Excerpted from Scene 3 of The Accidental Patriot
Copyright ©2008, Kiran H. Rikhye. All rights reserved.
In the garden of the Jarvis estate. Georgiana Jarvis is gathering flowers in a basket. Enter Desmond Connelly.
GEORGIANA: May I help you?
DESMOND: Hello.
GEORGIANA: Are you looking for someone?
DESMOND: Yes. Admiral Lord Jarvis.
GEORGIANA: Admiral Lord Jarvis is not at home.
DESMOND: And you…
GEORGIANA: I am Admiral Lord Jarvis’s daughter.
DESMOND: It is a pleasure, Miss Jarvis.
GEORGIANA: May I ask your name, sir?
DESMOND: My name is Desmond Connelly.
GEORGIANA: I have heard your name before. You are a crusader for the cause of the American colonists’.
DESMOND: I am afraid so.
GEORGIANA: Why do you apologize?
DESMOND Am I to believe that the daughter of Admiral Lord Jarvis supports the colonists’ cause?
GEORGIANA: I support it with all my heart.
DESMOND: It is a pity you cannot support it with more than that.
GEORGIANA: I support it with my heart and with my purse. Nearly every penny of my allowance is sent overseas to the Sons of Liberty.
DESMOND: That is a lovely necklace, Miss Jarvis. And a lovely dress. It seems to me you keep more than your fair share of your allowance.
GEORGIANA: How dare you speak to me in such a manner? I spend on myself only enough to keep my father’s suspicions at bay.
DESMOND: I thank you for your interest in the American cause. Of course, I understand why you must keep your pet project secret. How embarrassing it would be if anyone were to find out that Admiral Lord Jarvis’s own daughter was so rebellious in her hobbies.
GEORGIANA: If I could grant the American colonists the freedom to govern themselves, I would do it in an instant.
DESMOND: If that is true, it is a pity you are not on the throne instead of King George.
GEORGIANA: If I were on the throne I would see you hanged.
DESMOND: You do me no favors.
GEORGIANA: You do not do yourself any. You sink English ships as though such little victories will help the colonists’ cause, while in truth you will only succeed in angering Parliament and the crown. You claim you fight for liberty and for justice, but if you truly wanted liberty and justice you would appeal to man’s higher nature, not his animal instincts. Brute force breeds brute force.
DESMOND: I knew a man like the noble hero you describe. He was a learned man, a lawyer in Boston, and a nobler soul never walked the earth. He spoke of rights and of dignity. He would have transformed the world by appealing to man’s higher nature, not his animal instincts.
GEORGIANA: And? Did he succeed?
DESMOND: No. Your father murdered him in cold blood. That is what happens to lofty men who would transform the world by persuasion instead of by force.
GEORGIANA: I am sorry.
DESMOND: Why?
GEORGIANA: I am sorry for many of the things my father and my brother do.
DESMOND: Your brother?
GEORGIANA: Edward Davies. Perhaps you met him in Boston. He will be home any moment, in fact. May I suggest for your sake that you leave before he arrives?
DESMOND: Edward Davies? And how do you come to call such a creature your brother? More to the point, how does your father call such a creature his son? I did not know Indians passed for Englishmen these days.
GEORGIANA: How dare you! Edward is more an Englishman that you will ever be. He has been English since he was a child. He is not like you. Papa brought him from the Indies at the request of his business partner. Papa’s partner lay dying of malaria. He had never married, and he had no children…to speak of…but he cared very deeply for one boy, the son of a local woman who had herself passed away…and he asked Papa to care for the boy. So Papa took the child as his ward and brought him to England, and he named him Edward Davies, and Edward has been my own dear brother ever since.
He laughs.
GEORGIANA: You find that funny.
DESMOND: Please accept my apologies, Miss Jarvis.
GEORGIANA: I will do no such thing.
DESMOND: It is not you I laugh at but fate. I could have been just such a lucky boy as your brother Edward. My father might have wished with his dying breath that I become another man’s ward, and I might have been the son of a British admiral, instead of the honest Irish son of an honest Irish mother. But my father wasn’t as kind as Captain Davies’ father, I’m afraid, nor as kind as yours.
GEORGIANA: I am sorry for you.
DESMOND: Don’t be. I wouldn’t trade an honest Irish boyhood for all the privilege of a British upbringing.
GEORGIANA: It seems everyone has gotten what they wished for. You your Irish boyhood and I… Edward!
Desmond turns to see that Edward has entered behind him.
DAVIES: What the devil are you doing here? Georgiana!
DESMOND: Georgiana, is it? A lovely name.
DAVIES: You impudent rogue.
GEORGIANA: Edward, please.
DESMOND: It may surprise you to know, Miss Jarvis, that I am quite capable of defending myself.
GEORGIANA: Of course, I forgot. That’s what your sword is for.
DESMOND: You would rather that I defend myself with poetry.
DAVIES: You’ve got a lot of nerve, haven’t you? I ought to have killed you the first time we met.
DESMOND: Yes, I believe you tried.
DAVIES: Fortunately it looks like I will have a second chance.
DESMOND: Fortunately, I’ve no doubt I shall best you again.
They duel.
DAVIES: You’re a cocky fellow, aren’t you?
DESMOND: No more than I have to be.
DAVIES: Not bad for a peasant, I must say. Where did you learn to fight?
DESMOND: I taught myself when I was in the merchant marines. I’ve been told my father was an exceptional swordsman.
DAVIES: And you wanted to be just like him.
DESMOND: Not at all. I wanted nothing to do with him, then or ever. He gave me nothing—nothing, it seems, but the gift of swordsmanship, which I have taken most gladly; it is the one and only gift I intend ever to accept from him.