Harlots (2017) s02e06 Episode Script

1 I want to know how the best bawd in London snags a virgin.
Secure me a pretty maid and be sure to test her about her virtue.
I want you to go to Justice Hunt and to tell him that Margaret Wells is forcing girls to work against their will.
- I can't marry him.
- You will marry him! There's a little Quiggy growing inside me.
I'm a Spartan too.
- You've killed.
- With one stab.
Charlotte sent me.
And what does Charlotte want us to do? We need to buy a virgin.
- What are you doing? - This man is a liar and a thief, put him out.
Get off me.
Unsullied virgin or deceitful whore.
On this occasion, you lose.
Lydia.
Lydia, let me out! (UPBEAT THEME MUSIC) (SOFT DRAMATIC MUSIC) (WOMAN CRYING) (MAN SPEAKING, WOMAN YELLING) (BELLS TOLLING) Will? Something isn't right.
It's been too long.
You'll know soon enough.
(INDISTINCT YELLING) Open the door! (LOUD BANGING) What happened? Where's Charlotte? I was beaten, we've failed.
The lady will conclude you upstairs, sir.
(GRUNTING) The bastards broke my sparring arm.
No, no, no, no, no.
Your shoulder's out.
No, don't come near it.
What are you doing? (SHOULDER CRACKING, WEBSTER YELLING) Villain! What happened? When I asked to take the girl out the house, the pretense fell.
I was held and beaten by a pack of wank-handed fops.
And what of Charlotte? Last I saw, she was spinning lies into gold.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC) And the kidnapped girl? What's happened to him? We should have told the law! The law's as useless as paps on a man! Go and tell Nancy, Fan.
I expect to be informed every time she so much as coughs, and you have let her leave my house! You lumpen, feeble-minded dolts! (BELLS TOLLING, CROWD CHATTERING) When you marry, Amelia will be your unpaid housekeeper, so you won't need me.
- So I'd like to suggest that - This is about Mrs.
Scanwell.
It's calumny.
It says she was once (STUTTERING) a depraved and wanton harlot.
Poor Mrs.
Scanwell.
She'll be glad of her blindness today.
Is there substance in this? What does it matter if she once played the strumpet for her bread? Of course it matters! Who did this to her? Whom has she offended? That's the right question.
Pay me to be your eyes and ears and I'll help you find out.
Holy God, thank you for this bread.
Thank you for my daughter who lights my path.
Let her not flounder.
Show her her duty.
Let her know righteous love.
Will I read you the paper, Mrs.
Scanwell? Seems you should know quite a bit of love yourself.
"Covent Garden, London.
Mrs.
Scandal, or The Perverted Converted.
" "Londoners may have noticed a black-clad figure outside Litreal Street magistrates' court.
" (QUIGLEY HAUGHTILY LAUGHING) That girl will be grateful to you for the rest of her life.
What a superb entrance to the profession.
When you come next time, I'll have her kiss your feet.
Perhaps not my feet.
(QUIGLEY LAUGHING) (DARK MUSIC) À bientôt, Mrs.
Quigley.
Goodbye, your lordship.
Charlotte.
Charlotte! Shush, shush, shush! Shush, stop that noise! Your sister is indisposed.
Go home to your kennel on Greek Street.
Must I tell Lord Fallon that you barred me? He's my keeper now.
Sit.
Assure your sister that all is well or the girl you stole will find a short future with the foulest pimp on Cheapside.
Lucy.
I've had a drink too many.
My head is quite stricken.
Mine too.
My new keeper is intoxicating.
Lord Fallon.
He's a big fish for you, little minnow.
Hm, here I am between two blossoming branches of the Wells tree.
May I talk to my sister alone? How do you like Lord Fallon? Very well.
But I need your advice.
(BANGING ON THE DOOR) Not this morning.
My head's full of dandelion clocks.
You should talk to Ma, as you always do.
You left without telling me.
What on Earth possessed you to come on foot? You could have had my carriage.
I didn't like to wake you.
I'm at your service every hour of the day.
I wanted to see Charlotte.
Miss Wells, a delight, always.
Lucy was telling me of her happy fortune.
I find myself bereft without her.
Come and see me.
I will.
The man with your sister.
I saw him with a bloody knife in his hand the night Justice Cunliffe was killed.
- Lord Fallon? - He did it.
And he was excited when he done the deed.
I saw it with my own eyes.
