Mercy Street (2016) s02e02 Episode Script

1 There's a Union officer lodging at your home.
- He has documents.
- You took the oath? - Why would you do it? - To get you out of jail.
The medical department will be sending my replacement.
You've had an effect on me.
The society dispatched me here to help acclimate those making the transition to freedom.
Mary: There are desperately ill people out there.
You are angry about something.
I am angry about who you pretend to be.
Telegram came from Boston.
I bought this.
Steamer leaves Tuesday.
That man there, he's looking for Aurelia Johnson.
I know you.
Find him! [Horse neighs.]
[Indistinct conversations.]
Man: Song books here! Song books! Here.
Half a bushel, miss.
Got none to sell.
Well, I see some 40 bushels.
But not provender for oath signers.
Pardon me? What did you say? Come on, Miss Emma.
Man bring bushels to the hospital.
He'll have enough for us.
Reward! Yes, sir.
There you are.
Reward! Man wanted for the attempted murder of the US hospital steward.
There you are.
Still at large.
[Rooster crows.]
Lunch isn't until noon, boys.
Keep working till then.
That thing work? Doesn't need to.
For people who toiled in the fields and only know sunup and sundown, it'll serve to teach them how time works.
Take care of everything, don't you? Somebody helped me learn how to be free once.
Now I aim to do the same for others.
When you headed north? Tomorrow.
Curious why you'd want to leave now with emancipation right around the corner.
Should think you'd want to be around to see that.
I have a girl in Massachusetts.
You fixin' to marry her? Well, far be it from me to keep people who love each other apart.
Caleb: Miss Charlotte.
I'm taking him to the administration office.
I heard they might have a record of job placements for former slaves.
Never heard of records like that.
If she was working in Alexandria, they might be able to tell us where.
There's just no way of knowing if his story is even true.
Why would he lie? I got to get back in the tent.
Lunch isn't till noon, I hear.
I sent you the full accounts.
You had time to review them? It appears that our business is no worse off than when I was arrested.
What's more, there are new opportunities beyond coffin making.
Is that so? Army wagons roll through this town night and day, constantly breaking cartwheels and spokes.
I'm meeting today with the Provost Marshal to see what their needs may be.
Wagon supplies? With his approval, we can reopen the warehouse.
You set this meeting without consulting me? You were still in jail, Father.
Well, I'm out of jail now, so I'll see it myself.
Your presence would be problematic.
Problematic? You're not allowed to run the business.
Why? Because you signed the oath? And because you did not.
Your father owns the business, Jimmy.
Not you.
Yes.
Of course.
Mm-hmm.
But under their law, he can only function as a silent partner for now.
And I'm to be what, grateful? To them? To you? Federals are in retreat.
McClellan is an embarrassment.
This occupation will soon be over.
Stay away from him, Alice.
He's a danger to us.
And what if he's caught? He'll be hanged.
For what? Being a patriot? For trying to kill a man.
Let Frank take care of himself.
Morning, ladies.
Pardon me.
I Something the matter, Captain? Well yes.
You have been most gracious hosts, but a small item's gone missing from my room.
- Missing? - Official paperwork.
Some technical notes of no value to anyone outside the military.
Oh.
Well, the servants, on occasion, in an effort to keep things tidy, mistakenly discard things.
They do? When have they done that? I will talk to them.
The papers were in a leather case.
Difficult to mistake for rubbish.
Perhaps they moved them somewhere.
Go, sister.
I will attend to this.
I'll have the rubbish searched.
It sometimes sits around for days, so I imagine we're not too late.
[Sighs.]
Very well, then.
Thank you.
I must be off to the stables now.
My horses have arrived from up north.
Oh, have they? How wonderful.
I do love to ride.
My father taught me when I was only little.
He used to take us James.
If we are not careful, our girls will end up betrothed to these houseguests.
James.
I intend to write the Provost Marshal on the unfairness of disenfranchising a man from a business he built from nothing.
But passes on to his son.
Per force.
We are struggling in the aftermath of a decision you made.
A noble decision, but Jimmy is rising from that struggle to his manhood, and I say thank goodness for it.
