Chapter Forty-Two
Come on, Kitty, or we’ll never get there!”
“I have to find my blue bonnet.” Kitty’s voice was muffled, as her head was deep inside the wardrobe that held her bonnets.
“It was right here, and now…” She pulled her head out, looked at her sister, and her eyes widened in shock.
“Why, you are wearing it! That is my bonnet, Lydia, and you know it!”
“But it looks better on me,” Lydia argued.
“That is not the point!” Kitty yelled in frustration.
The raised voice caused Elizabeth to open the door and poke her head in. “Now what?” she asked.
“Lydia is wearing my bonnet because she thinks it looks better on her!” Kitty was outraged.
“Is that accurate, Lydia?” Elizabeth asked, calmly.
“Well, yes, but she wears my green bonnet all the time!”
“Give it to me, Lydia.” Elizabeth advanced on her younger sister, hand out.
Lydia backed up. “I will not.”
“You will, or I will take it right off your head, and likely some hair along with it.”
Lydia sighed. Elizabeth was surprisingly strong for her diminutive height, and had been known to carry out such threats in the past. “Very well, but I still say I should get to wear it.” Lydia unpinned the bonnet and handed it, grudgingly, to Elizabeth, who immediately turned around and presented it to a triumphant Kitty.
Pausing at the door, Elizabeth turned and said, “I am going to suggest to Mama that Lydia share a room with Mary. Mary has nothing that Lydia would consider worth stealing, and Kitty’s things would then be safe.”
Both Kitty and Lydia protested the proposed separation, and Elizabeth said, “Very well; but remember my words. If I have to interfere in another argument such as this one, I will carry out my threat at once.”
Elizabeth returned to her room, where Jane waited.
“A bonnet again, I suppose?”
“Yes,” Elizabeth sighed, falling backwards on their shared bed. “Kitty’s blue bonnet, which she discovered on Lydia’s head. I had to threaten Lydia with physical harm before she would give it up.”
Jane laughed. “If it is not bonnets, it is ribbons; if it is not ribbons, it is shoes!” Then she sobered. “Bonnets? But why? Where are they going?”
Elizabeth sat bolt upright. “That is a good question, Jane, and one I did not think to ask.” Elizabeth returned to the room shared by Kitty and Lydia, but the room was now empty.
She ran back to Jane and said, “They are gone, and without a word.”
Jane, alarmed, said, “They are off to Meryton on their own.”
Even as her sister was speaking, Elizabeth was pulling on her half boots. “Come on, Jane. We cannot be too far behind them.”
***
“I still cannot believe that Lizzy did not ask where we were going!” Kitty exclaimed.
“She was distracted by the fight,” Lydia surmised. “We must remember that for the future.”
The two girls had indeed planned to go to Meryton on their own, and for one purpose: to seek out Mr. Wickham. But before they arrived, their two older sisters had caught up with them.
“A valiant attempt, you two,” Jane commented, grabbing Lydia’s arm.
Lydia shook her off. “I do not know what you mean, Jane,” she replied, loftily.
“You certainly do,” Jane said. “The two of you are not supposed to go to Meryton on your own, and you know that very well. If I tell Papa about this, you will likely lose your pin money for the quarter.”
Lydia immediately resorted to pleading. “No, Jane, please do not tell! It is only that…” she trailed off.
Elizabeth, who was holding Kitty’s arm, put in, “It is only that you hoped to see Mr. Wickham; is that not it? Is it not enough that he came to call on the two of you?”
“It would have been,” Kitty said, sticking out her lower lip. “Had Georgiana not shown up and stolen his attention!”
“Why would he not be more interested in Georgiana?” asked Elizabeth. “They have known one another for a very long time.”
“You already told us all this, Lizzy,” Lydia said, impatiently. “We understand that, but we still would like to have some time with him without Georgiana!”
“And look!” cried a triumphant Kitty. “There he is!”
There was a group of soldiers on the pavement in front of the tea shop, and Mr. Wickham was easily visible, by the simple virtue of being the tallest of those gathered there.
His gaze seemed to sharpen as he saw Kitty and Lydia, and he greeted them as they approached.
“Miss Kitty, Miss Lydia!” he said. Then he added, “And Miss Bennet and Miss Elizabeth! What a wonderful surprise!”
