I'm gettin' out of this.
I'm not gettin' shot again for some cause I don't believe in.
Come on, let's go.
Come on. They can't shoot. Come on.
Keep goin'! Come on!
Bayonets.
Come on!
Grab their boots and rifles! Let's move on!
Let's go!
That scarecrow ain't gonna frighten off no Yankee.
Or are you tryin' to make a man for yourself?
No.
I come by... a few days.
I don't pass by.
- Lookin' out for you. - I know.
I see you.
- And I don't like it. - Where's your little servant girl?
Ruby. She tradin' off more of your daddy's silver?
- Stop it! - Her nose is in the butter.
Her nose is right in your butter!
This farm's got my name on it!
You listenin', woman? You're gonna need more than a scarecrow!
Sal.
Afternoon.
Don't spread out. Why are they spreadin' out?
I never seen a man work a field with a shotgun before.
There's a war on.
Get off my land.
- Your boys come home? - Ain't seen my boys in four years.
They're out fightin' other boys, not old men and women.
So you won't mind if we look around?
'Cause we think they're here.
We think you've got 'em hid up somewhere.
What I gotta give you? Chicken? Lamb?
Sure.
The thing is, you've only got one barrel.
And there's five of us. That's not a fair fight.
King of kings!
Hey!
What was that?
Aargh!
You're harboring deserters. I could confiscate this farm and everything on it.
Every plate, every sheep, every little pellet of chickenshit.
I could confiscate your old lady's asshole.
So don't you offer me no bird.
Come on, boys!
Mama's callin'!
Mama!
No!
Mama! Mama!
No!
Buggery and shit!
If I'da known you were this heavy, I'da left you in those chains.
Sally!
No!
Oh, God. Sally?
Ada!
All right, all right!
Darlin', what?
She's sayin' "Don't bother"! Go!
Get her neck!
- Sally! - Get her neck.
This world won't stand long.
God won't let it...
stand this way long.
- How long have I been sleepin'? - Two days, three days. Not long enough.
- I can't stop here. - Sit down before you fall down.
I'm a deserter.
If they find me here, things could be bad for you.
What are they gonna do? Cut short my young life?
I've learned a person can pretty much survive off of a goat.
A goat gives you company,
and milk,
and cheese,
and, when you need it,
good meat.
That's my beauty.
There's my beauty.
So you been fightin'.
I could be at killin'...
for days,
my feet against the feet of my enemy.
And I always killed him.
He never killed me.
I don't know why.
Gave it a try, to look at ya.
Yeah, I guess he did.
See, I think there's a plan.
There's a design for each and every one of us.
You look at nature.
Bird flies somewhere, picks up a seed, shits the seed out, plant grows.
Bird's got a job, shit's got a job, seed's got a job.
And you've got a job.
You done good, goat.
You were a real beauty.
Sometimes I think I'm crazy when I'm just hungry.
Now drink this. It eases the pain, and you'll sleep.
Is she waitin' for ya, this Ada Monroe?
She was.
I don't know.
Or even if she knows me.
Lie down.
I'm like the boy who goes for wood in winter
and comes back in spring with a whistle.
Like every fool sent off to fight with a flag and a lie.
That's the laudanum gettin' to ya. That's good.
Say somethin' more.
She got me a book.
Ada Monroe.
A man by the name of Bartram.
He wrote about his travels.
Sometimes...
just readin' the name of a place...
near home...
Sorell Cove.
Bishop's Creek.
Those places belonged to people before us.
To the Cherokee.
What did he call Cold Mountain?
How could a name... not even a real name...
break your heart?
It's her.
She's the place I'm headin'.
And I hardly know her. I hardly know her!
And I just can't seem to get back to her.
"To have traveled so far, from east to west,
a thousand terrible miles."
I have to close my eyes.
"My feet treadin' all God's surface -
"his ocean, his swamps, his slopes and ridges -
"to find myself, at last, a mark in the aching snow,
"from whence I beheld through a blue haze
a world of mountains piled upon mountains."
Ada!
- It's a man! - What is?
Raidin' our corncrib! Got him in the trap! That's him yelpin'!
- Help! - Here.
Help! Damn.
Listen up!
You got... Aim!
You got a barrel trained on your rear end!
- Get me outta this dang thing! - You got a weapon?
No, ma'am, I'm... My fists are about to drop off.
Unbelievable.
- Stobrod Thewes! - Ruby?
