Episode 97: One Woman's Treasure

Tuesday, November 8, 1966

My name is Victoria Winters. Last night, I learnt that a man I considered my friend might be implicated in an unexplained death. I shared this secret with only one other man. Now I dread having to face the rest of the family at Collinwood, not knowing what to expect.

Vicki comes downstairs.

Carolyn asks snottily whether she had fun in Bangor and Liz says she knows why she went and thinks 

Vicki could have told her. She wants to talk with Vicki alone.

Carolyn and Roger go to have more coffee, with Carolyn glaring.

Liz tells Vicki she’s very fond of her.

Vicki says Burke offered her a ride and so on, and she didn’t think she could refuse. 

She explains about the ledger sheet. 

Liz tells her that Betty Hanscomb looked nothing at all like Vicki.

Liz wonders why Vicki didn’t ask her about it.

“Because when I do ask you, you always avoid answering my questions on the subject.”

Liz says she won’t ask Vicki why she got frightened and called Roger to come and get her.

Roger tells Carolyn that he doesn’t think Vicki is especially interested in Burke. 

He even suggests he and Vicki might be interested in each other. Carolyn is pleased at the idea of Vicki being her aunt (and not her rival).

When Vicki comes out of the drawing room and Roger goes in, Carolyn asks Vicki whether she likes her uncle. 

He must like her, to go all that way to get her out of Buke’s clutches. 

Vicki says she wasn’t in Burke’s clutches. 

And she spent most of her time with a very attractive man named Frank Garner. Carolyn thinks he’s nothing but a kid. 

Vicki says he’s ten years older than Carolyn. 

And one more thing—Burke told her Carolyn called him to come down to the restaurant, so he came to see her, not Vicki.

Roger tells Liz he doesn’t know how to account for Vicki’s sudden change in plans. Perhaps Burke was too drunk to drive.

Roger still thinks she’s in danger from David, even though his attitude appears to have changed. Liz says they’ll have to keep a closer watch over him. 

Roger says they should keep a closer watch over Vicki.

Vicki is going out. Carolyn offers to give her a ride or lend her her car. She tells Carolyn she wants to go for a walk and turns down the offer of company.

Carolyn asks Vicki whether she called Roger because Burke was too drunk to drive. Vicki says no, it wasn’t that. 

She wishes Carolyn would forget about Burke, though. He’s a dangerous friend to have. He’s unpredictable.

“If he’s so unpredictable, then why did you take that trip and spend the night in the same hotel with him?”

Roger comes out of the drawing room and says because it’s the best hotel there.

Carolyn says, “How do I know what happened?”

Roger asks what difference it makes.

“That’s what I’d like to know. Why is it so important to you?”

Carolyn tries to cover. “I think that as long as you live at Collinwood, everything you do reflects on us.”

“And does nothing you do reflect on anyone?”

Carolyn runs upstairs.

Vicki tells Roger she’s going for a walk. He shouldn’t worry. She’s not going to the sheriff’s office.

Sam is singing to himself. Then he tries to thread a needle.

Vicki arrives. 

She isn’t there to see Maggie. She isn’t there to see Sam. The cat? No. 

One of his paintings. The portrait of Betty Hanscomb. 

She tells him about B. Hanscomb the butler, who might have been a relative of Betty’s.

Sam says he and his wife didn’t mix that much with the natives—and he even less after her death. 

He’s from Connecticut, you see. 

He’s sorry he hasn’t been able to make her feel more at home.

He’s had a lot on his mind lately.

He gets the portrait out. 

She says she loves it, and he gives it to her.

Liz tells Roger that Vicki was asking Garner & Garner about Betty Hanscomb. 

Roger doesn’t know who that is. 

She reminds him that Hanscomb was the butler for years. 

Betty was his daughter or niece.

Vicki returns home with her treasure.

Following Liz’s lead, Roger agrees that the portrait looks nothing like her. 

Carolyn comes in, icy.

She melts when she sees the portrait, asking when Vicki had it done. 

“It looks exactly like you!”

               Cast, In Order of Appearance

Victoria Winters . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alexandra Moltke

Roger Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Louis Edmonds

Carolyn Stoddard . . . . . . . . . . . .  Nancy Barrett

Elizabeth Collins Stoddard . . . . . Joan Bennett

Sam Evans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . David Ford

Fashion by Ohrbach’s

Directed by Lela Swift

Written by Francis Swann