Ext. A midsummer dawn. Thornfield the grounds

JANE (CONT'D)

Who sleeps up here?

MRS FAIRFAX

No one. This part of the house is

quite empty, except for you and me.

JANE

I heard someone.

MRS FAIRFAX

You can't have done.

JANE

A laugh. Someone laughed.

Mrs Fairfax flounders for a second.

MRS FAIRFAX

Oh - that must be Grace Poole.

She likes to sit up here with her

sewing. Rather an eccentric soul.

(She shouts sharply)

Grace? Grace!

A door opens. Jane sees a broad-faced woman with slow,

intelligent eyes. She looks as if she has just woken up.

MRS FAIRFAX (CONT'D)

Miss Eyre has heard a laugh.

Grace looks at Jane with sly curiosity. She leaves the

sewing room and opens a door through which a flight of

steep steps are revealed. Grace climbs them and disappears.

Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 36.