Robert and Cora's relationship has thankfully improved. Billy had inquired with Robert whether him staying at Downton is agreed upon, admitting that going back to the house they used to live in seemed dreadful. Robert seems more than happy to let the man stay.
Emma sits with Billy in the Nursery, as he holds baby Sybil, or Sybbie as her maternal grandmother has taken to calling her, and she holds Ivy.
"I'm only staying for a while. Until Sybil's death isn't as... fresh." Billy informs her.
Emma nods. "Robert will let you stay as long as you need or want to, Billy. So long as his granddaughter is near for as long as possible."
"Have you and Tom told them you're leaving once I do?" Billy asks.
"Not yet but soon." Emma answers. "It feels strange to leave now."
"You sure you want to leave?"
"Of course!" Emma tries to say with certainty but Billy's face tells her it didn't work.
—
Mr Bates is also back much to Emma's relief but she worries about what will happen with Thomas now. Gemma is upset Emma and Tom are leaving again but understands. Emma worries about telling Thomas, particularly due to the situation he's in.
Emma finds Mr Bates selecting a book in the Library.
"Mr Bates!" She cries joyfully. He gives her a smile.
"Mrs Branson." He greets.
"Oh please. Call me Emma, everyone else pretty much does." Emma assures.
"Emma then. It's good to see you."
"You too." Emma sees a pile of books in front of him. "Trying to select a book?"
"Yes. I'm having difficulty in choosing from these three." Mr Bates replies.
"Oh, let me help."
—
"Of course, it's a lot to take in, but I'm sure it's right," Matthew says at dinner that evening from between his mother-in-law and Emma. "A leap of imagination. So that's why I've asked Murray to come up so that we can talk it through together."
"You've asked Murray to come here without consulting me?" Robert asks, displeased. His mother sits on her usual seat on his right while Isobel sits on his left with Billy then Mary and Tom. Emma winces, disliking this conflict that has arisen.
"I felt I wasn't explaining things well and I know he can," Matthew replies.
Alfred bends down to serve the Dowager. "Oh, lovely, what a treat." The woman comments but she pulls up the napkin on her lap, she knocks the cutlery balanced on the plate and some of the food slides onto her lap before Alfred can fully catch it. "Oh!"
"Oh, my, your Ladyship!" Mr Carson cries in alarm, practically leaping forward.
"It's all right. No, no fuss, no fuss. Just scrape me down and get me a spare napkin." The Dowager reassures as Mr Carson clears her lap.
Emma frowns as she watches Jimmy mutter something to Alfred before taking the dish from the man's hands. Jimmy seems to be taking over the first footmen role as Alfred now carries the sauce.
"I saw your cook in the Village today, Isobel. She seemed upset." The Dowager says.
"Yes. Mrs Bakewell was rather unkind." Isobel replies.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Emma says. She hadn't gotten along with Ethel but that doesn't mean she wants her to be treated as poorly as she does.
"It seems a pity that even in this pretty little Village, people can be so unforgiving."
"Some people are unforgiving, others are insensitive." Robert receives several looks for his remark.
"What time do you leave in the morning?" Cora asks Edith, who sits next to Emma.
"I thought I'd get the ten o'clock. I'm meeting him for tea." Edith answers. Emma frowns at Jimmy as he serves the Dowager successfully. She doesn't like this Thomas kind of behaviour.
"You're not encouraging this?" Robert says, aghast at his wife.
"She hasn't agreed to anything yet." Cora reminds him.
"Oh, Mama, talk to her. Talk to all of them. Say something sensible." Robert practically whines.
"Yes. Let's hear how a woman's place is in the home." Isobel quips.
"I do think a woman's place is eventually in the home, but I see no harm in her having some fun before she gets there." The Dowager argues. Emma is surprised at her comment, not thinking she would side with her granddaughter.
"Oh, Granny! Thank you!" Edith says, relieved.
"Have you changed your pills?" Isobel remarks. Robert chuckles.
