"Why would someone dig up De La Warr's body?" "Why?" "We know why." "The map." "It was never discovered." "There were only ever rumours such a map existed." "And that De La Warr had it." "Whoever was digging believed there was such a map." "What did you see, Dr Priestly?" "No more than a shape." "He ran off when he heard me coming." "And what were you doing out here?" "I couldn't sleep." "I was simply walking about to pass the night away." "You knew the man, Governor." "Did De La Warr ever speak to you about purchasing a map from the Portuguese as to where the gold mines were located?" "Never." "But that does not mean he didn't have it, as I'm sure you're aware." "Michaelmas, when De La Warr's body arrived here, where did it lie?" "Well, he had been dead at sea for some time." "His body was laid to rest with some haste." "It lay overnight in the church?" "The doctor's apothecary." "The question, gentlemen, is not why?" "The question is, who amongst us choose this moment to undertake such a perilous and treacherous business as digging up a man's body that he might discover the Portuguese gold map?" "De La Warr was returning as governor?" " But died at sea." " Do I understand correctly?" "If gold were to be found, then it would belong to the Company?" "If it were discovered by a man employed or tenured at the Company, then yes." "Why was De La Warr's body not searched before it was buried?" "Jocelyn, you do seem rather exercised by the map." "Do I?" "I might say that you do not seem exercised enough, Samuel." "Isn't that why every man is here?" "To make his fortune?" "The map's existence did not emerge until after De La Warr was buried." "And Secretary Farlow insisted that De La Warr be buried with all haste." "Farlow?" "Did he?" "Then once he was laid to rest," "Reverend Whitaker, of course, forbade any disturbance of the grave." "Did he?" "Didn't I say we should take a troupe into the mountains?" "Why prevent me?" "Would you hunt for gold without a map?" "In those mountains?" "Like every other clay-brained failure has?" "To hell with the map." "Gold is for fools." "You show me one man rich in this country from gold, huh?" "Land." "Land is how fortunes are gonna be made here." "Land and tobacco." "Henry Sharrow was given all the land a man might wish for and yet on his very first day of a freedom what did he do?" "He went upriver." "How could Henry Sharrow get his hands on the map?" "Could he not have procured it from a sailor who travelled on the same ship where De La Warr's body lay?" "Perhaps he waited till any treasure that he might collect would be his alone." "If he had gone after it earlier, it would have been yours, Master Massinger." "My life's cursed with Sharrows." "It in't land no more." "It's a farm." "It's not a farm." "It's our farm." "In't it time you two were to be married?" "It is, Pepper." "It surely is." "I'd like to congratulate Silas and Alice Sharrow, on behalf of myself and my wife, on behalf of the Virginia Company." "You are what this colony needs most: farmers... families and marriage." "I was walking last night because I can't understand myself." "I failed to tell Samuel that I visited you in the night." "But our encounter was innocent." "Wasn't it?" "Yes, that's true, of course, but still... it's too late to tell him now." "Then it is our secret." "She oozes sex." "Her every word is tainted with trouble." "Do you suppose they're dabbling?" "The man is damned with devotion for her." "If we ruin her, we'd ruin her husband." "The recorder would not concern himself with what might lie in the Company's accounts if he has more craven matters to worry himself with." "Accusations don't make a man crack." "But evidence will." "We need a spy in her household." "Samuel?" "If Farlow has the map, is it not your duty to discover it?" " Why would you believe he has it?" " Well, look at him." "Malt worm." "He insisted that De La Warr was buried before anyone else could find it." "Considered it safe under the ground until such a time as he might use it." " Jocelyn, isn't this rather...?" " Good day." "Now Yeardley is here and Farlow's position is perilous, so he feels he must retrieve it." "Really, my dear, please." "You must search for it." "As the recorder you go into Farlow's home and the governor has asked you to monitor him." "Do you not appreciate yet how dangerous these men are?" "I will not do such a thing." "Drunkenness is a virtue." "It heats the liver." "A hot liver makes a man a man." "In't that so, Silas, eh?" "If you ask any woman what they want, do you want a man with a hot liver or a fellow with cold hands?" "Now, where's my hot-livered man?" "Get..." "Bloody hell." "Find the map, my sweet." "Good luck." "Mistress Castell." "Just the person." "Do you no longer possess the ability to knock on a door, Castell?" "Secretary, I have made ready the records of the new land boundaries for you to inspect and sign." "Hm." "Would a convivial afternoon of embroidery not introduce a welcome touch of female civility to the settlement?" "Perhaps you would like to join us, Mistress Castell?" "You've stirred my imagination with such a proposal, Lady Yeardley." "Stump work." "Could there possibly be a better way for a woman to dispose of a day?" "I thought we might depict the planting of the very first cross