Go to Greek Street, tell my mother.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC) (QUIGLEY LAUGHS) He played my eunuch.
We deflowered a vestal last night.
You and your friends would have relished it.
Mrs.
Quigley! The molly boy.
What of him? I heard him conspire with Charlotte.
About what? Out with it! He slandered Lord Fallon.
How? He accused you of killing Justice Cunliffe.
What an absurd mistake! Charlotte has sent him to her mother in Greek Street.
He's a turncoat, perilous to us both.
(FOREBODING MUSIC) Finish him.
I need to meet with my banker.
I'll follow you, my love.
Take her home.
Let's leave.
Let's run away.
(VIOLET LAUGHS) Why do you laugh? I'm in earnest.
I won't leave.
I'm working to gain my freedom and a wage.
Yes, but we have to be true to ourselves.
Even if it means penury.
I am true to myself.
(AMELIA SIGHS) I shouldn't have dallied with you.
I've spoilt your peace.
Is that what I am? A dalliance? (AMELIA SCOFFS) Then I'll marry the justice and be damned a liar.
Amelia.
Doubt he'll have you now.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC) - Rasselas.
- Come this way quickly.
No, I must get to my mother.
She's been viciously abused.
(GRUNTING) (WHIMPERING) Peter! (COMMOTION) - She all right? - She's not breathing! Get some help! (BANGING ON DOOR) Rapists triumph, murderers go free while you merrily come wooing.
I want to speak to Mrs.
Scanwell.
Justice, I know what you must think.
My daughter has not been tainted by my sins.
You withheld the truth from me.
That is a deception.
Amelia has not deceived you.
(STUTTERING) I am a justice of the peace.
My reputation must be unimpeachable.
Quigley was forcing me to confound Mrs.
Wells and I wouldn't.
She has me enmeshed in the snare of my past but I defied her.
What past? I told her to do her worst.
She's an old trollop, God love her.
Think what you will of me, but my daughter's heart is true and it's pure and she has given it to you.
Mags! Mags! There's been a stabbing.
Come quick.
Come, Amelia.
Gently.
We found her in the street.
She's bleeding hard.
No, my darling, don't die.
Come on.
Help's coming, don't you dare die.
The justice is here, he'll help us.
Come on, Amelia.
Clear the parlor and get blankets.
Nance, tell her mother.
Your girl, she's been injured.
A knife, some sharp object.
Amelia.
She lives.
Who did this? We don't know, I'm sorry.
Not even she, not even Quigley.
Oh, no, no.
Oh, God, don't take my child.
Come now, come now, come now.
She needs your strength, not your woe.
Come on.
Girls, the table, move it.
Lay her in front of the fire.
(SCANWELL CRYING) Fetch water and we need to build up the fire.
There's a servant at the judge's house, Violet Cross, bring her.
You go for a surgeon.
Darling.
My darling.
God is good.
God is good and He loves you well.
Don't leave, don't leave.
(DOOR SLAMS) I'm dressing.
Yes, I can see that.
Your amethysts would go well with that.
Leave us.
(DOOR OPENS, CLOSES) I won them in a bidding war.
Along with first use of a virgin.
What have you done? Where is Charlotte? I don't think Charlotte was her name.
Not that I listened to the girl, she was blubbing tediously.
Almost distracted me from her unspoiled flesh.
- How could you? - Because I wanted to discover why my irrational sister was conspiring with blacks and harlots.
Why would you plot destruction upon a retch like Mrs.
Quigley? Because she is a beast and so are you! Quigley's done you personal wrong, hasn't she? And as I lay on my costly virgin, I fell to wondering what that wrong could be.
(GLASS SHATTERING) Fuck! (DARK MUSIC) It's been too many moons since I broke a girl.
(SHRIEKING) None of them none of them could hold a candle to you.
You remain the most perfect act of my whole life.
(SCREAMING) She blackmails you, doesn't she? Hm? Did something happen in the years that I was away? Tell me.
I can help you.
Get your damn hands off me.
I will leave you forever.
How? Where would you go? You prove your incapacity every day.
(CRYING) (BELLS RINGING) Your treachery is hurting like a knife.
I could not bare that girl being raped.
Tried what I could to prevent it.
So rather than say, "I disapprove" or "Must you tread this path?" you sought to ambush me? - I sought to rescue her.
- With your muse, Lady Fitz? It was not her doing.
Hm.
Fancy you, falling for the tricks of a spoilt grandee.
