"A woman might weep for the lack of dancing." "No wonder so many souls perish here." "They expire from tedium." "Samuel, what is it you're doing with those ledgers night after night?" "Governor Yeardley has asked me to, let us say, inspect certain transactions." " Inspect for what?" " There may be some irregularities." "Here?" "Embezzlement in the colony." "I didn't say it was corruption." "We are marooned 1,000 miles from any civilisation." "If I thought my own husband kept himself from me, I could not bear it." "It is delicate Company business." "I would lay awake at night tormented with anguish that the only reason that you do not share the nature of your assignment with your wife is that you might be placed in danger by it." "The Virginia Company struggles to make a credible profit." "Yet the last governor, Argyle, went back to England a wealthy man." "You must promise me, you will not utter a word of this." "How could you think so little of me?" " Where are you going?" "I can't understand why you just can't tell me." "Look at how she speaks to her husband." "She delights in humiliating any man she sets her eyes upon." "Master Castell!" " Marshal." " I wish to address your wife." "Then why ask him when I am right in front of you with ears of my own?" "I possess the grace and courtesy to respect your husband's dominion over you." "I'd advise that you do the same to all men who demand your obedience." "You speak as a man who has not yet appreciated the delights of marriage." "I speak as the marshal." "This settlement rests on order." "We will have it or there'll be consequences." "Do not underestimate my husband, Secretary Farlow." "He's a curious man." "He has an enquiring mind." "Mistress Castell has a fine taste in enemies." "Huh, so it would seem." "It was a terrible sorrow for us all... to lose Henry Sharrow in such a way." "Yes." "A man is granted all the land he could wish for." "His was the prettiest wife to step off that ship." "We weren't married, sir." "A sorrow for you then." "To be robbed of the man you were to marry." "But I have work and shelter." "Perhaps you'd be so kind as to allow me to call on you, Mistress Kett?" "I'm grateful for the consideration of your kind heart, Master Read, but I owe my loyalty to the Sharrows." "A no wrapped in roses is still a no." "Consequences?" "How dare he say such a thing on the street for the entire town to hear." "If you make enemies of men of such power here, they will turn against you." "But don't you see, Samuel?" "You have the governor's favour." "Redwick and that worm Farlow fear you might expose them, so are determined to destroy you." "Jocelyn, please." "You cannot speak of these things so carelessly." "You must take them on, Samuel." "They may be uglier than vultures but they cannot be openly challenged." "Well, if Redwick is not stopped, he will strike again." "One moment, my dear, and we will start home." "He in't sober but five minutes a day." "The time it takes him to get from his morning bed to his bottle." "If you did as you were told, woman, and fetched me my beer," "I wouldn't have them five minutes of misery!" "In't that the picture of a man before us, huh?" "Lying on his bed, craving his grog, like a babe after the tit!" "Mistress Castell said: "You underestimate my husband at your peril"." "He is conducting an investigation." "Castell would only do such a thing on the governor's instructions." "But his wife is altogether a different creature." "Cunning drips from her tongue." "The manner in which she cocks her head, I can't abide it." "She's so... feminine." "We must bring her to heel." "Yeardley would not permit it." "Not a woman in her position." "Not yet." "There was an incident." "In the tavern." "Rutter's wife." "Mocking him, ridiculing him." "Before every man in there she described him as "a babe after the tit"." "Ah!" "If you were to arrest this Verity Rutter... subject her to correction, then she will serve as a warning to Mistress Castell of what we could do to her." "What is it keeping you from your bed, ma'am?" "Thoughts, Mercy." "Leave me alone with them." "Ma'am... you have belladonna." "Just to relieve some pain." "Be careful." "Belladonna can poison." "What pain?" "How can I sleep when there is pain in the house?" "Hush your voice, girl!" "I have taken it before." "Now go back to bed." "Ma'am, if you have pain, then I have pain thinking about your pain." "Mercy..." "Meredith!" "Rutter!" " Oi." " Rutter!" "Oi!" "I have a petition to put before the marshal, if I may." "Henry Sharrow bought himself a maid for marrying." "Since Henry is no longer here to wed her," "I am willing to pay for her transportation and take her on." "Marshal, I wish to marry Mistress Kett." "Are you prepared to meet the cost of her carriage?" "That fee's been paid." "Your brother borrowed 150 pounds of tobacco from Master Massinger." " That debt's not been repaid." " I presumed I might take on the loan." "Do