He is rising, and I am sinking.
Into what? Obsolescence? None of it is fair, my dear, but it is not Jimmy's fault or Alice's or Emma's.
We must channel our frustrations against the external forces that are opposing us, not within our home.
Not against each other.
A stallion? Is that right? A majestic horse.
You must come see him.
Yes, I think I must.
[Splashing water.]
[Sniffles.]
[Cork pops.]
[Sighs.]
[Coughing.]
Ah.
Good morning.
I, uh I feel our last conversation was unresolved.
Seemed quite resolved to me.
Are you unwell? No.
Yes.
Only a cold.
Boy: Telegram, sir.
Come from California.
Is it from your wife? No.
It's from the lawyer.
[Sighs.]
[Electricity crackling.]
The immense force of electromagnetic re invigoration.
I gived you a dime and I don't feel nothing.
A voltaic power binding the universe now courses through your wounded appendage.
[Scoffs.]
All it feels is kind of stiff.
It's a good sign when anything gets stiff.
- [Laughter.]
- Precisely.
The Exhilarator can even restore flaccid fifth limbs to full rigidity.
Fire up them electrodes, doc.
My fifth limb's a-waitin'.
- [Laughter.]
- Firing them up now.
Ahh.
All in good time.
Conditions of great urgency await my treatment.
I'll return soon.
Woman: Hold still.
Sister Isabella.
Inform the nurses of a staff meeting this afternoon - of some importance.
- Yes, Miss Mary.
Miss Hastings, with our steward on the mend, I'd like an hourly check on the status of meals.
There's been a new cook added from the household of Miss Green.
Yes.
My family's servant Belinda will be working here on occasion.
Perhaps Miss Green is better suited to task the kitchen staff.
Miss Green is still learning, whereas you, Miss Hastings, by virtue of your innate sense of authority, are well-suited to task those of any station.
And staff conferences with the new chief begin today.
We must be prepared to help steer the ship.
[Coughing.]
I'm trembling.
I've always been so rock steady.
But this this bastard, this swine! Shh! Major McBurney you seen him? What did he say? He read.
I stood before him.
He sat there reading, never once gracing me with eye contact.
Oh, humiliation was his purpose.
And, oh, it was served.
Reading what? Start making sense.
A report by Summers describing me as earnest, eager, capable, but lacking passion or vision.
A damning legacy.
McBurney looked at me like I was the corpse of a man whose death he bet on.
Foster's in there with him now.
I'm sure his star soars heavenward.
[Sighs.]
You're described as a man of some promise, Dr.
Foster, who furthered an American education with study in Europe.
French medical methods are often seen as more advanced than our own.
- I'm glad to describe some - No need.
Would you like me to have a look at that, sir? At what? Your, uh You've risen fast.
Civilian to Captain to Executive Officer.
You make the ranks seem an easy game.
All in the service of my one true interest, medical Here's the rub, though.
You do not like rules.
You do not follow them.
I'm a doctor from a strong military background.
I trained at the Jarvis Academy before my time at Princeton.
You are familiar with Princeton, are you not? And I served on the field of battle until quite recently.
Last at Bull Run.
A year ago? Point being Major Summers was generous to grant you latitude.
I, on the other hand, am not so magnanimous.
I expect adherence to regulation.
Are we understood? And henceforth, I will expect a proper salute, Captain.
[Door opens, closes.]
Where are you from, Corporal? Concord, Massachusetts.
Is that so? I am, as well.
I heard Mr.
Douglass speak about his life as a slave.
He drove me to want to support the cause.
We have that inspiration in common.
Only now I know that one brutality don't make up for another.
All I seen is the worst men can do, and the worst of it is we're losing this war.
You no longer believe in the cause? Can you extend your leg, soldier? [Grunts.]
Are you able to flex the foot? [Inhales sharply.]
- [Grunts.]
- His wounds have healed, but his recovery seems to be at an impasse.
So they keep shunting me around from one death house to another.
We'll find what's holding you back.
[Sighs.]
Something internal, perhaps? A lost fragment spreading toxin? Or he's a malingerer.
I don't think so.
He clearly doesn't want to be here.
