You hold the King's own signet.
You are the most powerful man in Virginia.
TEMPERANCE: Chacrow, I will pray for your salvation.
(SCREAMS) The Almighty Lord once sent this wretch to save me.
This is how God works. (GROANING) He sent a miracle.
(SPEAKING ALGONQUIAN)
CHRISTOPHER: Pedro and Maria are living souls.
You cannot bequeath them to your children. But I have.
(INDISTINCT)
(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)
My servants are rash-minded types.
I would not have them disaffected by twisted reports of their fate.
What I wrote in my will, you keep it close
and secret to your fevered brow.
(Do not so much as speak of my business to the air.)
(GASPING)
James Read! Morning, Pedro.
Help me to load these tools, will ya? Hey.
Can you tell me what this is?
Oh, it's finely made.
It's a...a timepiece, Pedro.
It's called a pocket dial.
But how can it tell the time? Well, there's a part missing.
A band that travels around it, and the ring itself is
warped there, look. Hey, can you fix it?
I mean, we should learn who it belongs to.
Ah. I know who it is. The same man had
pieces of furniture on the jetty. I'll return it to him.
(CHUCKLES) A lump of brass can name the time! James Read...
..we live in a world full of riddles.
Oh, soup? The doctor says you are to having nothing but soup.
No drink. No ale. Only soup. How long have I been here?
Yesterday and the day before, and then other days.
How long will I be here? The doctor says until your back is mended.
Here, you tell my wife, if she's aiming to come and see me, I refuse it.
It's her what drove me here, shouting at me.
I won't give her the comfort of hearing my voice.
She didn't ask to see you.
In fact, she don't want to see you.
Soup.
He pines for you, Mistress Rutter. But he don't like to admit it.
Why won't you visit him while he ails?
Oh, let him do without his comforts.
See if it makes a human out of him!
Master Crabtree, I believe this is yours, sir.
Ah, it was mine. Not any more. I lost it.
Seems a man might lose time.
If you found it, Pedro,
then a simple twist of fate declares that it is yours.
But, sir, is it not valuable?
You truly wish to give it to me?
I haven't given it to you. Chance has.
Destiny touches you, Pedro.
Use it well. Mm.
Might you be wondering how a man so infected and abhorred
became the trusted officer of the King?
I have other questions first, sir.
Why have you not condemned nor avenged yourself against me
for placing a sleeping draught in your wine?
There is no advantage to me in that gambit.
You have the King's signet. It gives you full right
over the Governor. Why have you not cut him down?
Time, madam. (SIGHS) There is business yet to play.
He stalks the New World unchecked while you dither.
Your gifts of persuasion, widow,
and the fondness the blacksmith carries for you
needs benefit us both
in the furtherance of this issue.
Now I'll tell you a tale of pirates and slaves.
(SPEAKING ALGONQUIAN)
My husband is the same today as he was yesterday
and he'll be the same tomorrow.
A man who rues his own destruction
doesn't seem to me unaffected, Verity.
I'm sure a coward's death would suit a rank weed such as him.
And he won't have to live with the crimes he's done.
Jumping from the battlements don't bring Tam back, now, do it?
This is mine to keep, James Read.
Will you make it so that it works? (EXHALES)
Why would you want to mark the hours in the days, though, Pedro?
So I will be the best man knows each and every moment in all of Virginia!
Yeah! (BOTH CHUCKLE)
"The sun should be turned to darkness and the moon to blood
before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
In those days, I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy."
Chacrow, what is it so touches you?
"You find in here word of what is to come."
It speaks to us...
..as I speak to you now.
The Pamunkey priests made such...
(SPEAKS ALGONQUIAN)
Foretelling?
Foretelling.
(SPEAKS ALGONQUIAN)
..were warned that a people would come into the land of our king
from the mouth of the river...
..and burn from the world our bloodline.
Uh-uh. Where do you suppose you're going to?
Help me up, Verity. You have no strength in your legs.
There's no breath in your chest. I must speak.
I must call upon Pedro and Maria. Help me.
Let me take a message to them for you. No!
This business cannot be half-done.
It must have my name alone to it.
(GROANS)
(HAMMERING / CHAINS TINKLE)
Do you wish to purchase them? Nearly passed through my mind
that these might be the chains that met Maria and Pedro
as they stepped onto land here.
No, it was the ship that delivered them that made slaves of them.
Well, the reports back from England lied
that the vessel and its mark were Dutch.
They are as English as you are, James Read.
The dispatch also said that the vessel escaped
before the Governor could arrest any of those aboard.
Yet, the same man now possesses half the human cargo.
Yeah, I mean, it's the thistle in your throat, isn't it?
(SCOFFS) The ship that escaped limped along the coast, was sunk
and its crew vanished into Virginia.