He presented his friends to them. Their names flew right past Kitty and Lydia, but Elizabeth and Jane greeted the men politely: Mr. Denny, Mr. Carter, Mr. Evans.
Kitty and Lydia moved closer to the tea shop, and Mr. Wickham moved with them, so that the three of them were apart from the group, speaking together quietly.
Elizabeth curtsied and excused herself from the small group of soldiers; joining Kitty, Lydia and Mr. Wickham, she made her presence known at once.
“Well, fancy finding you here, Mr. Wickham,” she said.
“I am surprised that the militia has nothing more to do than to lounge about the streets.”
“Oh, there is a great deal to do,” he replied, loftily. “We do all sorts of drills, so that we may be ready if there is an invasion.”
“An invasion!” Kitty and Lydia gasped together, hands clasped to their chests.
“These drills must occur very early in the morning,” Elizabeth went on. “So as to allow you time to wander the town all afternoon.”
“Very early in the morning indeed,” Mr. Wickham agreed.
But just then, Mr. Denny joined their little group and said, laughing, “What lies are you telling these ladies, Wickham?”
Elizabeth said, “He was just telling us how much drilling you must do in order to be ready for the enemy!” She made her eyes wide, as if she had been most impressed by this.
“Drilling? Under Colonel Forster? Why, you must be joking, Wickham!” Denny slapped his friend on the back. “Everyone knows that Forster is the most easy-going commander in the entire militia. He himself does not rise before eleven!”
Mr. Wickham’s eyes narrowed and he hissed something under his breath.
“Never mind, Mr. Wickham,” Elizabeth said. “May I just tell you something?”
“Of course, Miss Elizabeth,” he said, through clenched teeth.
“My sisters have virtually no dowries,” she said. “And they are very carefully supervised. It is not worth pursuing them.”
“Lizzy!” Lydia gasped in horror.
Mr. Wickham stared at Elizabeth. “I assure you, Miss Elizabeth –“
“No, no need to assure me about anything,” she said, airily.
“I just wanted you to understand the situation, so that you would not waste your…” she paused here for a long moment before concluding, with a raised brow,“…valuable time.” And with that, she curtsied, took Kitty’s and Lydia’s arms in an iron grip, and dragged them away.
Jane had been speaking with the other soldiers while keeping one eye on Elizabeth; seeing Elizabeth leave with Kitty and Lydia, she curtsied to the officers and ran off to join her sisters.
Lydia was in tears, and Jane had no trouble getting Kitty to recount what had just occurred as they headed back toward Longbourn. Jane gasped. “Lizzy, that is the boldest thing I ever heard!”
“I do not regret what I said,” Elizabeth said, grimly. “I do not want him near Kitty or Lydia.”
“I do not think his interest in them was their dowries, in any case,” Jane said, hesitantly.
“I understand you, Jane, but there is very little I can do about that except to keep him away from them!”
“Well, I do not understand!!” Lydia announced, in ringing tones, her tears drying. “What is it you think he wants from us?”
“Your virtue, you stupid girl!” Elizabeth yelled. Thankfully, they were alone on the road; there was no one to hear.
“My – my virtue?” Lydia stuttered.
“You truly do not understand?” Elizabeth demanded.
“No, and no one will explain it to us!” Lydia huffed.
Elizabeth and Jane traded long glances. Finally, Elizabeth asked, “Do you not recall Rebecca Crowley?”
“Of course,” Kitty put in. “She went to visit her aunt in Portsmouth for some months. We envied her getting away from Meryton and going to visit the sea!”
“That is what you remember? Nothing more?” Elizabeth enquired.
“Are you certain about this, Lizzy?” Jane asked, doubtfully.
“I am not, no,” Elizabeth admitted. “But I know not else how to keep them safe!”
“Whatever are you two talking about? You are treating us like children!” Lydia complained.
“You are right, Lydia,” Elizabeth said, suddenly decisive. “You have been treated like children, and now that you are both most decidedly not children, that must change. So you did not understand what happened to Rebecca?” she demanded.
Kitty and Lydia looked at one another. “We thought she went to visit her aunt,” Kitty said, in a small voice.
“She was alone for some time with the butcher’s son; do you remember him?” Jane asked, in a gentle voice.
“Oh, yes, Luke! We heard something about that. He was very handsome, was he not, Kitty? And then he left to live with an uncle or something.” Lydia said.
