Period · 4 min
The Arrangement.
In a grey sitting room, two women wage a courtly war of status and intimacy while negotiating who will really control the palace nights.
The roles
ELEANOR CROSS
38. Companion and personal secretary to the Countess of Ashworth for fifteen years. Manages the correspondence, the house, and effectively the estate. Speaks with the measured control of someone who learned young that power must be invisible.
MAUD AINSLEY
25. Eleanor's cousin. Arrived penniless three months ago. Given a room and light duties. Has already found her way into the Countess's private chambers through a different kind of service.
The Arrangement · Period side · memorlined.app
(A sitting room in a great house. Morning. Grey light through tall windows. ELEANOR CROSS stands at a writing desk, sorting correspondence. A fire is low in the grate. MAUD AINSLEY enters in a day dress, hair recently pinned.)
(not looking up)
ELEANOR CROSS
You're up early.
MAUD AINSLEY
Couldn't sleep.
ELEANOR CROSS
The room is cold. I'll have them bring coal.
MAUD AINSLEY
The room is fine.
(ELEANOR sets down the letters.)
ELEANOR CROSS
You were on the third floor last night.
MAUD AINSLEY
I went to check on the linens.
ELEANOR CROSS
The housekeeper retires at nine. You were there at midnight.
(MAUD sits. Picks up an apple from the side table. Turns it in her hand.)
MAUD AINSLEY
Is there a question.
ELEANOR CROSS
The Countess's chambers are on the third floor.
MAUD AINSLEY
They are.
ELEANOR CROSS
Maud.
MAUD AINSLEY
Yes, cousin.
ELEANOR CROSS
I brought you into this house.
MAUD AINSLEY
You did.
ELEANOR CROSS
Three months ago you were sleeping in your brother's barn. No references. No income.
MAUD AINSLEY
I remember.
ELEANOR CROSS
And now you're visiting the third floor at midnight.
(MAUD takes a bite of the apple.)
MAUD AINSLEY
She asked me to bring her a tisane. She has difficulty sleeping.
ELEANOR CROSS
I bring her the tisane.
MAUD AINSLEY
Last night she asked me.
(The fire crackles. A log shifts in the grate.)
ELEANOR CROSS
Did she ask you to stay as well.
MAUD AINSLEY
I didn't know I needed your permission to attend the Countess.
ELEANOR CROSS
You don't attend her. You were given light duties. Mending. Flowers. Nothing that requires the third floor after dark.
MAUD AINSLEY
And yet.
(ELEANOR opens a drawer. Takes out a small leather notebook.)
ELEANOR CROSS
I keep a record. Every person who enters the Countess's private rooms. The hour. The purpose. Fifteen years, not one entry missing.
MAUD AINSLEY
How thorough.
ELEANOR CROSS
Last Thursday. Two hours. The door was locked from inside.
MAUD AINSLEY
Perhaps she wanted privacy.
ELEANOR CROSS
She has never locked that door. Not in fifteen years.
(MAUD sets the apple core on the side table.)
MAUD AINSLEY
What are you asking me, Eleanor.
ELEANOR CROSS
I'm asking what you think you're doing.
MAUD AINSLEY
What you taught me.
(Silence.)
ELEANOR CROSS
I taught you nothing of the kind.
MAUD AINSLEY
You showed me, cousin. A woman with nothing stays close to the woman with everything. That's what you've done for fifteen years. I just don't pretend it's friendship.
(ELEANOR's hand tightens on the notebook.)
ELEANOR CROSS
I can have you removed by dinner.
MAUD AINSLEY
You could.
(MAUD stands. Smooths her dress.)
MAUD AINSLEY
Or. You manage the correspondence. I manage the evenings. Nothing changes for you. Except the stairs at midnight. Your knees must ache.
ELEANOR CROSS
Get out of this room.
(at the door)
MAUD AINSLEY
Think about it. I'll be in the garden.
(She closes the door behind her.)
Print it for class, or open it in the app: every role in this side is playable, and the other side of the scene gets a reader. Cast a voice against your part in the Audition Room, then run it until the lines are yours.
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