Downton Abbey Script Book Season 1 (30 page)

SYBIL (CONT'D): I thought this might be suitable for your interview.

GWEN: I won't be wearing it, m'lady.

SYBIL: Of course you will. We have to make you look like a successful, professional woman.

But Gwen starts to cry. Sybil is bewildered.

SYBIL (CONT'D): What is it? What's happened?

GWEN: I won't wear it, because I'm not going. They've cancelled the appointment.

She fumbles in her pocket and produces a letter which Sybil takes and reads. Her face falls.

GWEN (CONT'D): They've found someone ‘more suited to the post and better qualified.'

SYBIL: This time.

GWEN: Let's face it. There'll never be anyone
less
suited to the post or
worse
qualified than I am.

SYBIL: That isn't true.

Sybil guides Gwen towards the bed where they sit.

SYBIL (CONT'D): You'll see. We're not giving up.

She picks up the suit again and gives it to Gwen, who would protest, but Sybil insists, taking the girl in her arms.

SYBIL (CONT'D): No one hits the bull's eye with the first arrow.

Carson looks in. Mrs Hughes is standing, looking pensive.

CARSON: I've put out the Rundell candlesticks for dinner, tonight. They're not as nice, but the Lameries need proper cleaning and the pivot's loose on one of the arms. It won't be for long.

She nods, but she's too preoccupied to concentrate on this.

CARSON (CONT'D): Oh, I'm sorry. I'll come back later.

MRS HUGHES: No. Stay. Please. I've got something I'd like to talk about. If you've a minute.

He nods and comes in, taking a chair opposite her.

MRS HUGHES (CONT'D): Before I first came here as head housemaid, I was walking out with a farmer. When I told him I'd taken a job at Downton, he asked me to marry him. I was a farmer's daughter from Argyll, so I knew the life …

CARSON: And you were tempted.

MRS HUGHES: He was very nice. But then I came here, and I did well, and I didn't want to give it up. So I told him no and he married someone else.

CARSON: And he was miserable.

MRS HUGHES: No, he was happy. She was a good woman and they had a healthy son.

CARSON: So, what happened?

MRS HUGHES: She died. Three years ago. And last month he wrote asking to see me again. And I agreed. Because, all this time, I've wondered.

CARSON: Go on.

MRS HUGHES: I met him the other night. We had dinner at the Grantham Arms and after, he took me to the fair.

CARSON: And he was horrible and fat and red-faced. And you couldn't think what you ever saw in him.

Mrs Hughes fingers the doll Joe Burns gave her.

MRS HUGHES: He was still a nice man. He is still a nice man. Well, he was a bit red-faced and his suit was a little tight, but none of that matters. In the real ways, he hadn't changed.

CARSON: And he proposed again and you accepted?

She looks at him for a moment before she answers.

MRS HUGHES: In many ways I
wanted
to accept. But I'm not that farm girl anymore. I was flattered, of course, but I've changed, Mr Carson.

CARSON: Life's altered you, as it's altered me. And what would be the point of living if we didn't let life change us?
*

She doesn't know how to answer.

CARSON (CONT'D): You won't be leaving, then?

At that moment, there's a knock on the door, and Anna sticks her head into the room.

ANNA: You'd better come. Mrs Patmore's on the rampage. She wants the key to the store cupboard. You know how angry she gets that she hasn't got one of her own.

MRS HUGHES: Nor will she have. Not while I'm housekeeper here.

Anna has gone. Mrs Hughes looks at the butler.

MRS HUGHES (CONT'D): Leaving? When would I ever find the time?

The family, plus the Crawleys and minus Sybil, are waiting to go to dinner. Carson's with them. Thomas is at the door.

CORA: Whatever is holding Sybil up?

MARY: She was banging on about her new frock.

In a series of shots, we see Sybil being dressed by Anna before a looking glass. We only ever see her from the waist up.

ROBERT: We'd better go in without her. Or it's not fair on Mrs Patmore.

VIOLET: Is her cooking so precisely timed? You couldn't tell.

Which irritates Cora. Isobel weighs in on Cora's side.

ISOBEL: I think her food is delicious.

VIOLET: Naturally.

Sybil is running down, but still we only see her top half.

MATTHEW: Here she comes.

The door opens and, sure enough, Sybil walks in. She's wearing a flowing pair of emerald green silk trousers.

SYBIL: Good evening, everyone!

