Saving Jane (A Variation on Pride and Prejudice)
Chapter 1. Mrs Bennet’s Distress
As the young ladies and gentlemen of Meryton danced to a pleasant tune, the matrons watched the festivities from chairs along the wall, some distance from the dancing.
Uncharacteristically quiet as the evening progressed, Mrs Francis Bennet was flanked by Lady Lucas and Mrs Goulding.
Her friends noted the lady’s unusual behaviour during the evening’s entertainment and after the wonder of Mrs Bennet’s silence was considered, they determined to speak of it.
“Do you not think the assembly is a success, Mrs Bennet?” asked Lady Lucas.
“It certainly is well attended,” replied Mrs Goulding. “All of four and twenty families from the neighbourhood are here as well as the tradesmen from the villages.”
“Yes, Lady Lucas the assembly is well done,” Mrs Bennet finally replied. “I see every young man and woman in this quarter of Hertfordshire on the dance floor–with all the extra girls standing along the far wall.”
The three ladies glanced over the floor and noticed that three of Mrs Bennet’s daughters stood with Lady Lucas’s two daughters without dance partners. Only Kitty and Lydia were dancing this set, and they were both with young men who worked in the shops of Meryton.
“Perhaps it would have been better to keep the younger girls at home until we married off the elder ones,” Lady Lucas mentioned to her friend. “Then our daughters would not be wall flowers.”
“I fear it does not signify,” Mrs Bennet sighed as she shivered hearing the terrible term. “What suitable young men are available? Your John is only twenty years–too young to take a wife and fill your home with grandchildren while you still have children at home.”
“And my Henry is well-married,” Mrs Goulding inserted into the conversation.
“I have five daughters and must find husbands for them. Longbourn is lost to them by the entailment.” Mrs Bennet frowned before she added, “But I am determined my daughters will have good matches.”
Lady Lucas and Mrs Goulding exchanged glances behind Mrs Bennet’s back–Mrs Goulding had a spinster sister who lived with them, and Lady Lucas despaired of her eldest daughter, Charlotte, ever finding a husband.
~~}{~~
“Mamma, whatever is the matter?” asked Elizabeth during the ride home to Longbourn. “You are too quiet. Do you feel yourself?”
Mrs Bennet sighed, “My mind is confused this evening. How can there be an assembly where all the eligible men attend and there is no one suitable for my girls.”
“But Mamma, Kitty and I had a frightfully good time!” Lydia said before she yawned. “I danced every set with some handsome young man.”
“And we laughed and sang,” Kitty added.
Elizabeth noted that something bothered Jane, but her eldest sister remained quiet.
The third of the five sisters, Mary, who danced with no one at the assembly, turned her head and looked out the window.
She had spoken to John Lucas at length about his father’s tenants and plans for a hunting party, but he had not asked her to dance.
Jane squeezed Mary’s hand and whispered, “I believe if you allow Lizzy and me to style your hair and change your dress, Mr Lucas will notice you and ask you to dance.”
“Mamma, why do we need to worry about eligible young men?” Kitty asked. “Papa says we are too young to marry.”
“You must all marry and marry well,” Mrs Bennet told her daughters. “Do you want to be wives of shopkeepers or farmers? We must find gentlemen who have fortunes for each of you!”
“Mamma, I don’t want to marry for money,” Elizabeth said.
Mrs Bennet was flanked by Lydia and Kitty with her three eldest daughters sitting across from her.
She caught their eyes and held them, “I hope you can have love in your marriage–each of you–but you can love a husband who offers security and money easier than you can love a poor man who makes you work in his shop or in his fields.”
“Mamma!” Jane exclaimed. “No one has to marry today! Papa is well and Longbourn is secure.”
“If I had been able to bear a son, Longbourn would be secure. But I failed and Longbourn is only a temporary refuge for you.”
Shaken by their mother’s words, the three oldest Bennet sisters did not speak again until they were home.
When Mr Hill opened the portal, Mr Bennet met them at the door, and he was surprised at the sombre crowd.
His usually exuberant wife was reticent, the two youngest daughters were sleepy, and the three eldest girls were sad.
“Here, here now,” he said as his ladies returned to their home. “What is this quiet crowd? Did you all dance so long that you are exhausted?”
“Kitty and Lydia danced every set Papa,” Elizabeth told her father.
“But Jane only danced once and Lizzy and Mary were not asked to dance at all,” Mrs Bennet told her husband.
“Were the young men in attendance insufficient?”
“There were no suitable young men in attendance, Mr Bennet,” his wife replied.
“My dear, do not worry about marriages for our girls,” Mr Bennet said taking his wife’s hand. “Some young men will come along, and you can arrange the pairings as you wish then.”
