"The prodigal returns!" "Margaret Jane, may I introduce you to my wicked stepfather?" " What's going on?" " Life insurance." "You're no use to us at all." "Arsenic." "It's the only thing that works that I know of." "Want to know my secret?" "Get yourself a husband." "Then get him insured. 35 quid." "Married twice, widowed twice." "Thank you." "Do I know you?" "I scrub up nice, me like." "There's a darkness in you, Mary Ann." " She's too charming." " The children need you." "I need you." "All I have to do is whistle, Mrs Robinson-to-be if you're lucky." "And you'll always come running." "I shall be Mrs Robinson." "I shall!" "And I shall be that lady all my earthly days." "_" "Good morning, Miss Robinson." "Stay here." "My brother is a man lost in grief and weakness of body." "Do not commit the error of imagining you have a deeper hold on him than that." "I'll not bother inviting you to the wedding, then." "Here's the hold I have on your brother." "And here." "You... you're a low and desperate woman." "And you are a dried-up old virgin." "And I know which I'd rather be." "So nice for my little girl to have a family again." "Have real live brothers and sisters at last." "But if you could just have a little word with them about making her more welcome." "This is all wrong." "I've sinned against a woman who did nothing to deserve it." "I was willing." "I am willing." "James..." "She's only four months in her grave." "You still love her." "The children.." "She's dead." "Their mother's dead." "Death has no power over love." "Love me." "I'm here." "I'm alive." "Love me." "Love my baby." "Our baby." "We can start again." "God has blessed us, see?" "I can't marry again so soon." "I won't show until the summer." " We can wait until then." " When will you understand?" "I can't do this to my children." "You're letting your children stand in the way of our happiness?" " Mam?" " Hush now." "Can we go home?" "This is home." "I'll make sure of it." "Now listen to me, Isabella, there's a sickness coming to this house, my love." "But it'll not come for you." "Even if you start to feel a little bit poorly, don't you worry." "You will get better." "And afterwards nobody will look down their nose at us again." "Cos your mam knows just what she's doing." "There's nothing happens unless it's God's will on this Earth." "But it's been hard, Maggie." "Hard and lonely." "Mary Ann..." "Made it very clear nursing her own dying mother was beneath her." "Not heard a word from her since." "She means no harm, you know that." "She's just..." " ... never resting." " Hm." "Always looking for the next thing." "Will you come in for a brew?" "Aw, thank you, but there's sickness at my brother's, so..." "I'm frightened on account of the bairn, Maggie." "I don't know why, but..." "I keep thinking I should have kept Isabella by me." "A child needs her mother, Mr Stott." "You know that." "Helen, thank God you're here." "These two will keep safer away from home." "God willing, we may yet nurse the sick ones through." "I wanted to nurse them all myself." "I told him I'm perfectly capable." "You've enough worries, Mrs Mowbray, with your own daughter sick, too." "Thank heavens she's not taken it so badly as the rest." "I'll look in again tonight." "Isabella?" "Say thank you to the nice doctor." "Thank you, Doctor." "Hey." "Will I get sick like Elizabeth?" "No." "Not if you do exactly as I say." "Just a tiny drop now." "Tiny." "Just to show willing." "That's enough." "Good girl." "Putrid fever, possibly typhus." "It's always hard to say with certainty." "I've lost so much already." "As to that, we're all in God's hands." "You're fortunate in having a fine nurse to look after them." "Isabella, no!" "What are you doing?" "This is for the others, not you." "I'm so thirsty." "It's all right, your mam's here." "Nothing can harm you, nothing." "But you have to do exactly as I say." "Here, here." "Oh, sweet Jesus, what have I done?" "Hey, you're all right." "Isabella, it's all right." "Shush..." "Come on." "Good girl." "Elizabeth, James... and Isabella." "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." "They're in Heaven now." "We'll see them there one day." "You might." "Everyone goes to Heaven who's good." "You may start out ever so good... you can't keep it up." "Things happen." "Mistakes get made." "And you're too far in to come out." "Are you good, William?" "Not very." "Shall we try?" "From