Harlots (2017) s02e02 Episode Script

1 Harriet Lennox, I want you gone! If you doubt your man's affections, it's not because of me.
You've gone your own way, Margaret, always.
Now I'll go mine.
Lydia Quigley, this is a warrant for your arrest.
(SCREAMING) Pursue Mrs.
Quigley at your peril.
You must have benefactors somewhere.
Lady Fitz.
Isabella Fitzwilliam, heiress of Blayne.
The finest jewel of all.
You're speaking against Mrs.
Quigley? I can help you.
One day she'll let down her guard.
When I'm done, Mrs.
Quigley will be dust and ash.
I'll speak but no one can know it came from me.
- We've got her.
- Fuck me.
(SOBBING) (GASPING) (COMMOTION) (BREATHING HEAVILY) (CRYING) No, don't, Mrs.
Wells, please.
Don't hurt her, leave her alone.
- Ma? - I'm fixing her up for the wake.
Take Fanny upstairs.
Stitch that child with silk and a gold needle.
She'll still be dead.
Struck down by Quigley.
We can't be certain.
We were coursing her like a hare.
She threw us that rotten swine's heart in a bid to stop the hunt.
I wish I'd heeded it.
What will we tell the magistrate? We've no proof to link her to Kitty, and the molly boy has scurried in fear.
We've still got Emily Lacey.
Her balls are bigger than the molly's.
(CRYING) If Kitty was here, she'd tell you not to cry for her.
No! She'd say, "Look at what they've done to me.
Why in God's name are you sat on your arse?" Fanny! Fanny's gone off in a state.
She's lost a friend.
They're scarcer than hens' teeth.
She'll be back before Mercy needs to suckle.
- Come on.
- Where are you going? To clean our hands.
(DOOR OPENING) (SHOUTING) - Has my fine been met? - It has not.
Violet Cross.
My girl could be at your office trying to make payment now! - Jailer.
- Madam, harass the Justice again and I'll stuff your mouth with rags.
It'll not be rags.
Miss Scanwell thinks there is something virtuous at the heart of you.
Is her faith misplaced? I never stole that purse.
My time here is wasted.
I care very much for Amelia.
I'd like to one day be as good as she thinks I am.
(DOOR CLOSING) Come on.
(DOOR OPENING) I'm interrupting? Nonsense.
You must join us.
I've already eaten, thank you.
She came for silver, not spice bread.
(OPENING DRAWER) (CLOSING DRAWER) I propose a little game.
You tell me where my sister's money is destined, and we shall discover if Isabella has been telling fibs.
Humor him please, Miss Wells, or he'll be impossible.
Very well.
The money is to pay a debt.
Oh, very good, very good.
What kind? He makes the game seem dangerous.
I would rather be rolling dice.
(CHUCKLES) Surely not Hazard, Lady Isabella.
Not when you already have this debt to pay.
Is that your answer, Hazard? It is.
What a pair of colluding pixies you are! He finds it hard to believe that I lose so often.
He has not seen me play.
No matter, ladies.
My sister's luckless at dice, lucky in love.
I do hope you can forgive this imposition.
Of course.
(BELL TOLLING) Never in my life did I think I'd be glad to see that muckspout.
You never said I'd be hand in glove with her.
You share a foe.
She threw me to that foe when it suited her.
I'm here for Kitty.
What's carrot curls got to do with anything? She's dead, Emily.
Quigley had her snatched from the doorstep.
She's lying in my kitchen with her throat torn.
- The hounds - Emily.
You didn't protect her from the hounds.
She was slain before we knew she'd been taken.
We have a chance to see Quigley swing.
- Emily Lacey! - Emily! I was coming to see you.
(CRYING) Mr.
Armitage! (SOBBING) You accuse Mrs.
Quigley of commanding murder from her jail cell? I was warned not to persecute her.
The pig's heart was a threat.
What p-proof have you that this masked man acted on her behalf? Quigley's history is lined with abductions and killings.
She caters for beasts with buckled shoes and bloody tastes.
What proof? We know a girl who escaped her, but she's too scared to speak out.
Then you have nothing against Mrs.
Quigley.
