1
Praise to the Lord
Who o'er all things
so wondrously reigneth
Shelters he under his wings
Yet so gently sustaineth
Hast thou not seen
How thy desires ever have been
Granted in what he ordaineth
(Humming the hymn)
Are you cold?
No.
Are you nervous?
No.
(Door opening)
(Footsteps)
Are you comfortable?
Yes. Yes, sir. Thank you.
- You're not cold?
- No.
- This house gets very cold.
- I'm thick-skinned.
You'll find that there can be a draught.
Won't be like what you're used to.
You ought to keep to the house.
But I don't mind the fresh air.
You'll be more comfortable
in the house.
I like the fresh air.
- I like being outside...
- Take it off.
Your nightdress, take it off.
(Wind howling)
(Wincing)
(Wincing)
(Men laughing and chatting)
(Clock chiming)
So you'll not go to London, then?
What?
My son will stay here with his wife
and play master or something.
(Laughter)
Excuse me.
Good night.
(Father-in-law) You're very tired
lately, Katherine.
You will wait up for your husband.
I am perhaps a little overtired, sir.
You will wait up, Katherine.
I will try, sir.
Sit with Mrs Lester,
see that she doesn't fall asleep.
I'm awake.
Stop staring, Anna.
- But Mr Lester said...
- I know what Mr Lester said
but I'm awake
so there's no need to stare at me.
(Footsteps)
(Door opening)
Stand up.
Stand!
Leave.
Stop smiling.
Take your nightdress off.
Face the wall.
(Unbuttoning his fly)
Face the wall!
(Husband masturbating)
(Moaning)
(sighing)
'Where has my husband gone?'
Away.
- Away?
- That's what I said.
- To do what?
- Nothing for you to concern yourself with.
But I do concern myself.
There's been an explosion,
at the colliery at Amble.
An explosion?
- How did that happen?
- Yes, Katherine. An explosion.
I leave for London this morning.
You'll be on your own for a while.
Perhaps you will find
that your energy is restored
after a little of your own company,
and when your husband returns
you can resume your duties
with more rigour,
madam.
(Door closing)
(Carriage departing)
(Opens windows)
(Wind blowing)
(Wind howling)
(Clock chiming)
(Footsteps)
(Man shouting)
(Raised voices)
(Shouting and laughing)
(All fall silent)
- Just taking a break, ma'am.
- On my husband's time?
We'll get straight back to it.
(Choked sobbing)
We're weighing a pig, ma'am.
Weighing a sow, to be precise.
A sow?
- As you see.
- (Anna squeals)
Take her down.
I said, take her down!
Face the wall.
And stop smiling.
(Chains rattling)
May we turn around yet, ma'am?
How much would I weigh?
Would you like me to check?
Guess.
You have wasted quite enough of
my husband's good time and money.
I shall be keeping an eye
on you gentlemen.
Anna?
- Ma'am, if I can explain...
- What was his name?
The one that called you a pig,
what was his name?
- Sebastian, ma'am.
- Is he new?
Yes, ma'am.
He's the new groomsman.
Is there something else, Anna?
No, ma'am.
(Sobbing)
My boots, Anna.
- It's still cold out there.
- It's warm enough.
- Mr Lester said that you weren't to...
- Yes?
- It's going to rain today, ma'am.
- Good.
(Dog barking)
Are you lost?
House is in the other direction.
Mrs Lester!
(Thunder rumbling)
- Anna, it's too hot.
- Your skin's too cold.
Ow!
It only feels too hot
because the cold's got into your bones.
If it feels too hot,
then it is too hot.
Anna, you're hurting me.
Anna!
Anna, stop it!
What's wrong with you?
- Sorry, I...
- You've made my skin all red.
- You'll catch a fever, ma'am.
- It's just a bit of fresh air, Anna.
And there's no need for you
to stare at me currently, is there?
It's unnerving.
(Footsteps)
(Knock at door)
I'm terribly bored, Mrs Lester.
You should dedicate more time
to your work.
- Aren't you bored, Katherine?
- You can't call me that.
Get out. Get out!
What do you want?
No! No!
Shh, shh.
(Door opening)
(Sniggering)
(Laughing)
(Katherine moaning)
You must be anticipating the return
of your father-in-law, Mrs Lester.
- And your husband.
- I must.
It is not good to be
without company for too long.
- The decline in your health...
- My health?
Your absence from church, madam.
No doubt brought on by their absence.
No doubt.
