Original subtitles

-Double murder is a hanging offence, Miss Langton.

-I don't know what happened.

-You have to try to remember.

You have to think.

Frannie!

-I loved her.

-I think everyone should be prescribed a poem a day.

Don't you?

-She loved me.

-You loved her?

And you hated him.

-You know, I think we should speak frankly.

It will assist us both.

-We have to fight this, or them are gon' kill you.

Mi nuh waah to lose you.

-You're always trying to save my skin.

-You're worth savin'.

[ Indistinct conversations ]

♪♪

-I can't prove it wasn't me.

I can't.

Not even to myself.

How can I be sure I didn't do it?

-I don't care what you said, I told you not to come.

-I need to speak with you.

-Stay away from me.

♪♪

-She hurt me, Sal, and I was so angry.

[ Glass shatters ]

-Why won't you leave her alone?

Can't you see you've done nothing

but distress her ever since you came back?

-Madame.

This is death.

This is death!

-The pair of you always in some kind of argument.

♪♪

-Not always.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Her Highness has asked for you

to take those up this morning.

It's typical of her.

She must always have some pet by her side.

First the boy, Laddie and now you.

I saw you prowling around up there last night.

I've been to see the master about you.

-[ Chuckles ]

Since I am still here, Mrs. Linux,

I assume you didn't get your way.

♪♪

♪♪

'I'd had a measure of happiness,

the dancing, the feel of her.

Like a taste I couldn't get out of my mouth.

Since then... -Come in.

-...I had pictured her a thousand times.

And then...

there she was.

My thoughts made flesh.

Mrs. Linux said you'd like topping up.

-Alright, then.

Top me up.

[ Horse whinnies in distance ]

-I've been meaning to ask how you're settling in.

-You seem to have found your feet well enough

last night, at least.

-Next time, I promise to keep them more to myself

and less on your toes.

-Are the dances so different in Jamaica?

-I never danced there.

-I could tell.

Oh, please, don't fuss about those.

They'll only slip into chaos again.

Sometimes I think that is what tethers me here.

Not the gowns or the jewels, but the books.

I don't think I could live without them.

If you must, you can tidy up after I go downstairs.

[ Door closes ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Here was another beginning.

The moment I recognised the feelings she stirred in me.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

♪♪

My whole world that, until then,

had held such horrors in it,

peeled itself back to a place that held only her.

So when Benham sent for me later that day...

[ Knock on door ] -Come.

-...I decided to use it to my advantage.

♪♪

-I'd like you to take a look at this.

They're getting it wrong about me,

about Paradise, my association with Langton.

I need to set the record straight.

-You are arguing that the slaves on your estate are contented

because you allow them a little religion, a little education,

a little land of their own to plant?

And you want my testimony in support?

-Yes, the testimony of a former slave.

-There is no such thing as a happy slave.

I think we should speak frankly.

-Yes.

-It wouldn't hurt for those naysayers to see me

flourishing under your roof, in a position more in-keeping

with that education you arranged for me?

♪♪

There's only one way to get anything from a man

like George Benham.

You have to let them think it's their idea.

He wanted to be seen as a benevolent master.

He was setting out to prove it.

So he made me into a lady's maid.

[ Knock on door ]

And the lady was his wife.

-Mr Benham has never recommended anyone to me before

as a lady's maid.

Mind you, I make it a habit to look any gift horse

that comes from my husband right in the teeth.

Have you read this?

Rousseau's Confessions?

It's his autobiography.

The story of his own life.

-I know what an autobiography is.

-I am planning to write my own.

I was thinking you could help me.

Be my scribe, or...

Well, more of a secretary, really.

-Mrs. Linux will not be pleased.

-Surely the attraction of the whole arrangement?

I take it you are saying yes?

-I am saying yes.

♪♪

♪♪

-In France, they say you only need a few lines

in any honest man's hand

and you can find something to hang him with.

♪♪

You must promise not to hang me.

-I promise to keep you alive.

♪♪

♪♪

-I think I remember life in Paris,

but I was very young when we left.

There were many families like ours that came to London,

and very soon we discovered that you can't eat noble titles.

But Papa, he had brought his violin,

and for months, he earned us a crumb each day playing

on a street corner in Spitalfields.

When he wasn't too drunk to do so.

Hm.

I've not seen that in a long while.

-The boy in the portrait?

-Once upon a time, he and I were the two

saddest creatures in this house.

It was after I lost a child.

I lost two in short order just after we were married,

though I was barely out of childhood myself.

The week after my loss,

I sent word to Mr. Benham who was visiting

his estate in Antigua.

Three months later, he came home

with a little boy in tow.

He was four.

