Up to this point, all we’ve known about Esme is from Hal, who knows that the information about the affair came from letters. Well, we get to see what the incriminating evidence is in A Fugitive Green chapter 13.
Minnie manages to get her hands on the letters, and there are more letters than she was initially anticipating. This leads to her forming some opinions about Esme and Nathaniel, and it seems like she has more questions than she does answers.
However, one thing is clear, there was some sort of affair going on. It may not have been physical, but it was certainly emotional.
Breaking down A Fugitive Green chapter 13
The chapter starts up with Minnie working through some books that she had received to send to her father. While she works through this part of her chores, she thinks about her mother. The books are somewhat connected to the faith, and this helps to offer some solace for Minnie. Now she has to think about what she will tell her father when she returns to France, though.
The O’Higgins brothers return with some good news. They’ve managed to get their hands on the letters. We learn that they go all-out when it comes to playing a part, actually doing the work of the chimney sweepers that they posed as, so they would also get paid for their job. It’s clear to see why Hal ends up hiring them in a future story.
As for the letters, there are more letters than those from Esme to Nathaniel. The letters from Esme are certainly incriminating, though. They go into details of what Esme would like to do to Nathaniel, and everything is written in French as a way to hide just a little. While French was a common second language for the aristocrats, not everyone would have understood it.
Hal is mentioned in each of the letters, which seems a little cruel to Nathaniel. It makes it clear that her husband is still on her mind, almost like she is dangling the fact that she is married.
Then there are the letters from Nathaniel to Esme, which aren’t as romantic or detailed as Esme’s letters. There are questions about whether Nathaniel was scared of Esme, and maybe that’s why he ended up in an affair with her. There are mentions of poems that he sent her, but those poems aren’t included.
One thing that Minnie does question is how Hal ended up with the letters that Esme had sent to Nathaniel. Are these an earlier draft, or did Nathaniel’s family give Hal the letters? What is clear is that the letters corroborate the idea of an affair.
Could this chapter be used in a TV adaptation?
If A Fugitive Green was adapted, we would need to see this chapter, but it couldn’t quite work out the way it does in the book. Too much of this is inside Minnie’s head, and so, we would need some of it played out.
A good way would be to cast someone as Esme writing the letters and speaking words out loud. We could also have someone cast as Nathaniel to do the same thing in the letters to Esme. If that couldn’t happen, we could have Minnie reading the letters with the O’Higgins brothers, as they all discuss the contents.
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