“Mama! I am not going to sleep with boring old Jane!” cried Lydia indignantly. “I will stay in my room with Kitty as I have always done!”
“You will do as you are told, Lydia Bennet! As a matter of fact, none of you will leave the house for any reason until further noticewithout my express permission! Now go to your rooms!” Mrs Bennet turned to Mrs Hill and began instructing her that she and all of the younger ladies would take their dinner on trays, and that the family was at home to no callers for the rest of the day.
Mrs Bennet caught Elizabeth by the elbow as she followed her sisters upstairs to move her belongings. “Lizzy, I am not attempting to punish you, but I must curtail your walks entirely.”
“Mama, whatever is wrong? What has frightened you so?” begged her second youngest.
Mrs Bennet only shook her head. “It is not safe, especially for you. Do not leave the house, Lizzy.”
Elizabeth searched her mother’s face for a long moment. “Very well. I shall not go out without permission, Mama. And I shall endeavour to have Mary and Jane help me in watching Kitty and Lydia more closely.”
“Do,” said Mrs Bennet. “You will all remain above stairs today. See if Mary and Jane can persuade their younger sisters to engage in something worthwhile. Those two are finished with wasting their time!”
“I am happy to hear that, Mama. I shall help you in any way that I can,” promised Elizabeth as they parted.
Mrs Bennet remained downstairs for another moment to give Hill more instructions. As she turned to go up the stairs, she noticed her husband lounging against the door to his book room. “What is the excitement?” he inquired.
“Oh, you are useless!” Fanny waved her hand dismissively as she turned away and ascended the stairs. Thomas was part of the problem, with his wit and his sarcasm, always believing he was better and more intelligent than everyone else. He ought to have made her do something about the girls years ago, if he was indeed so clever. Did he even care about them at all, allowing them to run about as they did? Thomas was a man. He had to know the true nature of officers and other men, and yet he had done nothing to protect their girls. There was nothing that could be said that made Fanny believe that he cared even a little.
The Bennet girlsobeyed their mother and remained above stairs for the rest of the day, taking their time moving their possessions, drawing new boundary lines in their new quarters with their sisters. They took trays together in Jane’s room for dinner, and attempted to determine between themselves what must have happened to set off their mother in such a way. Kitty was interrogated, considering Mrs Bennet’s words to her, but though their sister’s head remained bowed in shame over what she suspected her mother knew, she would not confess anything to the others.
The following day, they broke their fast together in the dining room, though their parents did not join them. Their father never did, if their mother dined upstairs. Thomas Bennet had not the temperament to put up with his girls’ antics when their mother was not present, not that she made their conversation any more appealing, but his wife made too much of a fuss about the family dining together when she ate downstairs, and he capitulated in order to keep peace.
The young ladies spent the day in the drawing room, Lydia whining endlessly about going out, insisting that their mother did not truly mean her words, and that surely, when Mrs Bennet eventually returned downstairs to join them, she would let them return to their previous sleeping arrangements, insisting that all of their work moving possessions the day before had been an utter waste.
Elizabeth and Jane refused to hear her pleas, and demanded that they would all obey their mother and stay home, at least until she calmed, and explained what had upset her. They were not to receive such elucidation that day, nor the next, for Mrs Bennet remained closeted in her rooms for some three days, only sending down instructions with Hill that the family was not at home, and that the young ladies were still confined to the house.
On the third morning, Mr Bennet, at the pleas of Elizabeth and Jane, climbed the stairs and pounded upon his wife’s door. “Fanny, I must insist that you open this door and tell me what is the matter!” Hewent on like this for some minutes before Mrs Bennet opened the door, her face streaked with tears.
“Fanny,” he said gently. “Enough is enough. Will you not tell me what has upset you? I promise, I shall endeavour not to be useless.”
The door closed behind him as his wife fell into his arms, sobbing out the tale of Mr Wickham’s words, and the behaviour of Kitty, the threat to Elizabeth, the laughter and encouragement of the other men.
“You knew, Thomas!” When he raised an eyebrow at her, she went on. “You are a man, you are one of them. You have been more in the world, and to university. You knew what the officers were like, did you not?” Her husband avoided her gaze as she glared at him, refusing to look away. At length he nodded.
“Are they all like that? All men?” she demanded.
“Most of them,” he admitted.
“Thenwhywould you allow our girls to run about the village in such danger?” she cried.
“Fanny, you must take responsibility for your part. I advocated for sense years ago, you have defied me at every turn,” he excused himself.
“Ihave never been to university!Ihave never been around young men to hear what they speak of when they are away from ladies! I know what other ladies know; I know there are dangers, but not that all men are likethis!” Fanny protested. “Youhave aduty,Thomas, and it is not to exist and read books, as Mary always says.Youhave a duty to protect us, even from ourselves!Youhave a duty to care about what happens to those girls.Youhave donenothingto protect them and educate them.”
“You are their mother. You did not want them to be educated,” pointed out her husband. “As it was, I educated them all far beyond what you approved of.”
“And I was wrong. I was very wrong, and I am sorry you did not make me see it. Men do not want stupid wives. Just you, it seems, for some reason.”
Her husband watched her contemplatively for a long moment. “So what will you do next?”
“What willIdo next? I hope you mean what willwedo next!” saidFanny indignantly. “You have contributed to this, Thomas, and you will help me to repair what damage we can.”
The two began to discuss matters. Lydia would be brought back in. She was too young to be out. Kitty was of an age to be out in the country, so if they pulled her back in, it would be remarked on by the neighbourhood. Lydia could be considered a failed experiment, her youthful exuberance an explanation as to why she would return to the school room. Kitty was seventeen, old enough to be out in the village, and Mrs Bennet feared that if they removed her from society, that their neighbours would cast some well deserved suspicion of wrongdoing upon her. As it was, the fear that the gossip of the officers would reach the residents of Meryton was well worth considering.
A companion would be hired for their three youngest, someone who could serve as something of a combined governess in addition to her duties as companion. Mr Bennet would take charge of Lydia’s studies. Mrs Bennet brought up that Elizabeth and Mary had been asking for masters, and she was keen to see the educations of them all improved, perhaps save Jane, who was rather old for lessons.
“I hate to tell you this, Fanny, but the budget will not stretch to a governess and also masters for pianoforte and French. Perhaps you should ask your second daughter to help pay for it,” said Thomas.
