Original subtitles

[FAINT VOICES ECHO]

[SHE GASPS]

[DISTANT CRIES]

[DISTRESSED SHOUTS]

[WEEPING AND SOBBING]

No, don't, Mrs Wells, please! Just leave her alone!

-Ma? -I'm fixing her up for the wake.

Take Fanny upstairs.

You can 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 had heeded it.

What will we tell the magistrate?!

We've no proof to link her to Kitty, and the molly boy scurried in fear!

We've still got Emily Lacey.

Her balls are bigger than the molly's.

[FANNY SOBS]

If Kitty was here she'd tell you not to cry for her.

No, she... 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.

Well, she's lost a friend.

They're scarcer than hens' teeth.

She'll be back before Mercy needs to suckle.

-Come on. -Where you going?

To clean our hands.

[KEYS RATTLE DOOR CREAKS]

[MAN IN DISTANCE] Shut it, you trollop!

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!

[whispers] 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 SLAMS]

[BOTTLES CLINK]

[SHE YAWNS]

Oi, come on.

[BIRDSONG]

[DOOR OPENS]

I'm interrupting.

Nonsense.

You must join us.

I've already eaten, thank you.

She came for silver, not spice bread.

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.

Humour 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.

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.

Hmm?

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.

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. -Yeah, she threw me to that foe when it suited her!

I'm here for Kitty!

What's carrot curls gotta do with anything?

She's dead, Emily.

-Quigley had her snatched from the doorstep. -No!

She's lying in my kitchen with her throat torn.

The hounds!

-Emily... -We 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!

[SHE SOBS]

I was coming to see you.

Mr Armitage!

[SHE CRIES]

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-p-proof have you that this 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.

[SHE SNIFFS]

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've gotta trust me, Ma. -Miss Wells!

I will.

Please understand.

Shame on you, Charlotte Wells.

Y-Y-You will not disrespect this court.

Shame on you too.

[HORSE WHINNIES]

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 on it from her fingers!

I've no idea what they're alluding to.

I never harmed a single girl in my life.

Please tell me you believe that!

[SHE SIGHS]

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, uh...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-v-v...virtue.

It 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.

Hmm.

We have no home.

No money. No food.

What a spell this girl has cast on you!

Up!

[HE GROANS]

We need to leave, and your mama mustn't know we were here!

[CHARLES COUGHS AND GROANS]

Emily, we've claimed Golden Square as our own.

We will defend it like a fortress.

Mmm!

Kitty Carter...is dead!

At your mama'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 wanna live, Charlie...

..long enough to see my muff turn silver.

[KNOCK ON DOOR] [HE GROANS]

Leave me be!

I've paid for another night.

Mr North?

It's me, Fanny.

Fanny, I know you mean well, I just wanna be left alone.

Something terrible's happened.

I should have been there.

Mr Armitage says young girls are murdered all the time.

Like my health.

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 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 mama's rug!

It's MY rug!

Look...

[SHE GASPS] You saddle-goose!

Don't think I won't leave without ya!

[KNOCK ON DOOR]

I heard of your troubles, Mama. 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.

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, Ma!

You have done this.

No, no, Mrs Quigley, no.

He was the apple of my eye

-until you consumed him, you maggot! -Mama!

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 anything more and I'll cut your fucking throat!

[EMILY WHIMPERS]

That could have been me.

Only without the crowds and candles.

No person should ever be disowned by their mother.

It's unnatural.

[SHE SCOFFS]

Is that what you think is unnatural?

Not raped girls, or slit throats?

Just your stubby little fingers slapped away from Mama's purse.

-Emily! -Her fortune was earned stealing souls.

-Where are you going? -To pay my respects.

I'll come!

They might link you.

I might help 'em!

[INDISTINCT CHATTER]

Ale and rage.

It's a potent mix.

That's the cost of you leaving us vulnerable

while you took your distemper for a walk.

But there's no blame at your doorstep though, is there, Margaret?

How many bodies?

You're choking on guilt.

Perry Cooper, George Howard, Kitty Carter.

There's that many corpses clinging to your skirt

you're starting to reek.

We're here to raise our glasses to Kitty Carter!

[ALL SHOUT AND CHEER]

One of the best girls I ever had in my house!

-She 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 is strong enough to condemn a white wig.

And none too weak to hang a whore!

[ALL SHOUT] -Violet Cross is in jail,

awaiting transportation!

Great Britain's good riddance!

My uncle went that way, said half died of fever on the crossing,

ended up fish food!

Violet Cross is as light-fingered as they come!

Ah, you sell your cunny for coin!

We've all got to do something!

It's because they're poor!

How many more of us are gonna clinch the biliary,

dance with the hangman?!

Yes, that's true!

We are the sewer, full of rats,

being ruled by a handful of foxes!

It's time we showed our teeth.

Come on!

[SHOUTING AND COMMOTION]

[WINDOW SMASHES] -Not on our own streets, fool!

To the magistrates!

Breaking windows won't see you remembered.

Or keep your daughter fed.

I will.

[SHE SNIFFLES]

It's his, Lucy. The bastard that killed her.

Justice for Kitty Carter!

[SHOUTING AND JEERING]

[FAINT COMMOTION]

[SHOUTS GROW LOUDER]

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 out and face us! [THUMPING]

Lily-livered fucker!

