Chapter 1 #2
As the nearest apothecary was in Hatfield while the closest physician was in St Albans, Mr Jones’s arrival was heralded by all of the residents of the market town and surrounding area, and in a short amount of time his practice grew apace.
When those in Hatfield required a physician, Mr Jones was called since Meryton was considerably closer than St Albans.
As well as being one of his first patients, Bennet struck up a friendship with the man. Jones agreed that there was no known cure for Bennet’s heart problems, and although he was not sure why, it seemed to be an inherited trait from his late father.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
A month or so after Jane turned one, Fanny felt the quickening for the second time.
Thankfully, like he had done after she began to increase with Jane, Mr Bennet had ceased importuning her as soon as she had missed her second month’s courses.
Fanny was very hopeful; in fact, she told one and all that she was sure that she was carrying the heir to Longbourn.
Bennet hoped that his wife had the right of it all the while knowing that she had no way of knowing, like she was telling everyone that she was.
So far the symptoms of the disease had not progressed, which gave him more time, except that time was with his wife living in the house.
Mr Jones was hopeful it was a good sign.
Contrary to his wife’s assertion he would have no use for a daughter, Bennet enjoyed being in Janey’s presence, and that desire increased once she began to walk a fortnight after her first birthday and was now managing to say a word here and there.
Bennet did not allow a day to go by without spending some time in the nursery with Janey, unlike his wife.
Even though Fanny would boast how beautiful Jane was, once Jane was weaned off her mother’s milk, Fanny only saw the girl when it was time to show her pretty daughter to others.
The fact that she and Sarah Lucas were friends did not stop Fanny pointing out Charlotte’s plainness as compared to her daughter.
Tragedy struck in November of 1790. Gardiner, who since Christmastide of the previous year had been a frequent caller at Longbourn, stepped out of his offices to cross the main street when he was struck by a runaway cart.
Jones pronounced him dead where he lay. Either the blow or the subsequent fall broke Mr Gardiner’s neck, and there was nothing to be done for him.
Fanny Bennet was sad her father had been taken from them, but what angered her was that Hattie’s dowry had gone to Frank Phillips and not herself, and there had been nothing else for her.
The practice and house were Phillips’s, and everything else, any funds Gardiner had at the time of his death, was left to his only son.
It seemed strange he had left nothing to Jane or any future grandchildren.
What no one—except for his son—knew was that given the wrong which had been perpetrated against Bennet, some months before he met his end, Gardiner placed more than ten thousand pounds into the investment account managed by his son, where Bennet’s money for the future of his children was kept.
The months rolled past, and Fanny increased apace.
Unlike when she carried Jane, the babe was very active, seemingly never sleeping.
This was one of the many things that Fanny decided meant that she was carrying a son and not another daughter.
By the time January 1791 arrived, Fanny could not move easily as she was significantly larger than she had been when carrying Jane; another indicator that she carried a male child.
Just after midnight on the fifth day of February, Fanny was brought to bed with her labours.
Mr Jones was standing by in her husband’s study, just in case his services were needed.
The midwife told her to push twenty hours later a little after eight in the evening.
On the fourth big push, there was a release of the pressure and then the squalling of a seemingly very angry babe, if the cries were anything to go by.
Mrs Hill, who was assisting the midwife, did not miss that the newest Bennet had balled-up fists which she seemed to swing as she made her disapproval known.
Unlike Miss Janey, who would be two later that year, the newest Bennet had a darker complexion and wavy raven locks. Her eyes were dark blue, as all babes’ eyes were.
While the midwife delivered the afterbirth, Mrs Hill cleaned and swaddled the babe, which seemed to calm the newly born girl.
As soon as Fanny was changed and sat back down onto a freshly made bed with newly cleaned sheets, she extended her arms. “Let me see my son,” she demanded excitedly.
“Mrs Bennet, this babe is not a son; she is a second daughter,” Mrs Hill said calmly.
