He was a good axeman. He knew what he was doing.

JOAN. But it was so quick! And I didn’t know, I’d never seen…

JAMES. Hadn’t you?

JOAN. I’d seen hangings, of course, but not… the blood…

JAMES. Ah, that would be a shock.

JOAN. Did you see her? Did you see her look at me?

JAMES. It’s over. The Lady Isabella will be imprisoned until she withers and dies. No one will look at you like that again. I won’t allow it. I’m making a new world for you. Look.

He points.

They’re planting roses. I’m planting a rose garden for you to walk in. You’re safe now. And next year you’ll have roses and gilly flowers in your garden.

MEG enters with the baby.

MEG. Here, you hold her. You hold her a while. She’ll settle better with her mother.

JOAN. She’s all sticky.

MEG. I tried her with honey.

JOAN. Did she take it?

MEG. Did she piddle! Mumbling and mewling like an old beggar lady chewing stones. Oh, the face on her! Nothing’s as sweet as your mother at that age.

She hands the baby to JOAN.

JAMES. You are the dearest, sweetest thing I will ever know and I’ll never stop loving you.

Looking at you is like looking at a green tree full of birds.

He kisses her.

JOAN (looking at the baby). Look at the blood moving under her skin, so thin… her skull is small as a robin’s egg… Are we monsters now? We are. We are.

JAMES. No! Stop this, Joan. We are King and Queen and we’ll be happy and I’ll hold you safe in my arms every night. Every night.

JOAN. Yes, of course… She’s cold… I’ll take her in.

JAMES. It’s not cold! This is our summer. A soft summer. I commanded it for you and here it is. Look at that view. Over the hills and all the way to the sea. How can you not love Scotland when she lays herself out for you to admire on a soft day like this?

JOAN. I’m sorry… I’m shivering still. I must be feeling cold, in the wind. I need to get her inside.

JOAN exits.

JAMES. It’s a warm day.

MEG. Aye… she just… she’s no long had the bairn… give her time…

JAMES. Yes… of course… There’s three fulmars! See them? White. Riding the air high enough to look straight at us. You’d think they were gulls but they have blue eyes, really… dark, blue, human eyes, see them looking at us? They come inland to nest. They say they’re the souls of dead men who couldn’t find their way to heaven, lost for ever. But they look happy enough. They have the whole sky. She will love me now though… won’t she, Meg? She will… surely?

MEG just looks at him, a sad look. She exits. JAMES walks slowly to his throne. ISABELLA still sits looking out.

ISABELLA. They’ve given me a view of the sea. They know its cruelty.