Have you not heard our testimony? I have heard the hearsay of her enemies.
(SNIFFLING) I've never been to a hanging, but when you catch the killer, I will go to his.
I wouldn't hold your breath, Fanny.
There's not enough lawmen to protect the rich, let alone avenge dead street girls.
Will you not even try? For Kitty? Women will always be at the mercy of men's power.
Best just to look after yourself.
It's not your power we're at the mercy of.
It's your weakness.
- Charlotte? - This lady has come to pay Mrs.
Quigley's fine.
- What are you doing? - What I must.
Don't you dare fend for her.
Kitty Carter was butchered in the night.
Kitty's dead? As a stone.
A victim of your fine benefactress.
That accusation is unproven.
The only charge that remains against Mrs.
Quigley is running a brothel.
Now, will you will you pay her penalty or not? On my life, if you do this, you cease to be mine.
You gotta trust me, Ma.
Miss Wells? I will.
Please understand.
Shame on you, Charlotte Wells.
You you will not disrespect this court.
Shame on you too.
(RATTLING) You foul bitch! Kitty's death will not silence us.
What is this gibberish? Don't deny my girl was slain on your orders.
You were always her creature.
Even as a baby, only she could mollify you.
Go home, Ma! You're still sucking honey from her fingers! (NANCY SPITS) (EXHALES) I've no idea what they're alluding to.
I never harmed a single girl in my life.
Please tell me you believe that.
I'm sorry to have kept you.
You are busy holding back a tide of vice, sir.
No mean feat.
Oh, let me clear a space, Mother.
I, uh, I am yet without housekeeper.
You have considered Violet's case? I spoke to her this morning.
In truth, I can find little to recommend her.
Then you've not looked hard enough.
Amelia! This girl has flimflammed you with feigned v-virtue.
This has long been my suspicion.
Then you will not help her.
God has just granted me the most wonderful notion.
Could your need of a housekeeper not be met by Violet! I was about to suggest you, Amelia.
Is Violet's need not greater? Her servitude could be to you.
It's an interesting proposition.
What a gift your patronage would be.
Violet's path to enlightenment.
(DOOR OPENING) We have no home, nor money nor food.
What a spell this girl has cast on you.
Up! Slattern! We need to leave, and your mumma mustn't know we were here.
(RUNNING FOOTSTEPS) (COUGHING) (GROANING) Emily, we've claimed Golden Square as our own.
We will defend it like a fortress.
Kitty Carter is dead, at your mumma's hands! - Says who? - Margaret Wells! She told everyone you were dead once too.
I came that close I can still feel the chills.
I want to live, Charlie.
Long enough to see my muff turn silver.
(KNOCKING) (GROANS) Leave me be.
I'll pay for another night.
Mr.
North.
It's me, Fanny.
Fanny, I know you mean well.
I just want to be left alone.
Something terrible has happened.
I should've been there.
Mr.
Armitage says young girls are murdered all the time.
Not in my house.
You may borrow my books if you please.
Do you think I'd be a thieving whore if I could read? Will this be your, uh, first experience of working as a maid? Depends if you count polishing knobs.
I have saved you from the prison, and yet you show no gratitude at all.
If I'm not free to leave, then I'm still in prison.
Say the word and I will return you to your jail cell to await transportation.
There's poxy rats on those prison ships.
I can't be doing with rats.
There's port on your mumma's rug! It's my rug.
Look.
You saddle-goose! Don't think I won't leave without you.
(KNOCKING) (GASPS) - I heard of your troubles, Mumma.
- Charlie! I didn't expect you to come.
Of course I came.
I've journeyed to hell and back.
But I'd do it again to have you home.
We're going to take care of everything while you recover.
(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING) Sorry, Mrs.
Quigley.
We were just tidying up.
You have had a party, while I festered in a cesspit.
Just to keep the girls jolly.
You have laughed at my misfortune and prayed I would not return.
We did no such thing, Mumma.
You have done this.
No, no, Mrs.
Quigley, no.
He was the apple of my eye until you consumed him, you maggot! - Mumma! - Don't you dare address me so! You've squandered that right! Here is the child who came to my side.