(SOMBER MUSIC) Your final lesson in being a bawd.
Own what you have done.
I want her ready for tonight.
Where's my brave sausage today? He's all upset.
You and my mother.
This animosity will stop.
I need my sausage.
No arguing.
(MOANING) (LIGHT TAPPING ON DOOR) Charles we need you on the door.
I'm busy caring for Emily.
She's in a delicate state with Quigley minor.
And I can tell you he's going to be a feisty little chap.
(GRUNTING, PANTING) Congratulations.
Why did you tell her? It should be our secret.
Mr.
Sausage wants the whole world to know.
(PANTING) Oh, God help me.
Don't tell me, he's got work to do in there.
I like Emily, but she's a lazy jade and he's about as useful as a cushion.
There'll soon be another mouth to feed.
No! Charles Quigley's got seed? If it's his.
If this was truly a house of exotics, we'd have a black bawd.
Should be you.
Is there a business in this whole town run by women of our color? We could do it.
(SCANWELL CRYING) What's he doing? He must sear the wound, stop the blood.
Violet Cross, you've spun your glamour around my child.
You keep back! (WHIMPERING) (HISS OF HOT METAL) She's done this many times before to girls as young as ten.
My mother was one of them.
I wanted to avenge her.
It blinded me.
She will pay for what she's done.
And he will too the beast that raped you.
And what of you? How will you pay? You decide.
You you've taken my family from me.
(SOFT DRAMATIC MUSIC) I will never let them see what I have become.
I want you to lose your family too so you can pay with my curse.
Not on my family, they've not harmed you.
Nor had mine harmed you.
You have killed their child.
My men are out there now looking for witnesses.
Whatever her mother may be, Amelia is blameless.
From where I'm standing, all girls are blameless.
Even those with used cunnies.
Like poor Kitty Carter.
It goes badly.
They're starting to pray.
Ma? You're wanted.
Go home and wait for me.
- How is Miss Scanwell? - Alive.
The devil's own smile across her belly.
It was meant for me.
I recognized the man who killed Justice Cunliffe.
He was at Quigley's.
He came after me.
Miss Scanwell got between us.
- So that is it.
- I must run.
A rich man like that will search until I'm dead.
No, no.
Give me the bastard's name.
Lord Fallon.
You lie.
Upon my life, Lord Fallon.
(ROOSTER CROWING) Lucy.
What troubles you? Why did you leave? Last night I fear the Charis made me speak of some strange inventions.
Don't tell anyone what I said.
It was the stuff of smoke-wreaths.
You are more remarkable every day.
You deserve to be here, elevated, by my side.
Queen of your realm.
London is a charnel house.
I have a sudden desire to see you under a brighter sun.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC) Travel with me.
- Where? - To the temples of Greece.
Will we lay among the ruins on the bones of the dead? (MURMUR OF NEARBY CONVERSATION) You have to make an appointment.
- Madam! - Let me see him! Madam! Lucy! Damn you, Ma.
Get out! Come away from him, my love.
Charlotte needs you, not I.
Let me talk to you alone for a moment.
This is Fallon's house.
We have no secrets.
Mrs.
Scanwell's daughter was found stabbed and dying in the street not this half-hour past.
He did it.
That's absurd.
It cannot be so.
You insult me most bizarrely.
She's lying at Greek Street now, halfway between this world and the next.
Why would he do such a thing? She was in his way, so he slashed her down.
I'm sorry to hear it, Ma, but what you speak of is madness.
It's not his first slaughter.
He stuck Justice Cunliffe and he was witnessed in the act.
The corrupt judge who would have hanged my sister? I cannot say it any clearer, this man is a killer! So am I.
What have you told him? Lucy and I are in perfect harmony.
What you did, my love was in defense of your own person.
You know the blame does not rest at your door.
This man is cold murder.
Forgive me, but I can no longer have her in my house.
Then put her out.
Let us understand each other, Ma.
Say nothing to the hirelings of the law or I'll tell them that sweet Lucy killed my friend Sir George.
(LAUGHS) My silence will not save you.
Miss Scanwell may survive.
She knows your powdered face.
Wounds fester and she's like to die.
It would be better for your Lucy if she did.
Be silent or your lovely daughter hangs.
(LABORED BREATHING) Yeah! (LAUGHING) Look, cherries from your Cherry.
You're too sumptuous.
I love them.
Yeah! (LAUGHING) I need to talk to Charles.
Out.
Emily! Be nice.
