Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Humpty and Dumpty Sat on the Wall
Summer began earlier than usual the year Lizzy turned nineteen.
On a sultry May afternoon, Lydia, Kitty, Maria Lucas, Pen and Harriet Harrington, and young Billy Lucas went down to the swimming pond on the Bennet land.
Lizzy and Jane had been taught to swim many summers earlier by their father.
In addition, he taught Robbie and Tommy two summer previously; however, Lizzy’s two youngest sisters declined learning the skill, and Mary had a phobia about deep water.
On this particular day, Billy began to taunt the girls about his ability to swim better than them. In fact, he shed all but his under garments and waded into the pond.
“The water is nice. Helps cool me down,” Billy declared. When none of the girls followed him in, he boosted, “I bet none of you can swim. Only I know how. Girls must not be able to swim.”
Billy began to kick around in the water enjoying his superiority over the girls, and especially Lydia Bennet who always claimed she did everything better than the rest of them.
“I thought you were better than all of us at everything, Miss Show-off Lydia. You can’t even swim. Maria can, but she is chicken,” Billy laughed. “Girls are stupid. They cannot do even the simplest things like swimming.”
Lydia hated being shown up, so she decided to get back at Billy. She whispered to Pen, her best friend, “You can do magic with plants. Why don’t you have the plants in the water wrap around Billy’s legs and pull him under?”
“Lydia, that can be dangerous,” Pen whispered back, fearful of what might happen.
“No. You just pull him under and then let go,” Lydia prompted. “We will all laugh at him when he comes up sputtering.”
“But, Lydia, I do not have much experience with plants under the water. I do not know what they will do if I use the power on them.”
Now Pen was becoming concerned. She had never used the power against anyone else before, and she really did not know if she could control the plants under the water the same way she controlled plants above the water.
She had always been warned by her parents about misusing the power or trying something new without first testing it out to see what the results might be.
This was new to her, and she had no idea what might happen.
“No, Lydia. I don’t think I can control those plants under the water. Anything might happen,” Pen finally retorted.
“Come on, Pen. We are only having a little fun. What could go wrong?” Lydia’s prompting was stronger now, and she laughed to show she was not concerned or fearful.
“No,” Pen responded.
“What, are you a coward? Or do you not really have magic like you keep telling me,” Lydia sneered.
Lydia knew how to get others to do what she wanted.
All she had to do was keep pushing them and voicing her doubts about their abilities.
That was how she got Pen to make the apple tree shake down the apples last autumn What Lydia forgot was how sick she became from eating too many apples and some of them still green.
“Go on,” Lydia goaded, giving Pen’s shoulder a little shove. She knew a little pressure would ensure that Pen would carry through with the mischief she wanted to incite. “Prove you can control plants with magic.”
Pen should have remembered proving her ability to Lydia a number of times over the past year, but Lydia’s constant taunts caused Pen to manipulate the plants so that they did wrap round Billy’s legs. Unfortunately, she did not have the control she thought she would have.
Maria noticed immediately that her brother was in trouble.
“Kitty, he cannot stay above the surface of the water,” Maria cried, clutching Kitty’s arm. “Look, he is not able to breath. He cannot keep his head up.”
Kitty stood petrified, not knowing what to do, while she allowed Maria to keep a death grip on her arm.
“Pen, what have you done?” Her older sister Harriet demanded.
“Nothing,” Pen wailed as she tried to think of a way to make the weeds in the water let go of Billy’s legs.
“Pen! Stop whatever you are doing,” Harriet yelled, and Pen began to cry.
While all the others stood panic stricken, Lydia laughed, and Billy continued to struggle to reach the surface of the water and stay up long enough to take a gulp of air.
Into this chaos Lizzy and Mary wandered. They were returning from visiting a tenant with a sick child, and Mary proved helpful in weakening some of the sickness that had taken hold of the child.
Seeing Billy floundering in the water, Lizzy demanded, “What is happening and why are you not helping him?”
Lydia laughed even louder as she tried to explain, “The weed . . . they have him . . . he can’t get away.” Then she shouted out to the drowning boy. “Not such a good swimmer, are you?”
It took little time for Lizzy to realize what happened.
She knew of Pen’s ability, and she knew Lydia goaded others into misusing the power.
She also knew none of those present could swim or control plants.
So, Lizzy acted in the only manner possible.
She waded into the water, knowing the water would only reach her chin, but also realizing Billy was more than a head shorter than her.
With her own ability, Lizzy reached out to the water and then the plants.
Whatever power Pen used to make the weed wrap around the boy’s legs was weak, and Lizzy was able to overpower the Pen’s efforts.
Unfortunately, by the time she reached Billy, he had stopped struggling, and Lizzy feared for his life.
Lizzy kept Billy’s head above water and brought him to shore. Gently laying him on the ground, Lizzy called, “Mary, can you help him?”
Mary quickly covered the short distance, knelt beside the boy, and laid her hand on his chest. “He has too much water in his lungs.” Looking at Lizzy, she asked, “Can you empty the water out of them?”
Lizzy closed her eyes, envisioned the power weaving around the water in Billy’s lungs, and then drew the woven net up and out through the boy’s mouth.
Mary again laid her hand on the boy’s chest, wove the power around his lungs and heart and willed it to make his lungs draw breath and his heart to beat.