Here is my rightful heir.
You have had a house and a son off of me.
You try to take even more and I'll cut your fucking throat! (EMILY SHUDDERING) (LOW VOCALIZING) Oh my soul Oh my soul What is it worth? Oh my soul I unfurl I unfurl Blow, though, the wind I unfurl I am gone I am gone That could've been me.
Ne'er to return Only without the crowds and candles.
I am gone No person should ever be disowned by their mother.
It's unnatural.
(SCOFFS) Is that what you think most unnatural? Not raped girls or slit throats, just your stubby little fingers slapped away from Mumma's purse.
- Emily! - Her fortune was earned stealing souls.
- Where are you going? - To pay my respects.
I'll come.
They might lynch you.
I might help 'em.
(COMMOTION) Ale and rage.
It's a potent mix.
It's the cost of you leaving us vulnerable while you took your distemper for a walk.
There's no blame at your doorstep though, is there, Margaret? Only bodies.
You're choking on guilt.
Mary Cooper, George Howard, Kitty Carter.
There's that many corpses clinging to your skirts you're starting to reek.
(BANGING) We're here to raise our glasses to Kitty Carter! (CROWD SHOUTING) One of the best girls I've had in my house! - Kitty was innocent! - No, she wasn't.
She was guilty of being poor.
The worst crime you can commit.
And that's why she'll turn to dust in her grave while Lydia Quigley grows old and saggy.
If Quigley is the killer, why did the law let her loose? The law is rigged! No evidence strong enough to condemn a white wig, and none too weak to hang a whore! (CROWD SHOUTING) Violet Cross is in jail awaiting transportation.
Great Britain's good riddance.
My uncle went that way.
He shouldn't have died of a fever on the cross and ended up fish food.
Violet Cross is as light-fingered as they come! You sell your cunny for coin! We've all got to do something! It's because we're poor! How many more of us are gonna clinch the pillory or dance with the hangman? Yes, that's true.
We are a sewer full of rats being ruled by a handful of foxes! It's time we showed our teeth! Come on! (CROWD ERUPTING) Everyone out the back, come on! (GLASS SHATTERING) Not our own streets, fool! To the magistrate's! (COMMOTION FADING IN DISTANCE) (MOURNERS SOBBING) Breaking windows won't see you remembered or keep your daughter fed.
But I will.
It's his, Lucy.
The bastard that killed her.
Justice for Kitty Carter! (SHOUTING) Justice for Kitty! (CROWD APPROACHING) Here lives the law! Show him what you think of how he fucking governs us! One rule for the rich, and one for us! Hey, come and face us! (BANGING AND SHOUTING) You lily-livered fucker! (BANGING CONTINUES) (SHOUTING) (BANGING) Show us your face, you quivering cunt! (BANGING AND SHOUTING CONTINUES) (GLASS SHATTERING) Come out! You soft-bellied cowards! You will disperse or face the full weight of the law! Someone has to pay for Kitty Carter's murder.
Are you gonna arrest Lydia Quigley? N-not without evidence! We gave you evidence and you scorned it! Then we'll string her up ourselves! Yeah! (SHOUTING) You leave her, you leave her! You will disperse Constable! (SHOUTING) Violet! Great Justice nothing! Arrest this woman! (LOUD COMMOTION) Get her to a cell! Go to your homes! Take them away! (SHOUTING) Nancy! (DOOR CREAKING) (DOOR CLOSING) (BELL TOLLING) Hunt's closed the gallery.
We've scared him witless.
That's a good thing.
No, a frightened man is a very dangerous thing, Lucy.
(DOOR OPENING) I need to speak to Charlotte.
She isn't here.
This isn't a gated tower.
She comes and goes as she pleases.
Give her a message from her pa.
(LYDIA CHUCKLES) Does something amuse you? Only a raven claiming a swan as its issue.
I do not claim her.
She calls me Pa willingly.
I hear the names your boy calls you would make a mariner blush.
Tell Charlotte Nancy Birch has been arrested.
She'll want to know.
(KNOCKING) You're saved! Lucky me.
Saved from having to filch or fuck for my supper.