Agh!
That's my daddy.
Just so's you know, I can eat while she's doin' this.
Just so's you know, you ain't eatin' inside.
Number one, they hang people round here for takin' in deserters.
Number two, even if they was givin' out prizes,
you'd still eat outside.
- You're scarred. - I'm what?
Your heart. Scarred. I did wrong to ya.
You'd be scarred. You'd be real scarred if I hadn't wrapped them trap teeth in sackin'.
- Which was my idea. - Which was her idea.
- I hurt you. - Good God.
I made up 50 tunes with you in mind.
Ruby this. Ruby that. Ruby with the eyes that sparkle.
Hey! Let's agree.
You beat me, you abandoned me, you ignored me,
then you beat me some more.
And all of that is better'n "Ruby with the eyes that sparkle."
I'm changed. People change.
War changes people somethin' terrible.
Ruby's told you, I've no doubt, I wasn't always the best.
You were an asshole!
I can't disagree with that, I was.
- Would you get him outta here? - Music's changed me.
I'm full of music, Ruby.
I wish I'd brung my fiddle.
Hey, Ruby. I got a new fiddle.
Oh, it's a beautiful fiddle. It's full of tunes. Ruby, I didn't know I had it in me.
- You're all set. - I...
Bless you both.
All right, then.
Ain't you got a proper coat?
Aw, darlin', I'm fine, you know. And you just say the word, I won't come back neither.
Don't wanna put you or your mistress here in any bother.
I'm not Ruby's employer.
Oh. Beg pardon.
Nobody is.
Oh.
You know who really needs a coat, darlin'? My partner. Fat boy name of Pangle.
We're hidin' up in a cave with a singer from Georgia,
and Pangle, he feels the cold like a thin man, but there ain't no coat'll fit him.
I love you, Ruby.
In case the sky falls on our head.
You always were a good girl.
Ooh! He's so full of manure, that man.
We could lay him in the dirt and... grow another one just like him.
That's medicine, that's goat meat.
And you're sick of both.
I have a deal to thank you for.
That's just for show.
Get on back where you came from!
- Thank you for my coat! - Thanks for the food!
Git!
I love my coat!
"My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods.
"Time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees.
"My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath.
"A source of little visible delight,
"but necessary.
"He's always...
always in my mind."
She ain't gonna marry Linton, is she?
You can't say that about Heathcliff and then marry Linton.
Hmm.
We'll find out.
Tomorrow.
I'm not waitin' till tomorrow!
Ruby...
"A source of... little visible delight,
but... necessary."
I like that.
I'm a Confederate soldier... on furlough.
I need shelter... and food.
I've got a rifle!
Fair enough.
I have some beans and corn pone.
All I got.
- Thank you. - I'm alone here.
as you can see, with my baby.
I need to believe you mean no harm.
No.
I don't want it.
If I had my way, they'd take metal altogether out of this world.
Every blade, every gun.
It's all right.
You're burnin' up, little man.
Is your baby sick?
My man's dead. Took his wound at Gettysburg and never saw his boy.
I'm sorry.
It's pretty much what you'll get if you knock on any door of this war.
Man dead, woman left.
It's mean food, but it's hot.
There's been no huntin' on the road, just cress and roots.
I need to try and feed this man.
Shh. You gotta eat somethin', baby.
He won't feed.
I'm Inhan, by the way. That's my name.
I'm Sara.
My baby's Ethan.
Glad to know you both.
You look about his size.
He was another man straight up and down.
Thank you.
Everything fit?
These boots are good boots.
Well, I'll say good night, then.
Good night.
- She don't speak? - Can't speak! I told you.
Well, is she feeble, then?
No!
Never mind him.
Will you come inside?
Would you do somethin' for me? Do you... think you could...
Lie here next to me and not... need to go further?
- I'll go, I'll go, shall I? - No.
I don't want you to.
Thing is...
I love someone.
I love someone very much.
Try and sleep.
- Merry Christmas, Pangle. - Night, ma'am.
Merry Christmas, Georgia. Nice to meet you.
- Merry Christmas, Miss Ada. - Merry Christmas.
- Merry Christmas, darlin'. - Don't sleep here.
- We won't. - It's dangerous. Don't sleep here.
Oh, it's bitter. They could stop one night.
They stop one night, they're gonna wanna stop two.
I'll be all right. This coat's warm.
What about next Sunday? It'll be New Year.
