MARGARET drops to her knees and bows her head, stretching her arms out to him.

MARGARET. Please.

JAMES. What are you…?

Stop it! Stop that, it’s horrible. Get up.

She doesn’t. He goes to her and pulls her up.

Get up!

What do you think you’re doing?

MARGARET. You won’t help me but you have to.

You won’t want to help but you have to. You have to, James. Please.

JAMES. Are you ill?

MARGARET. It’s not me. It’s Jamie.

JAMES is instantly cold.

JAMES. Oh. Is it.

MARGARET. They’re making him into a weapon to destroy you. But that’ll destroy him, James. It will!

JAMES. What are you telling me?

MARGARET. I’m begging you. I’m begging you to save him.

JAMES. Save him? Save him from his own treason?

MARGARET. Yes!

It’s not… treason!

He’s just a boy, James! He’s our boy!

JAMES. If you say so.

MARGARET. No! Not now! Not this! Not now!

He’s your son.

He’s our son.

JAMES. Don’t ever, ever go down on the floor like that again. That was hideous. You were hideous.

MARGARET. I don’t care.

JAMES. Well, I do!

A beat.

I don’t even understand what you want. What do you expect me to do?

MARGARET. Call a parliament. Let them tell you what they need.

JAMES. Rule the way they like. No. No, I’m not their puppet and I’m not yours. No.

MARGARET. I’m begging…

JAMES. Stop that! I told you to stop that!

A beat. JAMES is really upset, getting himself under control. MARGARET waits.

I want you to answer something. I want you to answer honestly.

MARGARET. Alright.

JAMES. Who do you love best in the world? Who do you love above your life?

MARGARET. You know the answer to that.

My boys… But…

JAMES (cutting her off). Yes! Yes! Your boys! Your boys! Not me! Never me since…

Ever since that first mewling, bloody, slimy thing popped out of you it’s been the same!

It’s all for them, isn’t it? All for your sons.

Show me one human being on this earth that loves me above any other human soul. Just one!

MARGARET. Oh, stop feeling sorry for yourself, you great wobbling lump of self-pity! It’s pathetic.

JAMES. Oh, thank Christ. She’s back. You’re back. Come here.

He hugs her.

I missed you. Why don’t you visit more often?

MARGARET. Because you chose to make war on your own son, James, and now it might kill you both.

A beat.

I’m thinking about my sixteenth birthday.

JAMES. Are you?

MARGARET. Tell me what you remember best about that day?

JAMES. That you finally stopped pestering me.

MARGARET. We’d been married for years. I was a woman grown. I was getting old!