Aren't you pleased? He said I can teach you to read.
I'm a lawman's lackey and a traitor to my own kind.
You've avoided enslavement in America.
What is this if not enslavement? No freedom, no pay.
I had to make a great sacrifice to get you this position.
I chose your wellbeing above my mother's.
(AMELIA CHUCKLES) I'm not accustomed to people being kind to me.
Thank you.
See, you're teaching me new words already.
Good God.
The priestess has slipped her shackles.
Come.
Are you demented? I could ask you the same.
I exalted you to silence Margaret Wells.
The girl you dispatched was a common whore with no bearing on our business whatsoever.
We took what opportunity afforded us; low-hanging fruit.
You've put a noose around our necks and handed the rope to Margaret Wells.
Bawds are easily dispatched.
So you would add to your heap of murders? This new judge is adamant I do nothing, do you understand? No more games.
How dare you give me orders? Be advised by your devoted priestess, and give the banshee Margaret Wells no further cause to wail.
(LAUGHTER) You'd better pray the Archon doesn't learn of your failure.
Failure? It was you who failed to frighten the Wells woman.
What a pathetic figure you must have cut.
It's in hand.
A daughter she treasures like a pearl.
She'll do nothing to endanger her.
Threats are clearly ineffective.
I don't intend to threaten the girl.
(SHOUTING AND HAMMERING) Take Jacob home, Lucy.
Now! (SHOUTING) Go and get Charlotte.
Nancy! Move.
Nance! This is a good woman! She has been tried and sentenced according to her offense.
These are the actions of a tyrant! Obstruct the law at your peril! Ma, don't! This w-w-woman is guilty of sedition.
She has plotted against the rightful rule of law.
I am charged with upholding that law, a task I neither savor nor shrink from.
Tyrant! (SHOUTING) Nancy! (BLOUSE TEARING) Nance! Don't do it! Shame on you! Nance! (WHIP STRIKING) Violet! (DOOR OPENING) I r-r-require tea.
Thirsty work, was it? I used to think people who lived in houses like this were carefree.
You no longer think so? Lady Isabella has a 500-pound secret.
She mustn't sleep a wink.
She intrigues you.
No.
It is you that intrigues me.
I could learn a great deal from you if you'd let me.
(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING) What are you doing here, Mrs.
Quigley? I wanted to thank you.
Not seeing you again will be all the thanks that I need.
If it were only that simple.
(CHUCKLES) The information I guard for you grows larger by the day.
If I am to contain it, I will need further resources.
I could've had your tongue cut out for less than I have paid you.
It is not money I require, but introductions.
New friends of high standing.
Emptying the coffers is one thing, but if I start parading you amongst our circle, I would be ostracized and ridiculed.
You need not reveal my trade.
I'm sorry, Lydia, but the beau monde will simply not accept you.
Persuade them.
(DOOR OPENING) Jacob? Lucy, fetch a basin of salt water.
Oh, God.
The wounds must be washed, Nance.
I've been touched by others too much today.
Why won't she let us help her? Nancy's not like the rest of us, every inch ogled by half the cuffins in London.
She's a secret.
(SNIFFLING) (KNOCKING) Were you born tired, my man? I've been knocking for an age.
I don't work here, my man.
(DOOR SLAMS) (KNOCKING) Lucy, the door.
Lucy Wells.
I'm sorry about your friend.
Did you ever meet her? Several times.
She was very memorable, Kitty, with her jet hair and olive skin.
She was.
She was auburn and alabaster.
(FALLON LAUGHS) Well, that's embarrassing.
I'm afraid redheads stir nothing in me.
Do I? Only a crushing vortex.
Can I see you again? This is a brothel.
You can have whatever you want for enough coinage.
(COINS JINGLING) I don't know why everyone's calling for Margaret Wells to be sainted.
Turning her back on people is what she's good at.
You don't think well of her? I'd see her locked in limbo, handless, with an itch in her arse.
Amen.
What's she done to vex you? She accused me of coveting Mr.
North.
(EMILY CHUCKLES) Well, it's a brave cat licks at that cream.
I'm left hopeless.
Harlot's always got hope of a coin.
