Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Episode 37: Innocence in a Dressing Gown



Tuesday, August 16, 1966

 

My name is Victoria Winters. It’s one o’clock in the morning, barely four hours since I decided, once again, to stay in Collinwood. And now sleep refuses to come, not only for me, but for a man whose tension, hour by hour, seems to be rising closer to the surface.



Roger stalks about Collinwood restlessly. He calls Sam Evans, wanting to know what Sam has done about Burke. Sam says he tried before and it didn’t work. Why can’t he just leave it at that?

Roger wants him to call Burke now and cancel. (That won’t be at all suspicious. Just stop acting so suspicious!) When Roger hangs up, he finds Vicki in the drawing room doorway and wants to know how long she’s been there. She says she came down to find something to read. He wants to know if she was listening. “Innocence in a dressing gown,” he says.

He drags her into the drawing room, and accuses her of snooping. He says she’ll be sent on her way if she keeps it up. 
Vicki says he should his sister that, because she just talked Vicki out of leaving.



Sam drinks alone. Maggie gets up and wants to know who called. Sam says it was a wrong number, but she doesn’t believe him. He tells her to go back to sleep. She thinks he should do the same, but he says he has something he has to do.

“Don’t worry,” he says.

“Tell me to stop breathing while you’re at it.”

Sam gets out several sheets of paper and writes something out.
Maggie comes back when he’s done, saying she still can’t sleep and is going to make some tea. He won’t tell her about the letter, except that it’s private. He seals it in an envelope when she goes to make tea.

When she comes back, he shows her the envelope, which has her name on it. He tells her to put it in a safe place and not show it to anyone, and not to read it. He hopes she’ll never have to open that envelope and learn—

Learn what?

He won’t tell her.

Maggie thinks it has something to do with Collinwood. She wishes it would burn to the ground.

Sam says it wouldn’t do any good. The ghosts of the past don’t live in a home; they live inside each man, and fight for his soul.

Maggie says she knows this has something to do with Roger Collins.



Vicki hears sobbing and follows the sound down to the basement. No one answers when she calls out. 
There are footsteps coming down the stairs.
Its Roger. Are you still looking for something to read,  Miss Winters?” 
He angrily tells her not to go in sections of the house where she isn’t supposed to be. 

Roger goes back upstairs and answers the phone. It’s Ned Calder. Roger says to call back when it’s a reasonable hour. Vicki tells him that Liz wanted to talk to Ned, no matter how late it was. Roger asks if she’s supposed to be Liz’s private secretary and spends some more time yelling at her.

She is about to go up to Liz when Roger says he didn’t mean what he said. Doesn’t she believe him?

No, she doesn’t.

He says he’s sorry and asks her to stay and talk with him. He says he’s under a lot of pressure. 
She doesn’t think that’s a good reason to accuse her of snooping and prying. He tries to get back in her good graces. “You are a charming and lovely girl who feels like she’s in a house of madness, and who is understandably troubled by the events around her.”

He really wants to be her friend.

Vicki thinks he has a strange way of showing it. She'll accept his apology if he tells her whether he heard the sobbing too.

He admits he did.

“What is it? Where does it come from?”

“I don’t know. I’ve heard it many times before, and I honestly can’t tell you where it comes from. Maybe it’s one of our ghosts.”

“But it seemed so real.”

“Ghosts can seem real, Miss Winters. They can seem very, very real indeed.”



        Cast, In Order of Appearance





Victoria Winters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alexandra Moltke

Roger Collins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Louis Edmonds

Sam Evans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . David Ford

Maggie Evans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Joan Bennett




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