BOOK Seems very anxious to please you.

MAL That’s their way, I guess.

BOOK (bright, casual) I suppose so. If you take sexual advantage of her, you’re going to burn in a very special level of hell. A level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk at the theater.

MAL Wha – I’m not – Preacher, you got a smutty mind. … MAL Well, my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle.

JAYNE Dammit, Mal, I’d treat her okay…

… MAL Hey! flesh! Look Saffron, it ain’t a question of pleasing me. It’s a question of whats… uh… morally right.

SAFFRON I do know my bible, sir. “On the night of their betrothal, the wife shall open to the man, as the furrow to the plough, and he shall work in her, in and again, ’till she bring him to his fall, and rest him then upon the sweat of her breast.”

Beat.

MAL Whoah. Good bible.

SAFFRON I’m not skilled, sir, nor a pleasure to look upon, but -

MAL Saffron. You’re pleasing. You’re… hell, you’re all kinds of pleasing and it’s been a while… a long damn while since anybody but me took a hold a’my plough so don’t think for a second that I ain’t interested. But you and me, we ain’t married. Just ’cause you got handed to me by some couldn’t pay his debts, don’t make you beholden to me. I keep trying to explain -

…

SAFFRON (cont’d) If I’m wed, I’m a woman and I’ll take your leave to be bold. I want this. I swell to think of you in me, and I see you do too.

Mal looks down, embarrassed.

MAL Well, that’s just…

SAFFRON Leave me at the nearest port, never look on me again, I’ll make my way with the strength you’ve taught me… only let me have my wedding night.

They’re inches apart. He’s dying.

MAL (looking up at the door) I’m gonna go to the special hell…