I have no skill for servicing drunkards against tavern walls, even they agree.
Trick is to go hard and fast.
Conclude them before they puke or you get moved on.
Give me a room and some upright culls.
I'll earn you a king's ransom.
You think a great deal of yourself.
You'll think a great deal of me too.
That I promise.
(KNOCKING) Where is she? Oh, Nancy.
You've got some front to come here! I'm here for Nancy.
She needs tending to.
Not this.
You must hate me to do what you did in court.
I don't hate you, Ma.
I pity you.
Don't you dare pity me! Do you hear? You are unable to love, unable to be a mother.
I am a mother! You are a pimp.
That is the exact opposite.
Look at the silks that you are standing in.
"Gentlemen, here is my daughter Lucy, a weeping virgin.
You have a job parting her frigid little legs, but when you do" You shut your filthy mouth! "Or perhaps my older girl, Charlotte, the beautiful fool.
You'll have no trouble opening her legs, but keeping her mouth shut.
" Your trouble is you've not known enough hunger, nor enough of my hand.
Oh, go fetch a rope, Ma.
You've ruined me with kindness.
You are a fool.
You've freed the devil.
Everything we are we owe to Lydia Quigley.
Six months in jail would not have avenged that.
Please don't put yourself in peril, Charlotte! I cannot watch Ma stitch your throat! Are you not stopping her? Haven't you heard? I'm not her mother.
Put a drop of that gin in the water when you wash Nancy's wounds.
Not one word! I'm still your mother.
(DOOR OPENING) (DOOR CLOSING) (FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING) You're a long way from Cheapside.
I'm here on the orders of Justice Hunt.
Me and my men are to see that this establishment does not continue trading as a bawdy house.
He is stationing us at your door.
(KNOCKING) (DOOR UNLOCKING) We've got guests.
(CHUCKLES) This is our brothel's first girl, Henrietta.
- It's Harriet.
- That's it.
And here we have the cook and bottle washer.
These are my children.
Who will mind them while you're creaking beds? - You will.
- I will not! It's why she's so cheap.
I don't believe we've discussed the terms.
We'll not be discussing them.
You'll get what you're given.
Emily Lacey, you're as drunk as a lord.
I know, but this will still be a good idea when I'm not.
The culls will love her.
They won't have come across a stuck-up black before.
I can see why they might find refinement a novelty.
(EMILY LAUGHS) See? Shall I take Mercy, let you sleep? Decided to change her name to Kitty.
She's young enough that she'll not miss the old one.
I think Kitty would've liked that.
This is to send to her daughter.
(COINS JINGLING) It's a fortune here.
Where did you get it? Went collecting.
People dug deep.
If only every kind deed rubbed out a cruel one.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER) (COMMOTION) So this is how you fare without Dame Death's coin? Mock if you will, there is honor in righteous poverty.
And how does that taste between two bits of bread? Better than a roast pheasant from the devil's table.
What about a bit of stew from mine? Thank you, but I'm sure it could be purified through prayer.
Miss Wells.
(KNOCKING) There you go, Mrs.
Scanwell.
Let's get you by the fire.
Know this, Mrs.
Wells.
I would rather return to the cold than have any obstacles placed between myself and God.
I assume God won't mind you having tea.
Tea? No one looks like they need tea more than you, Amelia.
Thank you, Mrs.
Wells.
A toast, to Kitty, who we'll remember for her life rather than her death.
She was a friend.
And a mother.
I'm afraid I will find it hard to think of her without imagining that ungodly gash.
(FANNY SPITS) (LAUGHTER) What amuses you? (LAUGHTER CONTINUES) (DOOR OPENING) What troubles you, child? Nancy Birch was flogged today.
You didn't tell me.
You must have heard she and your mother once had me sent to the whipping post.
I've heard so many things about you, I could write your life story.
Well, a version of it.
Will you undo my necklace? Look at them.
Your mother found it easier to cast me as the villainess than to accept the truth.
She would've died a diseased child in the gutter if I had not taken her in.
These scars have served as a lifelong reminder never to hand out kindness freely.
I want so much to put my faith in you, Charlotte.
Then do so.
My girl.