in Virginia." "I am tottering with excitement, Lady Yeardley." "Excuse me." "Well, my dear?" "Farlow was scribbling away intently as I walked in on him." "When I looked, the page was utterly blank." " He must have been using artichoke ink." " What's artichoke ink?" "It appears invisible unless you hold a flame beneath the paper." " How do you know such things?" " You must obtain the paper, Samuel." "How I am to get it?" "Dearest, you take it." "You pick it up and you steal it." "These papers, my dear, might lead us to the map." "How's that brew, for you, lover?" "Strong enough?" "Oh, when a man needs to drink as mine does, a good woman should take a care to always have a strong ale at hand." ""Needs to drink!" Did you hear that?" "Did you hear that, boys?" "What use is a man with a toothache when he's got a wench?" "I-I would say that any harping cock who prefers ale to some female pleasures is a man who needs a drink." " What do you say, lads?" " I could stop if I wanted." "I just don't want to." "Oh, and which one of you men believes him, huh?" "There." "The beer is down." "Oh, that's not stopping." "That is pausing." "You think I can't stop?" " How long?" " A month." " Hm." "I'll prove you wrong, woman." " Swear it." " You swear off for one month." "I, Meredith Rutter, herby avow and attest..." "Not one drop." "...that I shall not touch one drop for the whole of a month." "Then you won't be needing this." " Shut up!" "There was an Englishman came this way last year." "Jacob Breerling." "He forced himself on a girl." "They peeled the skin from his body with oyster shells as he burned alive." "The women do it." "It took three days for him to die." "I've lived without a woman most of my life." "I can do it again." "That same man told me De la Warr returned to Jamestown a year ago." "He had a map obtained from the Portuguese with two gold mines pricked down on it." "Do you suppose I have the map, Davie?" "You're heading for the mountains." "No intention of turning back." "Suppose that same man, Breerling, suppose he took the map." "Then suppose that's why he were here." "Suppose that's why he were killed." "If I had a map, would I be sitting here now?" "I ain't arguing with you, Davie." "I'm just taking it in." "But you ain't believing me, neither." "This world taught me one thing:" "there ain't no benefit in believing any man alive." "What a great blemish it is upon our settlement such a fate should become of a man's grave." "It is, Mistress Castell." "It is." "What kind of a horn beast would do such a thing to Lord De La Warr?" "He was a friend of mine." "I served him as the Master of the Arms." "Governor, might I ask, if the foul worm that did this is caught, will he be hanged?" "He surely will." "Governor, if there is gold to be found, should we not seek it out?" "Don't let these matters disturb your dainty mind, Jocelyn." "But there have been expeditions?" "Oh, yes." "A ship carrying precious dirt that was sure to yield a high percentage of gold was sent back to England by Captain Christopher Newport." "It was analysed by London's best assayers and in testing... pfft!" "It turned to vapour, no gold." "Farming, Jocelyn, is our best hope." "But gold is so much more thrilling, don't you think?" " Farming!" "Woo her." "Woo her?" "Woo her." "Ain't you the prettiest thing?" "I can't keep my eyes off you." "Pretty?" "Better than pretty." "Beautiful." "I have water." "So I see." "I must take the water back." "Let me carry it for you." "I ain't never been beautiful before." "Your brother." "There's, er..." "There's talk he might have had the map." "Well, if he did, sir, I didn't see it." "Your field's coming along." " It is, sir." " You've planted more than I expected." "Because we've worked the day long." "If Henry did have the map, then, er, it died with him." "He might have been the stronger brother, but you've turned out to be the wiser." "I mean, this here, this here..." "This is better than any gold." "And you know it." "And I know it." "Is that why Henry was in a hurry to go upriver?" "He believed that Governor Yeardley had come back for the gold." "He was sure of it." "Burning with the idea of it." " Mm." " That's what drove him up there." "Mm." "This shoe is loose, Read." "Fitted it well enough." "I think if you look, you'll see that the shoe is loose." "I know what a loose shoe looks like." "Mind your tongue, Read." "I'm a free man." "And I am the governor." "You will do well to value my favour." "Why should I?" "You favour some better than others." "When Henry Sharrow died, I had a fair claim on that maid, but you favoured Silas." "What's got into you, man?" "I have no use for authority if authority chooses to spit on me." "I will have you lashed!" "All my life I had a master." "Now I have a mistress." "I do like it." "What's she like, then?" "Oh, you can see how clever a God is when a woman is so beautiful as Mistress Castell." "A maid must hear all kinds of things." "Er, I hear noises at night." "Your tongue is in my mouth." "Don't you feel no desire?" "Don't you like it?" "My own tongue is in there." "Don't tell your mistress about us." "Understand?" "The doctor... he do seem fond of her." "Er, he do." "Ev-Everyone do." " Well, is she fond of him?" " Oh, they have a secret." "What's that, then?" "I don't