"And another thing." The Dowager continues. "I mean, Edith isn't getting any younger." She chuckles. Emma winces and gives Edith a sorry look. "Perhaps she isn't cut out for domestic life." Edith deflates.
"Well, who knows what the future has in store for her." Emma awkwardly adds to deflect the blow. Edith gives her a small smile.
"How are your plans proceeding, Tom?" Matthew asks, seemingly timidly. Emma almost laughs.
"I was telling Lady Grantham, my brother has a garage in Liverpool," Tom explains. "He's asked me to go in with him."
"And Emma is just expected to move to Liverpool?" Robert demands. He has weirdly been protective of her lately and Emma wonders if it has anything to do with her own close relationship with Sybil.
"Robert, I am fine with moving to Liverpool." Emma sighs. "Tom doesn't make decisions without discussing it with me first." Robert grumbles and downs the last of the wine in his drink.
—
Edith goes to London the next day to see the editor of the newspaper as he has repeated his offer despite her father's complaints.
Thomas is off and withdrawn when she tries to talk with him when she wanders round to the Servant Courtyard when he's having a smoke.
"Thomas is acting odd," Emma says to her husband as they walk hand in hand along the landing after seeing and feeding Ivy.
"Well, he is Thomas. You know how he acts towards everyone." Tom remarks.
"Yeah, but not to me," Emma argues. "Do you think he's upset that I'm dining and chatting with them now?"
Tom snorts. "Doubt it. Not with how he acts as if you're his annoying little sister."
"Oi!" Emma jokingly swots him on the arm with the hand that had been holding his.
"I never said you were!" Tom argues, chuckling.
It feels good to joke and laugh after all the despair surrounding them. Billy had perked up in the sense he's not mindlessly walking around the Halls, which is progress.
—
"It makes no sense to retain this bit as a separate section," Matthew complains after dinner as he, Mary, Tom, Emma and Billy look over a map of the estate laid out on a table in the Drawing room. "No sense at all. But, of course, Jarvis won't see that because he hates change."
"Just try to carry Papa with you. That's all I ask." Mary pleads to her husband. She and Tom take their drinks from a tray that Alfred is carrying.
"He'll be with me in the end, because this is the only way forward," Matthew replies. "And at some point, he's going to see that."
"Hopefully it's soon," Emma adds.
"What do you think, Tom?" Mary asks. Emma watches with interest. Tom had told her about him and Matthew talking about the latter's ideas for estate and he seems to have a possible knack for it himself. She doesn't dare to hope that he'll go down this route instead.
"I agree with Matthew. The estate can offer proper compensation to the tenants now, while the money's there, but if we miss this chance, it may not come again." Tom declares.
"So says the Marxist." Robert suddenly calls to them. Emma turns to Robert with a frown.
"If you don't mind me saying so, you have a narrow view of socialism." Tom counters.
"You seem to have a very broad interpretation of it." Robert throws back.
"Now, now, children." The Dowager intervenes. "If Branson is watering down his revolutionary fervour, let us give thanks."
"Tom." Mary corrects as she walks past her grandmother.
"Do you know anything about farming, Tom?" The Dowager asks.
"A little. My grandfather was a sheep farmer in Ireland." Tom answers.
As the conversation continues, Emma notices the tension is still there between Alfred and Jimmy and quietly walks over. It has been brewing throughout dinner.
"Why do you keep giving me funny looks?" Jimmy hisses.
"I'm not." Alfred retorts.
"What's going on?" Mr Carson hisses at them. "Have you both been up to something I don't know about?"
"Not both of us," Alfred replies. Jimmy gives him a dark look.
"Mr Carson? Jimmy? Alfred? Is everything all right?" Emma asks, drawing their attention.
"Of course, Mrs Branson." Mr Carson quickly answers.
"You should ask your good friend, Mr Barrow," Jimmy remarks pointedly.
Emma frowns. "Thomas? Why?"
She doesn't receive a reply as the footman walks away.
—
The meeting the next day between Matthew, Robert, Mr Jarvis and Mr Murray doesn't go well as it ends with Mr Jarvis resigning. Emma is not sure how well this will work for Matthew and his plans for the estate.