you presume you might do with Master Massinger's assets as you see fit?" "I have here a promissory note." "No!" "I did not invite a woman to address the hearing." "The women are provided by the Company." "I must consult with their agents before I make my ruling." "Verity Rutter." "You scolded your husband, demeaned him with foul tongue." "Sir, to say that a man loves the tit is to dishonour him, then I fear I must slander every man of this world." "Ma'am..." "What are we to do?" "You were kind to me on the ship, Alice." "Women like yourself and Verity Rutter are helpless here." "I am not." "So perhaps I can be of benefit to you now." "Any woman who sees fit to mock her betters will receive this same fate." "You have been brought here as the property of your husbands and you will behave accordingly." "Marshal..." "I appear to have found your glove." "Allow me to return it to you." "Women are new to this place, Alice." "Redwick wants to teach you all to be meek and obedient." "That's all." "The marshal will see in James Read's favour." "I cannot marry him." "Let us take our vows now." "Reverend Whitaker would never defy Redwick." "I will refuse." "Look, let me speak with James Read." "Yes." "He's a reasonable man." "I will curse that man every day of my life until he dies in the mire he deserves." "Hush, Verity." "You've said enough!" "I'm done with beatings of men." "Do you hear me?" "Huh?" "I curse the marshal's vile soul!" "Verity." " In the beginning was the Word..." " You were well enough yesterday." "And the Word was with God and the Word was God." "The same was in the beginning with God." "I heard the maid put a curse upon you, marshal, as she was removed from the stocks." "Reverend, let us take a care not to suggest that this sickness has been caused by charms and spells." "You deny that he was struck down the very night this wretch was punished?" "The same woman does not attend church." "Let me try to treat the sickness, to seek out its cause, before you make such accusations." "Marshal... how did this affliction come upon you?" "The room." "The room did seem to move about me." "A room itself turns about and you attempt, Doctor, to explain it away with medical blasphemy?" "Women." "We've let the wickedness in amongst us." "James." "I would speak with you concerning Mistress Kett." "You may speak as much as you wish, Silas." "It's not you who'll decide." "Have we not known each other these past eight years?" "The harsh times we have lived through together." "Does that not bind us here in brotherhood?" " Brotherhood?" " Fellowship." "So we might resolve our difficulties between us with consideration." "Look at my face." "Look at my hands." "I'm not a man of fine words." "We might stand and talk as companions but then what?" "I will lie by myself tonight." "I watched those maids come down of that ship and walk off with men to their beds." "More women will come." "You can afford to pay for passage." "You'll find your own woman." "I might say the same of you." "I want her." "Hmm." "Can you not see, man, there's no justice in this?" "Yes, I-I see." "You love the maid." "My question for you is when did you fall for her?" "It must torment a man's mind to know that his own brother will be the one to bed his love." "Is that why Henry died?" "Is it?" "Marshal Redwick won't let me treat him properly." "His mind, and that of Reverend Whitaker, is seized with superstition." "Is it not evident the colony will be better without that black dog's soul ruling over it?" "I am a doctor." "I must do my best to tend him and restore him to health." " Why must you?" " The man is suffering." " What would you have me do?" " Leave him to die." "Jocelyn, my dear, I know Redwick has offended you, but to wish him dead?" "Why must we care for those whose purpose is to conquer us?" "Surely it is sound reason to let him die?" "The marshal fell sick in the night and the talk is he is wasting away so fast he won't last the day out." "I skipped all the way to the well!" "You cannot speak like this." "Look what happened when you slandered the marshal." "I hope he spits his guts up for the dogs to feed on." "Why has he fallen sick?" "He was well enough when he spoke by the stocks, when Mistress Castell..." "Perhaps his own soul has turned against him." "What kind of sickness is it?" "An endless agony of retching and shitting and hating every breath he takes." "That's my sweet hope." "I have seen her with my own eyes, out at night, on her own, whispering to the moon." "If there is witchery and we do not suppress it, the King might doubt the governance of this place." "Let me interrogate her." "If there is hellish sorcery, I will uncover it." "Our King has declared it as his own personal mission to cleanse the world of the Devil's women." "I leave it with you, Reverend." "You disapprove, Samuel?" "Sir, Michaelmas Whitaker will find witchcraft whatever the girl says or does." "I'm afraid once Whitaker