She is greeted by a sea of dropped jaws, and varying degrees of incredulity, even if Matthew smiles.

Outside the drawing room windows, Branson is spying on this scene. His eyes gleam at the appearance of Sybil …

MRS HUGHES: Mr Branson!

She is standing at the corner of the house by the service courtyard. He springs back from the window and stares at her.

MRS HUGHES (CONT'D): Don't play with fire, Mr Branson. Or you'll get burned.

She knows just what is going on.

 

 

Gwen and Anna are making the bed, one on each side. Daisy is laying the fire. She drops the fire irons with a clang. Anna lets out a gasp, then laughs at herself.

ANNA: You made me jump.

Now lumps of coal fall and roll everywhere.

GWEN: Daisy, what
is
the matter with you? You're all thumbs.

DAISY: Sorry …

She scrapes everything together again, looking round.

DAISY (CONT'D): I hate this room.

GWEN: Why? What's the matter with it?

In a flash, we see Daisy's viewpoint on that fateful night, the dead body being carried round the corner by Mary. Daisy did not make out the identities of the other carriers, but Mary's face is caught clearly in a shaft of candlelight. She comes out of her reverie to find Anna looking at her.
*

Robert is finishing his breakfast with all three daughters. The dog, Pharoah, is at his feet. He reads a letter.

MARY: Who's that from, Papa? You seem very absorbed.

ROBERT: Your aunt Rosamond.

EDITH: Anything interesting?

There is, but Robert doesn't want to repeat it.

ROBERT: Nothing to trouble you with.

SYBIL: Poor Aunt Rosamond. All alone in that big house. I feel so sorry for her.

MARY: I don't. All alone, with plenty of money, in a house in Eaton Square? I can't imagine anything better.

ROBERT: Really, Mary, I wish you wouldn't talk like that. There will come a day when someone thinks you mean what you say.

MARY: It can't come soon enough for me.

Robert stands and turns to Carson, who is by the sideboard.

ROBERT: Carson, I'll be in the library. Will you let me know when her ladyship is downstairs?

CARSON: Certainly, m'lord.

Robert gathers up his letters, then sees one he'd missed.

ROBERT: Sybil, darling. This is for you.

She takes the letter and opens it. It contains good news.

Sybil is walking along, with the opened letter in her hands behind her back.

GWEN: What is it, m'lady?

SYBIL: Look.

She gives Gwen the letter she was reading at breakfast.

SYBIL (CONT'D): I saw another opening for a secretary and I applied.

GWEN: For me? But you never said.

SYBIL: I didn't want you to be disappointed.

GWEN: I thought you'd given up.

SYBIL: I'll never give up and nor will you. Things are changing for women, Gwen. Not just the vote but our lives. We're going to have real lives.

During this, Gwen has read the letter.

GWEN: But it's tomorrow! At ten o'clock! How can it be? Last time we waited for weeks and weeks, and this one's tomorrow!

SYBIL: Then we must be ready by tomorrow, mustn't we?

Gwen is breathless with excitement.
*

The Crawleys' house catches the morning light.

Isobel comes downstairs to find Matthew putting on a coat.

ISOBEL: You're very late this morning.

MATTHEW: I'm not going into the office. I'm taking a will to be signed in Easingwold, at eleven.

ISOBEL: I thought I'd write to Edith, to settle our promised church visit.

MATTHEW: If you want.

He checks his appearance in the glass.

ISOBEL: We can't just throw her over, when she made such an effort to arrange the last one.

She gives him a look, which forces him to return it.

MATTHEW: It's all in your head.

ISOBEL: I don't think so.

MATTHEW: Then she's barking up the wrong tree.

ISOBEL: Poor Edith. I do hope there's a
right
tree for her, somewhere.
*

Molesley has come in. He walks forward to open the door.

MOLESLEY: Ma'am, I was wondering if I might take some time this afternoon, to help in the village hall.

MATTHEW: Why? What's happening?

MOLESLEY: It's the flower show, sir, next Saturday. I'll give my father a hand with his stall, if I may.

ISOBEL: Of course you must go.

MATTHEW: And so, I'm afraid, must I.

He grabs a hat, kisses his mother's hand and leaves.

A hand carefully replaces an ancient key on a hook. It is Thomas who quickly conceals a bottle of wine behind his back when he hears footsteps. Bates looks in at the door.