this day forward... shall we be different?" "Shall we be good every day?" "Isabella Mowbray, aged nine." "Wasn't supposed to happen." "Five pounds ten and six." "Boo." "Why aren't you working?" "Buried my wife." "Moved on." "I visit the boneyard when I can." "Put flowers for her, you know?" "Keep her tidy." "I used to think you were making her up to get shot of me." "No." "I was never that good a liar." "What do you remember of her?" "Her voice." "Her smile." "I remember nothing." "When you've lost as many as I have, they all get mashed up into one big empty whole, where there's no voices and no smiles." "And nothing to mark their passing." "Just now I can still see Isabella." "But even she's fading." "Fading away." "I used to know how to put a smile on that sad face." "I'm a different person now." "Oh, right." "Lady Muck?" "Married to your shipwright?" "By heck, Mary Ann..." "Here." "I'm working at West Auckland colliery these days." "Stopping at Johnson Terrace." "Landlady by the name of Mrs Shaw." "I'll not be a coalminer's lass for as long as I live." "There's not a woman alive, but she wants better than that." "I will love her children as my own." "I will be a mother to them all." "Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honour and keep her, in sickness and in health, and forsaking all other, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both shall live?" "I will." "Did the old man put you up to this?" " He's your dad." " Stepdad." "And now he's as good as blaming me for not nursing my mam right?" "Wish I'd not named the baby after the old fool now." "The cheek of it." "He lost a wife he loved." "And a granddaughter." "He loved that child, Mary Ann." "And I didn't?" "I'm her mother." "It's not a competition." "I'm just saying maybe you need each other, you and your dad." "Oh, put that face away." "I'll go and see him." " Show him I've turned over a new leaf." " Oh, you and your new leaves." "Have you got enough for a new tree yet?" "Spit it out." "My sister-in-law died, which accounts for this mourning dress you've not even noticed." "But then, you never ask me, do you?" "You've no interest in my life." "I'm looking after my poor brother and his motherless little lad which means I've had to give up my job and lodgings and work for nothing." "But don't put yourself out to see your dad." "You're right, he'll not welcome you." "No, I must have a much finer batiste, one that will take a light starch." "It's for my son's christening robe." "Certainly, Madam." "You'll do to settle your earlier bill first if you don't mind, Mrs Robinson." "I don't mind saying I don't like your tone." "Seven pounds, six shillings and fourpence." "Or if you'd rather, I could call on your husband." "Ten and six?" "That was good lace." "Now, my mother's first wedding ring." "Go on." "Same rule, mind." "Not a word to Father." "Here's a ha'penny for yourself." "You sent my son to the pawnbroker?" "No." "Only once or twice." "And only to pawn things of mine." "And he wasn't supposed to tell anyone." "You made an innocent child pawn his dead mother's lace." "That was meant for the sister that he's lost." "I'll make it up to you." "I will." "It's here in black and white." "£50 missing from my account." "I only borrowed it." "I'll pay you back." "It's not even about the money." "Do you feel nothing?" "Oh, don't cast me out." "I must have done something very wicked in my life." "After everything that I have lost already to deserve now to be tied in wedlock to a liar." "And a thief." "Your sainted mother doesn't need lace, does she, where she's gone?" " I don't know." " You little sneak." "Hanging round me, sucking up, getting under my feet." "Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky!" "You couldn't wait to tell him, could you?" "It doesn't matter what I do, how hard I try, it's never good enough for your sort." "Wait, won't you?" "Why won't you wait?" "Oh, God..." "Please can we go to the police?" "A woman leaves the house with her own babe-in-arms." "What crime has been committed?" "She said her name was Mowbray, but I distinctly heard the doctor call her Mrs Ward." "How many husbands before you, James?" "And how many children?" "I can't stop thinking about what happened to them." "She'll bring the baby home." "She's nowhere else to go." "I'd have said the same an' all." "Merry Christmas, Dad." "Have you missed me?" "Can't say I have, Mary Ann." "I named him George, after you." "It's good to be home." "I can't find anything in this place any more." "Aye, I'm not much of a housekeeper, pet." "You should get yourself married again, Dad." "I can't be stuck here looking after you." "I'm a married woman myself." "Your mother's dress?" "It'll do for clearing up in." "You're the image of her." "I can't go back to my husband with my fine dress in rags, Dad." "Get a bit of sleep, do a bit of mending." "Turn up on the doorstep good as new and show him what he's been missing." "And he'll forgive me. 