No, he wants to be sent home.
I doubt that.
There's more to it than simple evasion.
Trust her, Dr.
Hale.
Miss Phinney is an expert on evasion.
Pardon me.
I'm needed upstairs.
Evasion, huh? [Man clears throat.]
Um, may I? I-I know that you have recently met with our new chief, and by the hypostasis of my own meeting with him, I, uh I hope there's been no abridgment in your newfound confidence in my abilities.
How we proceed has only to do with favoring a conservative approach, not my confidence in you.
Of course not.
I'm sorry.
I'm McBurney has my brain a little pinched.
Well, we are one in that.
- He seems to have come loaded for bear.
- Mm.
"Possessed of skills learned during service in the Crimea.
" Miss Hastings exploits what authority she has.
"Officious, discompassionate, tyrannical.
" Is not one man's tyrannical another man's leaderly? Indeed.
What may have been perceived as flaws I may view as attributes.
I do not see order here, Miss Hastings.
Being recently exalted, I am easy prey to deception without someone who can reveal to me the true nature of things.
I have taken lifelong pride in speaking of things as they are.
Perhaps that quality was undervalued by the previous regime.
Trust in me would not be, uh, misplaced.
As I suspected.
Now, Miss Phinney what is her level of competence? Miss Phinney? Head nurse.
How do you find her? That is for you to determine, sir.
Would it even be fair of me to opine as having worked alongside Miss Nightingale, my standards are well, so impossibly high.
Hmm.
Grab that pin for me.
Heard talk you were leaving to be with her.
The one I wronged.
The Lord has taken the scales from my eyes and I'm beholden to this debt.
You talking to your friend? The Lord is my friend.
You seen Miss Charlotte? She ain't around right now.
Well, this here food for the folks in the pox house.
A Godly thing.
Take it to them.
Samuel.
I brought a salve for Aurelia to help heal them cuts smooth.
She got to do just like I said every single day without fail.
She got to wash herself with it.
- Hello.
My name's Caleb.
- You hear me, now? Y-Yes, yes, she's to use the salve after each bath.
Mm-hmm.
Figure somebody got to know where she gone.
That's what you figure, huh? And you give her love from me.
'Cause Lord knows you two deserve a life together.
Sure.
[Indistict talk.]
Is that boy there dying? Almighty God, our heavenly father We hope not.
Do you ever get the feeling like none of this matters? It's not worth it? Nobody cares about you except yourself? I never get to feeling that, no.
The new chief requests your presence, Miss Phinney.
Perhaps this liniment will help.
[Sighs.]
Have you met with Major McBurney? He defines the word "gentleman.
" At the meeting this afternoon, I should like to discuss some new directives.
I've been giving our system quite a bit of thought Yes, yes, all in good time.
See how it goes with the Major first.
[Sighs.]
Miss Phinney, please sit.
Please.
As a skilled practitioner of phrenology, I will now feel your brain.
The Baroness Von Olnhausen, much maligned at first by my predecessor, only later to fall in his good graces.
- Yes, Major Summers - Shh, shh, shh, shh.
I feel something.
Mm-hmm.
Typical female structure.
Underdeveloped for arts and sciences, but stronger for religion and care of children.
Do you have any aboriginal blood? I don't believe I do.
Well, see here? Your conjugality.
My My what, sir? It's disproportionate to your causality.
That's not good.
[Body thuds.]
Miss Phinney? Oh, gently, Nurse Mary.
Take time.
Keep an eye out now.
The rapscallion's somewhere.
Okay.
Miss Green will stay here with you.
I will go find Dr.
Foster.
No need.
I only require rest.
Emma.
I spoke with Major Summers before he left about your position here.
He sent a letter.
It's on the dresser.
What does it say? I'm accepted.
I don't know how to thank you.
I do.
Clearly I'm I'm coming down with something.
Only grippe, I hope.
But there's much going on today that requires my attention a patient I'm very concerned about, the nurses' meeting.
In my absence, will you be my emissary? Alice: Are these the finest you have? Under current import restrictions.
I was sent to you by Mrs.
Fairfax.
She said you'd be helpful.
