I curse them. I curse them with misery and demons till the end of their blood.

The waves in the sea beat on and on, carving up time into tiny grains of sand. And my blood beats in my ears. The only blood of mine still moving on this earth, every other darling young heart that carried this blood stilled and lying under the cold earth. I sit as still as my beloved dead and watch the seabirds slicing back and forth on the salty wind.

All I can do is wait and keep my hating sharp. The wheel will turn. The wheel always turns. The wheel will turn round again.

End.

JAMES II

DAY OF THE INNOCENTS

Characters

JAMES II, King of Scots

JOAN, his mother

ANNABELLA, the King’s sister

MEG, a lady of the Scottish court

JOHN STEWART LIVINGSTON, Earl and Keeper of Stirling Castle

CRICHTON, Earl and Keeper of Edinburgh Castle

BALVENIE, senior statesman and lord, much older than appears

ISABELLA, noblewoman and long-term prisoner

YOUNG DOUGLAS, sixth Earl of Douglas, seventeen years old

DAVID, the Earl’s younger brother, fifteen years old

WILLIAM DOUGLAS, Balvenie’s son then eighth Earl of Douglas, eleven to twenty-two years old

MARY, the King’s French wife, fifteen years old

HUME, a Scottish lord

THE BULL-HEADED MAN, a nightmare vision

And LORDS, GUARDS, SERVANTS, SUPPORTERS, etc.

ACT ONE

Stirling Castle, Night / A Dream Memory

From now on everything we see is either nightmare or heightened memory. We hear, but don’t see, MEG calling off, desperate.

MEG. Jamie! Jamie!

The closed chest sits in the centre of the room. Offstage, MEG is still calling for JAMES, moving further away.

WILLIAM enters.

He crosses to the chest and opens it, looking inside.

WILLIAM. I knew you’d be here. I won’t tell them. They won’t find you. I won’t let them come in.

Slowly JAMES climbs out of the box.

Did they kill them both?

JAMES. Yes.

WILLIAM. It’ll be fine. Just stay here with me a while. No one’s after you. They never kill the wee bairns. Well, they might kill you because you’re King but you’ll be fine here with me. They won’t find you. There’s no one here but me. Look.

JAMES. There was all blood… on the floor.

WILLIAM. Did you see how they killed them? Did you not look? We need to look. A fighting man needs to be fit for that.

JAMES. I’ve dark blood, like snakes, under my skin.

WILLIAM. No you don’t.

JAMES. It’ll come out. I’ll kill people.

WILLIAM. You might. But not with snakes.

When we’re grown we can learn killing.

I’m nearly grown. Till then we need to learn how to bear looking at it. I’ll teach you.

It’s like when you take a beating. You think you can’t stand it but if you just get used to what it feels like to get clouted round the heid, you can. Makes you stronger. I’ll help you. I’m going to be the greatest warrior in Scotland. See when my father finds out what I can do? We’ll be warriors, wee Jamie. We’ll rule this country like roaring lions.