The House at Riverton

The 1916 flashback continues. Grace finds Hannah and Emmeline Hartford by the Icarus fountain, discussing the family’s future. Hannah tells Grace she looks just like her mother in a photograph in the house album, and Grace resolves to try to look at the album. Hannah reveals she has a copy of a letter from their brother in the war, David, which their father refuses to read. Grace visits her mother, who reacts strangely to the idea that Mr. Frederick might remarry.

When Grace returns to the house, Jemima is in labor. Grace assists until Nancy and the doctor arrive. Jemima tells Grace that she wishes for a daughter, although she cannot inherit, because girls do not suffer from hemophilia. Some hours later, Nancy announces to the staff that Jemima has had a daughter, Gytha. Mr. Frederick will become the new Lord Ashbury. Later, Grace discovers him weeping over David’s letter. 

In 1999, Ursula confides to Grace that she has a son, Finn, whom she has raised without the father’s involvement.

In 1916, Grace finds the household photograph from 1899 that shows her mother. She pauses over her mother’s secret, happy smile, as she has not known her mother that way. 

In 1999, Ursula visits Grace again. Grace recounts her life after Riverton: a marriage to a man called John, the birth of her daughter Ruth, and her divorce after World War II. She talks about her studies and career as an archaeologist, and how she juggled this with motherhood. She explains that her grandson, Marcus, has been avoiding contact with his family after his wife’s death. Grace is making audio recordings for him and sending them to a friend whom she believes Marcus is still in contact with.

The scene then moves to January 1919, after the Hartford sisters have returned to Riverton, changed by the war. Grace secretly observes Hannah retrieve a box from the attic, take it to the lake, and bury it, first slipping a tiny book from within into her locket.

In January 1919, the staff prepares for the arrival of the American banker Mr. Luxton and his family and speculate about Mr. Frederick’s financial troubles. Mr. Frederick’s new secretary, Miss Starling, unsettles the servants with her ambiguous class status, especially when she suggests that Alfred, the footman newly back from the war, is suffering from shell shock.

Upstairs, Grace serves tea to Hannah and Emmeline and helps them prepare for dressing for the dinner later. Emmeline is excited by the Americans and hopes to wear her best dress; Hannah acts blasé about it. She reveals her secret studies in shorthand and tells Emmeline she intends to ask their father’s permission to move to London to find work. Emmeline is upset by the idea of being left behind. She also mentions a time earlier when Alfred’s hands shook and he dropped a serving tray. Grace is shocked by this.

Preparing for the dinner, a tense Alfred rejects Grace’s help and is furious when she mentions what she has heard about his health. In the drawing room, Grace serves cocktails to Simion Luxton, his wife Estella, and their son Teddy. She observes the differences between the Americans’ manners and style and those of the British family. Simion brushes Grace’s thigh while she is serving and lectures the family on modern business during dinner. Emmeline deliberately derails Hannah’s plan to ask for their father’s permission to go to London. A loud champagne cork startles Alfred, who bolts outside in terror.

Simion implies Mr. Frederick’s factory loan depends on adopting American business models. Later, Grace finds Alfred on the garden stairs. He share some of the horrors he saw at the front, and she comforts him as he breaks down.

Hannah and Teddy marry in May 1919. In the preceding months, Lady Violet and her friend Lady Clementine plan Hannah’s debutante season, designed to find her an eligible husband. They hope she will marry someone rich, so Lady Clementine orchestrates opportunities for Simion Luxton to view Hannah as an ideal match for his son Teddy. She arranges a ride for the young couple. When Hannah’s locket falls into the river, Teddy dives in and retrieves it. This creates a powerful, unexpected attraction in Hannah.

At Hannah’s debutante ball, Teddy proposes. That night, Simion Luxton informs Mr. Frederick that his loan has been denied. Soon after, Lady Violet dies from influenza. While searching for their mother’s wedding dress, Emmeline accuses Hannah of marrying for convenience. When she finds the tiny book from their childhood game in Hannah’s locket, she feels betrayed and breaks the locket during their struggle.

On the eve of the wedding, Mr. Frederick forbids the marriage and threatens to disown Hannah, angry because his loan has been refused. She defies him and announces she will take Grace with her to London as her maid. After the wedding, Hannah and Teddy depart with Grace. Grace remembers how Hannah was not in love with Teddy and that this heralded the later affair between Hannah and Robbie.