named the possibility of witchcraft we had no choice but to let him pursue it." " Rutter!" " Oi!" "Here!" "Get your hands of my wife." "You were heard to curse Marshal Redwick." "Well, he's a man who invites cursing." "Sir, Your Honourable Holy Reverendness." "I likes a woman to cuss at me." "I likes her to strike me." "Only shows she loves me if she cares enough to beat me." " You paid for her passage here?" " That I did." "I'm glad of it." "A more devoted woman, a more obedient, reverend maid," "I could not have wished for." " You saved her from prison?" " She was easily misled, that's all." "Are you a thief?" "Where I come from "thief" is just another word for "poor"." "Did you steal a garment of Marshal Redwick's?" "No, I've given up the joys of wearing men's britches." " Will you hold your brazen tongue?" " What?" "Huh?" "They pilloried me already." "So what do I care if they wanna throw me off this arsehole of an island?" "You put me on that ship back to England." "I won't weep a tear." "Did you take a garment of the marshal's?" "Did you prick it with a knife and boil it in feathers and blood?" "Feathers and blood?" "And call out injunctions to bring a sickness upon him?" "Do you think if I had the power to make a man sick that you would be standing here right now?" "Would you dare threaten me?" "If this is a court, then where is your evidence?" "Sit down!" "Yes." "I am a thief, but I am no witch." "Feathers and blood?" "There will be evidence." "There will be the mark." "Will you submit yourself to an examination of your body?" "What, take my clothes off for the likes of you?" "I'd rather swim back to England." "It is not unknown for poison to be poured into a glove, for it to be smeared on the fingers and then swallowed when the victim eats." "When the innkeeper's wife was put into the stocks, the marshal's glove was handed to him with the claim that he had dropped it." "Secretary Farlow, to make such an accusation against the recorder's wife, even it is shown to be false, it could ruin him." "If you should warn him, Dr Priestly, it will be considered an act of treason." "Examine the gloves." "I have a gift for you." "I never had a gift before." "I picked it from the earth." "And I thought of you." "A stone." "I never had a stone before." "It's such a beautiful thing." "Er, I have to get back." "I do like my stone." "I do hope you will sleep tonight, ma'am." "I don't like the thought that you need belladonna." "Mercy?" "You must tell no one of the medicine." "Understand?" "Well, who would I tell, ma'am?" "I ain't no gossip." "I only fret that it is pain that keeps you from sleep, is all." "Pain..." "I wish you to put it out of your mind." "But I can't always keep things out of my mind when they are in there." "Such as belladonna." "Mercy, did I not just tell you?" "Ma'am, I promise to hold my tongue." "Only my tongue has a terrible habit of following my thoughts." "My thoughts have a terrible habit of dwelling." "And if you are dabbling with dangerous medicines, ma'am, that's where they dwell." "I have a token for you, Mistress Kett." "If you'll accept it." " I m'de it for ya." "What joy is there for a man to wake every day and know that the woman beside you despises your every breath?" "If you'd come down off that ship and I was the man waiting for you, wouldn't you look at me differently, Alice?" "You think the worse of me cos of the way things are now but I will win you over." "But what I am doing is no worse than what Silas Sharrow has done." "What do you mean?" "Well, you come here to marry Henry Sharrow." "Henry Sharrow is no more." "What are you saying?" " Henry's death was an accident." " Was it?" "And who was there to see it was a misfortune?" "And who was there to see that it was not?" "He as much as told me." "Killed his brother cos he'd fallen for you." "I don't believe you." "Oh." "But others will." "If I speak out." "You quiet down your defiance and you marry me," "I'll have no cause to speak out, will I?" "I don't believe you." "Then ask him." "Ask your beloved Silas." "Hmm." "Silas, did you... speak with Henry while you were upriver?" "Speak to him about us?" "There's no need for us to trouble ourselves with that now." "Yes." "Of course." "I am sorry I asked." "Alice, I didn't kill Henry." " I awoke." "There was a fire in the boat." "I-I-I might have saved him." "I might have gone to him and helped him." "I could see that he needed me." "He was crying out." "But I didn't." "I watched my brother die." "Hey." "Come with me, Verity." "Sit beside me." "Just let the whole town see your faith." "Didn't Reverend Michaelmas say as much?" "Didn't he question your church-going?" "I wouldn't be on my knees before God, would I?" "I'd be bowing down to the likes of Michaelmas Whitaker and Marshal Redwick." "I have not had a customer for two days." "Jacob?" " No." " In't you coming in today?" "Get rid of the witch!" "Let me fetch you a drink, my old