He kept telling us his name was Olaudah.

Olaudah.

But Mr. Benham insisted he be called Laddie.

An English name, not an African one.

♪♪

♪♪

I tried to look after him.

To be a friend to him.

[ Giggles ]

♪♪

♪♪

-They had done the same to him

as they had been done to me at Paradise.

Except I thought I wanted it.

And I thought that it was a stroke of luck.

-Listen to me, make sure you mind yourself.

Ya hear me now?

Mind yourself.

Not one damn ting more dangerous than a White woman

when she get bored.

Come, pygmy.

Come.

♪♪

♪♪

-So, you are Frances?

It's the name I gave you myself.

-Thank you, missus.

-[ Gasps ] Oh!

You are a little savage.

-Am I staying here now?

-Yes.

What you and I have in common is that neither of us

had any say in the matter.

-I's happy to be here, missus.

How long am I to stay?

-However long it is, it will be too long in the end.

♪♪

-I was taken from my mother also.

♪♪

-I think we should shut the door.

♪♪

♪♪

-But you were fortunate in other ways.

Your education.

It's more than most women ever get.

Even free women.

-Nothing that happened to me at Paradise was luck.

♪♪

♪♪

When it comes to charting the course of my life,

the old coach house is the place

where the map would show a desert full of wild beasts.

Here are lions.

♪♪

♪♪

Everyone thinks that bodies

are the only things that suffer.

But it wasn't only bodies that did Langton's bidding.

-This is science, Frances.

We're doing important work in here.

-It was minds, also.

"Him not just the devil, you know."

Phibbah would say.

"You and him the same devil."

I saw things in that coach house

that I can't stop seeing now.

I see them every time I close my eyes.

And worse, I see her.

I see Phibbah, what happened to her.

And it always shakes me awake.

[ Owl hooting ]

You can't sleep either?

-I can never sleep at this limbo hour.

Neither morning nor night.

Nor one thing, nor the other.

-Should I freshen up your warming pan?

-Mr. Benham is fond of saying,

"A dream is a wish the dark part of your soul makes."

But it was just a dream.

-It was just a dream.

-Would you like some?

-No, thank you.

Why can't you sleep?

-I spoke to my husband at dinner.

It seems I have misunderstood him.

I can write, but I may never publish.

I wish I'd never married him.

La -- but a lady is not supposed to discuss

her own marriage, of course.

Only other people's.

I think I will try to sleep now.

♪♪

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Thank you...

Frances.

♪♪

Good night.

♪♪

♪♪

-That night had opened something up inside me

that would not stay closed.

And yet, she didn't say a thing about it.

-I forgot to say, we have to pack today.

We're off to Long Reach tomorrow.

-As if it had not happened at all.

-What's in Long Reach?

-Lord Percy.

Mr. Benham's brother, he's letting him host

a shooting party to gather support for his petition.

[ Birds chirping ]

He said you may come also.

It will be much better to have you with me.

They always give me a maid with cold hands there.

I forget her name.

♪♪

-What shall I pack?

♪♪

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-So when he protested his innocence,

but the evidence was there for everyone to see.

Excuse me, gentlemen, for one moment.

Baby brother.

Where the devil have you been hiding?

-Perce! -Georgie!

Marguerite, welcome back to Long Reach.

-Percy. -Georgie, there's some people

I'd like you to meet.

-Meg.

-Dearest Hep. How have you been?

-I'm going to assume you're not in the least bit interested.

It's been weeks since you thought to ask me in person.

Isn't this that terribly soggy maid

who was cleaning your front steps the other day?

-Frances Langton.

-My very competent new secretary.

Frances, may I present to you Mr. Benham's cousin,

Hephzibah Elliot.

-Miss Elliot.

-Since when do you have a secretary?

-Frances has been helping me with my writings.

She's been frightfully clever, actually.

-Fascinating.

You'll never guess who I invited.

-Who? -You'll see.

-Cousin. -George.

-Our rooms are ready.

♪♪

[ Birds chirping ]

[ Indistinct conversations ]

♪♪♪

-Are you ready for my surprise?

-I'm intrigued.

-I found your little Laddie.

I ran into him a few months ago

at the ice cream parlour we used to take him to.

Remember?

He's here as my guest.

George and Percy be damned.

No sign of the poor little wretch

in your portrait, is there?

-Laddie?

-Madame Bebbum.

That was my pet name for her.

You look like you've seen a ghost.

Not happy to see me?

-Oh, of course, or course.

Yes.

-Methinks you protest too much.

-Look at you.

My little Laddie.

-I go by Olaudah now.

Unless I'm in the ring.

-You box?

-Oh, can't you tell?

