They looked like they had been through the worst Hell on Earth. Sybil and Gwen snuck out so Gwen could attend a job interview. Gwen wanted to be a secretary and Sybil had helped by looking for advertisements on the paper.
That day, Sybil borrowed the cart on the pretext of visiting an old lady in Malton where the interview was to take place. She had refused to have their chauffeur Tom Branson drive her. She had not known the young man well and feared he could not keep the secret from her father.
The horse cast a shoe and they were forced to walk the rest of the way back. None of the people they had met on the road were of much help. Then the cart got stuck on a muddy rut and the girls fell in a puddle trying to get the damned thing out. They looked like bog people. The sun had almost set by the time they got to Downton.
"Pardon me for saying so, Milady, but you should have asked me to drive you. It's my job to pick you up and drop you off places. And it would have been less of a bother." Branson told her later.
"I'm sorry for my deceit, Mr. Branson, but I couldn't take the chance you would tell my parents of my whereabouts. Proper ladies don't exactly do what I've just done. No harm, no foul."
"You could have had an accident!" He raised his voice, which took her aback. "The cart could have overturned! You could have been set on by highwaymen! If anything happened to you, I... we... wouldn't know what to do."
His eyes spoke of concern, but Sybil had to stand her ground. "I am almost a grown woman! I can take care of myself. That had been the furthest I had been away from home and I came back. You are not paid to care!"
"No, Milady. That you get for free." He gave a slight bow and walked off back to the garage.
Sybil realized how unkind her words had been. She, who believed her father's way of treating the servants with decency, had acted like a brat. But no servant had talked to her like that before! He looked at her straight in the eye and spoke to her as a person instead of a Lady that needed to be kowtowed to.
He misjudged the man. She will not make that mistake again.