'Course he will." "If you could just see your way to lending me a bit of money... so I can pay him back what I owe." "James?" "James!" "Are you there?" "Come to the door." "There's nobody here." "She's won." "His sister's won." "You know her address?" "How can I live?" "Where will I go?" "Oh, God in Heaven, don't do this to me..." "Hey, calm yourself." "You're a grown woman." "Where does Helen live?" "Darlington Avenue." "No.38." "He wants feeding." "I'm leaving." "I've had enough." "Mary Ann!" "The baby!" "Where are you going?" "Mary Ann!" "You get back here now!" "James?" "Who's there?" "Helen?" "Dear God!" "Oh..." "Oh, God be praised." "Take him inside, keep him warm." "Mary Ann?" "Mary Ann, are you there?" "Hello, Fred." "Don't you remember me?" "Mary Ann?" "God, you look frozen!" "Bring her in, Fred, do." "You're just in time for your tea, isn't she, Fred?" "You remember Mary Ann?" "Shove up, Charlie, and make some room." "And Fred, put some coal on the fire, for God's sake." "We had cross words last time we met, Maggie." "And I'm sorry." "I've forgotten it already." " All I wanted was to make him happy." " And he shut the door in your face?" "Turns out you're the one got the happy family." "Without even trying." "Mm, I did." "My brother needed the help, and the lad needed a woman in the house and for all my grumbling it turns out I like it, too." "A lot." "Until Fred marries again." "I worry for you, Maggie." "I worry he'll wake up one day and remember he needs more from a woman than a sister can give him." "He's not like that." "They're all the same, love." "You don't know them like I do." "Only interested in one thing." "Watch..." "Oh, sorry, Fred." "You'll soon be fed up with me getting in your road." "Oh, don't let me drop it in your lap." "See?" "First sniff of a skirt and he'll be off." "Oh, now." "Don't go catching my gloomy mood." "Why don't you let me make you a nice cup of tea?" ""If I take the wings of the morning..." ""and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea..." ""even there shall thy hand lead me." ""And thy right hand shall hold me." ""If I say..." ""surely the darkness shall cover me."" "The darkness..." "Quiet now." "It's you..." "_" "I believe that's mine." "Ha'way!" "Let's get cracking." "Right, prepare to be beaten." "Here we go..." "Are you lost, love?" "We're looking for Johnson Terrace." "There we go!" "It's this one here." "Well, I've lived in worse." "And better." "Moved around a lot, then?" "Lived seven lives." "I was a nurse when I was single." "Earning my own money." " Sometimes I think I was better off..." " You could go mad, thinking." "And you'd not be without them, really, your husband and that lovely boy." "Stepson." "It's not the same." "You're honest, at least." " I'm next door when you need me." " Thank you, Sarah." "That you, Fred?" "He's busy making friends with the bottom of a pint pot." "It's you." "Here we go, here we go..." "It's not bad." " I always knew you'd follow me." " Mm." " I just thought it'd be sooner." " It was nowt to do with me." "Fred came home one day and said West Auckland were hiring." "Right." "And you said," ""No, no." "I don't fancy the sound of that at all."" "I never knew a lass for taking risks like you do." "I never take risks." "I always know exactly what I'm doing." "Four husbands now, Mrs Cotton." "Before the law and in my heart, I'm still Mrs James Robinson." "They can send you to prison for bigamy, Mary Ann." "They can send you to prison for a lot of things, but they have to catch you first." "Come here." "Don't shame me here, Joe." "Let me start over." "You'll be my dark secret." "My dark angel." "Don't you move an inch." "I've enough to do." "For every requisite you could possibly need, Mrs Cotton," "Tommy Riley's at your service." "I'll just take a pint of soft soap for now." "And half a pound of washing