He does so much more than box.

He's simply the cleverest speaker.

So articulate.

-Most Whites will fall over themselves being impressed

by anything that comes from a Black man's mouth

if it's in plain English.

-[ Chuckles ]

-And this is?

-Uh, My secretary, uh, Frances Langton.

-Mr. Cambridge.

-Miss Langton.

Your reputation precedes you.

-What do you mean by that?

-Oh, Mr. Benham, look who Hep found.

-Wandering in the wilderness.

-Laddie.

Well, fancy seeing you here.

Well, I have a craving for champagne

and blood sport, same as you.

-That's quite the -- quite the English gentleman.

-Laddie is here as my guest.

-Still, er, still singing for your supper, young man?

-Well, what else is a little Black page boy good for

after he's all grown up?

-Quite.

Well, I'm sure that you can understand

that no man can be expected to employ a footman

whom his own wife once cuddled on her lap.

[ Glass tinking ]

If you'll excuse us.

-Er, if I may?

Thank you all for coming to Long Reach.

Unusually for me, I'm going to give George the first word.

-[ Laughs ] -It's his party,

so I shall hand over to him to welcome you all.

George?

-Gentlemen.

Ladies.

T-This is no mean feat, that we have all assembled here.

Abolitionists, planters, parliamentarians,

but experience has told me

that any man can put aside his differences

if the wine is good enough.

[ Light laughter ]

But we -- we must find a way to keep

putting those differences aside.

To answer this emancipation question in a way

which enables us to repair these rifts

rather than to deepen them.

That avoids the problem of compensation to planters,

which, as we all know, is what is holding things up

and that is based upon a model, my own model,

with which I've had particular success.

-I suppose that's what I am?

A model of your success.

[ People murmuring ]

My lords, ladies, and gentlemen, Mr. Olaudah Cambridge.

A free English and -- were it not

for the interruption, Laddie -- I would say, gentleman.

[ Light laughter ]

And I hope that you will all agree,

a wonderful model of success.

-Yes. Yes.

♪♪

-Such a shock to see him again.

So unexpected.

♪♪

-Perhaps I should find you some brandy?

-I shouldn't. I have to speak with him.

Can you find him and bring him a note?

-As you wish.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-To think I came out here in search of peace and quiet.

-Madame Benham sent me to give you this.

-She couldn't find a footman to do her dirty work?

-You couldn't find a footman to tend to your gun?

[ Paper rustling ]

-"Please believe, I would be delighted to know you again."

I believe we have much to atone for,

my husband and I, for the way you were treated."

Blah-blah-blah.

I suspect she would not be so delighted to know me again

if she knew how much I despise the pair of them.

[ Birds chirping ]

[ Chuckles ]

Is that all?

-Earlier...

when you said my reputation precedes me.

What is it you think you know?

-I know that last year, John Langton purchased

an albino boy from Barbados.

It's all over the gossip rags.

George Benham must be finding it increasingly difficult

to pretend he has no idea about the things

that have been done in his name.

He never gets his hands dirty, he left that to other people.

Like Langton...

and you.

-I don't know what you're taking about.

-I want to know what happened to the boy.

Whether he can still be helped.

Whether George Benham can finally be forced

to face his own sins.

-You don't have to worry about any of that.

It's not your concern.

-I suspected it would be useless,

now that you're Benham's new pet.

-I'm no one's pet. -He's parading you around

to save his reputation. -He's not parading me anywhere!

-Why else would you be here?

-You came here when you were what, four, five?

You grew up in an English drawing room with silk

cushioning your backside.

The hardest job you had was being an ornament, a plaything.

You don't know a thing.

Not a damn thing.

About any of it.

♪♪

♪♪

He was no different from the rest of them.

All anyone wanted to know was what had happened at Paradise.

I'll tell you what happened.

I became Langton's creature.

He was doing experiments to prove

that all a man's potential is seeded in his skull.

To prove that Blacks were the inferior race.

When he told me I had to help him,

I told myself I had no choice.

♪♪

-Excuse me, miss, the servant's entrance is just a --

-Which room is John Langton's?

Which room?!

-Top of the stairs, first door on the left.

♪♪

-Why have you come here?

Why?

-None of your damned business.

-Your business is my business.

-[ Laughs ] Do you think because Benham's wife

has seen fit to appoint you as her lapdog

you and I are now on equal footing?

-Why would he invite you?

-[ Chuckles ] Keep your enemies close, they say.

[ Grunts ]

-People are talking about the albino boy.

-It's in the papers.

My illegal purchase.

-You're a monster.

I never want to lay eyes on you again.

-[ Gasping ]

This is no way to treat a dying...man.