friend." "Live my whole life in fear of a madman." "I'll get the ship home before I do that again." "Peter, Robert, won't you have one of Meredith's best beers today, eh?" "There's not a man in the town who'll talk to me." "Philip Poole!" "Don't walk by." "In't you been in my tavern every day since I opened the door?" "I ain't drinking where she is." "What?" "You think I'm a witch?" " Verity, don't." " Huh?" "You should be afraid." " Argh!" "Mercy." "I'm sorry, sir." "I-I can't seem to get myself up." "Mercy, let me help you." " Mercy..." " I will be well again soon, sir." "God will spare me." "I know he will." "Please, Mercy." "You are getting worse." "You must try the medicine." "I would, sir, but if I do, then it would seem like I don't have enough faith that God will deliver me." "I need Him to know that I trust in Him, then He will spare me." "What is that you have?" "It is a stone, sir." "It was given to me." "There's love in it." "Is it the same sickness has afflicted the marshal?" "It would seem so." "Verity, come and see!" "Look what's happened to Philip Poole." "You're in trouble now." "I..." "I never cursed him." "I never cursed him!" "I was, I was, I was only fooling!" "My brother told us that we had to cross 3,000 miles of ocean to find a better life." "Now here it is and he ain't with us to rejoice in it." "And I'm sorry to hear of your troubles with James Read." "When Marshal Redwick is recovered" "I could ask the governor to speak to him on your behalf." "The marshal will be fortunate if he recovers." "Why do you say that?" "Men beyond number were cut down with the same sickness a few years back." "When first man took sick it didn't matter so much." "Then another man took the fever." "Died the same day." "He had such pains of his body." "Six more died in two days." "And then every day." "But you and your brothers did not grow ill?" "No, Henry took us out of the town." "We stayed by a waterfall." "Took shelter there." "Henry always... always knew what to do to survive." "How is Mercy, sir?" "Is she improving?" "I'm sure she will, Pepper." "She has the stone you gave her." "She was up the night long feeding the medicine to Mercy." "Slowly, Mercy." "Philip Poole died." "We must still find the cause." "There in't no feathers here." "I would know." "I would see 'em." "There in't no blood neither." "Watch my kilns, will you?" "That's barley." "Barley looks like barley, not feathers and blood." "What have you brought to my door, woman?" "You know, they will take you." "They will strip you and they will see the mark." "It is only a mark." "It has always been there, ever since I was a babe." "It means nothing." "You swore that if I ever stole from you that you would tell the marshal." "Will you tell them this?" "My father has the same mark on his chest." "My brother has one on his neck." "Are they witches?" "Will they be searched and hounded and burned alive every time someone gets sick?" "There in't nothing to find here." "There in't no witches here!" "I'm not much of a praying man but I shall pray today." "I shall pray for your soul to be saved, Reverend Michaelmas Whitaker!" "The marshal's militia have been searching the tavern for evidence of witchery." "Verity will be blamed for the sickness." "What you told me on the ship." "About why you left England, about the man who died and then when the marshal insulted you in the street." "And... it's been on my mind." "I've heard that's how... poison can be applied inside of a glove and..." " Forgive me for daring to wonder..." " Say it." "Did you poison the marshal?" "Have you told anyone else your concerns?" "Silas?" "Verity?" "N-No, no, no one, ma'am." "I wouldn't." "I watched you, Alice, in the church when the blacksmith attempted to buy you." "You spoke up for yourself." "And I loved you for it." "Do you know what I saw?" "You love Silas Sharrow and you're willing to fight for that." "To fight to marry the man you love." "But you find yourself at the hands of Redwick and men like him." "I did take the marshal's glove." "Ma'am." "Then I saw Verity in the stocks... and I thought better of it." "I saw all too clearly that men have the law here." "They seek to master us because they desire us beyond their understanding." "Killing one man with poison would not redeem our predicament." "A spot of politicking might." "If we are to be free, we must possess their minds, their souls, their balls." "But, ma'am... what can be done for Verity?" "Men left the town." "The Sharrows stayed by a waterfall." "They survived." "The waste from the outhouses." "See how close it is to the well?" "The water is defiled and poisonous." "If it is the water that is infected, why are we not all of us struck down?" "We will be." "Those who drink the water." "My friend, the danger is that Michaelmas Whitaker is determined to claim the cause is witchery." "If Redwick should die, they will turn on Verity Rutter." "Then we must convince the governor