Imagine, around this rim a golden circle of fringe.
Holding it thus, does it not reveal I'm within the golden circle? [Door opens.]
Storage room.
[Door closes.]
Frank.
Frank.
Have you spoken to Emma about me? It will take time, Frank, for her to come around.
If I wrote her a note, would you bring it to her? Of course I will, but I can't stand her thinking what she thinks about me.
Are you all right, Frank? I can't stay here.
They're looking for me.
My regiment needs me out there where I could do some good.
That's why I came.
The Knights intercepted an order showing the only Union picket post will be on Telegraph Road.
Now, we can go south across Hunting Creek Bridge.
I'll help you sneak through.
How? My face is everywhere.
It's a horrid likeness.
And you will not be you or the dentist.
You will be my secret Union beau.
Well [chuckles.]
we'd need papers to get through.
A password, a uniform for me.
All of those things are under my very roof.
I have a houseguest who is most friendly.
Oh, wonderful.
Such a soft mouth.
You are most fortunate to own him, Captain.
Well, take him around again.
You'll find he leaves nothing in the barn.
Don't tempt me, else I would steal him and ride away forever.
Leaving me to envy him.
Oh, I almost forgot.
This way, boy.
We best be going, Miss Alice.
Hush now, Elizabeth.
Mr.
Green think we in town.
Shh! Look at what I found, Captain, on the desk tucked under the ink blotter.
Really? How did it get there? One of our girls might've put it there, unless you did.
But I'd never accuse you of such carelessness.
I will never be so careless with the notes you send me.
Nor will I with yours.
Lacking slaves, we in the North tack and brush down our own mounts.
Why, you do chide us unfairly for our laziness, Captain.
I could tack a horse before I could tack myself.
[Chuckles.]
Well, then ride him whenever you choose.
Well, the best bridle paths are inland and, in a word, not safe.
Not safe? For girls like me.
Union pickets demanding silly secret words and documents.
In my company, you would not be challenged.
Then I cannot ride when I choose.
Are you tricking me, Captain? So, I must risk court-martial by revealing Union secrets? [Chuckles.]
And what's in it for me, Miss Alice? [Romantic music.]
Uh, I'm chaperoned.
I shall hope for a time when that's not the case.
Uh persimmon.
The current password at the picket is "persimmon.
" Shall I see you tonight for further conversation? Jimmy: I thank you, Provost Marshal.
We have a deal.
Samuel: I got eyes for you, Aurelia.
That necklace told me as much.
I do know what hurt looks like.
It's best not to do it alone.
That was for you! [Footsteps approach.]
That man earlier.
You saw him.
You know who he is? I know what he claims.
He threatens your future.
What did you say to him? That I knew nothing of the woman he seeks.
You told him that? The Lord put those words in my mouth, bending me to redemption.
[Chuckles.]
In search of forgiveness from you, from her.
She got with child, Mr.
Bullen.
Almost died because she didn't want your baby inside her.
I did I did not know that.
I don't deserve your forgiveness.
At least now you can move forward without fear or worry hanging over you.
I freed you from that.
[Crying.]
You are about to experience the wondrous effects of the Exhilarator.
Prepare to be rejuvenated.
Prepare to be reinvigorated.
Why is this huckster so elusive? He moves through the wards like an eidolon, ephemeral, an emanation.
We Irish know the like.
Matron! He's on the second floor.
Go get your man, Miss Brannan.
Descend upon him with the ferocity of the Phantom Queen Morrigan.
[Laughs.]
You're speaking my language, sir.
Private Kendrick! We weren't gambling, Miss.
It was his idea.
Shh.
I need your muscle, son, to help roust out this quack for good.
- Oh, Dr.
Hale.
- Major.
Earlier I failed to address an issue of some importance the medical exam.
- Apparently you never took it.
- Uh, no, but Major, I'm of the belief it was never required of Dr.
Hale.
Well, it's being required now of all surgeons by Hammond himself.
I'll see you're scheduled to take it.
Not to worry.
You'll have to study.
Miss Hastings, moving on! Do you feel that? Yes, sir.
It hurts.
Interesting.