[ Gasps ]

[ Pants ]

-You're what?

-Dying. So they tell me.

♪♪

-[ Groans ]

-I should have been the one to kill you.

And I should have done it long before now!

♪♪

[ Laugher, indistinct conversations ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ Wind gusting ]

-There you are.

I was looking for you.

May I?

[ Birds chirping ]

You are cross with me.

Please say something.

-What we did,

we haven't even spoken about it.

You will not speak about it.

It is sending me mad.

-I am your mistress, Frances.

It was wrong.

-What if --

what if I could say I wanted it?

What if you could say you wanted it, too?

♪♪

-Some things cannot be brought into the light.

-Then let it be done in the dark.

♪♪

-You are a surprise.

-I don't want to be a surprise.

♪♪

Haven't you done it before?

With one of those quality ladies.

-You are a quality lady.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ Wings flutter ]

What was that?

Did you hear it?

-No.

-I should get back.

I'll ask him to invite you to dinner tonight.

[ Birds chirping ]

Yes, but you understand,

my husband is not against manumissions.

It's just that he's more of a, er,

gradualist than an immediatist.

-It's an important work, and one which I still hope

the scientific community will come to acknowledge.

-Of course, all this stalling in parliament

is down to commerce and convenience.

The progressives among us would like to see

swifter action and less chat.

-It's absolutely without question inhumane.

-No, no, no, but the picture you paint, madame,

it's so one-sided.

You seem to rely almost completely,

entirely on testimonies ploughed out

by the abolitionists years ago.

Now I, for one, take my responsibilities

for all the souls on my Antigua estate very seriously indeed.

Now I wish that you could see the place.

When I visit, there's feasting and dancing.

It's all of us, we're together.

Though I must admit, the heat does get

rather too much after a time.

-You make it sound so...

bucolic, George.

-Ah, well.

-Tell us one of your stories, Laddie.

Honestly, I cry listening to him.

It's heart-breaking.

♪♪

♪♪

[ Glass tinking ]

[ Music stops ]

-I'll tell you the story my mother told me...

the last night I spent with her.

I remember every minute of it.

She was feeding me hominy,

and she'd lit a candle that she'd made herself

from beef-fat...

so she could make the shadows dance on the wall.

The whole cabin smelt like barbecue.

It was an Igbo tale.

One her own mother had told her about the Asiki.

The Asiki were human children who were snatched by witches.

Kidnapped.

Taken out of sight.

The witches spirited them away deep into large forests

where they sliced out their tongues.

[ People gasps ]

Changed every hair on their heads from wool to silk.

Changed their skin too, from black to gold.

Put them to sleep.

The next morning, the Asiki woke with no memory.

Their mothers and fathers...

forgotten.

Their homes...

forgotten.

Full of questions they had no way to ask.

A toast, George.

To your singing, dancing, smiling subjects.

To all those men in Antigua

who make your own manhood possible.

-[ Chuckles ] -And to the women...

-[ Coughing ]

What is it the women do for you again, George?

Is my mother still among them?

[ Indistinct whispering ]

♪♪

-Gentlemen.

Cigars.

-Speaking for myself, I've thoroughly enjoyed

this evening's entertainment, George!

Top notch!

[ Indistinct conversations ]

♪♪

-Well, I think he had a point.

-It was cruel that you didn't think to warn me

that you would be bringing him.

-What's cruel is that you can never simply be happy

about my efforts to make you happy.

Is that so impossible?

Is your happiness so entirely out of reach, Meg?

-You and Frances are certainly very quiet, my dear.

-I am sure we're all simply tired.

-Welcome home, Sir, Madame.

-Mrs. Linux.

-Hep Elliot had the boy in tow this weekend.

I shouldn't be surprised if he tried to call on us here.

If he does, we will not be at home.

-Him also now, Sir!

-Just see to it, Mrs. Linux.

-And as for you, Homer is missing.

-Who? -The cat.

-[ Chuckles ]

I have not taken the cat, Mrs. Linux.

I have no idea where he is.

I haven't eaten him, nor do I have his bones.

-I've no idea what you're capable of.

♪♪

-[ Gasps ]

I was coming to find you.

♪♪

♪♪

[ Door creaks ]

[ Lock clicks ]

♪♪

-I'll stay in the dark if that's where you are.

♪♪

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[ Gasps ]

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I suppose I am your secret now.

♪♪

What do two women do in a room of their own?

Isn't this the question that troubles my accusers most?

We loved each other.

But there are things about that love

I can't bear to talk about.

She hurt me, Sal.

And I was so angry.

She wanted me to...

-She wanted you to what?

Frannie, she wanted you to what?

♪♪

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