know cos it is a secret." "Do they meet?" "Er, he came to see her in the night." "Look." "There's Pepper." "I do like Pepper." "He gave me a stone." "I do like my stone." "It was like kissing a fish." "A dead fish." "I'd rather kiss a dead fish." "You're a handsome dog, Bailey." "You can stir the lass to life." "It is not enough for us to know that the doctor went to visit Mistress Castell at night." "We need to know when they plan to meet up again." "Where's your usual bravado today, Rutter?" "Ha." "Sir." "My poison headache hurts worse than my throat." "And my throat has a greater torment than my guts." "And my guts are screaming that I might die." "But all of them ain't nothing to the affliction in my soul." "The world is a place made of the sharpest claws, sir, for a sober man." "You're a thief!" "And a liar!" "Stealing into a man's home!" "You have known me these years, sir." "I have never been a man of fierce temper." "I am a man who's possessed by jealousy because I was denied my desire to marry the maid, Mistress Kett." "That is not the matter at hand here." "You struck the governor." "Wasn't it you who encouraged me, Marshal?" "Wasn't it Secretary Farlow who gave me reason to believe my plea might be recognised?" "You were not invited to speak on these affairs." "You laid blows onto the head of our colony." "That is an offence punishable by hanging." "Now mark this." "James Read, you stand convicted, so be taken to the gallows this day and by the rope around your neck your life will be taken from you." "God have mercy upon his soul." "The law doesn't know mercy." "The law knows only justice." "Sir?" "Sir?" "Won't you spare the man?" "Ain't he been alone all these years." "Any man might..." "Idiots!" "The rope is too long." "Just leave him." "He will die soon enough." "Governor Yeardley, sir." "Since I played my part in James Read's troubles..." "It's too late for appeasing words." "The man struck me." "But Governor, who will shoe your horse when the blacksmith is hanged?" "Hold." "Hold fast!" "James Read, God has seen fit to give you a second chance." "If you are willing to show contrition and obedience, you might be spared." "I..." "I am truly sorry for all the harm that I've caused you and the Company... and our glorious King." "Take him down." "Come with me, James." "I will put some balm on your neck, man." "I love you." "Ma'am?" "W-what is desire?" "I-Is it, is it what I hear at night?" "There are times that you forget your place." "You must not talk to your mistress in this way." "But why do you ask?" "Has a young man caught your eye?" "Was it the boy that gave you the stone?" "Oh, no, ma'am." "It's the boy who kissed me, but I didn't feel no desire." "Well, I'm glad to hear that you were not tempted." " Who is this boy?" " Er, Bailey, ma'am." "He's in the militia." "He's handsome, but I think he's ugly." "Oh, I wasn't supposed to tell you about him." "I forget what I am to say and what I'm not to say." "Boys will want to keep liaisons concealed if their intentions are indecent." "Well, he said it was our secret." "Like your secret with the doctor." "This boy said that your secret was like my secret?" "Yes, ma'am." "What makes him believe I have such a secret?" "Oh, I told him." "This measel of a boy, Bailey, asked you questions about me and you told him?" "Ye-Yes, ma'am." "Did he say why he wanted this intelligence?" "Who for?" " Secretary Farlow?" "Marshal Redwick?" " Er, I-I can't remember, ma'am." "I was thinking about his tongue in my mouth." "You do realise, girl, that to give information, private information, you have put me in danger." "I only said that the doctor come to see you at night is all." " Get out of my house." "Now!" "Will you never stop with your bibble-babble?" "You will not remain in my home a moment longer." "Do you hear me?" "Get out of my house!" "Inside there, swords are clashing." "100 men screaming, thousands." "There's cannons." "Muskets." "What is a man to do when his own skull is full of war?" "How long has it been?" "Two days." "The pain of it will pass." "Oh, yeah?" "Then what will I be left with?" "Come on to bed." "No." "I shall wander the night." "I've come to ask for my stone back." "You wouldn't have searched through my belongings if you had the map." "You don't have it, either." "I know that much." "You might have believed me when I told you." "Better I find out for myself." "You do have precious rocks." "They were given to me." "You must know where you're headed." "I could kill you, Davie." "And I'd just take your boat." "Then why don't you?" "I wanna know where them rocks are from." "The girl's crying on the street." "Mercy's been with me since I arrived here." "The child offended me." "I will not have her anywhere near me." "What has she done?" "A dalliance." "What will the neighbours think if my maid is with a young man?" "I will put a stop to it." "She loves you, Jocelyn." "Give her a chance." "Let her come back in." "We'll not find another maid out here." "We would have to have one sent over from England and that could take months." "Mercy, you must never see this boy again." "Do you understand?" " Let me hear you say it." " I will never see him again." "If he's on the street, I shall close my eyes." "Just don't speak with him or walk alone with him." "I am