They sit down for dinner that evening. Edith has returned from London and sits between Emma and her grandmother then it is Robert, Mary, Tom, Billy, Cora, and Matthew.
"How did you get on in London?" Matthew asks Edith.
"Well, as a matter of fact, I've got an announcement to make. And now's as good a time as any." Edith replies. She then raises her voice to the rest of the table. "Listen, everyone. You have a journalist in the family."
"Oh!" Her mother gasps.
"Since we have a country solicitor and an engineer, it was only a matter of time." Her grandmother remarks.
"Well done, Edith," Emma says.
"Thank you." Edith beams.
"How was the editor in the end?" Mary asks.
"Oh, nice, very nice," Edith replies, a little flustered. Emma shares a raised eyebrow with Mary.
—
Billy pulls Emma to the side of the Drawing room after dinner to tell her some news.
"I got a job." He whispers so no one can overhear.
"That's brilliant, but where? And what?" Emma exclaims.
"It's in York. As an engineer. More upmarket than my last place." Billy reveals. "I know I was only going to stay until Sybil's death wasn't so recent but I might stay so Sybbie can grow up around her family."
"Why aren't you telling this to everyone?" She questions.
"I wanted you to be the first to know. You are my best friend." He answers.
Emma almost feels like she is going to cry. "I'm honoured, Billy. That you thought I should be the first to know. And I'm so happy you're staying."
"Even though you're leaving?"
"I'll visit." She defends. "But you really should let everyone know. Robert agreed to let you stay, didn't he?"
"He said I could stay for as long as I wished."
"Then tell them."
Emma then leaves him to chat with Edith about her job and finds her sitting with her grandmother and Isobel. She arrives and sits next to Edith just in time for said woman to tell Isobel that she's put an ad in a magazine to help Ethel find another job. Emma is surprised but knows that this might be better for Ethel.
"I don't understand," Isobel says, looking at the grandmother and granddaughter duo in disbelief. "You've placed an advertisement in a magazine to find a job for my housekeeper?"
"I knew you'd be against it." The Dowager remarks.
"Well, how would you feel if I found other work for your cook or butler?" Isobel retorts.
"Granny feels that for Ethel's sake she should move elsewhere," Edith explains.
"Oh, nonsense. She couldn't give tuppence about Ethel or anyone like her!" Isobel snaps.
"You've been reading those communist newspapers again." The Dowager snips.
"Why don't we ask another party," Emma says to the women. "Mr Carson." She calls to the butler as he passes them. "Would you ask Mrs Hughes to meet us in the Hall, please?"
"Very good, Mrs Branson." The man says and leaves the room.
—
"Mrs Hughes, you've always taken an interest in Ethel. Do you think I'm wrong?" The Dowager asks. She, Emma, Isobel, Edith and Mrs Hughes gather in the Great Hall.
"No." Mrs Hughes replies. She turns to Isobel. "While Ethel is in this Village, she is doomed to be lonely."
"Society will not give her another chance unless she starts afresh elsewhere," Emma adds. "Then no one who she is or her past."
"She's not a bad cook now," Edith argues. "And with a respectable reference, which, of course, you can give her..."
"I can't get over how you've planned all this without a word to me," Isobel complains.
"Well, I knew you wouldn't agree. I know how you hate facing facts." The Dowager remarks.
"I resent that. I'm sorry, but I do." Isobel retorts.
"Mrs Crawley, I hope you don't see me as an intolerant person." Mrs Hughes says.
"No."
"Because I agree with her Ladyship." Emma thinks the Dowager looks a bit too smug at that sentence. "In a new place, where she can start again, Ethel has far more chance of happiness than in re-enacting her own version of The Scarlet Letter in Downton."
Emma can't help but agree when she remembers the book she had to read for Uni. She remembers how the main woman was cast out.
"What is The Scarlet Letter?" The Dowager asks.
"A novel, by Nathaniel Hawthorne." Edith answers.
"Well, it sounds most unsuitable."