that this is the true problem." "The Castell's maid has been drinking it and she is on the mend." "Nothing has helped you so far, Marshal Redwick." "Not leeches, not prayer." "Well, how do we know what might be in this concoction?" "It is an Indian remedy." " There we have it." "An ungodly..." " Let him speak." "If you do take it, marshal... and if it works, as it has for young Mercy, it would establish that your affliction was not brought on by witchcraft." "Or poison." "You would no longer be able to blame the women." "Would you give your life, marshal, to hold onto that accusation?" "No more maids will come if one of the first women you brought here is burned as a witch." "The maids have nothing to fear if they're innocent." "Do you truly believe that, Governor?" "Verity Rutter cursed Philip Poole and the man is dead." "Reverend Whitaker says there will be a mark on her where the Devil fed at her breast." "He will examine her." "Sir, if there is no mark found, that will not stop him." "He will seek some other means to prove it." "I cannot establish her godliness." "She must do that herself." "Those with doubting hearts about the existence of the Devils amongst us, didn't our monarch himself, appointed by God, write treaties on the dark arts of witchcraft?" "Now we know well enough the strange countenance of one touched by the evil spirit." "She has such a shrewd tongue." "It brings renown." "The same woman refuses to attend church." "Why?" "Because she knows... her confederacy with the Devil will show itself." "I'm here, aren't I?" "Haven't you seen me on me knees?" "Is it...?" "Is it any wonder I refuse to come to church when all I see are condemning eyes on me?" "I curse because there is much to curse about." "When Satan takes a woman to him, he marks her." "She bears that stain on her body!" "Governor..." "Might I have your permission to address Reverend Whitaker in church?" "I need his assistance." "I believe I can clear up this matter if I may." "We are most fortunate to have a priest so pious that our spiritual wellbeing here is assured." "I'm here to ask your blessing, Reverend." "Would you give me that?" "If you, sir, draw down God's holiness onto this piece of bread, then the bread itself is holy." "Is that not what the church tells us?" "Please, Reverend, bestow your grace onto this bread." "Hear us, O Merciful Father, we beseech Thee and grant that we receiving Thy bread, according to Thy son, in remembrance of his death and passion... be partakers of his most blessed body." "And it is true, is it not, that if a woman is in confederacy with the Devil, and should swallow sacred bread, it will kill her?" "Then, dear Reverend Whitaker," "I am certain that you will serve your congregation well, should you press this bread into Verity's mouth." "Our dear Lord would not allow an innocent woman to stand accused." "Neither should we." "I am pleased to see you improving, Marshal Redwick." "Did you drink the tea after all?" "These outhouses were built when the town was under siege." "You must pass a ruling that they be torn down and built again beyond the palisades." "It is just as important, sir, that every person believes this well is the true cause of the malady." "Such a law would do that." "Governor, the women who travelled here on the ship looked to you as a father to them, to protect them, to warrant them justice." "We saw justice here today, Mistress Castell." "I thank you for your intervention." "That is not the only matter that requires your consideration, sir." "When the Marshal Redwick is fully recovered, he will insist that Alice Kett marries the blacksmith." "A woman must marry the man who pays her passage." "A perfectly reasonable arrangement, sir, but if her fee were paid today, then Alice might be free to marry the man she loves." "Are you proposing to pay the amount, Mistress Castell?" "I would not wish to offend you or the Virginia Company, sir, by suggesting a woman would undertake such a manly transaction." "My husband will pay it." "Settlers like Silas and Alice, who feel the benefit of your consideration, will feel a great debt of loyalty." "I can hardly disagree with that, Jocelyn, but I fear it won't be me they feel indebted to." " Shall we?" " Hmm." "She made Michaelmas Whitaker look a stumbling fool before his congregation." "I did not underestimate her husband." "But we did miscalculate her." "No more." "One?" "Hey, lads!" "Lads!" "Lads!" "Henry saved my life so many times... and I let him burn in front of my eyes." "If he'd lived, if you'd... come back and told me Henry refused to give me up..." "Silas, I would have reported him for raping me." "And he would have been hanged." "And suppose they didn't hang him?" "You saw how he'd have treated me." "How could we have lived like that?" "It's better this way." "That's what we must believe." "Henry's gone." "We can marry." "This is our life now, Silas." "Silas." "Silas." "Silas." "Silas."