Chapter 12 #2
“Fanny, you are teaching her to flirt; never mind that she is only eight. By the time she is old enough, her head will be full of nonsense, and she will have no way to protect herself. Men will see her as a trollop, a lightskirt and will not take no for an answer. Surely you know not all men are honourable, which is part of the reason for the rules of propriety.”
As an image of her daughters becoming unmarriageable took root in her mind, Fanny began to question her ways and wondered if her husband did not have the right of it.
She admitted that she had never taken the time to learn the ways of the gentry and that what her mother had taught her may not work as it had for her when she caught Thomas.
Bennet sat in silence as he watched his wife cogitate.
He had couched things in the terms he had on purpose.
If there was one way to get through to his wife, it was raising the spectre of her daughters being ruined.
Now, he needed to allow her the time to arrive at the correct conclusion on her own.
There was no missing the vast range of emotions which played across her face. Still, Bennet did not say anything.
“Will not men be put off by an educated girl?” Fanny asked after she had chewed over her husband’s words for some minutes.
“No, Fanny, they will not. A gentleman, especially a landed one, seeks a woman who is educated and accomplished. I am afraid that gossip and flirting are not considered accomplishments. You, Fanny, as I am sure you are aware, know not how to be a proper mistress of an estate.” Bennert raised his hand to stem the forming complaint.
“For this, I am to blame. Rather than insist you learn all of the duties of the mistress, I left you to your own devices. I will not compound that error with our daughters.”
“Lydia will not be pleased,” Fanny opined after a few moments.
“She will not. However, do not forget that we are the parents and she is but a girl of eight. I am sure she will test us, but as soon as she sees that she is not able to sow discord between us, she will have no choice but to comply or be locked in the nursery for an extended amount of time.” Bennet paused as he allowed time for his words to be assimilated.
“The aim will not be to break her spirit but redirect her energy to positive things.”
“What of Kitty…Catherine?” Fanny enquired.
“Catherine, as I am sure you know, is a follower. It is why I believe redirecting her behaviour will be considerably easier.” Bennet stood and came around the desk. He sat in the chair next to his wife and took one of her hands. “If we stand together in this, we are guaranteed to succeed.”
Fanny’s eyes dropped to the floor. “What about me? I know my behaviour is not that of a gently born woman,” she stated softly.
“I asked Gardiner and Maddie…” Bennet related what his request to the Gardiners had been.
“If you want, and it will be done in private, either lady—if we find both—will be more than able to help you learn the ways of a gentlewoman and all the duties of the mistress of an estate. The younger Mrs Hurst, from what I understand, is well versed in the duties you need to learn. I am sure, when she is not with her new son, she will be willing to help you learn what is expected beyond being a hostess.”
“Will she not think me silly that I do not know the duties?” Fanny worried.
“Like you, she was not born to the gentry. Her late father and the rest of her family were all in trade. That is why I think she would be able to relate to you better than many others would.”
“If she is willing to teach me, I would be open to learning from her,” Fanny decided. “The same with the governess and companion you employ.”
Bennet remembered the first time he had met the younger Hurst and the man’s comments about telling Fanny about the provisions he was making to secure his family’s future.
“I must apologise to you for not putting your worries about the future to rest. You have heard me say that the future is secure, have you not?” Bennet saw his wife nod.
“But I never told you how. Before I proceed, I must entreat you to not repeat what I am about to tell you to another without my permission, and that especially includes your sister. Can you make that promise to me?”
“I can and I do. I will not repeat anything you tell me now,” Fanny vowed.
“Some years ago…” As Bennet spoke of their true financial position and dowries he was building for the girls, he did not miss the way his wife’s mouth fell further and further open.
“I have had a dower house built, but not on Longbourn’s land, rather on the land I purchased from Morris, the land the first Collins lost, which was the genesis of the entail. ”
“And none of this you are telling me about is subject to the entail?” Fanny asked wondrously. She felt the sword of Damocles hanging over her, and any unmarried daughters’ futures, lift and disappear.