"I'll talk to Ethel." Isobel decides and walks off.
—
Emma finds Thomas in the Courtyard and is determined to not let him get away with not telling her this time.
"Has something happened?" She asks.
"What makes you think that?" Thomas replies despondently. He scuffles his shoes on the floor, refusing to look at her.
"Well, Jimmy and Alfred have been acting odd and when I asked, Jimmy implied I should ask you," Emma says, deciding not to beat about the bush.
"I'm surprised you noticed now you are one of them." Thomas unfairly retorts as he finally looks at her.
Emma raises an eyebrow. "I think that was uncalled for."
"Maybe." He looks sorry for his remark.
"So, instead of taking it out on me, why don't you tell me what the matter is?"
"I misinterpreted things, Emma," Thomas admits.
"What do you mean?" She hopes he doesn't mean what she thinks he means as she knows the consequences if it's reported.
"You know who I am Emma. I know we don't talk about it but I know that you know that I'm different..."
"Yes?" Emma prompts.
"Well, I thought Jimmy was too."
"Oh Thomas," Emma says sombrely. She reaches over and gives him a hug. "It'll be alright." Maybe she's wishful thinking but she hopes she's right.
—
It is the day of Sybbie's christening. The women have now transitioned from the black they'd been wearing to shades of purple and blue. Billy doesn't have any family left except a distant cousin who arrives the same day to act as godfather while Mary is the godmother.
They all walk out of the Church and see a photographer waiting. Emma can't help but feel amused at the sight of the massive thing. Oh, how technology changes.
"What's this?" Billy asks when seeing the man.
"I hope you don't mind," Edith says. So this was her idea.
"If you could all form a group around the father." The photographer suggests.
"Here." Billy hands his hat to Tom to hold so Mary can pass her niece and goddaughter over to her father.
"Right. Mama, if you want to go next..." Robert says as they shuffle about. Isobel stands at the end then it's the Dowager, Matthew, Tom, Robert, Billy with Sybbie, Billy's cousin James, Mary, Cora, Edith and Emma.
"It seems so strange without Sybil here." Edith comments.
"She's watching. I know." Says her mother.
"I envy you. I wish I did." Mary speaks.
"You just have to have faith," Emma argues.
"Ever so slightly, thank you so much." The photographer encourages.
As they pose, Emma can see Robert, Tom and Robert muttering and wonders what they could be talking about considering Tom's frown.
"Perhaps one with the grandfather holding the baby? And maybe the great-grandmother with him?" The photographer says.
Everyone moves out of the way and Billy hands over Sybbie to Robert. Despite what has happened recently, Emma can't help but smile.
—
Emma is excited when Tom pulls her aside once they get back to Downton to explain to her that Robert had offered him the job of estate agent once Mr Jarvis has left. It means Emma won't have to leave the home she has created at Downton and leave Billy while he's still mourning.
However, soon after they come back Mary herself seems to be staring sadly at Billy holding Sybbie and Emma holding Ivy as they all gather in the Library.
"Mary?" She asks Mary quietly, walking over to her. She had handed Ivy over to her dad. "What is it?"
"It's nothing." Mary dismisses.
"Mary…"
Mary sighs. "It's just… Matthew and I have been married for a few months and nothing seems to have happened." The eldest Crawley daughter confesses.
"There's nothing to worry about just yet," Emma argues. "I, and Sybil as well, took longer than a few months before we individually fell pregnant."
"But still… I cannot help but worry." Mary replies sadly. Her eyebrows are creased in a frown.
"Well, it could be the man. Is his performance all right?" Emma asks.
Mary is uncomfortable but it needs to be asked. "Yes."
"Mmm… it could be the count. It could also be something to do with you." Emma muses. "Have you thought of getting the both of you checked?"
"No, I haven't talked to him about it," Mary says. "Though he has worried if he's the reason."
"You should talk to him."
"It does not matter," Mary argues. "I have already been to see Dr Clarkson and he suggests I go to London for better tests."
"Do you want me to come with you?" Emma asks. Mary looks relieved and nods.