"ALL: # My father's a hedger and ditcher" "# My mother does nothing but spin" "# But I'm a pretty young girl" "# And the money comes slowly in" "# Oh, dear, what can the matter be?" "# Oh, dear, what shall I do?" "# There's nobody coming to marry me #" "LAURA:" "It was said of Queenie Turrill that as she grew older, she could see beyond the horizon." "Change was coming to our out-of-the-way world, whether it was welcome or not." "Some of us might fight such upheaval." "And some, no matter how hard they might try, it would seem as though they could never change." "(BABY GURGLING)" "Oh, I have dreamed this moment many hundred times." "Kiss your ma, before I die of happiness." "(CHUCKLING)" "(CAROLINE SIGHING)" "They ain't exactly starved you in that jail, have they?" "Prison ain't kind to no one, Twister." "Oh, don't mind him, that's just his rheumatism speaking." "Lordy!" "It is a fair sight to find your face in the hamlet, Caroline." "(EXHALES)" "Ain't I grateful to be back where I belong." "There ain't a more pleasing gift than to see a family restored." "I thought you might come out to greet me, Queenie." "Uh, it's good to see you home again, Caroline." "I might not deserve a party in my name, but ain't I worthy of at least a cup of tea?" "I'll put the kettle on." "It pains my soul to turn my face away from a neighbour." "Your boy died in my house." "Right here." "I watched the light go out of that child's eyes." "Alfie held his hand." "It was hard." "And I think you need to know the toll it took." "I wanted to be here." "It broke my heart." "My dear, I don't think you understand." "If you truly wanted to be here, that isn't a choice you make when your child is leaving this world and you are locked up in jail." "It's too late by then." "That is a choice you make before you spend money you don't have." "Before you steal and cheat and laugh it all away." "Oh, I didn't know you had such cruelty in you." "You might call it cruelty." "I have paid." "I have sat alone night after night in the darkest prison." "Oh, my dear." "My dear." "You ain't so much as begun to pay yet." "I swear I am done with troubles." "I believe I have learnt my lesson." "What a person truly believes, it isn't what they think, it isn't what they say, it's what they do." "Oh..." "Now, let's have some tea." "Dorcas," "Since today is the day Farmer Morris has permitted me to undertake a trial of my machine on his land, in recognition of your kindness in letting me use your forge and... (SIGHS) Well, truth is, I would be honoured if you would come to Lark Rise" "to share the moment with me." "You have worked so hard, Gabriel," "I have every intention of celebrating your moment of glory." "GABRIEL:" "Glory may be a little presuming." "The real test of my invention is what lies before us." "Is it true, sir, your machine has moving arms and motion and direction?" "Fear not, Thomas, it is not ready to deliver letters yet." "Hmm." "Well, I will be taking out the second delivery later on this morning and may in fact be passing through Lark Rise at that time." "(SCOFFS)" "Ma, can I come?" "DANIEL:" "What could be more educational and exciting, than the arrival of progress?" "We are witnessing history in the making, Miss Lane." "Well, I suppose since it is a special occasion." "Ma'am, if the eggler is going to be in the hamlet this morning, which he is, we have eggs, but suppose we need more eggs?" "We can close the post office." "Just for a few hours." "We shall do you proud, Gabriel." "It is, after all, the culmination of all your efforts." "It is only the beginning, I hope." "If today goes well, then I am embarking on a great adventure." "Then we shall pack a basket." "Picnics are my one weakness." "EMMA:" "What are you doing, sitting here all this while, Queenie?" "QUEENIE:" "Resting my poor old bones is all." "It ain't your bones that is sore." "I saw something, Emma." "A chimneystack coming right up out of our fields, throwing smoke into the sky like something you'd expect from hell." "And I had such a dream last night." "More chimneys and factories, here, in our fields." "Oh, that ain't a dream." "That was a nightmare." "Thank