“I assume you do not want me to share with my younger siblings, even though Elli is completely trustworthy and will not say something inadvertently,” Roger wondered.
“When I have some time with Elli, if you think she needs to know, I will tell her.” Henry paused. “I assume that Elli, Lola, and Lil are not their given names?”
“No, indeed,” Debby responded. “They are Eleanor, Dolores, and Lillian.”
“The Gardiners have a Lillian; they call her Lilly, and she is almost the same age as your Lil. I will have my secretary send a note and ask Gardiner to bring Lilly along when he comes tosee us,” Henry suggested.
“I am sure Lil would like to meet Lilly,” Debby stated.
“Henry, you use a secretary. Has that to do with your clouded eyes? Do you have cataracts in your eyes, Brother?” Felicity enquired.
“I do; all I see are shapes and shades of light now…” Henry explained about his secretary, his nurse, who was the former governess, and how his Bennet great-nieces take pleasure in assisting him. “Before they clouded over, my eyes had seen many wondrous sights around this world of ours. I have nothing to repine.”
“Then, I will most definitely live in Longbourn’s dower house. Even though our great-nieces and Mrs Bellamy are there to assist you, as yourslightlyolder sister, I too will be there,” Felicity insisted.
“Having you live there will please me greatly, Fee,” Henry responded, his voice thick with emotion.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“The horses are all of a good quality, not as good as Indian ponies, but I suppose they will do,” Felix stated after he and his three sisters had been shown the stables.
“We will have to get more side-saddles,” Jane stated, ignoring Felix’s jibe at English horses.
“What is aside-saddle?” Lil asked.
“That is a saddle most ladies use in this country. It is so they remain ladylike and do not ride astride like men,” Mary explained.
Elizabeth had to fight not to scoff. She hated the side-saddle.
“Pa taught us to ride when we were young, and we have always ridden correctly without that dangerous saddle they make ladies ride in this country. There is nothing unladylike about the way we ride!” Elli insisted. “We know that most inthe cities where we came from ride with that saddle, but Pa never forced us to use it.”
“I happen to agree with Elli. I hate having to use the side-saddle and wish I was allowed to ride astride like our cousins do. In March of next year, when I turn one and twenty, I can make my own decision about how to ride,” Elizabeth agreed. “Just because our cousins do things differently than we do, does not make them wrong.”
The four from the Americas decided they could easily like Cousin Lizzy. It did not take long for the eight cousins to begin to feel comfortable with one another. They began to discover they had far more in common than they initially thought they would.
Chapter 17
“Your recalcitrance is all because of Miss Lizzy,” Fanny accused. She had never known Jane to stand up to her before her eldest had begun to spend more and more time with Uncle Henry and Miss Lizzy at the dower hovel. She could not like it, not one little bit.
“Mama, my refusal to behave in the improper way you suggest has nothing to do with Lizzy or anyone else. Do you not think I have enough sense of propriety and intelligence to be able to think for myself?” Jane responded politely, but firmly.
“But I taught you how to catch a man…” Fanny attempted to assert.
“Mama, your lessons are a recipe for ruin. Have you not noticed that any man you have ever attempted to push towards me has run away in the opposite direction? At the same time, Lizzy, who you say is nothing to me, when she is, in fact, a beauty, is always surrounded by men seeking her company at any assembly. You have said many times that men do not want educated women, yet I have seen that is not true. Why do you think that is?” Jane responded, cutting her mother off before she had been able to complete her thought.
Fanny did not know how to respond. While she had always tried to push these inconvenient facts from her consciousness, she could not ignore what Jane was saying. She would not, could not, allow herself to acknowledge the truth.
“In that case, I will not attempt to help you, and we willsee if you ever find a man or if you will become a spinster like Miss Lizzy and her friend Charlotte will be.” Fanny sniffed and waved her eldest, and formerly one of her favourites, from her company. She had summoned Jane because today was the day the Taylors would be calling on Longbourn, and she had wanted to make sure Jane was prepared to catch the heir’s son. Instead, the conversation had not gone as she had desired or expected. In that case, she would promote Lydia. Jane would regret her rejection of Fanny’s help when Lydia was married long before any of her sisters, who were all doomed to become spinsters.
Jane shook her head as she departed her mother’s chambers. Mama had not asked, and Jane had not shared that she had spent time with the Taylors since they had arrived a few days past, and it was obvious that she and Roger would not suit.
Now that her eyes had been opened, Jane could see just how much wrongheaded advice Mama had given her over the years. The thing Mama had been most wrong about was Uncle Henry. Rather, opposed to what her mother believed, that their great-uncle wanted to deprive them of their home, he was making sure they would all be secure, even if they did not marry.
If only Mama could see past her baseless prejudices. The old Jane would not have been able to see her mother was wrong. This Jane, with her eyes fully opened, could see Mama’s faults clearly. She still respected Mama, but now Jane was able to do so without believing all of the things her mother had taught her.
Her next three younger sisters were waiting for Jane in her bedchamber.
“Well?” Lizzy asked. “Did Mama instruct you on how to catch Roger?” Elizabeth smiled as she asked the question.