What happened to Miss Phinney? She's indisposed.
I'll look after you in her place.
You're from Concord, son? Yes, sir.
Same as she.
Both inspired by Mr.
Douglass.
Mr.
Douglass? Frederick Douglass.
The former slave.
You've not heard of him? Miss Green is from here, where Mr.
Douglass is less known.
How about now, son? Does that hurt? A bit.
Steady there, son.
We'll be back.
Did you see the lights dancing like fireflies behind your eyes? Have no alarm.
It was the wondrous energy of the, uh - Grab him, son! - Exhilarator.
[Grunting.]
I came to visit a sick friend.
Got sick friends in hospitals all over town, do ya? Well, I'm a very friendly man.
- Where do you want him, Matron? - In the cellar.
You'll sit guard over this swaggler till the authorities take him.
The boy's spent months in hospital with no progress.
And no explanation.
It's a wasted bed.
I'm not sure what to try that hasn't been done elsewhere.
He needs to know someone cares.
He feels abandoned.
He's watched other boys left maimed or to die.
We need to do something for him.
My, such adamance for a wounded Union boy.
I believe Miss Green has a point.
Miss Phinney asked me to tend to him.
So tend to him I shall.
I-I-I'm sorry, Dr.
Foster.
We apprehended this charlatan.
Doctor? I, too, am a doctor.
Dr.
Odysseus Margay.
Healing with electromagnetism by way of my own invention, the Exhilarator.
It's patented.
Electromagnetism? I read about something at Turner's Lane.
Are you with me, Dr.
Hale? I'm sorry.
What? With you where? We shall enact our familiar dynamic to a greater good.
You too, Miss Green.
Hmm? Took Caleb to the administration office.
You said you would.
The man there showed us a record of travel papers issued to an Aurelia Johnson.
She was headed up north like you.
Thought she might've been employed here.
When we asked that steward, he said he never heard of her.
So I'd expect a white man not to know one runaway from another.
You ever think this Caleb might have bad intentions? No.
He could be working for a slave catcher for all we know.
A black man working for a slave catcher? - I've heard things.
- Why would you ever think that? 'Cause she never mentioned leaving a man behind.
So you do know her? That man's been in chains his entire life.
Only now is he finally tasting freedom.
What's the lesson he'll learn if the first thing that happens is being lied to by one of his own color? And how will you live with yourself after that? Electricity in certain cases has been known to revitalize dead or dormant musculature.
Look at what Mitchell's doing with induction current at Turner's Lane.
Valid point.
I-I hear some men even walk soon after treatment, but still Are you with me or against me, Hale? Leave no stone unturned.
Mm.
Son.
There's a brave boy.
This fraud was to be ejected by order of Major McBurney.
- McBurney, really? - Miss Hastings.
We are engaged in a radical interventive procedure.
This is a blatant violation of policy, which Major Mc Silence! Sorry, Doctor.
[Coughing.]
Oh, Nurse Mary.
You're burning up.
[Coughing.]
[Breathing heavily.]
[Electricity crackling.]
That's enough, Dr.
Margay.
We'll leave you to recover.
Should you feel any movement, any movement at all in your leg or your foot, be sure to have someone fetch us promptly.
Miss Green, stay with this man.
You think it'll work? We were very convincing.
What exactly are you up to? I thought that bit about Mitchell was particularly effective.
I skipped the part where it takes months to have any effect.
Dr.
Foster! Can you come? [Breathing heavily.]
A few more moments, Mary.
More water, Dr.
Foster.
In there, Matron, quickly.
- The device of that mountebank? - Pure quackery, sir.
On a Union patient? And Hale is in league with him? No.
Well, yes, but coerced by Dr.
Foster.
- Where is he now? - Gone up to tend to Miss Phinney.
Is my bandage properly fastened? - Yes, sir.
- Come with me.
Foster: Mary, don't be alarmed.
I'm going to lift you from the bed and place you in water that will be gradually chilled.
We have a matter to discuss.
- What's happening here? - She has a severe fever, sir.
Most inappropriate.
Let the women mind her.
You should be down there tending patients.
- I am tending a patient.