heavens, it ain't true." "But it is coming, Emma." "Change has a way of forcing itself upon us." "What I saw was the future." "Our future!" "(ENGINE SPUTTERING)" "EMMA:" "Oh, Lordy!" "(PEOPLE CHATTERING)" "GABRIEL:" "The plough digs up on the land, cuts the furrows." "The cups take the seeds and drops them into the hopper there." "They are now placed into the ground and not scattered." "So, it is more accurate." "Less wasteful, quicker, more efficient." "The machine will now cover the ground over again, so that the birds cannot get at the seeds." "Well, ain't that the most marvellous thing ever there was to set on your eyes and look at?" "(LAUGHING) And here, on our field!" "(SIGHS)" "(BABY GURGLING)" "(CHILDREN LAUGHING)" "My dear, would you care for a pickle?" "Oh, no." "Pickle is so sharp on the tongue." "(PEOPLE CHATTERING)" "Isn't Gabriel so clever, Ma?" "Admiring the likes of Gabriel Cochrane." "Staring in wonder at his machine, standing by, while men take on this world." "Ain't that what holds us women back?" "I ain't held back, Ma." "Ain't you?" "You were reading books by the time you could talk." "Making up stories and poems." "I love what I do." "Daniel is a writer." "Is he better with a pen than you?" "Or is he just a man?" "Ain't you a marvel?" "Our saviour." "Oh, I've scattered seeds since I could walk." "I love the feel of them in my hand." "I love to see them landing and knowing that that is only the beginning." "Who is it decides that earth and sun and rain and creation ain't good enough?" "Who decides that it is a crime and waste that the bird should pick up a few stray seeds?" "Progress decides." "QUEENIE:" "No." "What you mean, sir, is that man decides." "Man knows best always." "What did the farmer say, Mr Cochrane?" "He has made a most generous offer to purchase the machine." "Congratulations." "Sir, I mean no offence, sir, but there's some of us don't welcome your machine." "If a farm can produce more, surely everyone can benefit." "Ain't the land kind enough to us?" "Must we demand more?" "TWISTER:" "Alfie, think on!" "The machine will do the work, we'll all be the masters." "If there ain't no work for us to do, Twister, then we'll take home no wages." "(PEOPLE MUTTERING)" "If we take this thing on, there ain't no going back." "We don't have a choice in the likes of this, Alfie." " Don't we?" " That's enough now, Alfie." "Mr Cochrane don't mean no harm." "We live here." "We always have." "Families." "What if we don't want this left behind corner of the world to chase after the likes of cotton mills and factories?" "Laura, do you write everything in your journal?" "Only things I might notice or remember or reflect upon." "Have you written about Alfie's ma coming home?" "Oh, Laura, she did look at me strange and terrible." "She will forbid Alfie from seeing me." "Then that will be the end of us and my heart will be forever broke." "(LAUGHING) Oh, Minnie!" "You do let your imagination torment you." "Suppose Alf's ma coming home meant that he was free of his burdens?" "Suppose he took his opportunity to come to Candleford to propose to you?" "Alfie?" "Propose to me?" " I'm not saying he will." " You're right, Laura." "His ma is here, so now he can think about marrying me." "So now he will think about marrying me." "He might arrive in the morning." "Minnie, I was only trying to stop you fretting." "(FOOTSTEPS RETREATING RAPIDLY)" "(DOOR CLOSES)" "Are you in need of a new journal, Laura?" "No, ma'am." "I seem to have tired of writing in it." "Laura, ever since I have known you it has been the beginning and the end of your day." "I thought I might propose to Daniel that I write a piece for the Chronicle about the machine and the locals response to it." "Why not?" "Who better to voice the anger of the resistance?" "I want to capture some of the feelings Alf expressed." "You must go to it." "We might have discovered Candleford's own Friedrich Engels." " SALLY:" "Ma?" " Hmm?" "What was it like in prison?" "Uh..." "It's like a tea party." "Lots of people, all living together in one big house." "Why didn't you come home, Ma?" "Um..." "Your ma came home just as soon