“No!” Fanny screeched. “You are wrong! I know it is a boy.”
Before Mrs Bennet could pull the mite roughly out of the housekeeper’s hands, Mrs Hill exposed that part of the girl.
“WHAT A DISOBEDIENT, WILFUL CHILD!” Fanny screamed. “Take it away from me; send it out to the cottages. I want nothing to do with it! It was sent by the devil to punish me!”
The caterwauling was heard by Bennet and Jones in the study. Both men made their way upstairs to see what all the yelling was about.
They found a distraught Mrs Hill in the hallway outside of the birthing chamber, looking like her equanimity had been greatly upset, with the new babe in her arms. She very quickly related what had occurred and how Mrs Bennet had reacted.
Bennet threw the door open, and it slammed against the wall. The bang had the desired effect on his wife. She closed her mouth; her eyes flew wide with shock. He knew he needed to use her selfishness against her to make her comply.
“Mrs Bennet, one more word about Elizabeth Rose being sent away from this house, and you will be sent to the cottage in the worst state of repairs!” Seeing the babe’s colouring was very much like his mother’s, Bennet decided she would be given his late mother’s names.
His mother was called Beth by all who knew her; hence, he would call this babe Lizzy.
“Now, listen to me and listen well. You will feed Lizzy as she should be fed. I will employ an additional nurse to watch over her. If you so much as look at her the wrong way, never mind do anything to harm her, you will be out of this house with immediacy.” Bennet paused as he allowed his words to sink in.
“I suppose I can report you to Mr Pierce for blasphemy if you prefer.”
“How did I blaspheme?” Fanny demanded.
“As has been explained to you before, it is God who chuses whether you will be granted a babe and what the sex of that babe will be. In accusing Lizzy of refusing to be born a son, you are questioning the Will of God. I think you will find that the Church of England takes a rather dim view of that, not to mention what our neighbours will say when they hear what you have said,” Bennet threatened.
His words had the effect he had hoped they would.
His wife lost all of her colour, and her pallor got decidedly white.
“Remember, one word about our daughter chusing to be born a girl, or any of the other nonsense you were babbling, and I will involve Mr Pierce.”
Fanny understood enough to know that she would be an outcast if her husband made good on his threat, and she had no reason to believe that he would not.
She admitted to herself that her fear of the entail caused her to say things about her newest daughter that she should not have said.
“I will be a good mother to Elizabeth,” she promised resignedly.
As much as he did not trust his wife, Bennet knew that as he had planned, her innate selfishness would not allow her to do anything to Lizzy which would affect her life negatively. Satisfied that she would comply, Bennet left the chamber.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“I hab a sister?” Jane asked Bennet in the nursery the next morning.
“Yes, Janey, dear. You have a sister, and her name is Elizabeth Rose, but we will call her Lizzy,” Bennet replied.
“I pway with Izzy?” Jane enquired excitedly.
“Lizzy is a small babe now. Like you after you were born, she needs to grow until she is a little older, and then I am sure she will want to play with you all the time. You will be a good big sister and look after Lizzy, will you not?” Bennet responded.
“Yes, Papa,” Jane insisted. “I wook after Wizzy.”
“You are a good girl, Janey.” Bennet pulled his eldest into a hug.
‘I hate that I will not be here to see what wonderful ladies my girls grow into, but that is why I made Gardiner the guardian of any of my children at the time of my death, or any born to my wife in the months after I leave the mortal world,’ Bennet thought as he watched his darling girl return to play on the floor while Nurse watched her indulgently.
‘This is why I had resolved not to marry. All I can do is make as many provisions for their futures as I can for as long as God allows me to remain alive.’
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Fanny demanded that Mr Bennet come to her even before she was churched, as she was determined to birth a son.
Hoping she would become with child sooner than on the two previous occasions, Bennet agreed and began going to his wife about a month after Lizzy had been born. The act was the one thing the two agreed upon; they both found it distasteful.