Chapter 3
“Fanny, you are so blessed!” Hattie exclaimed.
In her more than five years of marriage, Hattie Phillips had not so much as fallen with child once.
And it was not for lack of trying. She envied Fanny greatly, twice her sister had become with child, and delivered a live babe after both of her lying-ins.
“Blessed!” Fanny hissed. “Because of this disobedient, wilful, and dark thing I still need to give Mr Bennet two more children. He requires an heir and a spare before he will cease importuning me twice a week. I am not blessed, I am cursed!”
“For which you have none but yourself to blame,” Bennet barked as he entered the birthing chamber. “Remember, I am not the one who desired this union. It was forced upon me by you and your late mother. Do you need me to remind you what will occur if you keep spewing that nonsense?”
Fanny looked away and shook her head petulantly.
“As you intimated that my new daughter somehow disobeyed you in choosing her sex, I will report that to Mr Pierce. Let us see what he thinks of a parishioner questioning the will of God,” Bennet threatened.
He saw the fear on his wife’s face. She was not so unintelligent to know how she would be ostracised if word that she was questioning His plan was spread around the community.
“In that case, never allow me, or any other in this house, to hear that claptrap again. You will feed this daughter like you did Jane, and Mrs Bennet…”
She looked at her husband with resentment pouring off her in waves. “What, Mr Bennet?” Fanny enquired.
“If you dare harm my daughter in any way when she is in your company, I will revisit it on your head ten times over, and then I will have you arrested and begin my petition to divorce you. Do I make myself clear?” Bennet demanded.
Other than a tight nod, Fanny said nothing.
Bennet looked at his newest daughter being held by her aunt.
She had his mother’s colouring. He hoped that as she got older she would also have the same emerald-green coloured eyes like his late mother.
“Her name is Elizabeth Rose, after my mother, who I believe she will look like when she gets older. I will call her Lizzy, and not Beth like my mother was addressed by my late father.” He left the room.
Hattie Phillips was wide eyed at witnessing the fight between her sister and brother-in-law.
She was not very intelligent, but she was fully aware that what her late mother and Fanny had done to entrap Mr Bennet was not right.
Frank had told her how their actions had cost Mr Bennet the woman he loved, so she could understand the level of resentment he showed towards Fanny.
She loved her younger sister, but she also knew that Fanny was not a very good person and had been driven by selfishness and a desire that no one but she would be the mistress of Longbourn.
She had found out the hard way that she did not always get her own way.
How could Fanny not see the birth of a second child, regardless of sex, as anything but a blessing?
If He ever granted her a child, Hattie would love it with everything that she was, regardless of sex or looks.
In addition to being selfish, Fanny was extremely vain.
No one was considered pretty unless they looked like her.
As much as she disliked Fanny’s character, Hattie would continue to come see her, and like she had for a second time, support her during her lying-ins. Her sister was not aware, but it was not her company Hattie sought.
If she could not have her own children, then, she would pour her maternal love into Fanny’s.
The babe in Hattie’s arms began to squirm, and then she let out an indignant cry. She handed the mite, Lizzy, to Fanny to be fed. It was not hard to see that Fanny did not want to feed her daughter, but thankfully her husband’s threats forced her to comply.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
By early July 1792, Fanny was once again heavy with child, and as she had before each time she had been enceinte, she was certain she carried a son.
Her father had passed onto his final reward earlier on that year, and as she blamed him for signing the terrible wedding settlement with which she had been saddled: in protest, Fanny refused to mourn her father.
Bennet, who was sitting at his desk in the study, also very much hoped for a son.
If He blessed them with one son, it would be enough for Bennet to cease his distasteful duty of begetting an heir with the woman he could not stand to see, never mind be in her company.
One of the advantages of her being with child was that more often than not she had trays in her bedchamber, meaning it would be days in-between each time he had to see her.
With the letter he had received that day, had he seen her, he was not sure how he would have reacted. He picked up the letter and punished himself by reading the words again.
3 July 1792
Holly Run
Near Truro
Cornwall
Bennet:
I am certain this news will pain you, but I felt that I could not keep it from you, just in case you hold out hope of escaping your unwanted marriage and seeking Melissa out.
It took my daughter more than 5 years to move past her love for you which was keeping her from considering any man as a husband. She was well aware that she was welcome to remain with us for as many years as she wanted and that there was no imperative to marry.
By the beginning of this year, she was finally able to move past her broken heart. A man, who has a well-cared for estate some distance from this one had been paying her attention for more than 2 years.
He understood the reason for her not being interested in any man and was very patient. His forbearance was rewarded in March of this year when Melissa accepted his proposals.
They were married on the final day of June. Melissa is aware I intended to write to you and inform you she is married. She asked me to tell you that she will never forget you, and you will always occupy a corner of her heart. She had to move on as she too wants to be a mother one day.
We all wish things had been different, but it was not to be thanks to the despicable actions of Mrs Jane Gardiner and her youngest daughter.
At Melissa’s request, I have not added her husband’s name or that of his estate. Please do not attempt to correspond with her as it would be too painful for her to reopen a wound she took so long to close.
With regards from all in the Morris family,
Morris
A second reading did not make the words hurt any less.
As much as he hated to know that Melissa was married to a man who was not himself, Bennet knew he could not be selfish and expect that she would remain single for the rest of her days on the off chance that he would be free of the millstone which hung around his neck in the form of the wife who had been forced on him.
It made him feel like he had lost her all over again. Rather than dwell on what he had lost, Bennet thought of the positives in his life, the biggest of which were his two daughters.
At three, Janey was a delightful, inquisitive little girl.
Yes, she was very pretty and in some ways resembled her mother, but that was where any similarities ended.
Bennet had made sure that his wife would not turn Janey into a miniature of herself, filling her head with nonsense about beauty being the only true thing of value.
Before his first daughter turned two, Bennet, hoping that she had learnt her lesson from a year ago, had relaxed his rules and allowed Fanny to spend some time with Jane. To be sure she would follow his directions, he had stood just outside of the parlour where mother and daughter were.
As soon as his wife thought she was unobserved, she started to try and teach Janey her warped philosophy.
He had entered the room and handed his daughter to Nurse and told his wife it was the last time she would ever be alone with any of his children.
She had wailed, claimed flutterings, palpitations, and spasms—all part of an attack of so-called nerves.
Bennet had been unmoved, and since that day, she had never been on her own with either of his daughters.
Time with their uncles and aunt had no restrictions. Bennet knew that although Hattie had some aspects of her younger sister’s character, she was not vicious, and she genuinely loved her nieces. He felt sorry for her and Phillips that she had never been able to conceive.
As silly as Hattie could be, she was very good to Janey and Lizzy, and Bennet was sure the same would be true of the next Bennet born as well. As she could not direct her maternal love at her own children, it was all directed at his daughters.
After her speech when Lizzy was born, Bennet had employed a second nursemaid.
Hence, one of them was always present when Mrs Bennet fed his second daughter.
At eleven months of age, she was weaned off her mother’s milk, and since then, neither girl had been in Mrs Bennet’s exclusive company.
Much to his delight, before she reached the age of six months, Lizzy’s eyes became the same shade of emerald-green her late namesake’s had been.
Where Janey had begun to walk after she was one, Lizzy was walking before she was a year old. In talking, Lizzy was about three months ahead of when Janey first spoke.
They were both very young yet, but Bennet believed they would be the best of friends. Even now, they were happiest when in each other’s company.
A clear indicator that neither of his daughters were anything like their mother in character was the fact that they loved when they were being read to. Bennet read to them as much as he could, and when he was unable, one of the nurses did the honours.