He turned to his daughters; while Jane, Elizabeth and Mary waited to be dismissed, Kitty and Lydia were already heading up the stairs to their room. “Let us retire. I have a horse I want to take to the blacksmith for new shoes tomorrow morning.”
~~}{~~
As they prepared for bed, Elizabeth and Jane discussed their mother’s concerns and their father’s attitude.
“You are our father’s favourite, Lizzy,” Jane said. “Has he ever mentioned our futures?”
“He has not Jane. I work with him on the accounts and Longbourn is prosperous though there are improvements to several farms we could make and increase the income. But father uses the rents to buy Mamma new gowns and to pay for oats for his horses.”
“Papa is the only one who rides,” Jane conceded. “We walk everywhere.”
“But what do you think Mamma meant about ‘marrying well’?” asked Elizabeth. “Is it not important to marry for love?”
Jane was silent for a long moment but then she came and sat on the bed beside Elizabeth and answered her sister.
“I am almost two and twenty and even though Mamma says that I am the loveliest girl in three counties, I have never had an offer of marriage. Our dowries are nothing to attract suitors. I believe we must consider marriage for security and then create love within that security.”
“Oh Jane, no!” cried Elizabeth. “An arranged marriage?”
“Elizabeth do not carry on so,” Jane said. “I am saying that I must consider such a thing. I do not want to end up on the shelf like Charlotte Lucas.”
“One of us must marry well–to secure the future for our sisters and Mamma when Papa passes away. As the eldest, it is my responsibility.”
Elizabeth frowned and considered her next words carefully. “I shall do everything I can to assist you. Perhaps I can find a suitable husband too.”
~~}{~~
As the family gathered in the dining room to break their fast late the next morning, Mr Bennet was buried in his newspaper and Mrs Bennet was again distracted with the lack of suitable men in the neighbourhood for her daughters.
“Lydia, eat something. You have not eaten any morning this week.”
“I am not hungry in the morning Mamma,” her youngest daughter replied. “My stomach always feels as though I drank too much punch at the assembly.”
“It was a fine gathering last evening,” Jane said to change the subject. “I think everyone had an enjoyable time.”
“Papa, did Mr Taylor shoe your horse this morning?”
“Yes, Lizzy. My mare has new shoes, and I shall ride her to the fox hunt at Lucas Lodge next week. Sir William and young John have found the den of foxes that are raiding the hen coops, and we shall deal with them.”
“John Lucas is a fine young man,” Mrs Bennet said, glancing over her daughters. Lydia and Kitty both rolled their eyes at their mother’s comment, but Mary blushed and looked down at her plate.
“Mary, I believe you and I shall go to Meryton today. There is some pretty blue material at one shop that may complement your complexion very well.”
“Mamma, I want a new gown!” Lydia complained. “I need one because I am growing so tall!”
“If you need a new gown, we can take one of Jane’s and re-work it for you,” Mrs Bennet replied. “It is time for Mary to have the new gown.”
“Lizzy, when you finish your tea, come to my study,” Mr Bennet said. “I have several things to decide for the farms and I need you to write out the orders.”
“Yes Papa,” Elizabeth replied.
~~}{~~
“And I want another delivery of oats before November,” Mr Bennet told his daughter. “Ned Johnson had a good harvest–he’ll have ample feed to sell.”
“Yes Papa,” Elizabeth replied making the notation in her journal.
“The tenant families have done well this autumn–your idea of goats for milk at each farm has worked well.”
“The children have milk, and the goats do not eat as much as cows,” Elizabeth replied. “I think our dairyman fears we will do away with some of the cows now.”
Mr Bennet shook his head. “He and his wife can make more butter and cheese–we shall all eat well this winter and have some butter and cheese to sell.”
Elizabeth nodded. “I have thought we could provide some cheese to our tenants as well.”
Mr Bennet smiled, “Always thinking of the tenants Lizzy? Longbourn has a good name among the tenants in the county already. Sir William is too tight fisted with his tenants–several of them have roofs that leak.”
“Mary spoke to Mr Lucas about the roofs last night. He promised to look into the situation today,” Elizabeth told her father.
His eyebrows rising, Thomas Bennet looked at his dependable daughter with surprise. “Mary?”
“Yes, Mary spoke to Mr Lucas last night.”
“But he did not ask her to dance?”
“No.”
“Does your mother know this?”
Elizabeth shrugged and Mr Bennet grinned. “I had thought Mr Lucas might do for you Lizzy. It would be nice to keep you close by.”
“Mamma knows that Mary has a high regard for Mr Lucas,” Elizabeth informed her father.