as she could." "She's here now." "That's all that matters." "Come on now, it's your bedtime." "SALLY:" "Goodnight." "ALF:" "Goodnight." "CAROLINE:" "Goodnight." "Ain't I the lucky one?" "Them girls is as contented and happy as any in the hamlet." "Why do you have to tell 'em the likes of tea parties?" "You put such things in their heads and they're likely to follow your example." "And they're already in trouble at school." "I only wanted to spare them knowing how it truly was." "Ain't that what a ma's supposed to do?" "It might do them good to know the truth for once." "All they've ever known is empty tales and drunken promises." "Well, then I should tell you the truth of how it was." "It was hell's own tea party." "There were days when I would have been glad to be done with this world." "But things are turning out for the better now, Alfie." "Ain't we due our share of good luck?" "There it is again." "Dreams as hollow as drums." "But the hope is real, Alfie." "I've got you, don't I?" "My oak." "You always have been the one to hold me out when I've needed it." "I ain't been put on this world to hold you up, Ma." "No matter what ruin you cause, it is always you that needs to be cared for." "I see now why I can't forgive you." "I can't even bear to remain here." "Alfie?" "(KNOCKING ON DOOR)" "Oh..." "I need a place to sleep." "And I need a place to live." "This cottage is your home so long as I am still breathing." "My dear, it is past our bedtime, I've been waiting to say my prayers." "I have said my prayers." "I am not ready for sleep yet." "Oh." "The, uh..." "The Mrs Pratt happened to mention an invitation to tea." "I understood that invitation to appertain to myself only." "Very well." "You appear to be fond of your own company, Margaret, or rather, you seem to find my company unappealing." "Perhaps." "Perhaps?" "Huh!" "Oh, I see." "Well, I have heard of cold marriages as I go about my rounds, but it never occurred to me that I would fall into such a trap." "Heavens!" "Because of one invitation to tea, you accuse your wife of casting an icy chill on our relationship." "It's not just a matter of tea." "You turned your nose up at the pickle because I offered it to you, when you've always enjoyed an onion in vinegar." "Can't a woman's tastes change?" "A wife might not decline a pickle without being accused of a marital crisis?" "Is it any wonder I prefer the comfort of my chair to the chastisement I find on the pillow?" "Well, then you must enjoy the company of your chair all you wish, Margaret." "Perhaps you would prefer..." "to spend the night here." "Perhaps." "(DOOR CLOSING)" "(BREATHES DEEPLY)" " Miss Lane!" " Ah, Gabriel." "So many telegrams arriving for you, I thought our telegraph would expire." "Word has spread." "Farmers with proposals to purchase my machine." "Then let me offer you my congratulations." "How wonderful." "It is more than you could have hoped for." "It is, but I will not sell." "I don't understand." "My intention is to retain the machine." "I will employ a man to operate it and then one farm after another, I will hire it out." "Once the field is planted, I will move on, one village to the next." "Each of them pay me to drill and sow their land." " How enterprising." " I plan to make more machines." "So that I might approach more farms right across Oxfordshire and beyond." "So many machines, how will you ever construct them?" "The foundry." "If I cannot regain my own, then I will take on another." "I see." "But it will take some time for you to finance such an undertaking." "Farmer Morris has agreed to back me." "At least the first stage of my enterprise." "So, you will be leaving us." "There will be time for farewells." " (DOOR OPENING)" " SALLY:" "Alfie!" " We want to be with you." " We miss you." "Hey, come here." "They say they want to be with Alfie." "I ain't so much as bawled at them neither." "Can they stay here, Queenie?" "We kept you here before, but that's when you had no home to go home to." "I came all the way back here to be with my family, look what they do to me." "The girls are used to their brother, that's all." "Let things settle, Caroline." "Just