PHEMY. Just… you always see things his way… that’s not the way we see it.

A beat.

MARGARET. Really? So how do you see it?

PHEMY. Oh, don’t make me tell you. We’ll fall out.

MARGARET. I want you to tell me.

PHEMY. No, I love you, we’re not going to do this.

MARGARET. Annabella. Tell me. How do you see it?

ANNABELLA. You need to break with him. He’s dangerous.

MARGARET. Dangerous?

ANNABELLA. I’ve been meaning to say this to you for a while now. It’s time. You need to cut him off.

MARGARET. I won’t cut him off! I love him!

PHEMY. I loved him too! I did. You’re not crazy. He pulls it out of you.

MARGARET. I see him clear. I do.

ANNABELLA. Lassie, he’s turned you inside out and made a glove out of you. For years.

A beat.

MARGARET. Well… I suppose you won’t be sharing supper with us, Princess Annabella. Don’t let me hold you back.

ANNABELLA (to PHEMY). I’ll see you later.

ANNABELLA exits.

PHEMY. My cousin died.

MARGARET. I’m sorry.

PHEMY. The harvest failed and now meal’s four shillings a bag and who’s got that? Folk are starving. I can’t eat dinner with him, Margaret. I can’t.

MARGARET. The King can’t stop the crops failing.

PHEMY. But he could do more, could he not? He could do something.

MARGARET. This is what I mean. No. How can he? He’s a king but he’s just a man. Everyone wants him to make the world perfect just because he looks as if he ought to be able to do it.

Think how lonely that is for him, Phemy.

I’m the mother of his children.

I connect him to the world.

I’d never turn away from him.

I’m the only one who can reach him.

A beat.

PHEMY. Aye… mebbe.

I’ll tell them to send the dinner up when he comes.

JAMES enters. JAMES and MARGARET start to make love.

It’s the next morning. RAMSAY and SERVANTS enter dragging baggage.

MARGARET gets out of bed and looks out the window.

JAMES. What are you looking at?

MARGARET. Ramsay, with your bags.

JAMES. Yes. I thought I was staying longer but… I need a change of air, a different view.

MARGARET. Well… maybe we could travel with you.

JAMES. Maybe.

No.

Wait until I call the next parliament. I’ll have to come back then.

You can come to that with me. You might like it.

He kisses her and exits.

MARGARET sits for a while, looking out the window as PHEMY sings again.

Robene, you must have heard them say

In songs and stories old,

The man that would not when he may

Shall have not when he would.

God help the soul that falls for you,

I’d warn her if I could