soda." "I'll open you an account." "Washing day, is it?" " As to that, it's never-ending." " Hm." "Let's see..." "Oh, come in." " When you think back..." " Oh, I don't." "I'd go mad." "... to when we were girls, though," " and all we thought about was..." " When will we be married." " Didn't understand a thing, did we?" " No." "Ee, come on." "Don't be shy." "He'll be hungry." "He's always hungry." "I've nothing for him." "Go on next door." "There's some scones in a tin with the Queen on." "His mother died?" "Fred's sister went to look after them." "My whole life, Maggie was my best friend." "She took me in when I was desperate." "Then she died, too." "I was there." "I watched her die." "It's the Lord's way who lives, who dies." "Mustn't blame yourself, love." "The thing is, I loved her." "I loved Maggie." "And I don't love him." "Comfort yourself." "You did a good deed in a hard world." "Would you mind, Sarah, keeping an eye?" "I don't like to ask, but..." "'Course I'll mind the lad." "It'll be a pleasure." "To think... you said you'd never be a miner's lass." "I'll be your lass, Joe." "Here in the woods, where nothing's real and anything's possible." " But in the real world..." " You don't like the real world." "... it's nothing but husbands and children and slavery." "You should try my job, love." "You men work long hours, I know that." "But then you go home and it's over." "It's never over for your wives." "The cooking and the washing and the cleaning." "The demands that never stop, day in, day out." "And the moaning and the nagging..." "If we'd met sooner... me and you..." "Don't pretend you'd have married me, Joe." "I might yet." "I've two husbands living already." "And if you were free... you'd bite my hand off." "Oh, thank God you're here." " What's going on?" " It's Fred." "Fred, what's going on?" "They brought him back from the pit like this." " Fred, stop this nonsense now!" " I've sent for the doctor." "We've had a collection for you." "Everyone gave something." "You're among friends here." "Thank you, Mrs Hedley." "You be a good lad for your mam now." "So Tommy Riley will sell me to the workhouse for the sin of losing my husband." "Don't be daft." "You're not going to the workhouse." "You're just asking him for help you're entitled to." "Taking poor relief off the Board of Guardians is nothing to be ashamed of." "You don't believe that, and neither do I." "Oh, I don't know why you have to be so proud." "You didn't wish the poor man dead." "No, I didn't." "That's it exactly, I didn't wish for it." "I did nothing wrong." "I hadn't finished with him, but Fred still died and I did nothing wrong." "None of us has power over life and death, love." "There speaks a woman who never gave birth." "You could always come in with me." "That water's filthy." "And all you've done is look at it." "I'll smell sweet as roses come bedtime." "Come here." "Hey... what?" "If she's not shouting, she's crying." "You, here." "It's everything I ever wanted." "Sometimes, love... you mystify me." "Mrs Cotton." "One and six pence from the parish for the child." " Sign here, please." " Thank you, sir." "I know it doesn't go very far these days." "My account at the shop, I know, Mr Riley." "I will pay it." "So if you're looking to earn some money..." "Mr Quick-Manning is the excise officer for the brewery." "Does the sums for them." "The clever stuff." "He's asking for an hour's nursing, twice daily." "Offering two shillings a week." "Hello?" "Mr Quick-Manning?" "Are you there?" "Have you read all these books?" "Maybe half of them." "You want the job, it's yours." "I'll have no arguments, however much stronger you claim you're feeling." "Beef tea, and there's a bap with calves foot jelly." "How she loves to tell a man what to eat." "What to drink, what to do." "It's the natural order of things with nurses and patients." "With men and women, too." "Just the same." "I await orders." "Found this one, Mrs Edwards." "Running away so he says." "Ee, you little tinker." "Hey... you're all right." "Hey." "Come away now, this minute." "Come on." "You've no idea what it's like in there." "The way some people live." "He's got books on every wall." "Sergeant Hutchinson found your Charlie running away from home." " You little devil!" " Don't!" "Mary Ann, stop it!" "All you had to do was knock and you know I'd have minded him." "I know how hard this life is for you, love, I do