don't make things worse, is all." "You said I'd pay." "Didn't know what you meant." "I do now." "You take a day or two to get to know your babe." "Hmm." "A babe loves its ma." "MINNIE: (SIGHS) Or perhaps yesterday, Alfie was working the daylong." "Or perhaps he wants to get a ring first." "That's it!" "Oh, why don't he come?" "Minnie, I feel compelled to remind you that your expectations of Alf's imminent arrival, are founded on little more than your own excited imaginings." "Ma'am, it is based on love, and Alf's ma being here." "If I was a boy, I would propose to me." "If I love me, I mean..." "Which I do." "He does." "(DORCAS SIGHING)" " Perhaps I could propose to him." " (GASPS)" "It is considered indelicate for a woman to declare herself." "Why?" "I suppose because a man once had to pay a dowry for his wife." "Oh!" "Yearning is such cruelty to a girl." "Suppose we could just come out and say," ""You are the man for me, so now, can we be happy ever after?"" "Sounds simple enough, Minnie, but..." "Well..." "Ma'am, I have such a fear that Alfie might not be brave enough." "And then, the moment will pass and then it will all be lost." "(BABY CRYING)" "Here." "None of them wants me." "Oh!" "Caroline, what are you doing?" "Well, there ain't no sense in me being on my own in that cottage, and all of you cramped under one roof." "Caroline, hold heart." "Well, we're making of it back how it were, how they want it." "(COINS JINGLING)" "(GASPING)" "Ain't we due our share of good luck!" "Such a shame that Thomas could not join us today." "He does seem to have an affliction about him, of late." "You do know, don't you, Margaret dear, that in us, you have true confidence?" "Sisters in sympathy." "So, should you wish to confide..." "It is only in a marriage that you come to know a person as they truly are in their soul." "Thomas can be so demanding." "And browbeating and intolerant." "And quick to judge." "And unforgiving." "And insensitive in the extreme and..." "And overbearing, and his moods... (MARGARET GASPING)" "In truth, of late, I feel sick of him." "Truly sick." "There are times when I am with him when I am made to feel decidedly unwell, just by his presence." "(DOORBELL RINGING)" "(THUDS)" "She ain't so big, is she?" "Little squirrel of a thing." "I always thought our Alfie would find himself a taller girl." "More like you, Laura." "What Minnie lacks in height, she makes up for in character." "CAROLINE:" "Does she regular fall down and things?" "She's not a weakling, is she?" "She ain't going to expire at the sight of a floor to scrub?" "Minnie works most diligently." "I have never had cause..." "What I mean is, she is hard working and conscientious." "Mmm." "Our Alfie always used to have an eye for the prettiest girls." "Mrs Arless, I don't know that it is appropriate to be at my table and find fault with my maid." "Caroline, are you sure you can afford so many treats?" "Every single one of these favours has been paid for, with my own money." "Now, my children shall know how much their ma loves them." "(TOY SQUEAKING)" "CAROLINE:" "Come on, then." "Play with them toys." "They're yours!" "Play with them." " We shall eat meat tonight and tomorrow." " (DOOR OPENING)" "Didn't I say that the Arless's would come out on top?" "(EXHALES)" "ALF:" "You've been out of prison no more than a week and you're borrowing." "I ain't." "I took on no debt." "Then you must've stolen." "There weren't no need for stealing." "Ma, what is here, just ain't possible." "It is possible, because our luck has changed, see?" "I found the money." "Caroline, where did you find this money?" "In the woods." "I just kicked up some earth, there it was." "How much?" " How much was it you found?" " Near on £2." "Ain't it just marvellous?" "Didn't it occur to you to find out who the money might belong to, before you charged off and spent it on..." "On the likes of this?" "Belong to?" "Well, it belongs to them that finds it." "That's the law of luck, isn't it?" "(LAUGHING) If there is some fool is fool enough to lose it..." "Come on, come on." "Caroline, that money was Robert Timmins wages, lost in the woods by young