“Mrs Bennet, I will not beat around the bush. As of today, you are no longer responsible for the education of any of our daughters, especially not the youngest two.” He held up his hand, seeing his wife was about to squawk. “You agreed to wait until I have said what I needed to say, did you not? If you do not honour your word, I will begin removing your allowance one quarter at a time.”
As hard as it was for her, Fanny closed her mouth and sat in the chair uncomfortably with a pinched look on her countenance.
“My reasons for taking this step are the following…” Bennet laid out his observations and the deficiencies he noted in Catherine’s and Lydia’s behaviour, especially the latter’s. He informed his wife a governess would be joining them as soon as a suitable one was found. “Interfere with her, try to undermine her, or secretly attempt to teach the girls how tocatch a man,and losing your allowance will be the least of your problems. Do anything in that vein, and you will have no contact with the girls.” He paused. “Now, you may speak.”
“The flutterings, palpitations, and shuddering! Oh I will be overset by my nerves. How can you be so cruel to me?” Fanny let her head loll back and placed the back of one hand against her forehead to attempt to elicit sympathy from her husband. She peeked at him through one eye and was disappointed to see he was unmoved.
“Mrs Bennet, it has been a long time since I have been moved by yourso-calledattacks of nerves. If you have something to say, do so; if not, leave my study.”
“How you delight in vexing me!” Fanny shrieked. The attack of nerves was forgotten as quickly as it had been deployed. “If you turn my Lydia into a bluestocking like you are doing to Jane, Lizzy, and Mary, she will be unmarriageable like they are. Even with Jane’s beauty, as soon as a man knows she is better in maths than him, he will abandon her!” she wailed.
“There are many men who want an intelligent wife! I was one of them, but I allowed you to pull the wool over my eyes. Your aim is to see our daughters well disposed of in marriage, is it not?”
“Of course it is. It is the only way to save us from the hedgerows when you go to your final reward.” Fanny huffed at her husband’s lack of understanding.
“If I allow you to continue teaching Lydia, and by extension, Catherine, all the wrongheaded things that you are, when she is out and Lydia ruins herself, her sisters will partake in her ruin. Then none of them will ever marry anyone of worth!” He meant character but Bennet knew his wife would think he meant wealth.
“How would my Lyddie get ruined? Men are attracted to beautiful, lively girls. As she ages, she will become irresistible to men.”
“Fanny, you are teaching her to flirt; never mind that she is only eight. By the time she is old enough, her head will be full of nonsense, and she will have no way to protect herself. Men will see her as a trollop, a lightskirt and will not take no for an answer. Surely you know not all men are honourable, which is part of the reason for the rules of propriety.”
As an image of her daughters becoming unmarriageable took root in her mind, Fanny began to question her ways andwondered if her husband did not have the right of it. She admitted that she had never taken the time to learn the ways of the gentry and that what her mother had taught her may not work as it had for her when she caught Thomas.
Bennet sat in silence as he watched his wife cogitate. He had couched things in the terms he had on purpose. If there was one way to get through to his wife, it was raising the spectre of her daughters being ruined. Now, he needed to allow her the time to arrive at the correct conclusion on her own. There was no missing the vast range of emotions which played across her face. Still, Bennet did not say anything.
“Will not men be put off by an educated girl?” Fanny asked after she had chewed over her husband’s words for some minutes.
“No, Fanny, they will not. A gentleman, especially a landed one, seeks a woman who is educated and accomplished. I am afraid that gossip and flirting are not considered accomplishments. You, Fanny, as I am sure you are aware, know not how to be a proper mistress of an estate.” Bennert raised his hand to stem the forming complaint. “For this, I am to blame. Rather than insist you learn all of the duties of the mistress, I left you to your own devices. I will not compound that error with our daughters.”
“Lydia will not be pleased,” Fanny opined after a few moments.
“She will not. However, do not forget that we are the parents and she is but a girl of eight. I am sure she will test us, but as soon as she sees that she is not able to sow discord between us, she will have no choice but to comply or be locked in the nursery for an extended amount of time.” Bennet paused as he allowed time for his words to be assimilated. “The aimwill not be to break her spirit but redirect her energy to positive things.”
“What of Kitty…Catherine?” Fanny enquired.
“Catherine, as I am sure you know, is a follower. It is why I believe redirecting her behaviour will be considerably easier.” Bennet stood and came around the desk. He sat in the chair next to his wife and took one of her hands. “If we stand together in this, we are guaranteed to succeed.”
Fanny’s eyes dropped to the floor. “What about me? I know my behaviour is not that of a gently born woman,” she stated softly.
“I asked Gardiner and Maddie…” Bennet related what his request to the Gardiners had been. “If you want, and it will be done in private, either lady—if we find both—will be more than able to help you learn the ways of a gentlewoman and all the duties of the mistress of an estate. The younger Mrs Hurst, from what I understand, is well versed in the duties you need to learn. I am sure, when she is not with her new son, she will be willing to help you learn what is expected beyond being a hostess.”
“Will she not think me silly that I do not know the duties?” Fanny worried.
“Like you, she was not born to the gentry. Her late father and the rest of her family were all in trade. That is why I think she would be able to relate to you better than many others would.”
“If she is willing to teach me, I would be open to learning from her,” Fanny decided. “The same with the governess and companion you employ.”
Bennet remembered the first time he had met the younger Hurst and the man’s comments about telling Fanny about the provisions he was making to secure his family’s future. “I must apologise to you for not putting your worries about the future to rest. You have heard me say that the future is secure, have you not?” Bennet saw his wife nod. “But I never told you how. Before I proceed, I must entreat you to not repeat what I am about to tell you to another without my permission, and that especially includes your sister. Can you make that promise to me?”
“I can and I do. I will not repeat anything you tell me now,” Fanny vowed.
“Some years ago…” As Bennet spoke of their true financial position and dowries he was building for the girls, he did not miss the way his wife’s mouth fell further and further open. “I have had a dower house built, but not on Longbourn’s land, rather on the land I purchased from Morris, the land the first Collins lost, which was the genesis of the entail.”
“And none of this you are telling me about is subject to the entail?” Fanny asked wondrously. She felt the sword of Damocles hanging over her, and any unmarried daughters’ futures, lift and disappear.
“None of it. The entail only entitles the heir to the land as mapped out in the document. I have not annexed the additional land to this estate, so the heir presumptive cannot argue that it is his for that reason. The document is unambiguous in this. The new master is not entitled to any money earned by the previous master, other than one quarter’s income,” Bennet explained. “As such, he would have no way to claim the girls’ dowries or any other funds I have at the time God calls me home.”
“You truly are a good man, and I have been a shrill shrew,” Fanny said, her eyes downcast again.
