Prologue #2
“My question was because you are questioning the will of God. It is He, and only Him who determines the sex of a babe. Not you, not the babe, nor anyone else.” Bennet turned to Mrs Hill, who was holding the child, and opened the swaddling, revealing his daughter’s head.
“She does not have your colouring, but she does have that of my late mother’s.
I will name her Elizabeth Rose like my mother, and as Mother used to be called Beth, our daughter will be Lizzy. ”
“Then why is God so cruel to us? Does He want me to be thrown into the hedgerows when you are cold in your grave? As she represents His punishment, I still want her sent out to the cottages.”
“Yet, it will not occur. You will feed her like you fed Jane. If you do not look after Lizzy as she should be, then you, Mrs Bennet, will be the one who finds herself in a cottage without any more allowance.” Bennet saw his wife was about to protest. “Do not test me in this, Mrs Bennet; you will not enjoy the results.”
“How you like to vex me,” Fanny claimed. However, the threat of a cottage and no pin money made her reach out and take her daughter from Mrs Hill. Fanny placed her at her breast. “You care not for me. I should have never wasted myself on you.”
“In that, we are in agreement, Mrs Bennet. Do not forget; I always showed you who I was. You, however, did what you could to mislead me about who you truly are.”
Fanny said nothing other than giving a loud sniff and looked away. She could not wait for Lizzy, as her husband called her, to be sated.
Outside of the birthing chamber, Jane had heard the whole of the exchange. Although she could not understand everything, she did get that Mama and Papa did not like one another. It was the first time she had heard them argue, and it caused Jane to withdraw within herself a little.
Miss Johnson hurried her charge back to the nursery. If only the birthing chamber door had been closed all the way, then her tender-hearted charge would not have been able to hear every word.
Jane had never before heard an argument, and she did not like it at all.
She was too young to understand what it was all about, but she had understood that Mama and Papa were both angry.
If Mama was upset that her new sister, Papa had called her Lizzy, was a girl and not a boy, was Mama also displeased with her for not being born a boy?
Miss Johnson noted that from that day on, Jane was a lot less boisterous than she used to be.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
September 1796
At the age of eight, Jane was a very proper little girl.
Mama was with child again and would soon, according to her, deliver a son.
Jane had become very close to Lizzy, and since her younger sister’s birth, another sister, Mary, was born in August 1793.
After Mary came Catherine, called Kitty, who joined the family two days before the end of February 1795.
Each time, Mama had insisted that the son she so wanted would be born, and instead, it was another sister.
With the birth of each subsequent daughter, the arguments between Mama and Papa, which started after Lizzy’s birth, became more frequent.
Although she could not understand what they were arguing about, Jane could tell that there was acrimony between her parents.
As a result, Mama often complained about a nervous condition which led to palpitations, shuddering, and flutterings of her heart. More and more, the cry of “Hill, my salts,” was heard reverberating in Longbourn’s manor house.
Papa’s reaction had been to sequester himself in his study with his books and port.
The only one he tolerated in his study was Lizzy, who at five was already reading.
Jane was sure that Mama liked herself because she looked like Mama; Papa liked Lizzy because she looked like their late Grandmama Beth, right down to her emerald-green eye colour.
Jane’s response to the constant friction between her parents was to see everyone as good and that everyone was right.
If there was an argument, Jane tried to leave the room or block the words out by thinking of how she would like things to be.
She had become a very serene young girl who did not show her emotions.
Even though the first fight she had witnessed had been over Lizzy’s birth and her sex, Jane never blamed her sister for the conflict between her parents. How could she ascribe any responsibility to Lizzy when she loved her next younger sister so very dearly?
Lizzy was fearless and had an adventurous spirit, so it was not only in looks that they were so completely opposite, but in her character as well.
Where Jane hated to get a speck of dirt on her dress, Lizzy was never happier than when covered head to foot in mud.
Not only that, Lizzy also loved to play with the boys in the neighbourhood.
Mama called her a hoyden, and Papa encouraged her.
While Jane was very careful about what she said, and she would never say anything even slightly contentious, Lizzy would say what was on her mind without a worry.
Jane supposed that as Lizzy was only five, that would change as she got older.
Of course, Jane loved her younger sisters, Mary and Kitty, as well.
Strangely enough, Mama had never been angry with them for being born girls like she had been at Lizzy.
They both had light brown hair with light blue, almost grey-coloured, eyes.
Mary would be three later that year, and Kitty had turned one in February past.
One thing Jane felt bad about was the way that Mama gave all of her attention to herself to the exclusion of her sisters.
Lizzy had Papa, but Mary and Kitty garnered no parental interest. Jane did not like to think about this too much, as it did not fit with her developing personal philosophy that everyone was good.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Fanny was far larger than she had been for any of the four previous times she had been with child. Not only did she believe that she would deliver the much-needed son, but she was also convinced her size meant she was carrying two sons, not just one.
Both her sister and sister-in-law were on hand to attend to her.
Even though Hattie had not been blessed with children, she was allowed to be present as she was married.
