Belle Page #3

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INT. KENWOOD HOUSE. GALLERY. CONTINUOUS. DAY 288*

LORD MANSFIELDD’you see here...? This..this is

your grandfather, Sir Alexander

Lindsay of Evelick.

DIDO examines the painting. LORD MANSFIELD watches her.

LORD MANSFIELD (CONT’D)

I am here too....do you see?

Her eyes search the long line of her aristocratic heritage,

until her gaze settles. He chuckles, reluctantly charmed as

she points to his likeness.

LORD MANSFIELD (CONT’D)

Yes...I am William Murray, First

Earl of Mansfield.

A beat as he looks to her, affected by this little person.

Gently, he leads her to a final portrait.

LORD MANSFIELD (CONT’D)

(carefully)

Now...do you see this man? He is

my nephew...do you understand...?

(off Dido’s nod)

...your uncle - Sir David Murray.

DIDOElizabeth’s papa.

He pausesLORD MANSFIELDYou are a sharp little one. He is

The Seventh Viscount Stormont...

(beat. Almost to himself)

...to inherit everything that we

are standing on when I am gone.

She nods, bites her lip - that much has gone over her

head...he can see. He closes his eyes. The enormity of this

new responsibility weighing heavy.

INT. KENWOOD HOUSE. LADIES PARLOUR/LAWNS - DAY. 299*

LORD MANSFIELD’s POV: through window - The lawns. ELIZABETH

gently takes DIDO’S hand in hers, leads her off to run

between the trees. As their delighted screams filter...

LADY MANSFIELD enters - observes LORD Mansfield, a moment.

LADY MANSFIELDBorn on English soil?

7.

LORD MANSFIELDIndeed. He discovered her mother

aboard a captured Spanish slave

ship. He was charged with

conveying it back to these

shores, he tells me.

LADY MANSFIELDEvidently he had some...‘feeling’

for the woman.

LORD MANSFIELD(dry)

And there I was believing it was

sheer lack of ‘self control’.

(scathing)

He has been at sea, six years.

All of this child’s life!

LADY MANSFIELDWell, he clearly saw to their

wellbeing. The child is not

altogether uncivilized.

(she breathes deeply)

So...now we have two nieces in

our guardianship.

LORD MANSFIELD(reticent)

Elizabeth was much in need of a

companion.

LADY MANSFIELDAnd that is what we shall say

when questions are asked of us?

LORD MANSFIELDWe shall say that in accordance

with her birthright, she is

entitled to live beneath this roof.

(with irony)

Such...is the nature of ‘order’.

LADY MANSFIELDAnd where in this ‘order’ should

her colour be placed? Below or

above her Murray bloodline?

(off his silence)

May she dine with us?

LORD MANSFIELDShe may...(pause)...NOT...in

company. We cannot escape

society’s confines on etiquette

LADY MANSFIELDMarriage?

8.

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