Stay away from him.
I'll throw you in a poxy sack.
Lord Fallon's puffed her up with his high-wrought lies.
They're running through her like a spell.
We must get her out.
She won't come for her ma.
She follows you like a little lamb, Nance.
And her pa too.
Coax her.
What will you do? Tend the sick.
No you won't.
You're gonna have a fight with Quigley around the Golden Square.
There's not a single inch of me that you don't know.
(SOLEMN, DRAMATIC MUSIC) Make sure you get her, Nance.
It's done.
She's in a whore's raiment.
Has it all been a lie? Every hour you've been in my house? You are so impressive.
You're fearless and clever and you made me feel the same.
I was yours until your auction for rape.
Why must you pander to the basest of desires? I pander to men.
I give them what they want.
Until yesterday, I wanted you to be my mother.
You think I've been a monster to that girl but every word I said to her is true.
I'm giving her a better life.
The shock of entering she'll soon forget.
What was your shock? Some hairy stranger in the dark, like mine? Or was it somebody you knew? I thank him every day for the knowledge that he gave me.
He taught me that love is strongest when it's cruel.
He gave me fortitude.
I've given that legacy to all my girls.
It's the lesson I was teaching you.
Does it ease your pain inflicting it upon others? I will be your daughter, but this must stop.
This is not the way to be a bawd.
What other way is there? (FRONT DOOR OPENS) (MURMUR OF CONVERSATION) Let the girl go free.
(DOOR OPENS) The dwarf is here.
Make it wait.
She says she's been blown on a breeze of plots and treachery.
What brings you? Miss Lacey weaves her web around your son and she's not the only spider.
(COINS JANGLE) Margaret Wells, a rich woman with a cloud-high wig, and your courtesan, Charlotte, they all conspire against you.
Charlotte? She is the glue that brings them all together.
My daughter until yesterday? Cursed liar! (DARK MUSIC) (GRUNTING) Do you feel wronged? Have I wronged you, Lydia? Have I lied? Well, here's the truth.
You stink of rape and death and I hate I hate you! (GRUNTING) Get the girl from upstairs and bring her down or I swear I will choke this farrow-eating sow to death.
(GRUNTING, YELLING) Shut up, you! Charlotte! No, no! No! Do not sully yourself! (QUIGLEY GASPS) (COUGHING) I will not see my hate drift past onto my child.
(QUIGLEY GASPING) I'm taking her home.
And if you try to stop us, either you or me will die.
Ma the girl, we cannot leave her behind.
There's nothing you can do.
Your daughter.
I've made her just like me.
She's now a Quigley to the core.
Never.
(QUIGLEY COUGHING) I came here thinking I would kill her and then I saw you.
Why'd you stop me? I would not have that on your soul! She bought you for a poxy pair of shoes.
That was all you're worth.
I curse myself for telling you.
It was selfish to speak of it.
She took you when you were just a child.
And I did as much to you.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I know.
(CRYING) (SING-SONG HUMMING) (RUNNING FOOTSTEPS) Your Ma, she's in a fight! Charlotte Wells has her hands around her throat.
How do you know that? (DRAMATIC MUSIC) Where have you been? Is Quigley paying you to spy? Must I shake you to jangle all her coins? Why do you hate her? Going somewhere, Lord Fallon? The Archon wants to see us.
I'm taking my mistress out of town.
No you're not.
I told him that a justice has been sniffing around my boots.
He will see us now.
(TENSE MUSIC) Send the carriage for Charlotte.
I have an errand first.
I must bid farewell to a friend.
I can't leave London while she's still at Quigley's.
What a loyal sister you are.
Be loyal to me.
(CHURCH BELLS TOLLING) Thank you for your care of her.
I do it for her safety.
You have your wish now.
Her marriage flounders and you are free to cast your glamour once again.
I have never stood in her way.
It's you that's thwarted her, not I.
(SOFT DRAMATIC MUSIC) Here.
Tell me how she looks.
Better than before.
So there is a witness who saw you stab the justice and you have what in trying to dispatch him? It was an accident.
A girl still lives who can name you as her attacker.
I didn't see her, she moved into my path.
His response to this disaster which puts us all at risk is to run.
I was not running.
At Thermopylae, the Spartans didn't flee.
You are the liability, you drunken, careless oaf.
This enmity will never do.
Only together are we unassailable.
We shall neither falter nor flinch.
Will you tell the others? There's no need unless you run.