The man who could track down those missing mariners
might see them disclose the truth as to why Maria and Pedro should belong to our government.
There is some darkness
that you might not want to poke a stick at.
How do you wish to be remembered?
As the man who delivered justice?
Or will your legacy be, "James Read, that made the chains"?
(CLEARS THROAT)
Pedro does not wish to trap me in that moment.
Maria does not. Only you do.
I was obliged. Such is my work.
And one grain of dark time will not imprison me.
You are the man who can be trusted and who is capable of the journey.
Will you go upriver to seek the villains?
Or will you be chained in that moment for ever?
MARIA: The ground has had the sun upon it all the day long.
The sky is so still! It is soothing to lie here.
Pedro...
(SIGHS) ..if we fight no more,
if we accept the way things are, perhaps then we will know peace.
Oh, yes, Maria. You will bow to Yeardley
because you love to (!)
You will tremble with pleasure when you see another day
picking tobacco, huh? (INDISTINCT)
(BOTH LAUGHING)
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
The two of you are named in his will...
..to be granted to Yeardley's children when he passes.
A child yet born...
..will receive us as a gift.
He may live, or she may live for many years on.
So...we are told of what our lives to come will be.
All of those years ahead are already decided.
Even if I kill Yeardley,
he will own us beyond the grave!
What can they do, Doctor? Is this what the law says?
They are no more than...belongings in that man's mind?
I will write to England.
I will make communication with the company.
Perhaps there's a way to take on Yeardley here
in the assembly of Burgesses... No.
I will not rest my hopes on the just society more.
What'll you do, Maria?
The words of what our Master intends to do are marked down.
But I hear no roar of the world.
Pedro...why are you so quiet?
Are you helpless? Are you defeated?
Why do you not make the ground tremble?
It is a vile thing that the sun will come up again tomorrow.
(SNIFFLES) It is foul that the flowers will grow.
Hey... Why do they grow?
(CRYING) Why are they permitted to grow? Maria! Maria!
We thank you, Doctor, for your wish to help us.
And now, you may go back to your medicines
and your book and your prayers.
He ain't the one to blame, Maria.
Why not?
(CLINKING)
Maria, I did not know what my husband had written in his will.
You told me that our Governor would return
to the better man he once was.
I vow to you, Maria,
I will not cease trying to persuade him. When?
Name a time when our lives will change.
Do you threaten me, Maria?
I speak only a question, ma'am. (GASPS)
Do you dare suggest to me...
..that you would use what your ancestors tell you
to shift my husband's mind?
I did not say that. You know the power your gifts wield over him.
(Be careful how you use them.)
(SPEAKING ALGONQUIAN)
Chacrow!
Would you instruct my wife?
Winganuske knows that she must always obey her brother.
Such is the Pamunkey way. Well, she's married to an Englishman.
What is it that you're doing living here amongst us, Chacrow?
Pamunkey are given learning for our labours.
Many of us, to speak your language...
..know your tools.
But what are you doing, Chacrow?
You are tired, Henry. Come. I have food for you.
Henry, we have trouble enough without a battle with Chacrow.
Come away, Chacrow.
(MUTTERS IN ALGONQUIAN)
(OMINOUS MUSIC)
I will poison Yeardley.
I will infect him with such words and perceptions
that I will be the thief that his heir will steal his brains from...
No. Hear me well. What are you doing with those things, Pedro?
Nothing will change in the field.
Look, the tobacco will need tending. Nothing will change with the law.
The world will not roar for what he has done.
The only thing that might change is Yeardley's mind.
What are you going to do?
I am Pedro.
I pulled that man from a bear pit where he would bleed to death.
I carried him home.
Perhaps I can reach into his soul.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)
(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)
You have a mark, sir,
provided by the company, permits you to trade here in Virginia.
This document is not in proper order, Master Crabtree.
What's the matter with it?
It was not fit well with itself. And I thought it to be true.
It seems we live in times without trust.
You tricked me into a knuckle fight, sir, knowing you kept an advantage.
Now you'll assess the balance of things.
Walk with me to the jailhouse, sir.
You'll abide there till your fate is decided.
Neither you nor I can determine my destiny, Marshall.
That is a call for the stars.
I will stroll with you.
It is a fair hour to tread prison's path.
(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)
What brings you here, Pedro?
I have no writing.
I...
I ask you a favour, Governor, that you might assist me.
Would you put down some marks for me, sir?
Please. It would be a kindness to Pedro.
(OBJECTS CLATTER)
This pipe, sir. Maria made it for me.
That woman knows beauty.
See the love here, sir.
What is it you want from me, Pedro?
This little wooden sword.
I have treasured it.
It is to remind me of the warrior I once was.
This purse...
..Lady Yeardley gave it to me.
See, sir, how it is stitched with patterns, sir.
Colours, sir. It is mine.
Pedro... These are small things, Governor.
