“It was not required of me. It was my choice, as it would be yours and I promise you that Mother and Father will not love you less if you choose to keep the name Bennet. Do not forget, I wasbanishedboth from my childhood home and my family. Unlike you two, I did not have a choice, so I desired to cast off anything related to Bennet,” Elizabeth explained.
Mary and Kitty told Elizabeth about their attempts to write letters to her and how their mother had destroyed the missives and punished them. Lydia had spied on behalf of her mother, so the two had to give up.
“If you want to become part of this family, who loves for love’s sake and not to get something from you or control you, then I would love it if you two would add to the numbers of girls living here,” Elizabeth told her sisters.
Mary and Kitty looked at one another, and both nodded. “Yes, Lizzy, we would love to remain here with you and the rest of the Gardiners,” Mary stated for both Bennets.
“Lizzy, now that we will no longer live with Mama and Papa, do you think Lady Lucas will allow me to see Maria again?” Kitty asked.
“You can ask Aunt Sarah yourself. In a little while, she will bring Maria to stay with us for a few days,” Elizabeth shared. Kitty beamed with joy at the prospect of seeing her friend again.
Elizabeth called her parents back in and Mary told her aunt and uncle of their decision. Both girls were hugged and welcomed to their new household. Once Mary and Kitty had relaxed a little, they were welcomed by their four new younger siblings. Lilly and May were more excited than Eddy and Peter, who were feeling quite outnumbered, at gaining two more older sisters.
Before Aunt Maddie showed them to the suite they would be sharing, the two Bennets were introduced to Mr. Fitzwilliam, Lady Tiffany, and Miss Darcy. Elizabeth explained Richard, as she called him, was Charlotte’s betrothed.
While the girls were being shown the suite they would share and were exclaiming over their separate bedchambers and shared sitting room, Gardiner sent the Bennet carriage back to Longbourn to collect his new wards’ trunks and belongings. He dispatched a groom to Mr. Phillips’s office with a note, which resulted in Phillips sending the documents relating to Mary and Kitty back to Netherfield with the lad.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
When his carriage returned without his two daughters, Bennet knew they had chosen wisely. He directed the trunks to be loaded and had two of the maids pack any items in the girls’ chambers.
Lydia remained in a stupor after her mother’s arrest. She watched as two maids collected Mary’s and Kitty’s property, while another packed all of hers. When her father came to collect her from the bedchamber, Lydia hardly noticed, other than the furniture, that the room was empty.
Bennet had his footman offload Lydia’s trunk and a valise at Philips’s house; he and Lydia alighted as well. The carriage departed for Netherfield Park soon after Bennet and his youngest daughter entered the house.
Once Lydia realised what was happening, she caterwauled until Aunt Phillips gave her a light slap to the face. It had the effect of snapping Lydia out of her tantrum.
“Lydia, as hard as it to contemplate, you must face what has happened. Your mother will never return home. I will not replace your mother, but you are our ward,” Aunt Phillips indicated her husband and herself. “You know I do not accept the type of behaviour your mother does, do you not?” Lydia nodded sullenly. “In time, you will be happy again, Lyddie, that I promise you. How difficult the transition will be will depend entirely upon you. If you cause problems, they will rebound to you. I warn you now, you will not be mollycoddled and spoilt like you are used toandyou are no longer out.”
Lydia stamped her foot but did not throw another tantrum. “When you accompanied your mother to Netherfield Park, did you see the two taller girls next to Lizzy?” Phillips asked and received a surly half nod. “Those two girls, one of them a Lady, are seventeen and sixteen; they will only come out at eighteen, as is done in polite society.”
“Lydia, I know you think life should be fun, but almost everything my sister taught you was wrong. Before he was carted off to debtor’s prison, that wastrel Wickham admitted you were next in line for him to seduce. Did you know he trifled with four merchants’ daughters? Surely you know the blacksmith wanted his head on a pike?” Aunt Phillips pushed.
“If I had surrendered my virtue to him, he would have abandoned me as he did the others, would he not?” Lydia asked barely above a whisper.
“You are an intelligent girl, no matter how you try to hide it because of the nonsense my sister filled your head with, but you know the answer to your question,” Hattie insisted.
“Mama taught me all the wrong things, did she not?” All three adults nodded.
As Lydia began to accept her new situation, she remembered she had not seen Mary and Kitty since earlier in the afternoon. “Where are my sisters?” Lydia asked.
“Mary and Kitty are wards of the Gardiners,” Bennet informed his youngest.
“Will I be able to see them?” Lydia wanted to know.
“Whether or not you visit Netherfield Park will depend on your behaviour, but I am sure the girls will visit you here when they come into Meryton, so you will see them, Lydia,” Aunt Phillips informed her niece and ward.
Bennet returned to an empty manor house at Longbourn after the carriage collected him once it had been offloaded at Netherfield Park.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Lady Sarah Lucas had no reservations about Maria renewing her friendship with Kitty Bennet. Without Fanny Bennet and Lydia’s influences, Kitty would be closer to Maria in character. As for Kitty, she was already seeing positive consequences from her change of homes.
It did not take long before Mary and Kitty were on familiar name terms with Tiffany and Giana. Mary gravitated toward Giana as she shared her penchant for practicing her music at the pianoforte. The first time she entered the music room, Mary ran her hand over the Broadwood Grand reverently, hardly able to believe the quality of the instrument she was allowed to play.
To Kitty’s delight she discovered Tiffany also loved drawing and painting. She had a drawing master who had helped her immensely. Tiffany said she knew he had openings for some new students.
An express arrived from Lord Matlock that evening, informing Gardiner the doctors would arrive in Meryton by Friday, the eleventh day of January. After a report from Mr. Jones about the mental state of his sister, Gardiner felt the examination would be a mere formality.