- Maybe. - Gonna be a better one than 1864.
- This war's over in a month. - That's what he said a month ago.
It started off bein' over in a month.
Night, Miss Sally. Merry Christmas.
- Night, Miss Ruby. - Night.
- Night, ma'am. - Night.
You're stayin' with us tonight, Sally.
- That's my Ruby. - She's an original.
- What kind of name's Georgia? - It's where he's from. It's not his name.
Well, I know it's meant to be the ugliest state under the heavens.
Why do you care what his name is?
Hey, what do you call that cluster of stars right there?
Right there.
Uh... There? That's Orion.
And that's Gemini, and that is Orion's big dog.
Canis Major.
Listen to her, Sal.
She's turned into a regular highland girl.
Nah, I could always name the stars, Ruby. That was never my problem.
I love you, darlin',
in case that big old sky falls on our heads.
Aw...
And I love you too, Sally. I do.
Get up!
Get up! Get out of here, quick! The Yankees are coming!
The Yankees, they're here.
If they find you here, things'll go bad on all of us.
- I can try and fight 'em. - No. My baby. Please, no. Just...
Please, just git!
We're Union army! We're lookin' for food!
Come on, open up! We're hungry!
- I got nothin'! I got nothin'! - We'll see about that.
- There's a baby inside. Get it. - Please, he's sick. Don't hurt him, please.
Please, I got nothin'!
That's right. Take the chickens. Take the chickens. They're all I got.
Says she's only got chickens.
You lyin' Southern trash.
We're hungry.
We got all day.
See, those birds won't get you through the winter.
Please cover up my boy.
Just tell us where the food is, we'll pick him up.
Please, my baby's sick.
Please, just cover him up.
Please, I'm beggin' you!
Please! Have mercy!
I got a hog!
- He's hid out behind the house! - Take a look.
Please!
Please, sir. Please.
He's just a baby!
He's shaking!
Please, just cover him up.
What's wrong with you? What's wrong with you?
I ain't got nothin' else, I swear.
- That ain't necessarily so. - Yes.
Take me inside. We'll do whatever you want.
Take my baby inside. Let's all go inside! Please!
Please! Please!
You take that hog! I'm as good as dead!
Take that hog 'cause I'm as good as dead!
Shut up!
No! Agh!
- You know, he's gettin' ready to take a fit. - What do you care?
Shh... Shh...
That's better. Shh. That's better.
Hey, come on. Leave some for the rest of us.
Move away from the baby!
Towards me!
Don't shoot. We just wanted food.
Take off your boots.
Take off your pants. Take off your shirt.
Don't shoot me, please.
We're starvin'. We haven't eaten in days.
- Come on. - We're starving. We haven't eaten in days.
Come on!
Thanks. Thank you.
- Now you get runnin'. - I will.
- And keep runnin'. - Thank you.
- I love the snow. - I hate the snow, I hate the cold.
- Come on! - Fellas, what's the rush?
If Ruby finds out we've spent the night, there'll be hell to pay.
"My love, where are you?
"With no hope of reaching you, I write to you,
"as I always do,
as I have always done."
You reckon we could eat this?
Hey.
Well, you know, you cook somethin' long enough, you can eat anything.
It's froze. How long it been there for?
- You hungry? - Yeah.
Not very long.
Good evenin'.
Hope we didn't disturb you.
D'you mind if I warm myself by your fire?
Name's Teague.
- Do I know you? - Stobrod Thewes.
- That your wife? - That's a "he."
Is "he" your wife?
We're musicians. He picks a banjo, I got a fiddle.
Your sweetheart's got a nice piece of flesh on him.
- He looks pretty romantic by the fire. - It's a picture of love.
You gonna play that fiddle?
Sure.
Hey, wake up.
Evenin', missis.
- Where's Georgia? - "Where's Georgia"?
- Captain Teague wants us to play now. - Love to.
We heard there were some deserters up in these parts hidden out in a big cave.
- Not come to my ears. - So you don't know where this big cave is?
- No, sir. - You do, Stobs. He means...
No, right. No, no.
There is a cave right up near Bearpen Branch. We played some music up there.
- Never occurred to me they were outliers. - It ain't nowhere near Bearpen Branch.
He's always gettin' lost.
That cave - we live there.
I used to freeze up in that cave till I got gived this new coat.
Ruby made me this coat. I like my coat.
This part belonged to a reverend and this part belonged to a horse.
