It’s hard not to feel for Hal in A Fugitive Green chapter 9. He’s a man in mourning.
For nights, he has decided to read and wander the house at night, but he needs to sleep. And he needs to find way to do that. It’s not so easy when he feels tremendous guilt while mourning.
I did find it hard to feel why Hal is grieving when he’s sure his wife was having an affair at first. Wouldn’t there be anger there? I think there would have been had she still been alive, but her death and the loss of their children together compounds it all and it makes him change his stance on his feelings for her.
Breaking down A Fugitive Green chapter 9
The chapter starts with Hal deciding that he needs to sleep tonight. He has spent most of his nights wandering the house or reading, and he definitely hasn’t gone to any of the bedrooms since Esme’s death. He just can’t help but think of his wife and Nathaniel Twelvetrees.
He also has other things to think about, as he had received a letter from the Prince of Wales. We get a little update on the history at the time. The King and the Prince of Wales are estranged, so Hal getting a letter from the Prince to invite him to a garden fete is questionable. This could damage Hal’s career if the King finds out and is against the idea.
However, he also thinks that this could be a chance to gain the support of both the King and the Prince, and he certainly needs that. The Prince of Wales wants to recommission the regiment, and he would like that, especially with the rest of his life in disarray.
If he was to manage the social needs with the Prince and the King, he definitely needed to sleep. He decides to go to Esme’s room, where he places a bit of her special scent on his wrist to help him feel connected to her. He tells her how much he misses her, as well as asking for forgiveness for everything that he has done.
Could this chapter be used in a TV adaptation?
If A Fugitive Green is used, we would certainly need some of this chapter to be developed. The invite to the garden fete is a must, and it would be best to show that happening, and maybe even a conversation with someone about how the Prince and the King are estranged. This is the best way to set the tone for the garden fete and why it’s so important.
The rest of it would be a rather short look at how Hal is trying to handle his grief. It would also give us a look at why he’s not allowing the letters from Esme to be used to protect him in the case of the duel. However, I’m sure all of this could be combined with another element of Hal’s story if the show needed to figure out a way to manage it all for time’s sake.
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