- Now, listen, Captain, perhaps I did not explain myself earlier.
I said I am tending a patient! - Don't be afraid.
- [Breathing heavily.]
Okay.
It's okay.
There we go.
Matron, thermometer.
[Thunder rumbling.]
Shh.
Not much longer now, dearie.
You'll bear it.
Most indecorous.
Ready toweling on the bed.
Just below normal.
Miss Hastings, when we lift her, you and the sister wrap her quickly.
She must be dried and warmed.
There we are.
[Whimpering.]
You'll be warm quickly.
You'll be warm quickly.
You've seen these spots? - Yes, they're nothing.
- This is a sure sign.
No, it's it's heat rash.
I've treated typhoid in the Crimea.
- Enough of your damn Crimea.
- She needs to be isolated.
She has typhoid? Miss Hastings is correct.
She needs to be isolated.
Please.
Please.
I can stay here, be treated here.
Please don't let them send me away.
I want to stay.
Please.
- I want to stay.
- You'll stay.
I promise.
[Shivering.]
You Caleb? Charlotte told me you're looking for someone.
My wife.
We got a little boy.
Looking for him, too.
Aurelia Johnson is your wife? Slave marriage, but I aim to do it proper now.
Boy was just a peanut when they sold me off a few days old.
Maybe she took me as gone forever.
Can't blame if she did.
You got any proof? Proof? Lots of folks looking for lots of folks.
Strange times.
I got no bad intentions.
I only meant it's hard to find somebody now.
You're free.
You can make a new life without her.
Or make one with her.
And my boy.
Who wouldn't choose that? W-Where'd you say you come from? Carolina.
Then I got sold to a farm in Tennessee.
Farm burnt down.
Master took his kid and left us on our own.
And we all scattered to the wind till I found my way here.
Never been a slave.
Am I right? I am free born.
They call us contraband here.
Contraband.
What's that? It's a thing, ain't it? Not a person.
[Scoffs.]
A slave own nothing except what's in his heart.
That's all I got.
Love for my wife and my boy.
Freedom mean no more hurt from the whip.
But losing them that's a pain I ain't never gonna get free from.
Man: Too pretty to be a rebel.
She said she loved a man in uniform.
[Both laugh.]
James: Gentlemen.
Sir.
Have you been riding, Captain? My horses arrived from up north.
Bully for you.
I hope that you enjoy every comfort here.
Your daughter Alice has been most generous, sir, in helping me to acclimate, learn about the local riding trails.
I know how glad she is to have you home.
Have you been riding with her? No, sir, no.
She merely described places where I might enjoy to ride.
That table was brought back from China as a gift from Mrs.
Green's father.
She's quite fond of it.
And we do not smoke in this room.
Miss Green.
Time for the meeting.
And you, confidence man.
If you get gone within five minutes and swear never to come back, I'll turn a blind eye to you.
Corporal, Miss Phinney will ask after you.
What shall I tell her? Tell her I appreciate her kindness, and that the nurse she sent as her emissary is almost her equal.
I'll be nearby if you need me.
Wait! Chaplain.
Something's happening.
Lord in heaven.
I'm rich.
[Bottle clinks.]
[Sighs.]
Let me cheer you with some news.
The young man from Concord.
My abolitionist brother.
He has regained feeling in his leg.
What was the trouble? All in his mind.
We implemented a nostrum, a placebo first utilized by Haygarth in 1799 to test a treatment known as Perkin's tractors.
Please, Jed, not now.
[Chuckles.]
Ah He needed to feel that he mattered.
And we, by which I mean you, made sure that happened.
As for you, if it's typhoid, the fever will come and go with severe joint pain from inflammation.
It may last weeks or even Months.
Yes, that much I know.
I'll be nothing but a burden.
Being hard on yourself will do nothing to speed your recovery.
Therefore I forbid such talk.
Now, let me take your pulse.
"Musculature of the face and jaw.
" Went to your room but the door was locked.
I was not there.
I see that.
Perhaps later? Can you name the muscles of the face and jaw? When you can, come see me.
[Chuckles.]
Oh, I'm being punished for being forced to take an exam.
Not punished motivated.