Ruby said - what is it? - I should pray or neigh, dependin'.
He don't... he don't know what he's sayin'.
He got a mind no bigger than a pickled walnut.
It's a good coat.
Broke my young heart.
We gonna be here all night?
Stand over there.
Ruby, she don't know one end of the war from the other.
You don't have to worry yourself about her, is what I'm sayin'.
Or Ada, neither. You know what I'm sayin'?
You too. You stand over there.
We gonna get our tintype made?
Don't smile.
- What? - Quit smilin'.
He always smiles. He don't mean nothin' by it.
I told him, there ain't nothin' in this world worth a smile!
Put your hat over your face.
Cover your face with your hat.
- Ruby! - What?
- Ruby! - What's wrong?
- Teague... The Home Guard... - What?
They shot your daddy!
They shot your daddy, and Pangle too!
I told Georgia he can stop here. I told him he can sleep in the barn.
He's got nothin' inside him. He'll walk out of here and die in the snow.
He can milk the cows. I was worried about that.
It's five hours' climb from here. He drew a map.
I'm ready.
You know them fools stayed the night in the mill?
That's Stobrod Thewes. Can't do one good thing without addin' the bad.
Left tracks in the snow all the way up for the Home Guard to follow.
- Sign that says "Shoot me." - Ruby...
Ruby.
I'm sorry.
Every piece of this is man's bullshit.
They call this war a cloud over the land,
but they made the weather, and then they stand in the rain and say "Shit, it's rainin'!"
If I cry one tear for my daddy, I stole it off a crocodile.
All right, then.
Dear God.
Oh, dear God.
He ain't here.
Agh! Teague's probably took him.
They did that with the Swanger boys, didn't they?
Strung 'em up, as a warnin'.
They took his coat.
Why would they take his coat?
Daddy? Daddy!
Daddy!
Daddy?
He's still breathin'!
It's Ruby!
Don't you die on me again!
- We gotta get him home. - He won't make it. He'll die first.
He's got hardly no blood left in him.
There it is. I feel it.
- You got it? - Yep.
There's a place close. Old Cherokee, it used to be.
It's got shelter, water.
I used to hide up there when he'd get a temper goin'.
God!
- I'll go look for some food. - Take the shotgun.
Goddamn.
Turn around!
Go back where you came from!
Go back!
Ada?
Ada Monroe?
Turn around or I'll shoot!
Inman?
Inhan.
You better come with me.
Ruby.
This is Inhan.
Oh! Congratulations!
Oughta send you out with a shotgun a lot more!
Looks if he's about to topple over.
- I may need to. - You shot or somethin'?
Not lately.
- He's asleep. - I ain't surprised.
- Your man looked tuckered out. - I saw him.
In Sally Swanger's well. A man like a black smudge in the snow.
- Well, there you go. - It wasn't the same, what I saw.
In the well it was as if he were falling.
- You probably just don't remember it right. - I remember it exactly.
There were crows - black crows.
They were flyin' towards me.
Ruby, I thought I was seein' him fall.
Instead, I was seein' him come back to me.
I got big plans for that farm.
I know.
I know you have.
I got a vision in my mind of how Black Cove oughta be.
I don't know, Ruby.
All this while I've been packin' ice around my heart.
How do I make it melt?
Hey!
You about done with my knife?
We got a bird to cook.
Just about.
You're makin' a pig's ear of that job.
Give it to me.
Oh, I ain't gonna cut you.
Can't see that it'd make a bit of difference if I did.
You got the right feelings for her?
Don't turn your head! Tsk.
I do.
I'm sorry. I was tryin' to be quiet.
Did you get my letters?
I got three letters.
I carried them, I carried them in the book you gave me.
The Bartram.
I probably sent 103.
Did you write to me?
Whenever I could.
If you never got them, I can summarize.
- No. No, no. - "I pray you are well.
"I pray I am in your thoughts.
You are all that keeps me from slidin' into some dark place."
How did I keep you?
We barely knew each other. It was a few moments.
A thousand moments.
They're like a bag... of tiny diamonds.
Don't matter if they're real or things I made up.
The shape of your neck.
That's real.
The way you felt under my hands when I pulled you to me.
You were plowing a field.
You were carrying a tray.
- You wouldn't come in. - No, I wouldn't go in.
So that's why I had to carry a tray. So I could come out to see you.
That kiss.
Which I kissed every day of my walking.
Every day I was waiting.
