Downton 1956: The Story of What Happened After Downton

Chapter Three

Elisabeth Singleton arrived at Downton Manor a couple of months later. She was so happy to escape her strict father and pushy mother, and she and Mary soon formed an incredibly strong bond. They soon became the best of friends, and Mary soon couldn't really remember life before Elisabeth. All she knew was that she had lost Matthew.

Sybbie was extremely happy with her daughter's choice of companion, and she began to flourish again, much to George's delight. They had both been heartbroken over the end of the abbey, Sybbie especially as she felt it was all her fault, and even with George's reassurance that that wasn't the case she found it had to believe. Then of cause there was the problem with Matthew, reduced to a shell of the person he had once been, and there was Sybbie's miscarried child. She mourned this child, just like she had mourned Tom, the only difference being Tom had actually lived, even if it was for just about a year, whilst this child was even a fully formed foetus. Still Sybbie had this child buried next to Tom in the Downton graveyard, and every Sunday, after church, she would place flowers on both graves. But time is the best healer of all and she soon returned to the person she had been.

Matthew moved away from Downton to be with his girlfriend, an act that George would have refused if it hadn't been for the fact that the American Connie was the most patient of people, and someone who would do all she could to return Matthew to the man he'd once been.

And so it would seem that life went on at Downton Manor without a hitch, but the Crawley family aren't the luckiest of families, and their luck would soon turn against them. Because Downton would soon see a murder take place.