Edmund." "And is the reason that Robert went off to Oxford, to work, to provide." "Did you spend all of it?" "Um... (COINS JINGLING)" "May I sit with you, Gabriel, and warm my hands by the fire?" "It would be my pleasure." "Our conversation, your plans or as you would like to call them, your intentions." " You do like to tease me, Dorcas." " I do." "I have been considering what it all means." "This time feels like a crossroads." "I could not let this moment pass." " Dorcas..." " Please, let me finish." "I have always shied away from love." "I dare not venture there, because I knew it would change everything." "I wanted so much to hold on to what I have, because it is what I know." "It is safe." "When I look into your eyes, Gabriel," "I want to change everything." "I've seen how you look at me sometimes." "And I find myself looking at you." "I'm glad you spoke your heart," "Dorcas." "You have the courage that I could not find," "(SIGHS)" "Because it allows us to close off this path." "You are without doubt a most beautiful woman." "You will make a wonderful companion for some man." "I will give my life to my work, because..." "Because that is safe?" "I am not Liza." "(INHALES)" " I will not do to you..." " Hearts can mend." "But not mine." "Perhaps it would be best if I move on." "Yes." "I think it would." "I would be grateful if you could leave by the end of tomorrow." "What is the purpose of this?" "They're yours, aren't they?" "It's your money paid for them, it's your children should play with them." "You think I want such things in my home to remind me?" "I'm only trying to put right what I'd done wrong, Emma." "Whatever I lay my hands to, it is cursed." "I spent not a penny on myself and still it is damned." "I know I'm reckless and foolish but I don't want to be bad." "If I'd had that £2, it would have gone on rent arrears and clothes and boots." "Perhaps you're a tad too reckless, Caroline, and I'm a little too cautious." "Oh, suppose today were to be a day, my children treasure for the rest of their lives." "And I might treasure it and all" "So, am I forgiven then?" "Perhaps not quite forgiven." "We don't want to be saints, now, do we?" "(MINNIE CRYING)" "Oh, Alfie ain't never coming, is he?" "His ma's told him to find a prettier and cleverer and taller girl." "Minnie, do you think so little of Alf that you suppose him to be a quaking little boy who lives by his mother's bidding?" "You saw how he spoke in the field." "Can't you show some faith in the man you love?" "You're right, ma'am." "Alfie ain't no worm." "He will tell his ma she's an old goat and he will come to Candleford." "(GASPING) I knew it!" "GABRIEL:" "Alf," "I have a proposal for you." "I need a man to work for me." "To take the machine from one field to the next, from one farm to the next." "I offer good wages, better than any farm worker can earn." "You wish to buy my favour, sir?" "If I'm the man that gained from this, then I will forget my objections?" "Put aside what I know?" "What my own eyes can see coming?" "I come to you for one reason only, what I see in you." "You've shown yourself capable of taking on responsibility." "I want a man who cares for the land." "Alfie, there is more coming." "Much, much more." "If you're part of this, then the farms, the fields are in good hands." "Ain't nothing more tempting to a man than work." "Good work." "Regular work." "Then you will do it?" "I will consider it." "I will only be at the Candleford forge for one more day." "I hope to have your answer before I leave." "(KNOCKS ON DOOR)" "THOMAS:" "Miss Lane." "Forgive me for intruding on your sewing." "(SIGHS) On your peace and..." "What is wrong, Thomas?" "Ah, there's nothing wrong, ma'am." "Everything is splendid." "Um, as a woman you understand women and since women are such unstable and temperamental creatures, one day companiable, the next day, sharp, indeed, pointed. (SCOFFS)" "Margaret does seem a bit distant and unsettled of late." "And it seems to me that this came upon her since you went away." " Oh." " And it occurs to me that" "Margaret might feel somewhat abandoned." "I visited my sisters for a few days." "I'm no