Miss Austen centres on Cassandra Austen, as she tries to secure her sister Jane’s legacy, but painful memories are now coming to the fore.
The BBC One period drama has seen Cassandra (Keeley Hawes) find Jane’s letters while on a visit to family friend Isabella Fowle (Rose Leslie) in Kintbury, but she is trying to keep the papers private from her nosy sister-in-law Mary (Jessica Hynes). But as Cassandra secretly reads the correspondence, it is bringing back increasingly painful memories of her troubled love life as a young woman (Synnøve Karlsen).
Here’s everything that happened in Miss Austen episode 2…
As the episode opens in 1830, Mary (Jessica Hynes) arrives at the Kintbury rectory and makes a dig at Cassandra (Keeley Hawes) again for not telling her she was coming to the village. When the subject turns to Jane's letters to Mary’s sister Eliza, which Cassandra has been surreptitiously reading, Cassandra lies and claims not to have found them, and Mary says she will look for them herself…
Meanwhile, Mary’s niece Isabella (Rose Leslie), Eliza’s daughter, is still upset following her father’s death and the prospect of having to leave the rectory. Cassandra sympathises but she urges Isabella to settle the question of her future by visiting her sisters, who she could go and live with, but Isabella is reluctant.
As Cassandra returns to the letters, flashbacks show that her young self – Cassy (Synnøve Karlsen) – is still grieving the loss of her fiancé Tom but is trying to put on a brave face. She goes to stay with her brother Edward (Hubert Burton) and his family in Kent, but Jane (Patsy Ferran) fears they are just using her as a glorified babysitter.
Back in 1830, Cassandra visits Isabella’s eccentric sister Mary Jane (Florence Bell), who says that Isabella will be coming to live with her as she can’t cope on her own, but Cassandra says that Isabella doesn’t seem to be aware that things have already been settled. Meanwhile, Isabella bumps into local doctor Mr Lidderdale (Alfred Enoch) and they awkwardly discuss her future plans.
As the flashbacks resume, Cassy is still at Edward’s home but Jane feels her sister is trapped there and she doesn’t want her to get stuck in the role of spinster aunt, so she asks her friend Eliza (Madeleine Walker) to invite Cassy to help her as she prepares to give birth at Kintbury and Cassy provides sterling support when baby Isabella is born.
Then, in 1830 again, Cassandra is impressed when she sees the adult Isabella teaching a young boy. Loyal maid Dinah (Mirren Mack) says there is more to Isabella than people think and reveals that Isabella’s father was a domineering presence in the house. Cassandra goes out to see Isabella’s other sister Beth (Clare Foster), a teacher, whose village school is closed, and she finds her helping Dr Lidderdale care for a woman with diphtheria. But as Beth and Cassandra discuss Isabella’s future, Beth clearly doesn’t want to get involved.
Back at the house, Mary is annoyed that she still can’t find the letters and she tells Cassandra off for going out in the rain. Mary vows to take a firmer hand with the family and also urges Isabella to get over her grief for her father, while Cassandra causes more awkwardness when she mentions that Beth and Mr Lidderdale seemed to be familiar with each other...
Cassandra tries to improve the overall mood by reading from Jane’s novel "Persuasion" and Isabella is keen for the book to have a romantic ending with a happy marriage. Cassandra says that there are other ways to find happiness and Isabella asks if Jane ever knew love. Cassandra claims that no man was ever worthy, to which Mary chips in with the shocking revelation that there was once romantic rivalry between the sisters, which Cassandra fiercely denies and she heads to bed claiming to feel unwell…
In the flashbacks once more, the Austens are visiting Sidmouth in Devon. Once there, Cassy, who is now constantly dressed in black, and her little niece Anna (Vivien Battley), go to a fabric shop where Cassy accidentally brushes hands with a handsome gent who has come to the store to collect his mother. Anna later recalls their meeting in front of Jane, who is intrigued, but Cassy is dismissive. But when the sisters and their mother Mrs Austen (Phyllis Logan) are out for a stroll, they bump into the man again who introduces himself as Henry Hobday (Max Irons).
After the sisters, Anna and Mr Austen (Kevin McNally) see him again on the beach, Mrs Austen is very excited and thinks he would be a great suitor for Cassy, but Cassy says he would be ideal for Jane...
As the Austens go for tea with Henry’s mother Mrs Hobday (Rebecca Johnson), she sings her son's praises, while, after a visit to the local church, Henry chats to the Austens and is impressed with Jane’s forthright views. When Cassy and Jane discuss the interaction later, Jane insists that Henry is really keen on Cassy. But Cassy says she has lost the only man who will ever marry – Tom.
Jane won’t give up though, and with Anna's help, she gets a yellow dress for Cassy to take her out of mourning. At a beachside picnic, Henry takes Cassy for a walk where he sympathizes with her loss and she admits that her grief was overwhelming but is becoming less sharp now. In a letter to Eliza, Jane reveals that Cassy is in love…
Back in 1830, Cassandra is upset by what she has read of the past and she quickly stuffs the letters in a drawer before collapsing to the floor ill…
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