But they are Pedro's to do with as he pleases.
You are rich indeed, Pedro.
Each of these things has love in it.
The day will come when I draw my last breath...
..and they will be Maria's.
I would like that to be written down.
Will you write it for me, sir? Will you?
Uh...bequeath.
Is that the word for it? Yes.
BOTH: We bequeath. (CHUCKLE)
What I bequeath...
..will name the man that I am.
It matters to me what I leave behind.
It matters to me what it says about Pedro.
Sir...
..will you write it down?
This brave man can come here and say these things to me.
You know my authority.
But you are the man who saved my life.
So I will mark them all down.
Cos you have touched my heart...
..and I respect you as I do few men.
Pepper.
I need you to go and seek trade with the naturals,
see if you can learn why Chacrow is with us.
Ask softly, never directly.
Only in harmless conversations you bargain with them.
Trade foolishly, so they might perceive you
as a man with a muddy mind - no danger to them.
Go now. Take the horse.
And Pepper, be careful.
(INSECTS CHIRRUP)
Pedro... OK!
You have it working? So, the engravings on the inside
mark out the hours of the day.
Yeah. And here, outside,
are the letters that tell us the months of the year.
So, January, February...
This ring spins around.
The hole punched in the band must align with the month.
So, if we hold it up to the light
so the sun shines through...
..then there the hour is known to us. 6 o'clock.
The hour of optimism. Oh, James Read, you fixed it, huh?
Oh, I salute you, my friend.
Well, I pray you'll always be my friend, Pedro.
YEARDLEY: Pedro!
The words you asked me to write down for you, and your chattels.
(CHUCKLES) Thank you, dear Governor.
I've given due consideration
to the plight that you've presented to me.
Come. Stand with me. See what I see.
Fields, Pedro, like these,
as far as your eyes can imagine, filled with men like you.
God has given us riches and we are honour-bound
to grasp those profits.
It is not fortune that has favoured me well.
It was courage and daring.
But you, Pedro, you are cursed with descendancy.
All the way back to the days of the Bible,
your kind have been marked out for servitude.
But I love you.
And you are precious to me.
Which is why I have wanted to pass you onto my children,
so that they might love you just as much as I do.
(MOUTHING)
Thank you, dear Governor...
..for teaching me what my life is.
I will use this knowledge well, sir.
(OMINOUS MUSIC)
Mistress Rutter, your husband has such a pleading heart
for you to return to him! Do he, now?
What of you, child? Have you taken Pepper Sharrow into the long grass?
(CHUCKLES)
I'll make sure that you do it properly...
..so that he gives you a babe.
Will you visit Master Rutter, ma'am?
(INDISTINCT CHATTERING IN BACKGROUND)
Sir.
Who is it, lad? It's Bundy Wallace, sir.
Found him in the Black Wood, his tray of goods on the ground around him.
An Englishman slaughtered!
Chacrow, I thought your people wanted peace.
We do not know who did this, Governor.
Let me speak with Opechancanough to ask him
what he can tell us. No. It'll be me that goes to your king.
You will remain here, Chacrow. But who will serve as your voice
in our tongue, sir? It will not be you, Chacrow.
My dear...
..when you talked with Chacrow,
did you discover anything about Opechancanough?
Only that the king was given a prophecy, a warning.
This is of brass metal, Maria.
It is made in the way that tells the time.
James Read warned me...
"Why do you wish to mark the time?"
But...he mended it for me so that I might use it.
Now, it will speak to me
of every hour of our captivity.
It is screaming at me, Maria.
Master Crabtree told me that fate...
..had touched me, because I happened upon this pocket dial.
If I believe him that this has a purpose, then...
..I do not know if it has come to teach me or to torment me.
If I could dig up all of my ancestors from their graves,
do you know what they would tell me?
There is a way to undo this man.
It is not hope. It is not kindness.
It is to take him to madness.
(SPEAKING ALGONQUIAN)
Opechancanough says it is Chickahominy that must be responsible.
Tell him that if an Englishman is killed, I consider than an act of war.
He's explained what happens - Tell him.
(SPEAKING ALGONQUIAN)
Tell him that I prophesy - use that word -
that I foretell that if he seeks
to stage a war through cunning and deceit...
..then he, his people and all of his bloodline
will be burnt from this world.
I thank him for his gift of Chacrow.
Tell him, Sharrow, that Chacrow serves me well
and he did not wish to be here today.
I will know if you lie. I'll see it in his eyes.
Why did you not use the King's signet to defy the Marshall?
I am where I need to be.
While I am kept with lock,
the Marshall and the Governor will find me no threat to them.
Now is the time to pursue the business upriver.
I cannot persuade the blacksmith to make the journey. (DOOR OPENING)
However fast I run...
..I will never catch what is held in here.