Perhaps a little more time
spent indoors, Mrs Lester.
I understand
you've been taking the air.
Perhaps a little more solitude
and reflection will do.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
(Dog barking)
It's early for you, Anna.
I said, it's early for you, Anna.
And for you, sir.
Ah, she speaks!
Not so.
Got to give dogs a run-around.
A bitch gets restless
if she's tied up too long.
She was, sir.
Was what?
Tied up too long.
Mr Lester wouldn't be happy if he knew
what was happening in his absence.
What's been happening
in his absence, Anna?
The dogs, sir.
Thank you, Anna.
I'll look into that.
It's good of you to keep
such a close eye on things.
(Katherine laughing)
Mr Lester has returned.
- My husband?
- No, ma'am.
- Where is he?
- He's gone up to the fields.
He said not to expect him till dinner.
(Gasping)
(Footsteps)
Katherine.
Welcome home, sir.
- Have you kept well?
- I have. Thank you, sir.
You haven't been running the house
in my absence.
I have.
That wasn't a question.
- Where's your husband?
- Wherever you put him.
(Sniggers)
I'm so sorry.
- You've heard nothing from him?
- Not a word.
Get a bottle of the Fleurie.
- He wants a Fleurie.
- There's none of that left.
- None of it?
- Not a drop.
She's drank it all.
Excuse me, sir,
but there's none of the Fleurie left.
That's impossible. Look again.
I'm afraid there's none left, sir.
Cook said it had all gone.
And how exactly has it all gone?
I don't know, sir.
- You don't know?
- No, sir.
And the cook,
does she not know?
No, sir.
Do you not think it necessary
to keep an account of what happens
to my property in this household?
All my property.
- Am I to assume you drank it?
- No, sir.
And yet you can offer
no other explanation.
No, sir.
Get down.
- Sir?
- On your hands and knees.
You behave like an animal,
and I'll treat you like an animal.
Now, get out.
(Footsteps)
(Grunting and groaning)
Lock him up.
(Groaning)
Sebastian?
(Rattling)
(Grunts)
I have no desire to see you,
until I've had time to consider
what to do with you.
Let him out.
- You are entirely without shame.
- I have nothing to be ashamed of.
Nothing to be ashamed of?
Do you have any idea
of the damage that you're capable
of bringing upon this family?
You have failed miserably
in all of your marital duties,
more specifically,
to provide your husband
with a legitimate heir.
Where is your son? Where is he?
He has made that impossible.
Let him out.
You've had enough time
to contemplate, I hope,
and to take the opportunity
to meditate
upon your duties as a wife, Katherine,
in this household
above anything else.
Give me the key or let him out.
(Glass shattering)
Leave it!
I cannot bear to look at you.
Sit.
Sit.
Eat.
- I'm not...
- Eat with me. I hate to eat alone.
Tell me about your family, Anna.
Tell me about your home.
I haven't been home
in a very long time.
I'm not sure I know what home is.
- Do you have any brothers? Anna?
- (Mr Lester choking)
Do you have any brothers?
How many sisters do you have?
He's... We should...
What are the names of your sisters?
Sit back down, Anna.
- No, he needs...
- Sit down!
(Banging on door)
(Muffled cries)
(Banging)
(Rattling)
(Thud, then silence)
Run to the village for a doctor.
Quick, go.
Shh, shh.
(Groans)
(Anna sobbing)
(Katherine) 'He'll not return
for the funeral. He said as much.'
We won't have long.
He won't come back.
He hated his father.
He hates me.
Perhaps he just won't come back.
(Shutter clicking)
There.
Very fine indeed.
Man of the house.
Anna?
Anna!
Anna, when you are spoken to,
you are to respond.
I'm going to ask one of the maids,
um... that young girl,
to prepare and bring me breakfast
and all my meals from now on.
Just as a precaution.
It could be the mushrooms
or his heart.
Nobody's blaming you
so don't be so hard on yourself.
You're careful.
He was old and he had a weak stomach.
You heard what Dr Burdon said.
The master will be home before long
and this will all be done with.
Anna, I wish that
you would speak again.
Promise you'll try.
(Katherine) She won't speak.
She's mute.
- What if it comes back?
- It won't.
Do you love me?
Of course.
Do you adore me?
Of course.
Could you do without me?
Could you do without me?
It's husbands and wives
that kiss like that.
Did you husband kiss you, Katherine?
She won't speak.
You know I shan't be parted
from you alive, Sebastian?
