayed at its opulence.
he holds it up to himself. Toshiko starts to play with the great veil. She wraps it round herself. She becomes caught in it, tangled, distressed.
"Toshiko?"
Ianto wakes. There is a candle alight at the end of his bed. His eyes focus. His wardrobe is open. Ianto is unnerved. "Toshiko, is that you?"
A form emerges, a woman, tall and gaunt, with thick, black hair hanging down her back. She is dressed in a nightgown - like a shroud. Over her head, she wears Ianto's bridal veil; a phantom bride.
Ianto is paralysed with terror.
The form takes the veil and slowly tears it in half; bruised arms, dirt, predatory nails, neglect. The last thing to be revealed is the woman's face, pale and ghastly. Her eyes are glittering with hatred.
The figure takes the candle and bends down to Ianto. Her intention looks deadly. Ianto's breath catches. He cannot breathe.
The figure moves closer, then blows out the candle.
Darkness.
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Ianto wakes, lying half out of the bed. The veil is over him. He flings it away from his face. Ianto sits, his terror dawning. His breath comes in great dry sobs. He is shocked to find himself still alive.
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EVENING. - BY THE GATES
Ianto is waiting, pale with anxiety. A man on horseback approaches, a great dog at his side; Jack. He is grinning.
He pulls Ianto up on the horse in front of him. He curls into his arms, desperate for his comfort and his strength. Jack senses something is wrong. He slows the horse. "What is it? "
"I'm afraid."
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IANTO'S BEDROOM.
Jack holds the torn veil in his hands. Such an old custom for the male entering a household to wear a veil like a bride. Total Iantoism. It is totally ruined He is aghast.
"Ianto…" He cannot think what to say. "this is the only explanation. It must have been half-dream, half-reality. A woman did enter your room last night and that woman was - must have been - Grace Poole …"
"It was not Grace Poole."
Jack keeps talking over him. "You know how strange she is. What did she do to me? To Hart? In a state between sleeping and waking …"
"I was not asleep."
"You noticed her entrance and her actions but you've ascribed to her an appearance different from her own. That was your nightmare …"
"I know what I saw."
Jack pauses and tries another tack "I see you'd ask why I keep such a woman in my house. When we've been married a year and a day, I promise I'll tell you. Are you satisfied Ianto? Do you accept my solution?"
Ianto clearly doesn't. Jack takes him in his arms.
"Dear God. It was only the veil..."