“Go on, Jane,” Kitty whispered. “Rebecca was alone with him; then what?”
“Then he took her virtue and she became with child,” Jane said, in a rush.
“Took her virtue – but what does that even mean?” Lydia asked, crossly. “I hear that phrase a good deal, but I cannot quite understand what is being taken and how!”
Jane sighed and looked down as she spoke, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes. “Kitty, Lydia, do you recall when Papa paid for a stud horse, a stallion, to come and cover Daisy?”
“Yes! Oh, that was terrible! Poor Daisy!” Kitty said. “We were not supposed to watch, but we did, from Mary’s bedroom window!”
“And then she had a foal,” Lydia said, slowly. “Are you trying to tell me, Jane Frances Bennet, that this is what happens between men and women? I do not believe it.”
“The mechanics are somewhat different, as I understand it,” Jane said. “But in essence yes. The male approaches the female and – and well, he penetrates her and she–she–“
Jane looked to Elizabeth for help.
Elizabeth nodded and continued, speaking softly and slowly, “The male has an organ similar to what you saw on that stud horse, and he inserts it into the female, and there is then a good chance that she will become with child.”
“But why does he do that?” Kitty whispered, her face sheet-white.
“Apparently it is very pleasurable for the male,” Jane murmured.
“But for the female?” Lydia asked, her face very troubled.
“I am given to understand that for women, it hurts the first few times, but can become pleasurable over time. But, in any case, a husband expects his wife to come to him intact; he wants to be the first,” Elizabeth said.
Kitty and Lydia were silent with shock for several minutes. Finally, Kitty said, her voice shaking, “So Luke did that to poor Rebecca and she had a child?”
“Yes,” Elizabeth replied, grimly.
More silence followed as Kitty and Lydia stared at one another. Lydia said, wonderingly, “This is why we are not supposed to be alone with gentlemen?”
“Not just with gentlemen, but with any man,” Jane corrected her. “Luke was hardly a gentleman, remember.”
“So all men are dangerous?” Lydia asked.
“No; all men are potentially dangerous,” Jane corrected her. “I believe that most gentlemen would never do such a thing to a young lady. But you cannot know if a man would or would not, so it is best to never be in a circumstance that would allow him to do so.”
“I had no idea,” Kitty said, blankly. “None at all. Why are we not told this?”
“I think all young ladies should be told this the moment they are able to become with child,” Elizabeth said. “But society believes that young ladies are too delicate and fragile to be trusted with such information.”
“But ignorance could lead to terrible things!” Lydia cried.
“I am in complete agreement with you, Lydia,” Elizabeth said. Then she added, humorously, “Perhaps for the first time ever.”
“What happened to Rebecca’s child?” Kitty asked.
“I do not know,” Elizabeth said. “I suppose someone adopted it.”
“Will Mama be angry that you told us this?” Lydia asked.
“Honestly, I think she will be relieved that she need not do so. I remember that she was very embarrassed when she broached the subject with me and Jane,” Elizabeth said.
Lydia suddenly gasped and put a hand to her mouth.
“Lydia?” Jane asked. “You look almost green! What is it, my dear?” Jane spoke gently, understanding that all this was a good deal for a young girl to absorb.
“Jane,” Lydia whispered. “Does this mean that our parents…?”
Jane managed not to laugh. “Yes.”
“Five times!” Lydia sounded horrified. “Poor Mama!”
“What about Mary?” Kitty asked. “Does she know?”
Jane and Elizabeth glanced at one another, but said nothing.
“Oh!” Kitty said. “You have never told her! Is that because you do not think any man will want to – well, to do that to her?”
It was too close to the truth for comfort, so Elizabeth said, “Brrr! It is getting cold! We have stood here for too long, and I am ready to sit by the fire in the parlour. Come!” She led the way back to Longbourn, and her sisters followed her in silence.
***
That night, when they were finally alone together, Jane said, “You do realise, Lizzy, that if Mr. Wickham no longer has any interest in Kitty or Lydia, he will have all the more reason to focus his attentions on Georgiana.”
Elizabeth sighed. “I know, Jane, but what can I do? I must look out for my family, and Mr. Darcy must look out for his. I know that he does not like Mr. Wickham, so I must assume he is doing everything in his power to protect his sister.”