Madeline Gardiner, née Lambert, had been married to Edward for almost a year and so far had not fallen in the family way.
But she was a calming influence and helped greatly.
Just after midday on the fourteenth day of September, another daughter came into the world. Due to her being so large, damage was wrought to her mother’s body as the babe was born, which led to much more bleeding than normal.
Because of Mrs Bennet’s size, Mrs Brown had requested that Mr Jones, the local physician and apothecary in one, be present when Mrs Bennet began her lying-in.
Thankfully, the lady had lost consciousness soon after the enormous daughter had been delivered.
Hence, she was not awake while the man worked to save her life.
It was close, but Mr Jones was able to repair most of the damage and eventually stem the flow of blood.
Once he had cleaned himself, Mr Jones knocked on the study door where Mr Bennet was being kept company by his two brothers-in-law.
When he was summoned to enter, Jones looked at Mr Bennet.
“You have another daughter. You have my congratulations. However, I need to discuss something with you regarding your wife’s delivery.
” He saw the looks on the faces of the three men. “She lives, but…”
“Jones, Phillips is my solicitor. I have no secrets from either him or Gardiner, so you may speak freely,” Bennet allowed.
“Your daughter was almost twice the size of her previous sisters. She is hale and healthy, but I am afraid your wife will not be able to deliver another child. If she again becomes with child, the birthing process will kill her,” Jones reported.
“So, I will never have a son,” Bennet realised stoically.
“Not unless it is with another,” Jones confirmed. “I do believe that other than her ability to bear children, Mrs Bennet will make a full recovery.” He paused. “For the next few days, I will check on her daily, but I believe that your wife and sister will make a full recovery.”
Bennet thanked Jones and paid him. He would be the last Bennet to be the master of Longbourn.
The girl was named Lydia after Fanny’s grandmother Gardiner.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Over the years, Jane adopted a mask of serenity, refusing to acknowledge anything that might cause discomfort in her world.
She and Lydia—who was very much like their mother in both looks and character—were always treated better by that lady.
Unlike Lydia, Jane was not overindulged and was not wild like the youngest Bennet.
Lizzy became more impertinent and intelligent.
Due to that last trait, their father educated her like he would a son.
The truth was she was far more intelligent than most males and had an equivalent education to what those who attended Oxford and Cambridge would receive.
She still climbed the occasional tree and loved walking out over the estate, especially to Oakham Mount, but since she had turned ten, she no longer partook in the boys’ games.
The boys were pleased, not because they did not like Lizzy, but because she most often bested them.
Mary, as the middle child, was on her own, so she turned to Fordyce’s sermons and the pianoforte for fulfilment.
She was no less pretty than her other sisters, but their mother was always telling Lizzy, Mary, and Kitty that they were nothing to Jane and Lydia, and it hit Mary especially hard.
Because of that, she began to have her hair done in a tight bun, wore severe dresses which covered everything up to her neck, and in addition, she took to wearing spectacles she did not need.
To try and gain some of the approbation that their mother bestowed on Lydia, Kitty decided to follow her younger and far more forceful sister in all things. It did not earn her much attention from Mama, but Kitty imagined it did.
Bennet called the three youngest daughters the silliest in all of England, without ever taking the trouble to get to know any of them.
He did stir himself to take care of his estate from time to time, but not nearly as much as he should have.
It was one of the reasons he had educated Lizzy as a son.
She fulfilled most of the tasks needed to manage the estate; he just signed when she asked him to.
He would not trouble himself unless there was no choice, and that included when Fanny put Jane out at fifteen.
Jane had begged, and Lizzy had asked him on her sister’s behalf to not allow their mother to push Jane out into local society.
Bennet had chosen to leave matters be and not have another confrontation with his wife.
When each of her daughters reached fifteen, Fanny pushed them out, including Lydia in September 1811, although that girl complained not at all.
Although Fanny never spoke of blaming Lizzy for being a girl, she was unkind to her second daughter. Thankfully, for the most part, Lizzy let her mother’s criticism roll off her back, and, whenever she needed to, retreated to Papa’s study.
Fanny had pushed Jane at every man since she was fifteen because everyone knew she could not be so beautiful for no reason, and other than some verses of poetry, Jane had not received an offer.
Fanny could not believe that Jane at three and twenty was following Miss Charlotte Lucas, who was six and twenty, into spinsterhood.
According to Fanny, the latter was very plain.
She was the daughter of Sir William and Lady Lucas.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
By the time one Charles Bingley occupied Netherfield Park, starting in mid-September 1811, the dynamics in the Bennet family had not changed very much, if at all.
When Hattie Phillips told her younger sister about the rich, single, and wealthy man from the north, Fanny had immediately claimed him for Jane because a single man of wealth must be in need of a wife.
Things had not gone according to plan. By January 1812, Jane was in London with the Gardiners attempting to contact Mr Bingley; Lizzy had refused Mr Collins, the heir presumptive of Longbourn, and that conniving Miss Lucas had married him.