[THUMPING AND SHOUTING]

Show us your face, you quivering cunt!

[THUMPING AND SHOUTING]

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?

Not without evidence!

We gave you evidence, and you scorned it!

We'll string her up ourselves!

Yeah!

[ALL SHOUT]

You leave her, you leave her!

Violet!

-Don't trust this knobend! -Arrest this woman!

-Nancy! -I don't want to be arrested!

Come on!

Get her into a cell!

Go to your homes!

Nancy!

[DOOR SLAMS]

Hunt's closed the gallery.

We scared him witless.

That's a good thing.

No...

A frightened man is a very dangerous thing, Lucy.

[DOOR OPENS]

I need to speak with 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.

[SHE CHUCKLES]

Something amuse you?

Only a raven claiming a swan as its issue.

I don't claim her. She calls me Pa willingly.

I heard the names your boy calls you would make a mariner blush.

Tell Charlotte Nancy Birch has been arrested.

She'll want to know.

[KNOCK ON DOOR]

-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!

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 exhorted you to silence Margaret Wells,

the girl you despatched was a common whore

with no bearing on our business whatsoever!

I 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 despatched. -So you would add to your heap of murders?

This new judge is adamant. I'd 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 AND CHATTER]

Haha!

We 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 treasure like a pearl,

she'll do nothing to endanger her.

Threats are clearly ineffective.

I don't intend to threaten the girl.

[SHOUTING AND COMMOTION]

Take Jacob home, Lucy!

Now!

Go and get Charlotte.

Nancy!

Nance! This is a good woman!

She has been tried and sentenced according to her offence.

These are the actions of a tyrant!

Obstruct the law, and you'll pay!

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 savour nor shrink from.

Tyrant!

[SHOUTING AND JEERING] Nancy!

[CLOTHING TEARS] [SHE GASPS]

Nance!

MAN: Shame on you!

Nance!

[CROWD SILENCES]

[WHIP CRACKS] -Urgh!

Urgh!

Argh!

Urgh!

Urgh!

Urgh!

Urgh!

[WHIP CRACKS] -Urgh, God...!

Urgh!

[WHIP CRACKS] [SHE GASPS]

[DOOR SLAMS]

Violet!

[DOOR OPENS]

I r-r-r...

require tea.

Thirsty work, was it?

[BIRDSONG]

I used to think people who lived in houses like this were carefree.

You no longer think so?

Lady Isabella has a £500 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 APPROACH]

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.

The information I guard for you...

..grows larger by the day.

If I am to contain it, I will need further resources.

I could have 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 of our circle,

I would be ostracised and ridiculed.

You need not reveal my trade.

I am sorry, Lydia,

but the Beaumont would simply not accept you.

Persuade them.

Jacob?

Lucy, fetch a basin of salt water.

[NANCY WHIMPERS]

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 covets in London.

She's a secret.

[SHE SOBS]

[KNOCK ON DOOR]

Were you born tired, my man? I've been knocking for an age.

I don't work here, my man.

[KNOCK ON DOOR]

Lucy? The door.

Lucy Wells.

I'm sorry about your friend.

Did you ever meet her?

Several times.

She was very memorable, Kitty.

The jet hair...

..and olive skin.

She was.

She was auburn.

-And alabaster. [HE 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 RATTLE]

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 on her arse.

Amen.

What's she done to vex you?

She accused me of coveting Mr North.

Well...

It's a brave cat licks at that cream.

Now I'm left hopeless.

Harlot's always got a hope of a coin.

I have no skill for servicing drunkards

against tavern walls, even they agree.

Trick is to go hard and fast.

Concluded 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.

[KNOCK ON DOOR]

Where is she?

[DOOR OPENS]

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!

D'you hear?!

You are unable to love.

Unable to be a mother.

-I am a mother! -You're a pimp.

That is the exact opposite.

Look at the silks that you're standing in!

"Gentlemen, here is my daughter, Lucy.

"A weeping virgin. You'll have a job parting her frigid little legs,

-"but when you do..." -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 rod, Ma. You've ruined me with kindness!

You are a fool.

You 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?

But you heard.

I'm not her mother.

Put a drop of that in the water when you wash Nancy's wounds.

Not one word!

I'm still your mother.

[DOOR OPENS]

[FOOTSTEPS APPROACH]

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.

We've got guests.

[SHE 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 discuss them, you'll get what you're given.

Emily Lacey, you're as drunk as a lord!

I know!

This will still be a good idea when I'm not.

The culls will love her.

They won't have come across a stock-up black before.

I can see where they might find refinement in novelty.

[SHE LAUGHS]

See?

Shall I take Mercy?

Let you sleep?

I've just decided to change her name to Kitty.

She's strong enough that she'll not miss the old one.

I think Kitty would have liked that.

This is to send to her daughter.

[COINS RATTLE]

There's a fortune here!

-Where did you get it? -Went collecting.

People dug deep.

If only every kind deed ruled out a cruel one.

So this is how you fare without Dame Death's coin.

Not if you will, there is honour 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 we don't need...

I'm sure it could be purified through prayer.

Miss Wells.

[KNOCK ON DOOR]

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... more 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 CHOKES ON TEA] [LUCY LAUGHS]

[ALL GIGGLE]

What amuses you?

[ALL LAUGH]

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 have 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.

[LYDIA SIGHS] My girl...

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