Longing.
Longing to see your face.
If you could see my inside...
Now, whatever you wanna name it - my spirit? That's what I fear.
I think I'm ruined.
They kept tryin' to put me in the ground.
- But I wasn't ready. - Inhan...
But if I had... if I had goodness, I lost it.
If I had anything tender in me, I shot it dead.
How could I write to you after what I done.
what I seen?
Number one,
shut this door. It's freezin'.
Number two, shut that door. It's freezin'.
Layin' on my back, my fingers poked in my ears,
tryin' to shut out who's got a bag of diamonds,
who's carrying a tray...
If you wanna get three feet up a bull's ass,
just listen to what sweethearts whisper to one another.
In fact, if y'all gonna wimble-wimble all night, I'm gonna sleep in with him.
- I'll say good night. - No.
Please...
don't say good night.
Wars make some things pointless.
It's hard to imagine a wedding.
I think even my father would recognize that.
Ada, I wanna marry you.
If you'll have me.
Isn't there some religion where you just have to say "I marry you" three times,
and you're man and wife?
I marry you.
I marry you, I marry you.
Why is that funny?
I think it's "l divorce you" three times and you're not married anymore.
I can wait for you.
Oh, Inhan. I marry you, I marry you, I marry you.
I marry you, I marry you.
I have so... I have so many buttons. Sorry.
Will you turn your back?
No.
No, I will not.
I'll lead the horse at a pace your daddy can tolerate.
- You two go ahead now. - No, I don't wanna do that.
- No. We can all go together. - It's safer this way.
We're deserters. No one has a quarrel with you.
He's right.
I gather I... I need permission from you, Ruby.
if I reckon on livin' at Black Cove.
All right, then.
You stay on that horse.
And don't lose it. Or sell it.
Gonna need it back on the farm.
All right, Daddy.
I don't wanna let you go.
I'll be with you by nightfall.
Ugh.
All right, then.
Hope that Georgia boy's been tendin' to the animals.
- I knew you were thinkin' on him. - I was not!
- I was thinkin' on swollen udders. - Oh...!
- And before you say "same difference"... - I'm sayin' nothin'!
Miss Lovey-Dovey! Miss Lovey-Dovey!
Hey!
- That was a long funeral for your daddy. - That was a wake.
That was Irish.
Now, your friend Georgia here...
We went down to visit you when we heard you were harborin' deserters,
and he told us - after some persuasion - you were up here.
We were up and down this mountain.
Up and down.
There will be a reckoning.
When this war is over, there will be a reckoning.
Did you make this coat?
Helpin' a deserter - that's treason.
Now, I know it's half horse and half reverend.
A reckonin'?
The reckoning's for your world.
It's not mine.
I'll be damned. He's a hard bastard to kill.
- No! - Ruby!
Inhan!
Captain Teague!
- Come down from there! - No, sir. Here is fine.
I'll just shoot the horse out from under you.
- You ridin' Captain Teague's animal? - I am.
- He dead? - I hope so.
Look, give me your gun and ride on home. I'm done fightin', I'm sick of it!
I give you my gun, you're gonna shoot me dead.
I will not shoot you,
but nor am I goin' down this mountain lookin' over my shoulder for you.
That's what they call a conundrum.
- I'll tell you what I got on my side. - What you got on your side?
The confidence of youth.
Inman!
No!
I...
came... back.
I love you.
Baby.
What we have lost will never be returned to us.
The land will not heal.
Too much blood.
The heart will not heal.
All we can do is make peace with the past
and try to learn from it.
- What are you doing? - He died in the night, love.
Bring him here.
- Don't kill him. - I'm not gonna kill him.
We have to try somethin' or else he's gonna die too.
It's all right.
We're gonna try a little trick.
Shh.
There are days now when I manage not to think of you.
When the needs of the farm call with more urgency than my heart.
This time of year there's so much life everywhere.
I find you in all of it.
As if you were still walking home to me.
If you could see us now this Easter day at Black Cove,
you would know every step of your journey was worth it.
Grace Inhan, nobody said "Eat."
For good friends, good food, good family,
all our blessings, O Lord, we thank thee.
- Amen. - Amen.
Amen!
- Sweetheart, there's no cider. - That's for you.
Right, I'd best... I'd best fetch it, I got my orders.
I looked once more down Sally's well,
and this time there was nothin' there to haunt me.
Just clouds.
Clouds, and then... sun.