Pardon me now.
The new chief awaits me.
[Knock on door.]
Come in, Miss Hastings.
Would you please? [Sighs.]
Quite a day.
Much to be done.
Doctors to reprimand and correct, nursing staffs to organize.
But we shall persevere.
[Inhales sharply.]
Am I hurting you? No.
You have the hands of an angel.
How did you receive this scar, sir? Ah.
Should I? Could I? Do I dare? Tasked with establishing a field hospital outside Manassas.
I knew there was fire in the distance, but I was sure we could finish before they got too close.
Then as I was looking one way, boom.
Cannon fire.
The man standing next to me, a mute imbecile from Ohio, had lost all his front teeth to a mule kick.
[Chuckles.]
Well, a cannonball completely opened up the top of his head.
He was, well, instantly deceased.
But what's funny [Grunts.]
Unusual I mean, of relevance is that bone fragments from his shattered skull flew off, lodged in my cheek, singeing deep into my flesh.
I could feel them scrape against my molar.
So, I was asked to take time away from battle for a small spell.
But soon enough, Miss Hastings, with you and God on my side, I will whip this place into shape and be back at the front before the killing is done.
With your fellow officers on their scouting mission and my parents out for the evening, the house is ours.
Only your girl banking the fires to spy on us.
My father receives a case each year from a friend in France.
- Mmm.
- Hard to get nice things with these blue jackets blockading our ports.
Let me make up for our obstruction.
I should like to know more about you, Captain Your family, what you did growing up, your dreams.
Later.
When people are around.
Let's not waste an opportunity.
I must see that Elizabeth has retired.
Let the brandy tide you over till I return.
Ready to go home, boy? - [Grunts.]
- [Horse grunts.]
Larkin: Locking lips with the Provost Marshal, are you? Banfield: Think we're dumb? We ain't dumb.
Yes.
I admit it.
I do think you're dumb, Banfield.
Too dumb to know there's no better reb than one trusted by the Union.
[Spits.]
I am that man.
Worth more to our cause than 100 of you.
You got a plan? In good time, Larkin.
[Horse neighs.]
He smells my blood.
Hold him so I can mount.
I said hold him.
[Horse grunting.]
[Floorboard creaks.]
So, what do you seek, Miss Green? Orders? My correspondence? Is there something specific? I-I confess to such curiosity about you, your family.
I'm getting familiar with a man I hardly know at all.
Can't blame a girl for being curious.
That's really the best you can do? I take true offense to that tone.
Take offense? You're a spy and a whore, which I find offensive.
[Gasps.]
So, do I kill you myself or turn you over to be hanged? [Grunts.]
No! No! No, let me go! Let me go! My family will be home soon! Aah! Alice! He tried to take me, Father.
You son of a bitch.
This lying harlot of your No! No! - Alice? - No! Aah! Get off! Aah! [Grunts.]
No, no! James, no! [Crying.]
[Door opens.]
Has her fever dropped? A bit.
But it will spike again.
I'll watch over her tonight.
I'll be in my room.
Should anything change, find me.
[Door opens.]
Major McBurney insists.
[Horse neighs.]
We We should call a doctor.
That would only bring more trouble.
Is he dead? Oh, my God, Jimmy.
So horrible.
Look at my dress.
It's so It was so horrible, Mama.
Sweetheart.
Trying to defend your sister's honor, I I killed this man.
Father, you and I will roll him up in this rug.
What? No, no.
This man attacked Alice.
Your father has justification.
Where do we argue that? In their courtroom? Before their judges? Mother, Alice, you will write to his family in mimicry of his hand, saying he contemplates desertion.
An unfinished letter will be left for the federal authorities.
[Van der Berg groans.]
Praise God, he's not dead.
There may be time yet.
It changes nothing.
No.
No, Jimmy, we must He assaulted my sister! Had he gone to battle to kill one of our boys, is it so different? [Crying.]
Jimmy's right.
The war isn't just out there.
It's in here, too.
It's all around us.
James.
Take the ladies from the room.
No, no, no, no.
No.
- [Gunshot.]
- [Gasps.]
[Gunshot.]