Walter Arless." "She has no right to feel abandoned." "These things are not governed by reason, Thomas." "Emotion rules." "Whatever she might say or do to you, why not simply exhibit tolerance and kindness." "May I remind you what Gabriel Cochrane said about the loss of his wife?" "Cherish one another, every day." "Once again, Miss Lane, you're correct." "Miss Lane, might I trouble you for some advice?" "Goodness!" "A trail of petitioners. (CHUCKLES)" "May I?" "(SIGHS)" "Laura's article." "The writing is forced and untrue." "I can't print it." "I see." "If you reject the composition," "Laura will be hurt and you'll have caused a crisis." "You might lose her." "But she lays such store by her writing..." "Isn't that all the more reason to be honest?" "Where is the benefit in any kind of deception, Daniel?" "She will know that you're withholding something from her." "You are withholding yourself from her." "I knew it was you I should come to, Miss Lane." "I have never known anyone who understands people as you do." "Yes." "I seem to have a gift for facilitating other people's lives." "Um, thank you." "(HESITANTLY) I..." "I do hope you're feeling better, my dear." "Are you suggesting that I've been out of sorts?" "Margaret, I..." "My visit to my sisters..." "Will you never tire of telling me how welcome and happy your dear sisters made you feel?" "My intention was merely to express if my leaving in any way left you feeling deserted," "I'm willing to understand and to absolve to appreciate that a woman..." "A delicate woman..." "I have never known any person so fond of taking the moral high ground from where he can pronounce upon the rest of us." "Oh, yes I have, my father." "Your father was a brute." "You could not make a more damaging and unjust accusation against me." "I have only to look at your face now to know it is true." "(SCOFFING) Let me tell you." "The face I see before me is as sour as a hen's backside." " (DOOR SLAMS) - (SIGHING)" "Ma'am!" "He's here!" "What should I say?" "I ain't even got my best dress on." " Deep breaths, Minnie." " (GASPING)" "Simply greet him as you would at any other time, hmm?" "I do." "I will." "I do." "(STAMMERING) I accept." "I do." "I have." "I will." "(DOOR OPENING)" " Alfie, you're in Candleford." " Well, I am." "You come all this way, you must have a reason." "Well, I've come to see Gabriel Cochrane." "Alfie, this is the gladdest day of my life, and I shall make you the happiest husband ever there was." "I shall cook and sew..." "Gabriel Cochrane?" "Husband?" "I suppose that now you're ma is home, you've come to propose to me?" "My ma is home, but ain't nothing different, Minnie." "A day will come." "Perhaps tomorrow, perhaps in a month or more, my ma will feel the itch and she will borrow." "Or she will steal." "One trouble or another." "And then she'll be gone, to prison or worse." "I see it in her still." "So, you were never gonna propose?" "I look at you, Minnie, and I want to hold you," "promise you happiness, and I can't 'cause that would make me a liar." "But marriage means children and how am I gonna afford that when I have sisters to keep." "Sally and Lizzie will go into service in a year or two, but I still have Patience to raise till she is 10 or 11 before I..." "Ten!" "If that ain't what you want," "I understand." "Eleven." "(SIGHS)" "I'm sorry, Minnie." "I'm grateful for the offer you made me, sir." "I know it was well meant, but I must decline." "I don't understand, Alf." "(LAUGHS) It's not logical." "The way of living that I've been given will be lost." "I know that." "(LAUGHS) Your offer has kept me awake the night long." "If I take this job then perhaps I can afford to marry." "But if I do something my own heart don't believe is right, then how can I look my own children in the eye?" "Takes courage to move with the times, Alf." "What I've been taught, sir, is that sometimes, takes courage to stand still." "I have left that wretched man. (SOBS)" "Now, Margaret, your husband may be a wretched husband, but he is your husband." "(BREATHING HEAVILY)" "Perhaps a cup of hot milk..." "Then you can go home." "(THUDS)" "(EXHALES)" "(SNIFFLES)" "Have