know." "How could you know?" "You were born to it." "It's all wrong for me." "Well, now there's a sight to welcome a good man home." "Don't come near me, black as you are." "Right." "Well, erm..." "I'll be happy to have my bath, but... you've nay hot water on." "And nowt cooking either, so... what you been doing all day, woman?" "Run your own bath, cook your own tea." "I'm going to work." "You know, you were kinder once." " Let me past." " Or what, eh?" "What?" " What will you do to me?" " Don't you dare hurt me." "But that's what you want, isn't it?" "Eh?" "To rile me so much, I'll hurt you." "And then you'll have several more reasons to tell all the world how bloody miserable your life is." "Did you ever read a book, Joe?" "Did you hear that, lad?" "A man should have book learning." "Or he's no more than a beast in a cage." "Slowly." "I said slowly." "Do as you're told." "Do exactly as you're told." "I always thought I'd die down the pit." "Like my dad." "I thought he was a publican." "My real dad." "Put him in a wheelbarrow." "They brought him home to my mam in a sack labelled" ""Property of South Hetton Coal Company."" "I was eight years old." "I said then I'll never be a miner's lass as long as I live." "Once you had me... you didn't want me... did you, love?" "Here." "Have a drop more of this tea." " Aunty Sarah?" " Yes?" "Can I come to live with you?" "Sarah!" "Sarah, come and help me!" "Oh, come on." "Help me calm him, help me calm him." "Get off me!" "All right, it's all right..." "You're all right." "Ssh..." "Ssh..." "It's only two penny's worth, sir." "It's against the law, lad." "You know what that means?" "We'd all go to prison." "Me, you, and your mam." "Me mam's dead, sir." "Pharmacy Act, 1868." "Only persons of mature years personally known to the shopkeeper..." "See how much use he is?" "He can't even run a simple errand." "You can't send a child for arsenic." "He's got an uncle in Ipswich, but the man won't take him." "Mr Riley, please, I'm at the end of my tether." "Write me an order to put the boy in the workhouse." "Only if you go to the workhouse with him." "That's how it works." "I've an opportunity in life, Mr Riley." "A good one." "Respectable." "Seems I did you a favour there." "I hope I did Mr Quick-Manning one." "No matter." "The Cottons are not a long-lived family." "The child will be gone soon and when I'm free to be with you all the time, we can read together." "I can read." "I can." "Where's the harm in wanting to improve myself?" "I don't need a nurse now I'm back to work." "If I need a housekeeper," "I will obviously look for a woman without family." "Leave the key on your way out." "You don't mean that." "Not now we're gonna have a little baby." "It's well-known you had a domestic arrangement with a pitman." "He was just a lodger." "He's dead." "And my husband, he's dead." " What do you mean it's well-known?" " Give me the key." "What do you mean?" "Blame the child on your pitman, Mrs Cotton, if you can." "Unless you want the whole village to know you had two men in your bed before your husband was cold in his grave." "I'll make cakes for you." "And there'll be apples." "Trips to the seaside." "We'll show them how happy two people can be." "Mrs Cotton." "My boy's dead." "Tom." "I should have seen it." "I didn't believe it." " Oh, God, Tom." " What?" "Something you've never dreamt of in this world." "I won't be able to issue a death certificate, Mrs Cotton, not till I've done a post mortem examination." "And then there'll be an inquest, you see, before the coroner." "To establish the cause of death." "Mrs Cotton, do you understand what I'm saying to you?" "The coroner says it was death by natural causes." "Hm." "Didn't I say so?" "Dr Kilburn told him Charlie died of gastroenteritis." "Come here." "It's over." "If I'd had been given more time" " ... to examine the body..." " You should've got up earlier." "If the inquest was this afternoon instead of this morning..." "Well, I'd like to think you'll apologise but I'll not hold my breath." "Mrs Cotton, you'll be glad to be able to bury the poor mite." "I'll be glad when the parish does it for me." "For I've no money to do it myself." "Not since the doctor refused me a death certificate." "When he knows I can't get the life insurance without it." "That's four pound ten I'm missing." "I've a sore throat with the worry." "The least you could do is attend to me, Dr