(DARK FOREBODING MUSIC) I have the Wells girl as my surety.
And witnesses can perish.
In Sparta, the defenses were impregnable.
And deserters had their bollocks ploughed into the soil.
My ma was small.
"Any flotsam passing," she'd say.
"You cling to it.
Keep yourself afloat.
" I chose the wrong raft.
I'm sorry.
I should put you out.
But that would upset my soft-hearted Charles.
So from now on, Cherry Dorrington, you're my little spy, do you understand? From now on you work for me.
I fear for her, Charlotte.
Look after her for me.
(SOFT DRAMATIC MUSIC) (FLINCHES) (DOOR OPENS) Mumma.
Oh, Charles! My own boy.
Oh! Those Wells women won't stop until I am dead.
This is their doing.
This hatred has to stop.
It will, I promise you.
I will burn their house down.
I will burn them both.
- Don't say that.
- I will see them die in agony.
No, Mumma, no.
And your horrid doxy plots with them.
She's their familiar, their pert demon.
You cannot say anything about her.
It breaks my heart how she abuses you.
That's enough.
Emily's going to have my baby.
She's part of our family now.
I couldn't fart without fear of giving myself away.
I couldn't belch, I couldn't swear.
How those girls of hers live, quelling their spirits, constantly daunted and afraid.
There's some part of her that's missing, some box in a machine where her heart used to be.
I want to roar and scream and shout, "I am Charlotte Wells!" (LAUGHTER) And so you are.
Fanny, you look after that baby.
Are you going soft? Hey.
Now where? Our family is here.
I want news of Amelia.
Let one of your girls go.
I spoke harshly to her mother this morning.
I will not add to her woes.
Take care of things for me.
What else? Why do you think Lord Fallon's your enemy? He was going to help you.
He can protect us both.
He can protect this whole house.
You should be loyal to him.
Lucy, you're not talking like yourself.
Maybe I'm becoming myself.
Properly, for the first time! Charlotte.
Your ladyship's here.
I'm not done with you.
I've always been a flop beside her.
That's what you all think, isn't it? What are you talking about? Why can't you see that Fallon is my first success? (CLOCK TICKING) Tell Charlotte I've gone to bed.
(CROWD CHATTER) (KNOCKING ON DOOR) I need to see the justice.
(FIRE CRACKLING) (CLOCK TICKING) You'd do anything to save your child, wouldn't you? You know I would.
We are the same in that.
Tell me, what is the punishment for murder, Mr.
Hunt? It is death.
Even when a person has confessed? Murder is murder.
Then so be it.
I confess to the murder of Sir George Howard.
(TENSE DRAMATIC MUSIC) He was with my daughter, Lucy, and she was screaming "no.
" Anger overcame me You do not refuse me.
when I stuck him with a knife.
And then I put my hands around his neck and I pressed until his throat collapsed.
We made it look like he was drunk and I paid lackeys to dump his body in the park.
Is this true? As I breathe.
Do you understand the consequence of what you have just said? (SNIFFLING) Please wait.
Why have you told him such a thing? It is my reckoning, Mrs.
Scanwell.
Tell me am I to hope for salvation? My prayers will be with you.
And mine with you.
My secret is a child.
A daughter, born when I was very young.
She's at a private boarding school in Chelsea.
Sometimes I ride and watch her from the park.
I've never tried to contact her.
That's how she survives.
You must move her.
Lydia is vengeful.
So is my brother.
He bragged this morning, self-satisfied, at what he'd done.
The girl he raped, she cursed me.
It was his crime, not yours.
And everything he did was in punishment of me.
How? Why? For rejecting him.
(SOLEMN MUSIC) When I was very young, he damned me with his lust.
My child, she is his.
He doesn't know.
You're not damned.
I am.
You will be sentenced tomorrow.
(DOOR LOCKS, KEYS JANGLE) Now that I'm here I can tell you the name of the man who stabbed Amelia.
It is Lord Fallon.
When you arrest him, he will tell you a foul lie, he will say it was my Lucy who killed his friend Sir George.
But you'll know that isn't true because I confessed and his lie means nothing.
Mrs.
Wells.
What can I do for you? Have grace toward my daughters.
I'm cursed, you're damned.
What a pair we are.
No one has ever touched me since.
No one ever will.
Why should you forever be alone? Let me break his spell.
For you, what can I do? I know what's to come.
So don't make a pageant of my hanging.
Do it quietly and do it fast.