Isabella and Dinah work on helping Cassandra with her fever in Miss Austen season 1, episode 3. This leads to another trip to the past, as we learn about what happened between Cassie and Mr. Hobday.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for Miss Austen season 1, episode 3.
At the end of the previous episode, Cassandra collapsed with a fever, and while she tried to hide the letters from Jane, she left the drawer slightly ajar. Those letters immediately come up as Isabella tries to help get Cassandra’s fever down, with Cassandra telling Isabella to keep the letters out of Mary’s hands.
Well, Mary overhears the conversation. The only thing stopping Mary from going into the room right now is illness, as she’s terrified that she’s going to end up sick. She does bring the letters up in the episode, but what does Cassandra have to say for herself?
Cassandra thinks back to Henry Hobday in Miss Austen season 1, episode 3
As Cassandra faces her fever, she starts to think back to the past once more. We get to the point of Henry Hobday asking Cassie to marry him. Up to this point, she admits that she likes him but doesn’t want to admit romantic feelings for him. As Jane points out that Cassie needs to marry so that she’s not left poor and alone, Cassie decides to go on another outing with Henry. That’s when he asks her to marry him.
However, Cassie thinks of the promise that she made to Tom. Even if he died, she wouldn’t marry anyone else, and so she decides that she can’t marry Henry.
Once Cassandra’s fever breaks, she’s able to read more of the letters to Eliza. This leads to memories of Jane agreeing to marry Harris Bigg-Withers, as a way to keep his sisters on the estate as they get older, as their fear is that a wife of Harris will kick them out. Yet, Cassie points out to Jane that she will be expected to have children, and that means no time to write, so Jane decides that she can’t go through with the marriage after all.
Things take a turn for Cassie and Jane, as Mary insists that James asks for the right to the family estate. After all, that was promised, but James was initially fine with not getting it. Mary has become the wife that the Bigg-Withers sisters feared, arranging for all the Austen family to be evicted from their home.
It’s certainly now understandably why Cassandra wants to make sure Isabella finds a new home after her father’s death. This reminds her of her own past, and she knows that Mary won’t care enough to do anything. Another element is the way Cassie’s father’s health is failing, and she realizes that she will need to look after Jane, who spends her time writing and getting her novels published.
MORE: Miss Austen season 1, episode 2 recap
Mary asks about the letters in Miss Austen
Of course, Mary’s main focus has been on finding the letters that Jane sent Eliza, and now she thinks that she has them. She overheard Cassandra mention them, but Cassandra denies it. She shares that her words about the letters must have been in a moment of delirium because she hasn’t found them yet.
So, as Cassandra’s health improves and she’s able to help with packing, she does just that. Mary is nominally helping, but it’s clear that she’s looking for Jane’s letters. As she continues to struggle, she decides to bring Anna, her stepdaughter, to the house, which delights Cassandra and Isabella.
Throughout, Isabella wants to know more about Jane, as she falls more and more in love with the novel Persuasion. Mary pipes up to say that Jane wasn’t all that pleasant, at least not to her. Of course, Mary isn’t pleasant to anyone, so why would Jane have been pleasant with her? Anna points out that Jane was always a great aunt to her.
Now Cassandra needs to continue to find a place for Isabella to go. With illness now out of the village, Beth has returned to the school, so Cassandra visits her to ask for Beth to take Isabella in. This could mean Beth has to marry the doctor, Mr. Lidderdale, but that makes Beth laugh. Cassandra definitely has the wrong sister when it comes to romantic feelings for the doctor. Could this give Cassandra a new idea in the Miss Austen series finale?
Miss Austen is available to stream on PBS Masterpiece.
Stay up to date with the latest historical fiction with Claire and Jamie.