Chapter 1 #3
Mrs Bennet had made sure to be away from the estate on the day of her devil spawn’s birthday.
Her anger simmered just below the surface, waiting for the time that it would burst forth and be given free rein.
During her daughter’s birthday she came up with a plan to rid her life of the baggage she had been forced to carry.
She would get her hands on some laudanum, and once the two in the nursery were asleep, she would take it into the woods where Sam would meet her.
She would command him to take it far away and kill it.
Even though he was no killer, Sam agreed to help as he wanted her to keep visiting him.
He enjoyed his assignations with her very much and it did not hurt that he was making a landed gentleman a cuckold.
She was angry with her siblings for they too were under Satan’s thrall and were at Longbourn celebrating this demon’s birthday.
She would never forgive them for turning on her.
She was convinced they were jealous of her being a gentlewoman, so they always took the side of her husband.
In her irrational state of mind, all of her life’s trials and tribulations were the fault of the child her husband called Elizabeth.
She had none of the jewels, fine clothing, or carriages she had imagined would be gifted to her on her wedding day.
She would never be able to see that everything that had transpired since she had sprung her trap were the consequences of her own decisions.
It was, of course, much easier to blame a defenceless child, as one often looks for others to blame unless they are of true moral fibre.
Fanny had recently felt the quickening so she knew that she had another five months or so to endure before the son she was carrying would be expelled from her belly.
At Longbourn the cook was putting her finishing touches on the cake for Miss Lizzy.
The tradition that started in Germany some thirty plus years ago had taken hold in the Kingdom, so the last thing cook did was place a single candle in the middle of the chocolate cake she had created.
When Mrs Hill saw her master nod, she went to collect the cake.
Cook lit the candle and watched proudly as her masterpiece was carried into the dining parlour.
“Papa, ‘aney, ‘ake, ‘ake, ‘ake!” Lizzy exclaimed.
It was placed on the table while Bennet assisted Lizzy to blow out the candle and Mrs Hill began to slice it.
In the time she had been weaned, it was discovered that the young miss had a profoundly serious sweet tooth.
Miss Lizzy looked back at them with her face and teeth covered in cake as she had taken a large handful of the slice placed in front of her.
“I take it she likes cake?” her uncle Edward Gardiner noted.
“That she does,” Edward’s older sister Hattie stated as she stood with her husband and their almost four-year-old son.
“There is so much that I have missed while travelling,” Edward nodded.
He knew that he needed to make sacrifices to build his business that at its core was an import export concern.
He had named it ‘Gardiner and Associates,’ even if at that point there were no associates.
Edward loved his family but would not sacrifice his dreams of building a thriving business to attend every family event, although he was happy that he was here on this special day.
His newest niece was so demonstrative and loving.
She was small, but he had been thrilled when she had wrapped her little arms around his neck and squeezed while she planted a very wet kiss on his cheek.
And he had wanted to spend some time with them before his own life drastically changed.
After concluding his travels to the north, he had begun his return to London when his carriage broke a wheel in the market town of Lambton in Derbyshire.
It was during that sojourn he had met the parson’s daughter, Miss Madeline Ellison.
Her father Hubert was the local pastor. Edward had been intrigued by the pastor’s eighteen-year-old daughter and had delayed his return to London four times until she was acquainted with him enough so that he could request a formal courtship.
He had not shared this news with the rest of the family, but Maddie was soon to arrive in London to stay with her father’s brother and sister-in-law.
Hubert was a fourth son, and his brother Swindon was a barrister with a prestigious London firm at the Inns of Court.
As long as Maddie loved and accepted Edward, the fact that he was in trade would not bother them.
He returned from his reverie just in time to see his niece blow out the candle with the assistance of her older sister.
None of the family questioned why Fanny was absent; they were fully aware of the antipathy their sister held for her innocent child.
Both brother and sister had tried to reason with Fanny, but it had fallen on deaf ears, so they had not tried again.
As those celebrating were wishing the child happy on her birthday, they heard the front door open and without greeting any of them, they heard Fanny stomp up the stairs and slam her door.
Once the children returned to the nursery, the four adults gathered in the drawing room. “Why have you not divorced my sister, Bennet?” Gardiner asked his brother-in-law.
“I just do not want to have a scandal. I have two daughters and one more child on the way,” Bennet said as he looked at nothing in particular “It would affect the innocents and I cannot do that to them.”
“To imagine that you have to protect that sweet, vivacious girl from her own mother,” Hattie Phillips said as she shook her head in disgust. “No real mother would ever want to hurt her own child!”
“That, my dear sister, is the material point,” Bennet said sadly.
“I do not believe she is equipped with maternal instincts. The only reason that she likes and accepts Jane is that she is reminded of herself when she looks at our oldest daughter. I am sorry to say this, but your sister is one of the most selfish people I have ever had the displeasure of meeting!” He stated coolly and there was no disagreement from any in the room.
“Now that Lizzy is weaned, are you going to keep Mrs Manning in your employ, Bennet?” Frank Phillips enquired.
“I am,” Bennet agreed. “Given that we need someone with Lizzy four and twenty hours a day, I need two nursemaids as we have Jane as well. Jane is so serene and never gives any trouble, but I am careful to make sure that she gets her fair share of my attention though she also gets some from her.”
An hour later the family departed. Gardiner was being hosted by the Phillips’ in his former home which they had taken over in Meryton along with the law practice.
Above stairs Fanny was seething with jealously that her family dared to give Satan’s emissary notice and ignore her.
‘I will be rid of the devil’s spawn soon enough,’ she promised herself and smiled maniacally at the thought of ridding the world of the mistaken borne.