faith, Minnie." "Sometimes thing change." "These tears will shine an even greater light on your joy when it arrives." "And it will" "It is in you to be happy." "I have seen your capacity to recover." "And to flourish." "Ma'am, what is capacity?" "Mrs Arless is as fearsome as a bear." "(EXHALES)" "If I wanted Alfie to marry me," "I might let go of self-pity and try to seek a little courage." "Mrs Arless." "(SHRIEKING)" "I ain't never seen such a three-legged girl." "(STAMMERING) I'm sorry, ma'am." "Ma'am, Mrs Arless, it was..." "The bike was going faster than my feet was, then it weren't." "Can't you even talk in a straight line?" "I know I have my faults and failings." "Plenty of 'em." "I can find them better than you can." "But if we're pointing fingers then I might tell you, you only have one fault." "Selfish." " Is that so?" " It is so." "So, I will tell you." "You're the one who only ever thinks of what she wants, not what her whole family needs." "If you thought of anyone else, you would have the courage to settle." " Is that so?" " It is so!" "Alfie can't even love a girl for fear his ma would take off." "He can't have no wishes, or hopes, no plans, no nothing." "I'm yearning for him and he is yearning for me but that cottage and his own family is his prison." "You're his prisoner." "I think you mean jailor, Minnie." "You're his jailor." "You've said your tuppence worth, girl." "Now get back on your bike and peddle." "She's right, isn't she?" "I am my son's jailor." "But ain't I here?" "And I stopped my drinking and fooling." "We all know you can stop, Caroline." "It's staying stopped that's your problem." "Suppose I promised Alfie that I shall change, and I shall become the ma he wants me to be?" "Perhaps if you were to admit it to yourself in your own heart that you're defeated to yourself." "Not to me, nor Alfie, nor your gals." "Not to anyone but you and your maker." "If you admit it and you believe it, then perhaps Alfie will look at you and see it." "I'm sorry, Laura." "I so wanted your article to be wonderful." "It's all right." "I accept." " I'm not meant to be a writer." " No, far from it." "(STAMMERS) This..." "This is just not you." "You found your subject." "Why turn away from it?" "Country life?" "Simple folk?" "Such... smallness." "Who would want to read about these things?" "It cannot appeal to the popular imagination." "Then do not attempt to appeal to the popular imagination." "Speak to the human heart." "We're surrounded by a way of life that'll one day be lost." "Surely that deserves to be recorded." "No, cherished." "(CHUCKLES)" "(DOOR OPENING)" "Missing your ma's cooking, eh?" "The night that Archie died," "he didn't call out for you." "I did." "I waited till I was alone, and I went out into the fields." "And I called out your name with so much rage, I thought the sky might crack." "I know." "I heard it." "Perhaps in a week or two, I will persuade the girls to come home." "You will know when they're ready, Alfie, not I." "I met that sweetheart of yours." "Minnie." "I don't know if she's my sweetheart no more." "If you have any sense, you'll snap her up." "I didn't know it was possible for there to be so much loving in such a pinch of a girl." "(ALL LAUGHING)" "Alfie." "You have the look of a man boxed out of his senses." "I just spoke to my ma, and she had a way about her that I ain't never seen before." "I just had this feeling deep down like..." "Like she ain't going nowhere this time." "Perhaps you ought to just let yourself believe it, Alfie." "For the first time in my life, I feel free." "There ain't no better feeling for a man than to be free of his ma." "Today is the day that I decide my own life." "What've you decided?" "(MARCHING BAND MUSIC PLAYING)" "(PEOPLE CHATTERING)" "Winifred Mude," "I've come to ask you," "I shan't never be no more than the man of the land, will you marry me, Minnie?" "I do." "I mean," "I will." "I didn't think to bring no ring." "(CROWD LAUGHING)" "(CAROLINE LAUGHING)" "How's the water today, sir?" "Can you taste the rain?" "I'm headed back to Fellwick." "My circumstances have changed." "I have a new business." "Then