"Through hell and high water
I will follow you,
"to the cross, to the prison,
to the grave, to the sky."
I'd rather stop you breathing
than have you doubt how I feel.
(Clip-clop of hooves)
Sebastian.
He's come home.
- What time is it?
- My husband has returned.
What shall we do?
Sebastian?
Can you just shut up?
(Laughing)
- You look like a little boy.
- Just shut up for one second.
Let me think.
- Go out there.
- Go out there?
Why? Am I to pretend to be
your lady-in-fucking-waiting?
Just go out there.
(Footsteps)
You're home.
You're awake.
I heard the horse.
I walked it down the lane.
I'm surprised you heard.
I've been sleeping lightly,
ever since your father died.
We had to have his funeral
in your absence.
Couldn't let him rot in a corner,
could you?
I shall place my feet
on his grave in the morning.
Do you have the bed
made up for two every night?
Ever since your letter came
I had no indication of when you'd return.
And thank goodness I did.
You must be tired.
No.
I found it in the fields.
And decided to keep it?
- Holds my skirts up.
- Are you skirts in danger of falling down?
No, sir.
You've grown fatter.
The cook has made an effort
to find food to my taste perhaps.
Your face is fatter.
You're altogether larger
than when I left.
Perhaps you'd like some tea.
(Crockery rattling)
So...
you have become a whore
in my absence, Katherine.
You think me to be stupid, perhaps.
But perhaps you had no idea
that your whoring had been noticed.
You seem surprised.
And surprised that the news
of you opening your legs and your cunt
for any worthless dog
should have reached my ears,
but then you opened your legs
so very wide, Katherine.
And you've acted so very shamelessly
and so very stupidly.
And you've begun to smell, Katherine.
You've gotten so fat and foul-smelling,
it was inevitable that the whole county
would hear of your behaviour.
My father...
bought you,
along with a piece of land
not fit enough for a cow to graze upon.
I do not like being talked about, madam.
I do not like being laughed at.
I do not like owning a whore.
You will alter your behaviour, madam.
And how will I alter my behaviour, sir?
You will never see that man again.
He will be sent from this house
and you will remain here,
indoors with your prayer book.
(Screaming)
(Neighing)
(Sobbing)
I can't sleep.
Try.
I've tried.
Can you sleep?
- I'll sit up until you can.
- I can't.
Every time I close my eyes,
I see his face.
Can you just get off me?
How can you,
just like it was before?
It's making me sick.
I feel sick, constantly.
It won't end unless you let it.
Have you let it?
For you,
and for me.
Sebastian, he was going to kill you.
He was weak.
We did it so that
we could be together here.
No more bowing and not being
who you deserve to be.
- You did it for us?
- We did it.
(Carriage approaching)
- I'm sorry. I'm not sure I understand.
- Teddy was your husband's ward.
- Who's Teddy?
- This is Teddy.
- I'm sorry. You're repeating yourself.
- It's a shock.
- I understand.
- My husband had no ward.
Mr Lester knew my daughter very well
some time ago and was fond of her.
He fathered a child by her.
- I beg your pardon?
- After my daughter's death...
he did the honourable thing
and made Teddy his ward.
He has been with us lately.
At Amble, near the colliery.
I'm afraid this is impossible.
He was careful to draw up papers.
I'm sorry for the shock.
You needn't apologise for an impossibility.
Sorry you've had a wasted journey.
Given Mr Lester's recent demise...
My husband is not deceased.
- He is assumed so.
- He is missing.
But presumed dead.
He is missing and
apparently you saw him so soon.
We did.
Perhaps you can advise me
as to what has become of him.
He seemed very well.
And certain he was to come here next.
He said it was a matter of urgency.
We can't imagine
what has happened to him.
I'm terribly anxious.
I'm sure.
There are papers, Mrs Lester.
I am sorry.
Perhaps we might have tea.
What is it?
He says you're the prettiest lady
he has ever seen.
- She's lying.
- She has papers.
She's forged them, then. You don't think
that every man and woman in the county
with half a brain and an empty pocket
isn't coming up with a similar scheme?
She has legitimate papers.
I thought you said
he couldn't fuck you.
He couldn't.
Or wouldn't.
Katherine?
What?
Sorry, er...
I wasn't...
- You were saying?
- I was saying it might be best
if Teddy took your room.
Then he's next to my room,
and it's larger.
You don't need all that space.
- No.
- No?
No, no, I...
