All her daughters would have in the way of a dowry was an equal share of her five thousand pounds, but only after she had been called home to her final reward. Fanny could not understand how someone supposedly as intelligent as Lizzy, could be so blind regarding her father’s faults.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“Lizzy, you promised,” Jane remonstrated when the two retired to their shared bed that night. “Then what did you do as if you and I had never spoken? The first opportunity you have, you tease our mother in front of her husband and all of her daughters.”
“But Jane, I just asked her a question,” Elizabeth asserted innocently. “What did I say which was not true? Do you think ours is the only mother claiming Mr Bingley for one of her daughters?”
“I suppose not, but that does not change the fact you were teasing our mother for your and Papa’s amusement. I love you Lizzy, but it does not sit well with me in the least. If you think it does not hurt Mama when you do it then you are not as perspicacious as you believe you are. Before you say it, yesMama should not say what she does about you, but you know better.”
“But is it not her duty to care for her children equally? To love all of us the same?” Elizabeth cried.
Jane had no answer. She was well aware what her mother said to Lizzy hurt her regardless of the brave, outward mask. She had tried to speak to her mother on the subject, but Mama had not been willing to listen. This was one of the times Jane’s peace-making abilities were inept. She decided to change the subject.
“Papa did say the Netherfield party will attend the assembly, did he not?” Jane reminded her younger sister.
“Yes he did, at last we will be able to see how the rumours compare to the facts,” Elizabeth responded. She was well pleased Jane was no longer pushing her about their mother. “When I saw Charlotte, she had heard ten ladies and twenty men, even though her father and all of the other men saw only four in residence. Charlotte did report her father related that a friend of Mr Bingley was to arrive this afternoon.”
“I think that unlike the talk, there will not be anywhere close to enough men to even the numbers of the sexes. I am sure we will need to sit out at least two sets,” Jane opined.
The young ladies of Meryton all decided they each would sit out a set or two in order to allow everyone a chance to dance. This had been so ever since the war with the Corsican tyrant had taken young men of the neighbourhood to do their duty for King and country. In the early days of the protracted war, it had been one, but as the war dragged on it had become two sets.
The only one who thought it did not apply to her was Lydia, who was of course supported by their mother. This was one of the few things Kitty did not follow her brash younger sister in doing. Lydia could not understand why no matterhow much she demanded it, she was not asked to dance every set. She was too self-centred to associate the lack of requests with her refusal to do what all the other young ladies did at the assemblies.
“You have the right of it, Janey.” Elizabeth yawned as her body told her it was time to sleep. Each sister blew out the candle on her side of the bed and they were soon slumbering.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Rather than ride the next morning, Elizabeth elected to walk out at first light. She cared not that it had turned colder already, and she wore her heavier coat and thick woollen stockings to protect against the wind.
She greeted cook and was rewarded with a warm muffin and apple pastry wrapped in a cloth. She took a carrot and made her way to the stables. She halved it, and fed one piece to Nellie, the older mare which Jane rode, and the other one to Penny, short for Penelope, who was Nellie’s four year old daughter. When she rode, Elizabeth was on Penny as she was feistier and more rambunctious than Nellie. Jane preferred a more serene horse. Elizabeth smiled as she considered the horses they rode matched their own characters.
Mary would not ride either mare, or any horse, thanks to an accident she had had when she began to learn to ride. So far, Kitty and Lydia showed no inclination to ride, mainly because Lydia did not choose to do so.
After feeding the treats to the appreciative horses who nuzzled her shoulder in turn, Elizabeth struck out towards Oakham Mount. It was the highest eminence in the area which was made up of flat fields and some rolling hills. It was not high by most standards, but it was where Elizabeth loved to watch the sunrise. It was on Longbourn’s land, but the Bennets were liberal about allowing their neighbours to scale the eminence when and if they chose.
Due to the colder weather, Elizabeth would wait for thesun to peak above the horizon most days, but she still rose before dawn at times and sat on her flattened rock near one of the oaks which lent its name to the hill.
She was sitting while savouring her apple pastry which she began to eat after the muffin, when she noticed three men galloping across some of Netherfield Park’s fields. Two of the horses were unremarkable, but one stood out. She assumed by the size it was a stallion. It was black with a white blaze on his forehead. Before she could make out the men, the three riders wheeled their mounts away from where she was seated, presenting their backs to her.
As soon as her pastry was consumed and she had licked the last crumbs off her fingers, Elizabeth replaced her gloves and began the walk back towards the manor house.
Chapter 4
Much to Fanny Bennet’s chagrin, the day Mr Bingley returned her husband’s call, she and her daughters were not at home. For her, the assembly took on much more importance so she would make sure Jane would look her best.
On the day of the assembly, the two eldest Bennet sisters were concerned as they were certain Kitty and Lydia should not be out yet, and would cause the family embarrassment, as was their wont at assemblies. Like four of the five sisters, both had entered local society at fifteen. Only the threat of their father standing up to his wife, in one case, regarding the come out age of his daughters, had allowed one to join society at seventeen, namely when it had been Elizabeth’s turn to come out.
When five years past Mrs Bennet had begun to speak of the coming out of her least favourite daughter, all it had taken was Elizabeth’s threat she would apply to her father to delay until she was eighteen. Fanny was aware her husband was not in the habit of denying his favourite, especially when, as now, she was very insistent. Also, he never missed a turn to vex her so Fanny had reached a decision.
Rather than taking the chance of being humiliated before all of her daughters—again—by her husband, Fanny had negotiated with Elizabeth and they had reached agreement on her coming out at seventeen.
As she had with Jane, Elizabeth had attempted to intercede on Mary’s behalf, and then later for the good of the family when it was first Kitty’s turn, and then Lydia’s tocome into society. There was no worry Mary would misbehave, but that was not the case for Lydia, and by extension, Kitty. Unfortunately no matter how many cogent arguments Elizabeth made, all of the begging and pleading, with all of her predictions of scandal or worse, her father had not relented and refused to intervene with his wife’s choice of when their youngest three entered society.
In the end, Elizabeth had come out with Mary in 1809, Kitty’s had been in 1810. It was one case in which Fanny Bennet had held firm against the caterwauling of her youngest who, at the time, thought herself persecuted as she was the only Bennet sister not yet out.
Even without having the education of a gentlewoman, Fanny was aware allowing a girl of not yet fourteen out would lead to much derision from her neighbours. As it was, she was tired of hearing the opinions that the age Miss Lizzy came out was far more appropriate. As much as she had railed against waiting until she turned fifteen, in February 1812 Lydia had been unleashed on society.
The Bennet ladies—Bennet never accompanied them to an assembly—were crammed into the Bennet carriage on the way to the Michaelmas Assembly. Lydia especially was cavilling peevishly about how her dress would be crushed and then, like the previous assembly she would not be asked to dance every set. If they had thought it would change things, the three eldest Bennet sisters would have explained why she was as she termed it ‘being punished’ by the men. They had given up trying after the first assembly Lydia had attended, when she refused to listen to them about sitting out two sets, and complained to their mother, who told them not to show jealousy for her most lively daughter.
