Strange Empire

H'yah!

How far?

How far now?

10 miles,

15.

The Station House.

Stage will be there, the doctor.

H'yah!

H'yah! H'yah!

The doctor,

we were told he was on the stagecoach.

There ain't no stagecoach yet,

only me here.

Two days.

This place is supposed to be a wagon stop,

a depot.

Stage comes through tomorrow.

Is he okay?

He's not moving.

He's not moving...

Oh, Kat.

Oh, God...

Yea, though I walk

through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,

for thou art with me,

thy rod and thy staff,

they comfort me...

He's gone, our Jacob Peter.

Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me

all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the lord

forever.

Amen.

Forsake her not,

and she shall preserve thee,

love her, and she shall keep thee...

Marry me, Kat.

Love him with all the heart, and with all the soul,

and with all the strength.

Love worketh no ill to his neighbour.

There, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Mercy unto you and peace.

Hey!

Hey!

You two, get for now, go on.

Get down off there.

Come on.

Go on, get!

You camp here tonight.

Head for Station House come morning.

You're hungry.

Come eat with us.

Let me give you some more.

Girl over there said the Indians steal women and baby boys.

Girl babies they leave out in the fields for wolves.

You and your sister are going north?

We are, too.

To see the new Canada.

It's our wedding trip.

You're old for a husband.

I'm recently widowed.

Rebecca's my new wife.

My new life.

Your mother's not with you?

Or your father?

Ma's cold dead 14 years.

We're going to Station House.

Driver there's paid to deliver me and Robin

to a man there name of slotter.

We're to be whores, ma'am.

Kat...

Maybe the doctor,

maybe he couldn't have saved him either.

Where did you get them?

My mother's and my father's.

Been looking for a preacher since we left Red River.

I wanted to marry you so bad.

All the way south.

Jacob Peter born...

It's 30 miles more, Kat.

We're almost there.

Our land.

Jeremiah...

We'll make more children.

We'll do it now because it's our wedding day.

Why do they stare so?

Shall I tell them

that I am to be the proof of female ability?

I shall tell them

that the gentlemen scientists of the royal society

have numbers and proofs of it.

But they don't recognize them.

Female ability is so difficult to prove.

A man who buys children has no conscience.

Yes.

I intend to speak to the driver.

Wouldn't he be part of it, Thomas?

We must do something.

I have an idea, Rebecca.

Ma'am?

My sister's got a cramp,

a really bad one.

If you could go to her?

Yes.

Of course.

You all right?

No.

No?

How long has this been going on?

Not very long.

Not very long...

Here we are, Station House.

It seems the man isn't here yet.

I must have some shade.

Yes, of course, of course. Certainly.

This one's a handsome fella.

He's got a bowed tendon.

Ah... well, so he does.

This one.

And the mare.

You'll have a get with them, start your ranch with.

Your wife's got a way with horses.

How much?

Well, you tell me.

He's but half-broke, that one.

Some don't take to a bit.

That is the God's truth.

We have a wagon coming in with supplies,

waiting on a couple boys we hired to drive it.

Maybe you could tell us how the country is

to the Canada border?

Border's close.

Hills and dense trees,

open delta, too.

Indians call it "Kutenai."

My wife was like that.

Blackfoot Indian.

Glorious woman.

I'll tell you what.

I stole them horses.

Brung 'em here to sell north of the 49,

no one the wiser.

Pay for the mare, mister.

Lady wife,

that horse is hers.

You've put a child in it, Rebecca.

It's the wrong way 'round.

It's breech.

Remember Mrs. Campbell?

The child was strangled when I pulled him out.

A surgical process could resolve that.

Caesarean is most always fatal to the mother.

But if there was a procedure to save both mother and child...

No.

I am very warm.

Whoa.

The child was born astride the grave.

I'm a mother to a corpse.

Do you have the sight?

Do you see spirits?

Come.

I can't hear her cries. I can't.

But she's here, isn't she?

Do you see her?

Father sent the payroll through?

Uh, no, sir, not this time.

Not last time either.

Gotta get that money somehow, Captain.

No two ways.

I hear you had a cholera north, sir.

We got doctors on the stage if they're needed.

Too late for doctors.

Where are the girls? I'll take them now.

It seems that they've run off, Sir.

It was the girls you had charge of.

Whoa...

Two whores!

Where are they?

They are my property and I will have them.

You, come here.

Come here.

Go ahead.

Search the wagons.

Come on, goddammit.

The rest of you, take off your bonnets.

Let me see your faces.

Look at 'em.

Plums.

You'd be a man, you walk into a whorehouse,

you see these virgins and angels descended.

Maybe payroll don't matter for a week or two?

Maybe your investors swell,

and so with their investments?

Maybe you don't require your pa's dollars?

Captain Slotter, I am Mrs. Fogg.

You were to deliver me to Janestown two days past,

but you never came.

You left me with no means to feed myself...

Stop it, George.