Sir, I wish to return this dial to you.
It does not serve me well. But it brought you here.
Today. Now.
Perhaps that is how it provides for you.
It jangles at my senses. I prefer to let it go.
Master Read repaired it.
He is a man of delicate skills,
yet little appetite to restore a sin against you.
Ah...
He did not tell you?
The men who carried you across the water
are hiding in Virginia and might be found
if there was willing,
but the blacksmith lacks the passion for it.
James Read knew this?
Why did he not speak it to Pedro?
He calls himself my friend.
It is a beguiling thing.
It is an object of providence, madam. Look upon it.
How does it speak?
Keep it.
You might enjoy its portents.
Why did you not tell me? Why?
Why did you keep it from me? (GRUNTS)
Huh?
(SCREAMS)
These foul mariners who beat me,
stabbed us, these men are here in the colony!
(SPUTTERING AND GASPING)
Because you would try to seek them out...
..when they can never be found. (COUGHING)
And they would live inside your mind... (GASPING)
..and poison every minute that you were breathing!
Do you see me as a child, James Read,
who cannot be trusted with the judgement of his own life?
You also wish to own me, huh?
Look at me! Look at my skin! See it! See it!
SEE IT! Even you. Even you, James Read.
You do not see me as a man like other men! (GRUNTS)
Huh?
I did because I love you, Pedro. (PANTING)
Oh, no.
(SOBBING)
The Governor loves me.
It is not love I want.
It is not kindness. It is...it is not hope.
I want freedom.
I WANT RESPECT!
(GROANS)
(SOBS, THEN RETCHES)
Do you ever wish to know what is coming, Mercy?
You ever dwell on the future and what to pick at its mysteries?
I didn't use to, ma'am, but that was in the past.
Now I do wish to think about henceforward.
Because, ma'am, that's when things might happen.
That's where the things we wish for lie.
(GASPS)
(GASPING)
If I sit here with all the clocks for God
I will watch myself ripen till I rot.
Take it away, child. I do not want it in my house.
(KNOCKING AT DOOR, DOOR OPENS)
Jocelyn? Jocelyn.
Our Governor has bequeathed Pedro and Maria to his child in his will.
Who will stop this vulture?
I will.
Ugh, soup?
How long have I been here?
You are here today, sir.
(SIGHS) See what my mistress gave to me.
It's a timepiece.
I don't know how it works, but it has time in it.
It tells you of the time when you look into it.
Could it serve our wits,
twist away all them years?
(POIGNANT MUSIC)
You might keep it, sir.
Soup.
(SPEAKING ALGONQUIAN)
(ALL MURMUR IN ASSENT)
(FIERCE CHANTING AND CHEERING)
(SNORES)
(FLOORBOARD CREAKS)
Governor, my ancestors have returned.
They asked me to speak with you, Governor.
There is wickedness about.
(INHALES) The night is foul with dangers.
A rock or a word might dash your brains out.
Do not sleep,
for your dreams will abuse you.
The moon will catch your secret thoughts
and prison them forever.
Wake, sir.
For safety's sake, wake.
Wake.
(PANTING)
Meredith?
(SNORING) Meredith!
The mariners that stole from the treasurer
and vanished into Virginia,
Verity says you were told where they went to.
How do you know when it is all too late?
Meredith, where did they go?
Gloaming Creek.
(MELANCHOLY MUSIC)
I will go upriver to seek out the mariners.
I will go alone. You're too late, sir.
The mission is already taken up.
Who?
James, I'm coming with you.
Gloaming Creek is where I heard tell Tam was headed to.
No. It is a month upriver. You are not coming.
I will seek out the boy. Oh, sure you will (!)
Look, I may not care for the lad, but I care for you.
So, if I get to Gloaming Creek, then I will look for him.
James, if I don't go with you now and I never hear of that lad more,
I will be as ruined and as tormented as Meredith is.
Would you do that to me, would you?
Be a true friend to me, James.
Be a true friend, won't ya?
Damn you, woman.
Where is Pedro?
The Widow Castell asked him to accompany her
to prospect new land along the river.
I protested that she has her own men. She said -
It was my ancestors.
I told Lady Yeardley they had bid Pedro
to go up the river with Mistress Castell, sir.
They told me that the moons will come and go, sir.
The leaves will fall, and Pedro will carry news back to you.
He will return with word of the thick, cunning threats
that you must beware yourself of.
It is as it must be, sir.
We cannot defy my ancestors.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
The cage, Master Crabtree, will be placed upon your flesh.
I know the business well enough, sir (!) VERITY: Jocelyn!
If you spend your time comforting her, she will die.
No-one will know how I will be when I meet these serpents!
TEMPERANCE: When you fall, you will fall like Lucifer,
never to hope again. (GASPS)
MARIA: (SCREAMING) Help!
(CRYING)