No, I don't need all that space.
After Christmas, then.
Yes.
And perhaps I'll take your room.
You'll be used to smaller spaces
from your days in your tiny house, Agnes.
(Gasping)
Katherine! Can I come?
What are those ones?
Swallows.
Look, watch them glide.
Aren't they beautiful?
I think you're beautiful.
How do you know that?
What?
Names of birds.
My mother taught me.
She'd take us on long walks and teach us
the names of birds and trees.
- Outside things?
- Yes.
Do you miss your mother?
Yes.
Do you?
Yes.
(Rustling)
You don't mind if I...
if I join you, do you?
I just want to walk
a little with you, Anna.
I won't scare you.
Promise.
(Door opening)
Get off me.
I need to talk to you.
Go back to your house
and your little master.
Please come inside. I can't...
If I come inside,
then we're found out.
And if we're found out,
then I'll hang.
While that boy's here, I'm out here.
That's the end of it.
Get out!
(Teddy laughing)
(Katherine) Sebastian!
Katherine, watch me.
- Watch me.
- Not now, Teddy.
- Please, please!
- Get off! Leave me alone!
Sebastian!
Sebastian.
(Knock at door)
Sebastian?
Sebastian?
Ma'am.
- What is it?
- I'm sorry, ma'am, but it's the boy.
We can't find him anywhere.
- Teddy?
- Teddy?
Teddy?
Teddy?
- Teddy?
- Teddy?
Teddy?
Teddy?
(Door opening)
(Rapid footsteps)
- Teddy!
- He was at the waterfall. He's freezing.
- Get some blankets.
- Who are you?
How dare you walk into this house
and give orders? Get out.
- I saved him.
- Get out!
(Teddy coughing)
(Agnes) Teddy, Teddy.
I will not stay here and be humiliated
for the sake of that boy.
- Sebastian...
- I will not!
Tell me what to do.
I will do anything.
- It's too late.
- What? What do you mean?
I stood in front of him, Katherine.
At that waterfall,
that... perfect drop.
One step behind him.
And I...
It's too late.
It doesn't have to be.
It doesn't have to be if you trust me.
(Teddy groaning)
(Door opening)
(Teddy coughing)
You should go to bed.
I can't.
One of us should get some sleep.
I wouldn't sleep.
Lie down for a while.
I'll sit up with him.
You need some rest and he'll need you
when he wakes up.
- Just for an hour or so.
- If you like.
Thank you.
(Coughing)
- Katherine.
- Shh, Teddy. Sleep.
What are you doing?
- Shh.
Let me go. Katherine.
- Shh.
(Muffled cries)
(Muffled cries)
(Teddy falls silent)
It is done.
Sebastian.
No, no, no.
Go wait until I come.
Go.
(Door opening)
(Door closing)
(Sobbing)
(Katherine) I must've fallen asleep
for ten minutes, perhaps.
When I woke, he wasn't breathing.
Can you remember
what time that was, Mrs Lester?
Just before the girl came in.
Er... I couldn't say exactly.
Five, perhaps.
- I was upset.
- Of course.
(Agnes crying)
I wonder...
What?
Could you have been asleep
longer than you thought?
Might someone have taken
the opportunity to come in?
- There were bruises...
- From the waterfall.
They weren't there before.
- When I woke, the boy was dead.
- Katherine...
He must've got the bruises
from the waterfall.
- Dr Burdon says not.
- Can Dr Burdon swear to it?
- Have we not suffered enough?
- Mrs Lester...
Forgive me.
- (Detective) Mrs Lester, you do realise...
- (Door opening)
We killed the boy.
(Detective) I beg your pardon, sir.
Who are you?
(Sebastian) She killed him.
She held a pillow over his face
and I held his legs.
She killed Alexander Lester.
She killed Boris Lester,
poisoned him with mushrooms
and let him die.
She... killed that boy.
She killed that boy
so that we could be together.
And I thought I loved her.
She suffocated me.
She suffocated me
and she hounded me.
And then she never let me be.
She's a disease.
(Detective) Mrs Lester?
He's lying.
Anna...
He and Anna did it.
- For whatever reason of their own.
- You bitch!
Everyone knows that
she picks the mushrooms
and he follows her
to the woods every morning.
Perhaps they were found out
and threatened with separation.
My father-in-law beat him
within an inch of his life
the day before he died.
And that boy...
That boy was like a child to me.
Anna will say if otherwise.
I did nothing.