Almost instantly, Billy began to cough, and Lizzy and Mary rolled the boy on his side for they saw more water coming up out of his mouth.
Mary then laid her hand on the boy’s back. After a moment, she declared, “He is breathing, and his heart seems to be beating normally.”
“Maria, Kitty,” Lizzy ordered authoritatively. “Run to Lucas Lodge. Maria, have your father bring a wagon to carry Billy home. Kitty, tell one of the servants to hasten to Mr. Jones and bring him to Lucas Lodge to attend Billy.”
The two girls, terror-stricken, moved not an inch.
“Maria, Kitty! NOW!” Lizzy yelled startling them out of their frozen stance. “RUN!” She added as loud as possible.
Timidly, Harriet asked, “Is there anything I can do to help?”
Lizzy smiled at the girl. “Take your sister home. Explain to your parents what happened. Tell them I will visit tomorrow to discuss what actions need to be taken concerning this incident.”
Harriet nodded and then grabbed her sister’s arm. Pen also seemed terrified about the event, so Harriet began to drag her sister from the area before Pen finally turned and docilely followed her sister.
Only Lydia remained with her sisters. She stood with her arms folded and wore an amused smiled. Finally, she said, “He is only pretending. He is not hurt. Can you not see his smile?”
Mary and Lizzy both stared at their sister in shock. Mary spoke first. “Lydia, he was not breathing. I know. I could not feel his chest rising and falling, and his heart was not beating.”
“He was holding his breath,” Lydia smirked displaying an ‘I know better than you’ look.
“Lydia, I do not know what is wrong with you, but Billy nearly died,” Lizzy scolded.
“You think you know everything because you have so much control of the power, but you, Lizzy Bennet, are no better than me. You played tricks on people when you were younger. Mama told me stories about your tricks,” Lydia taunted.
Lydia would not admit she had felt a moment of fear when Billy went under the water for the last time.
“Whatever Mama told you, none of it resulted in the near death of a child or even an adult. I may have played tricks, but they were not cruel and harmful, and I never made anyone else use their ability to play a trick on another person.”
“You’re just jealous because I know how to have fun and you no longer know how to enjoy life,” Lydia shot back. Even to her own ears, her words sound less reasonable than she meant.
“I will talk to you about this later, Lydia. For right now, we need to try to keep Billy warm.”
For this reason, Mary had pulled the lining out of the basket she carried. It was not very large, but she figured anything to cover him even a little would help.
Lizzy ignored Lydia’s continued protests of, “There was no harm done. It was not my fault Pen played a trick on Billy because of his bragging. You cannot blame this on me. Besides, he deserved what he got.”
Lizzy realized something drastic needed to be said and done to Lydia before she would see the harm she could have caused. Lizzy needed to devise a plan whereby Lydia would understand, and never forget, what the consequence of her actions might have been under other circumstance.
While she helped Mary tend Billy and planned what actions she might take to make Lydia see the error of her thinking, Lizzy heard the sounds of a wagon making its way toward them.
She hoped Mr. Jones, the apothecary, might be arriving at the same time.
Lizzy knew Sir William and Lady Lucas would want a detailed report of their son’s health, and then they would both want to her the account of what happened.
As the wagon pulled into sight, Lizzy saw Lady Lucas seated with the driver while Sir William and Mr. Jones rode alongside. The wagon had barely stopped when Lady Lucas descended and rushed over to her son’s side.
“How could this happen. His father taught all the children to swim. Billy would never do anything dangerous while out in the water. He knew better,” Lady Lucas declared as she brushed the wet hair off her son’s face and then began to run her hand over his body checking for any injuries.
“Please, Lady Lucas,” Mr. Jones said as he knelt down beside the boy. “I need room to examine him before he is moved.” Mr. Jones then looked at Lizzy and Mary as he asked, “How long had he not been breathing?”
“Maybe a few minutes,” Lizzy replied.
“Lizzy forced the water out of his lungs as soon as she laid him on the ground. I then made sure his lungs began taking in and expelling air,” Mary added.
“Did you sense any other injuries?” Mr. Jones directed this question to Mary.
“No, sir. I sensed no external or internal problems except for his lack of breathing,” Mary replied. “As you know, my ability does not cover the inside of a person’s head, so I do not know if he suffered an injury to his brain,” Mary added.
“Miss Lizzy, can your power to find any other problems I might need to know about?”
“No, Mr. Jones,” Lizzy replied. After a moment of thought, she added, “You might check his ankles and legs. The weeds were tightly wrapped around them.”
“How is that possible?” Sir William had come alongside the doctor and stood staring down at his son.
“It would be best for Mr. Jones to check Billy so you can move him home. I will come over later and explain everything I discover after speaking to Penelope Harrington and my sister Lydia. I only know part of the story, which was told in a haphazard way by Harriet Harrington and Maria. Pen seemed in a state of shock while Billy was struggling in the water.”
“Come as soon as possible,” Sir William replied as he watched the apothecary examine his son.
Lizzy took Lydia by the arm saying, “Come. We are going to speak with father.” She then indicated for Mary to follow.
Lizzy felt it best to leave the family and Mr. Jones to tend to Billy.
She knew immediacy was needed to bring about a resolution to the problem of Lydia’s lack of concern for consequences and Pen’s misuse of the power.