Rudolph

I'm going to tell you something tonight Catherine, something that

Catherine
Life?

Rudolph
It would mean my life, would the news to get certain circles

Catherine
Yes…
Then don’t tell me, how do you know you can trust me?

Rudolph
I love you, and I believe you love me!

Catherine
You’re quite wrong, this has been only an adventure to me!

Rudolph
That isn’t true Catherine

Catherine
It is true!
You smiled at me, I was flattered! It was an adventure for a holiday
movie

Rudolph
You may as well take my heart,Catherine. It is already full of you!
You walked into it the day we met!

Catherine
You’re a fool, Rudolph

Rudolph
Oh ho, but isn’t any man who falls in love… Do you know what you are
to me? You are something to believe in again. You’re the type of
person that had ceased to exist for me! A fine and honest woman!

Catherine
Oh my darling, you are such a child. Take your foolish little dream,
and your heart, and go! Please go!
 Rudolph
What is it, what’s wrong my dear?

Catherine
You know nothing about me, you’ve known me only 3 weeks!

Rudolph
3 weeks?...Catherine I’ve known you all my life!

Catherine
All your life?

Rudolph
It’s true! I’ve seen you in a thousand plays! Read you in as many
books! Well, I’ve heard beautiful music and I thought, ‘she’d like
that’! I’ve looked at flowers and known that one day, I’d give them
to you!

Catherine
Oh stop, stop that! You must listen to me! I am not that woman!
Perhaps I was once, but I am not now! You see, you were wrong! You
can’t trust me

Rudolph
Are you trying to tell me that someone who’s name we both know and
not mention, sent you?

Catherine
What are you saying?

Rudolph
You see, I’ve known all along. I had Arbear look you up the day you
arrived.

Catherine
And it- it didn’t make any difference?

Rudolph
It didn’t make any difference. You see, I trust you. You came here to
betray me…and to betray my country. That is your mission, Countess
Rishula, and yet I am so sure of your love that I will trust you with
my life and… what is far more valuable than the life of my own, the
life of my country.

Catherine
 I will betray you.

Rudolph
If you do, you will betray yourself at the same time.

Catherine
Yes, yes I know.

Rudolph
So? You shall know my secret…Even now, as we sit here, there is a
great network growing tighter around the foremost nations of the
world. Treaties, pacts, alliances being formed against the man who
sent you. Tonight, I will sign a pact that will set the wheels in
motion to destroy him

Catherine
Destroy him?! No!

Rudolph
He’s made a great many mistakes! The greatest of all was sending you
here, Catherine

Catherine
Why?!

Rudolph
He knew I should love you, but he did not guess that you…would fall
in love with me.

Catherine
No…He didn’t guess that

Rudolph
And you do see that you cannot betray him

Catherine
If I betray you, I betray myself…If I betray him, I betray my
country. My country is very dear to me.

Rudolph
Dearer than I?

Catherine
No, not dearer than you.
 Rudolph
Then, will you help me defeat him?

Catherine
Help you, defeat him?

Rudolph
By telling me his plans, that’s the only way I could hope to defeat
him! We can’t both win. You’ll see, Catherine.

Catherine
I’m… beginning to see…

Rudolph
Then, you will help me.

Catherine
By giving you any information I may possess, concerning our plans?

Rudolph
Yes.

Catherine
(sigh)You’re very clever, aren’t you?
Oh, I can read you like a book now! You thought I was young and
easily swayed! That you could make me love you, and that I would
throw over my country, my duty for you?

Rudolph
That is not the way to look at it, Catherine.

Catherine
You weren’t so wise after all! Because you’ve lost, you hear me?!
Lost! You guessed wrong in our little duel of wits! You forgot how
close hate is to love!

Rudolph
You don’t know what you’re saying, Catherine

Catherine
You never loved me! You knew that I loved you, and you used that!

Rudolph
 Catherine, stop talking like a child! We're playing for countries
now!

Catherine
Yes we are! Aren’t we?...This is a gun in my hand Rudolph, I’d advise
you to be careful of what you say.

Rudolph
Well, rather melodramatic, aren’t you? Tell me, will I be the seventh
notch on the gun or the eighth? (laugh) Do you mind if I smoke?

Catherine
Smoke?

Rudolph
I always smoke at the theater. Somehow, it enhances the performance.

Catherine
You can do anything you please, Rudolph. But you have very little
time to do it in.

Rudolph
You mean you’re actually going to kill me?

Catherine
I mean just that.

Rudolph
Well, go ahead.

I’ll do this my own way.

Catherine
Look,you already know my purpose in being here. Now you will either
give me my information or I will kill you. You have till nine o clock

Rudolph
You won’t do it. You can’t pull the trigger. You can’t pull it
because you love me. It takes a very brave and a very cold woman to
do that, Catherine. I don’t think you can, isn't that true? Isn’t
that why you're waiting?

Catherine
That’s not true!
 Rudolph
Or is that you want to watch your victim? You want my heart
constricted with agony, my hands to shake, you want me to plead for
my life. So you can make a generous gesture and spare me! Sorry,
Catherine, I don’t seem to be in the mood for prayers tonight.

Catherine
You don’t think I’ll do it? That's why you're so brave. You don't
think I’ll do it. You wouldn’t be so brave otherwise! You’re a coward
at heart! You lied to me, you deceived me!

Rudolph
You tried to deceive me.

Catherine
I’m tired of listening to you!

Rudolph
You gave me your heart, you know. You’d like me to hand it back to
you, whole again. But I won’t. You’ll live a long time yet,
Catherine. An eternity without me, you will look into the faces of
passersby hoping for something that will for an instant, bring me
back to you. You will find moonlit nights strangely empty because
when you call my name through them there will be no answer. Always
your heart will be aching for me, and your mind will give you the
doubtful consolation that you did, a brave thing.

Catherine
You dare to talk of bravery?!

Rudolph
What else do we have to talk about, Catherine? For me, there will
never be another woman but you. But for my heart, there is another
love that must come before you…my country. You're so still, your face
is like ice. What are you thinking, Catherine?

Catherine
What does anything you can say, matter? You’ve betrayed me in
words,what good are words, when your heart is breaking? If I fail
now, I should deserve to die. You tricked me into loving you
Aren’t you forgetting that you came here for the same purpose?

Rudolph
I couldn’t betray you, I tried to tell you that, but you said you
already knew. I was as honest as I knew how to be
 You think I wanted to love you? Knowing where you came from and what
your mission was? Don’t you suppose that very hour we were together I
was thinking, ‘she’s just pretending.’

Catherine
I wasn’t! I loved you

Rudolph
And I loved you so much I let you pretend

Catherine
Your time is up

Rudolph
Then my last words…I love you Catherine.

Catherine
You’re determined to die with a lie on your lips?!

(gun shoots)

Rudolph
I…love you, Catherine.

Catherine
Oh god.