you're blessed indeed, sir." "More than good fortune itself," "I wish you the willingness to enjoy your benefits." "What do you mean?" "I mean what I say." "Ain't no use in being on top of the world unless it fills you with peace and gratitude." "I have found that business and achievement, if you work at it, they won't let you down." "I have all that I want." "For a man that has all that he wants, you're mighty prickly, Mr Cochrane." "And you're too presumptuous, Mrs Turrill." "I'm no more than a beekeeping wife, sir, and I ain't never had business and achievements, so I can't speak for their comforts." "But I do have something you don't have." "I've lived a whole life and that gives you something to pass on." "What matters is people." "You can't look into the eyes of your machine, sir, and see its soul." "Your neighbours." "Your family." "Someone to love." "As you get older, the thing you treasure above all else is belonging." "Lf, God willing, you live as long as I have, sir, you'll see that people need people." "Just the way God made us." "And if we fight it and deny it, well, we tend to get mighty prickly." "The courage to stand still." "(SIGHS)" "Well, I see." "A cabal of disapproving hens ready to peck at me." "If your intention is to chastise me, ladies, then let me tell you..." "Thomas, Margaret's in her bed." "Yes, my wife has a fondness for falling ill when she wishes to undermine me." "Thomas, she is truly affected." "And no doubt, I'm the cause of her ailment." "She will have spelt out to you all of my heinous indiscretions and failings." "Hardly a failing, but you're the cause." "If you'll pause for a moment to listen, you will learn..." "If I capitulate now, I will be a mortally wounded husband." "Thomas, you're a Heaven-blessed husband." "Your wife is with child." "(SCOFFS) What child?" "With?" "(RUBY CHUCKLES)" "My wife?" "I thought that is impossible." "(STAMMERS) I mean..." "How?" "Don't you think you should go up to her?" "Yeah, of course." "I will. (LAUGHS) At once." "Go up to her." "(SIGHING) Ladies, and, um..." "May I say, ladies, thank you. (LAUGHING) Thank you." "(PANTING)" "My dear Thomas," "I'm sorry I've treated you so cruelly." "I felt so strange." "I had no idea what it could be." " (CHUCKLES)" " The fault is entirely mine." "A man's duty is to care for his wife." "Margaret, never again will I, nor one day will I ever" "chastise, neglect." "(LAUGHS) Oh, I'm sure you will, my dear, but we will take it in our stride." "Life has been so kind to me." "I will remind you of that when the nights are filled with an infant's wailing." "My dear, may I kiss you?" "I would not in your condition wish to..." "Thomas, I'm pregnant, not close to expiring." "Then I will kiss you," " as seems befitting on this momentous..." " (MARGARET CHUCKLING)" "And as my desire's desire, of course." "Oh, you look so aglow with a radiant beauty." "Thomas, just kiss me." "LAURA:" "It seemed back then that everyone sang." "Workmen sang in the fields." "Men with horses and carts sang on the road." "(SIGHS)" "# There's nobody coming to marry me... #" "(DOOR BELL CHIMING)" "(BELL CLANGING)" "Gabriel, what on earth are you doing?" "You'll wake the whole neighbourhood." "When I look into your eyes," "I want to change everything." "Do you suppose you can simply come back here and beckon me, as though my life is no more than waiting for you?" "I don't think you'll ever lose your independence, will you?" "And I am glad of it." "What I've come to face up to is that I want to love and be loved" "by you." "I should warn you" "I'm far from perfect." "I have many, many weaknesses." "(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)" "LAURA:" "The singing and the songs we sang told something about the times in which we lived." "ALL: # Oh dear, what can the matter be" "# Oh dear, what shall I do" "# There's nobody coming to marry me" "# And nobody coming to woo #" "LAURA:" "It had always felt like the hamlet and all it stood for would last forever." "But change did come in the fields, across the whole of the country." "It was called progress." "But those old ways live forever in the human heart."