Ext. A midsummer dawn. Thornfield the grounds

MRS FAIRFAX

Well now - exercise is a great

cure for anything, they say.

(MORE)

Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 37.

MRS FAIRFAX (CONT'D)

I have some letters to post; will

you take them?

EXT. DAY. A FROZEN MEADOW.

Jane is walking with purpose, carrying a bundle of letters.

The exercise is lifting her spirits. The sun is sinking,

turning the frost gold.

EXT. DAY. A FROZEN WOOD.

A brook runs close to the path; half frozen. Its slow

trickle is the only sound to be heard. Jane moves slowly,

acutely aware of everything around her.

Further into the wood, the brook has frozen right across

the path. Jane slips on it as she passes. The noise of her

feet echoes. She steadies herself.

She gazes at a huddle of snowdrops, their heads bowed. A

crystal drop of water runs to the end of a snowdrop and

begins to freeze as she watches. It is held suspended as if

the whole winter is contained in it.

The moon is mounting the sky. Jane hears a sound like the

beating of wings. The blood is rushing through her ears.

Her trance is broken by the figure of a great dog - which

glides past her so close it almost knocks her off her feet.

The beating is loud; not wings she realises, but the rush

of an approaching horse. It is almost on top of her before

she can move. Her shocked, pale face, her black garments

startle both horse and rider.

ROCHESTER

What the deuce -

The rider gets the horse under control and continues, only

to have his horse slip on the ice. Both man and horse fall

with a crash. The dog begins to bark, until the hills echo

with the sound. The horse is on one side; the man is lying,

trapped beneath it on the ice; Edward Fairfax Rochester.