As their older daughter was dressing, Bennet entered the birthing chamber. He did not notice that he had not pushed the door all the way closed. “What is all of this about, Mrs Bennet? I see Mrs Hill holding our newest child, so why does it sound like you are being murderedin your bed?” he demanded.
“This child is a daughter! I do not want to see the wilful, disobedient child,” Fanny insisted. “I told it to be a son, but it ignored my wishes. It is all too vexing. I needed a son so that the entail would be broken.”
“Mrs Bennet, you do understand that the son has to reach the age of majority to break the entail, do you not? I am sure you are aware that many children do not reach that age, so even if this were a son, there is no guarantee the entail will eventually be broken,” Bennet drawled.
“That is neither here nor there!” Fanny shrieked shrilly. “It was disobedient, so you must have it taken out to the cottages. Not only is it not the son it should have been, but it has darker colouring, with dark hair. It is a demon…” Fanny shut her mouth when she saw the anger on her husband’s countenance.
“Mrs Bennet, you will cease this nonsense immediately. Are you not a Christian?” He shot back.
“Of course, I am. What sort of question is that? And here I thought you were intelligent.”
“My question was because you are questioning the will of God. It is He, and only Him who determines the sex of a babe. Not you, not the babe, nor anyone else.” Bennet turned to Mrs Hill, who was holding the child, and opened the swaddling, revealing his daughter’s head. “She does not have your colouring, but she does have that of my late mother’s. I will name her Elizabeth Rose like my mother, and as Mother used to be called Beth, our daughter will be Lizzy.”
“Then why is God so cruel to us? Does He want me to be thrown into the hedgerows when you are cold in your grave? As she represents His punishment, I still want her sent out to the cottages.”
“Yet, it will not occur. You will feed her like you fedJane. If you do not look after Lizzy as she should be, then you, Mrs Bennet, will be the one who finds herself in a cottage without any more allowance.” Bennet saw his wife was about to protest. “Do not test me in this, Mrs Bennet; you will not enjoy the results.”
“How you like to vex me,” Fanny claimed. However, the threat of a cottage and no pin money made her reach out and take her daughter from Mrs Hill. Fanny placed her at her breast. “You care not for me. I should have never wasted myself on you.”
“In that, we are in agreement, Mrs Bennet. Do not forget; I always showed you who I was. You, however, did what you could to mislead me about who you truly are.”
Fanny said nothing other than giving a loud sniff and looked away. She could not wait forLizzy, as her husband called her, to be sated.
Outside of the birthing chamber, Jane had heard the whole of the exchange. Although she could not understand everything, she did get that Mama and Papa did not like one another. It was the first time she had heard them argue, and it caused Jane to withdraw within herself a little.
Miss Johnson hurried her charge back to the nursery. If only the birthing chamber door had been closed all the way, then her tender-hearted charge would not have been able to hear every word.
Jane had never before heard an argument, and she did not like it at all. She was too young to understand what it was all about, but she had understood that Mama and Papa were both angry. If Mama was upset that her new sister, Papa had called her Lizzy, was a girl and not a boy, was Mama also displeased with her for not being born a boy?
Miss Johnson noted that from that day on, Jane was a lot lessboisterous than she used to be.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
September 1796
At the age of eight, Jane was a very proper little girl. Mama was with child again and would soon, according to her, deliver a son. Jane had become very close to Lizzy, and since her younger sister’s birth, another sister, Mary, was born in August 1793. After Mary came Catherine, called Kitty, who joined the family two days before the end of February 1795.
Each time, Mama had insisted that the son she so wanted would be born, and instead, it was another sister. With the birth of each subsequent daughter, the arguments between Mama and Papa, which started after Lizzy’s birth, became more frequent. Although she could not understand what they were arguing about, Jane could tell that there was acrimony between her parents.
As a result, Mama often complained about a nervous condition which led to palpitations, shuddering, and flutterings of her heart. More and more, the cry of “Hill, my salts,” was heard reverberating in Longbourn’s manor house.
Papa’s reaction had been to sequester himself in his study with his books and port. The only one he tolerated in his study was Lizzy, who at five was already reading. Jane was sure that Mama liked herself because she looked like Mama; Papa liked Lizzy because she looked like their late Grandmama Beth, right down to her emerald-green eye colour.
Jane’s response to the constant friction between her parents was to see everyone as good and that everyone was right. If there was an argument, Jane tried to leave the room or block the words out by thinking of how she would like things to be. She had become a very serene young girl who did not show her emotions.
Even though the first fight she had witnessed had beenover Lizzy’s birth and her sex, Jane never blamed her sister for the conflict between her parents. How could she ascribe any responsibility to Lizzy when she loved her next younger sister so very dearly?
Lizzy was fearless and had an adventurous spirit, so it was not only in looks that they were so completely opposite, but in her character as well. Where Jane hated to get a speck of dirt on her dress, Lizzy was never happier than when covered head to foot in mud. Not only that, Lizzy also loved to play with the boys in the neighbourhood. Mama called her a hoyden, and Papa encouraged her. While Jane was very careful about what she said, and she would never say anything even slightly contentious, Lizzy would say what was on her mind without a worry. Jane supposed that as Lizzy was only five, that would change as she got older.
Of course, Jane loved her younger sisters, Mary and Kitty, as well. Strangely enough, Mama had never been angry with them for being born girls like she had been at Lizzy. They both had light brown hair with light blue, almost grey-coloured, eyes. Mary would be three later that year, and Kitty had turned one in February past.
One thing Jane felt bad about was the way that Mama gave all of her attention to herself to the exclusion of her sisters. Lizzy had Papa, but Mary and Kitty garnered no parental interest. Jane did not like to think about this too much, as it did not fit with her developing personal philosophy that everyone was good.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Fanny was far larger than she had been for any of the four previous times she had been with child. Not only did she believe that she would deliver the much-needed son, but she was also convinced her size meant she was carryingtwo sons, not just one.
Both her sister and sister-in-law were on hand to attend to her. Even though Hattie had not been blessed with children, she was allowed to be present as she was married. Madeline Gardiner, née Lambert, had been married to Edward for almost a year and so far had not fallen in the family way. But she was a calming influence and helped greatly.