Kilburn." "Find another doctor, madam." "And another grocer." "And another lot of neighbours." "Look at them." "They know what you are." "We all know." "Dr Kilburn." "Gastroenteritis?" "Bloody rubbish." "I sold her the arsenic myself." " I found no conclusive evidence." " Look again, Dr Kilburn." "I..." "I've never begged for anything in my life but, so help me, I'm begging you now." "She killed that child." "Now, I can't prove it... but you can." "There is one more test I can try." "So many children." "And they die whatever I do." "Whether I am bad or I am good." "They die all the same." "I should leave West Auckland." "And let the busybodies win?" "But where would I go?" "And besides..." "Another baby?" "Oh, Mary Ann." "It's good news." "My life's starting over." "I really believe that." "Arsenic." "Mary Ann Cotton, I'm arresting you on suspicion of murder." "No, leave her alone." "Hasn't she had enough trouble?" "Come quietly now." "Come on." "_" "_" "It's the wrong name." "I told you, it's the wrong name." "Mary Ann Cotton." "Not Robinson." "Cotton." "Oh, God." "She's had another baby." " It's the wrong name." " In prison." "She'll stand trial with a new babe in arms." "She looked after Joe." "She nursed him." "She loved him." "She'd never have hurt him." "She gave him drinks of tea and held him." "Held him down." "The fits, you see." "He had these terrible fits." "Did you see anyone other than Mrs Cotton give him anything to eat or drink?" "I was there when he died." "Did you ever see?" "Never." "She nursed him alone." "Oh, you're so clever." "Tell me this." "Why?" "Why would she want to hurt any of them?" "We don't have to worry too much about why, Mrs Edwards." "Some days I hardly know why I get up in the morning." "All the law wants to know is... did she do it on purpose?" "We're going to have to dig them all up." "Found guilty." "May God have mercy on her black soul." "I saw the newspaper." "You'll not answer it?" "James, don't." "She's to hang in a fortnight." ""I wish to know if you will let me see the three children as soon as possible." ""Bring them if you can."" ""I must tell you, you were the cause of all my trouble." ""That when you closed the door, I had no-one." ""And I think if you have one spark of kindness in you," ""you will try to get my life spared."" "He knows full well..." "I'm still legally Mrs Robinson until the day I die." "Did you get a reply?" "He's turned his back on me too." "The other one, Quick-Manning," "I wrote to him." "I told him his daughter was come." "It's their loss." "Do you know how many people applied to adopt her?" "A hundred." "Every one of them knows I'm innocent as the day is long." "A hundred?" "Mary Ann, please God you've no changed your mind." "You're the one stuck by me, Sarah." "I'll bring her up in the fear of God, so help me." "You promise me... you'll never let Riley come near where she is." "Never, never." "And if she needs the doctor... some other man, not Kilburn." "I promise." "Her name is Margaret Edith Quick-Manning." "You will see her again... at God's right hand," "where there is no more pain." "Have I not always tret you like you were me own child?" "I'll not deny it." "Then for the sake of the love I've borne you, tell us the truth now." "They'll not hang me anyway." "They'll not hang a mother." "What about your poor mother?" "Thank God, I hope she is in heaven." "If it was all because you'd never had a dad..." "He was a fool." "Getting himself killed and leaving us all alone." "Because of all the poor babies you buried in Cornwall and after." "All women bury babies." "Why then?" "You're trying to find reasons for something that didn't happen." "Answer me this instead." "What did you want of us all, Mary Ann?" "Just what every woman wants." "More." "More than what?" "More than coal dust and childbirth... and men who think saying I love you is enough." "More than this world can give me." ""My dear friend..."" "Who's that?" ""I think it is my duty to write you a few lines" ""and let you know how your little baby is getting on." ""Poor little thing." ""It had a pretty bad night but a better day." ""But you must not let it trouble your mind," ""for it will be all right by God's help." ""I may just say..." ""my husband hopes we will all meet in a better world." ""I did one good thing in my life."" "Stand her up." "Arms straight." "I said arms straight." "Heaven is my home." "_" "_" "_" "_" "_"