sorry, ma'am." "I am truly sorry, ma'am." "I am sorry with all my heart, ma'am." "Oh, for goodness' sake, girl, get out of my sight." "Jocelyn..." "These papers." "Did you...?" "Please tell me you didn't..." "I had a wife and child." "Died in England." "Our neighbours were searching for me." "So that I might see them before they passed from this world." "They never found me." "Because I spent the whole of the night, drunk beyond my senses, singing in a tavern." "Don't the morning look good shining through the trees." "Is it always like that?" "It is." "Mercy..." "Your young man asked when I might be seeing Dr Priestly." "He did, ma'am, but I didn't tell him." "I didn't know and I still don't know." "I can't see him anyway if I did know." "I want you to take one more walk with him." "But I am forbidden." "But I'm instructing you to see him." "This is what I want you to tell him." "She's with the doctor right now." "At her house..." "Well done, lad." "Farlow, let's away to Castell's house." "Wouldn't it be better if we took the recorder with us?" "We can't wait searching for him." "Might be too late and we'll miss our prize." "Perhaps it will be slake enough for us to catch the harpy in the arms of her lover." "A man can have a small beer." "Who says he can't?" "I proved it that I don't need it." "I like it, that's all." "What kind of woman's world is it when a man can't have a small ale when it suits him?" "Yeah?" "One beer." "Gentlemen." "Do you wish to join us?" "We're making the most wondrous tapestry." "The first cross to be planted on our colony." "Why don't the Indians go after the gold?" "They have a legend passed down." "They believe there's demons in the caves will curse a man with seven deaths." "Creatures will pull a man into a hellish world of chaos." "Then that's to our favour." "We don't know that yet." "You believe there's demons up there?" "I don't doubt it." "If we find gold, demons are sure to appear." "Did they tell you where the caves were?" "Why don't you tell me where you're headed?" "When Newport set out for the mountains, he took with him two goldsmiths, two refiners and a jeweller." "When that jeweller was sick I kept him alive for nine days." "Fed him." "Carried him out of the settlement." "He drew me a map of where they'd been, in the dirt." "As best as he could remember." "That's cast in my mind now." "Then you and I, my friend, we're on our way to meet the demons." "Hmm." "How soon until it's dark?" "Hm." "Not soon enough." "Oh, er, ma'am..." "I wasn't expecting, erm..." "God, look at me." "Let me at least wash my face." "Oh, no, no, dear Alice." "I came to see how you were progressing." "It's rather lovely, isn't it?" "All the plants." "In their rows." "And the field." " And your cow." "Hmm." "And the plants." "Well, it's hard work from dawn till dusk, ma'am." "It's inspiring to see, Alice, when the best part of town is exercised by a silly map and the talk of gold." "Ah, it does seem to have bewitch people." "I trust you and Silas will not trouble yourself with such folly." "No, ma'am." "But Silas's brother was under the same spell." "Oh, truly?" "Well, that's why he went upriver in such a hurry." "Cos Governor Yeardley had returned." "But why would the governor's arrival make him do such a thing?" "Well, he was convinced Sir George had come back to seize whatever gold there was to be found." "He knew him from when he was here some years ago." "Oh, I see." "Governor Yeardley." "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth." "Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from labours and their deeds do follow them." "I made a terrible mistake." "I should have told Samuel I came to see you after dark." "Stop this." "We've done nothing wrong." "In my heart I have." "In my soul I betrayed Samuel the first day that I spoke to you." "Because I love you." "Mistress Castell, you seem to have captivated the doctor's attention." "If you did not make such heroic endeavours, Lady Yeardley, to be so meek and mealy mouthed, men might notice that you exist." "Mistress Castell, God is our witness here today." "We are here to consecrate Lord Del La Warr's body." "Please, restrain your tongue." "The Bible tells us a woman is "the weaker vessel,"" "physically, intellectually, morally and even spiritually inferior to a man." "That is why God has given man the right to dominate us." "Then I am certain that you serve as God's greatest example of fobbing womanhood, Lady Yeardley." "I am grateful that Jesus teaches us forgiveness, Reverend." "He does." "And we must." "I do wonder why she came here." "Why a woman such as her might choose to leave behind the ferment of England." "Well, perhaps we could enquire." "I have a cousin well connected in Oxfordshire." "Close to where Mistress Castell comes from." " Perhaps you might write a letter?" " Yes." "I have." "Where's your smiles gone, woman?" "Can your husband not have a beer without you wearing a face like a chicken's arse?" "Seems I have me a man prefers drink to love." "What, you think I can't have a drink and still delight you?" "There ain't much delight in dog's breath and a sorry cock." "I'll show you sorry." "I will be a good wife to you." "But you will be a good husband to me." "Silas?" "Hm?" "Who did this?" "Who would do this to us?"