Music, whiskey, shouting, laughter — the valley alive with politics and pride. Improvisation
Johnse Hatfield, handsome, charming, reckless, spots Roseanna McCoy across the crowd.
She’s quiet, watchful, carrying the weight of her family’s bitterness.
Their eyes lock.
Something sparks — dangerous, undeniable.
A fight breaks out nearby.
Roseanna flinches.
Johnse grabs her hand.
Johnse:
“Come on. You don’t need to see this.”
They run — past the crowd, past the creek, into the shade of the woods.
Breathless, laughing, nervous.
Roseanna:
“My family’ll skin me alive.”
Johnse:
“Then let’s stay hid a while.”
The woods swallow them — a secret world where the feud can’t reach.
They sit under a sycamore tree.
The noise of the election fades.
Johnse brushes a leaf from her hair.
Roseanna’s breath catches.
Roseanna:
“You’re trouble.”
Johnse:
“Only if you run from me.”
She doesn’t.
They kiss — soft, hesitant, then hungry.
Forbidden love begins.
Night.
Rain.
Roseanna arrives at the Hatfield home, soaked and trembling.
Levicy Hatfield opens the door — stern, bonneted, eyes sharp as flint.
She looks Roseanna up and down.
Levicy:
“You’re a McCoy girl. What’re you doin’ here?”
Roseanna can barely speak.
Roseanna:
“I… I come for Johnse.”
Levicy studies her — sees fear, sees love, sees trouble.
Levicy:
“Get inside. No sense lettin’ you drown.”
She’s not warm, but she’s not cruel.
Levicy is practical — she protects her home first, her heart second
Devil Anse enters, rifle in hand, mud on his boots.
He stops cold when he sees Roseanna.
Devil Anse:
“Girl, you know what you’re stirrin’ up?”
Roseanna nods, trembling.
Roseanna:
“I ain’t here to cause harm.”
Devil Anse circles her like a wolf sizing up a deer.
Devil Anse:
“Your daddy’d burn this cabin to the ground if he knew.”
Johnse steps between them.
Johnse:
“She’s with me.”
Devil Anse’s eyes narrow — not at Roseanna, but at his son.
Devil Anse:
“Boy, you best think with your head, not your britches.”
Later, Levicy sits Roseanna at the kitchen table.
No anger.
Just truth.
Levicy:
“Love’s a fire. Burns hotter’n hate. But it leaves ashes just the same.”
Roseanna looks down.
Roseanna:
“I ain’t tryin’ to hurt nobody.”
Levicy softens — just a little.
Levicy:
“I know. But men don’t think like women. And feuds don’t care about hearts.”
Back at the McCoy cabin, Sarah McCoy hears whispers that Roseanna was seen with Johnse.
She slams a pot down, furious.
Sarah:
“That Hatfield boy’ll ruin her! Devil Anse’ll use her like bait!”
Randall McCoy tries to calm her, but Sarah is fire.
Sarah:
“I’ll drag her home myself if I have to.”
Her love for Roseanna is fierce — but so is her fear.
Johnse sneaking across the ridge at dusk.
Roseanna waiting by the creek.
Whispered conversations.
Hands held in the dark.
Kisses stolen under moonlight.
Laughter echoing through the trees.
Their love grows — fragile, beautiful, doomed.
Levicy corners her son outside the cabin.
Levicy:
“You think you’re playin’ at courtin’. But that girl’s heart is tied to you.”
Johnse looks away.
Levicy:
“If you break her, you break yourself. And you break this family.”
Levicy isn’t cruel — she’s prophetic.
Sarah finds Roseanna returning home at dawn.
Sarah:
“You been with that Hatfield boy.”
Roseanna freezes.
Sarah:
“You’ll bring shame on this house. You’ll bring death.”
Roseanna cries — torn between love and loyalty.
Roseanna:
“Mama, I love him.”
Sarah’s face breaks — pain, fear, anger.
Sarah:
“Then God help us all.”
Johnse is pressured by his family.
Roseanna is pressured by hers.
Devil Anse warns him:
“A McCoy girl ain’t worth a war.”
Sarah warns her:
“A Hatfield boy ain’t worth your soul.”
The lovers cling to each other — but the mountains close in.
Johnse is manipulated into marrying Nancy McCoy (Roseanna’s cousin).
Roseanna is devastated.
Levicy watches Roseanna collapse in grief — and her eyes fill with sorrow.
Levicy (softly):
“I told you love burns.”
Sarah holds her daughter, whispering apologies she never thought she’d have to give.
Devil Anse stands outside, staring at the mountains — knowing the feud has just deepened.