“None of it. The entail only entitles the heir to the land as mapped out in the document. I have not annexed the additional land to this estate, so the heir presumptive cannot argue that it is his for that reason. The document is unambiguous in this. The new master is not entitled to any money earned by the previous master, other than one quarter’s income,” Bennet explained.
“As such, he would have no way to claim the girls’ dowries or any other funds I have at the time God calls me home. ”
“You truly are a good man, and I have been a shrill shrew,” Fanny said, her eyes downcast again.
“I could have relieved you of your worries years ago, but I was enjoying being amused instead. The behaviour of both of us, if examined, is not above reproach. As my mother used to say: learn from the past, but then only remember it as that remembrance gives you pleasure. It is advice we both need to follow.” Bennet paused for a moment to cogitate.
“Fanny, will you join me when I address our girls?”
“Yes, Thomas, I most certainly will,” Fanny insisted.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“No! I will not take lessons with a governess; Mamma told me all I need is to be…” Lydia stared at her mother with wide eyes after the latter had slapped her cheek.
“Unless you want to be locked in the nursery until the new governess is chosen and employed, you, Lydia Hattie Bennet, will not speak to your father or me in that fashion. Do you understand me?” Fanny demanded.
“I blame myself for indulging you in ways I never should have, but that stops right now.”
Her mother had not slapped her hard, but the shock that she had slapped her was far more powerful than the strength of the blow.
Lydia could not fathom how it was that the mother who would never deny her anything she wanted, even if said thing belonged to one of her sisters, was telling her she would have to take lessons from some stuffy old governess.
All Lydia could hope was that Mamma would come to her senses soon, and things would go back to normal. “I understand,” Lydia hissed.
The three eldest Bennet sisters looked on in wonder. They thought they must be dreaming to see the day when Mamma was willing to discipline Lydia. They had long hoped for this day but had never felt they could articulate that to either parent.
For her part, the second youngest Bennet did not know what to think. If Mamma no longer liked the way Lyddie behaved, did that mean she did not have to follow her youngest sister to gain Mamma’s approbation? Perhaps it was time to look to her three older sisters as examples.
“Come, Kitty, let us go play,” Lydia insisted as she stood.
“No, Lydia, I will remain here until I hear everything Mamma and Papa have to say,” Catherine responded.
Lydia was about to come pull Kitty up when her father’s words froze her.
“Firstly, I have not given you leave to depart this room, so sit down, Lydia!” Bennet commanded. “Also, forthwith your next older sister is to be called Catherine, as she was named. No more Kitty. Before you claim it is what your mother calls her, you may ask her, but she agrees with me on this.”
After sitting, Lydia looked at her mother and saw the truth of her father’s words in Mamma’s challenging look. She crossed her arms over her chest and pouted.
By the time her parents released her and her sisters, Lydia began to worry that this change would not be transitory.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
A sennight later a list of names and their characters for possible ladies to fill the posts the Bennets were looking for was received from the Gardiners.
Two names were recommended above all others. Maddie wrote that Lady Elaine Fitzwilliam, the Countess of Matlock, could not speak well enough about the two, who happened to be sisters.
The older of the two, Mrs Alicia Annesley, had been married to a minor gentleman with an exceedingly small, unentailed estate. He had lost it all, including her dowry, before being shot for cheating at the tables, thus leaving his young widow to fend for herself.
She and her younger sister were very well educated.
The younger sister had been living with Alicia on her husband’s estate since their parents had died, because that estate had devolved to some male cousin thanks to an entail to heirs male after their father’s death.
The sister’s name was Miss Jemima Firth.
Mrs Annesley was in her mid-thirties and her sister was soon to be thirty.
Their situation dictated the need to go into service as governesses, so they did.
The sisters had always tried to find a situation where they could be together, or at the very least close to one another.
It was why the possibility of both of them being employed at Longbourn was so attractive to the Firth sisters.
They were both highly educated, and the older sister knew what was needed to be an effective mistress of an estate.
At Bennet’s request, Maddie and Gardiner escorted the sisters to Longbourn. It was not a long interview for both Fanny and Bennet to agree they wanted both ladies to work with their daughters.
The offers were made, and the sisters accepted with alacrity.