An hour after dinner, her husband came to her for the first time. It was just as unpleasant as Hattie had said it would be. Fanny was very pleased when the act was over.
As the months marched by, as impatient as she was to become with child, so far each month Fanny had had her courses.
She spent time with her father occasionally and her sister as much as she was able. Fanny was envious. Hattie was large with child, and she was not. She offered up prayers to God that Hattie would not have a son before her. She was not used to her sister besting her in anything.
In the afternoon of the final day of October, Hattie Phillips’s labours began. Fanny was with her sister at just after two in the morning on the first day of November when, the midwife panicked as she discovered the babe had not turned. It was not something she was experienced with, and there was no doctor or apothecary in Meryton.
Less than two hours later, mother and babe, a male, were no longer alive.
As much as Fanny wanted, no needed, a son, seeing the child-birthing process which had ended with Hattie and her son losing their lives made her very scared of what might happen to her when it was her time to deliver a babe.
Regardless of her apprehension, Fanny missed her courses in December, then again in January 1789. Much to her relief, her husband ceased his visits to her at night. Towards the end of March, Fanny felt the quickening. She prayed for two things: it was a male child, and she would survive the travails of childbirth.
Chapter1
Fanny Bennet was not happy. Rather than a son that was needed to secure the estate and break the entail, on the twelfth day of August 1789, she delivered a daughter.
As displeased as she was to not have a son, the little babe had a head of golden-blonde hair just like herself. She chose the name Jane Frances after her late mother and herself, and in this, Mr Bennet, who she was sure had no use for a girl, did not oppose her.
Bennet was not displeased that he had a daughter except for the fact that it meant he would have to begin to lie with his wife again to try for a son. He waited until she was churched and began to go to her most nights once again.
Each time he was with his wife, he lifted a prayer to the heavens that she would become with child as soon as possible so he would not have to lie with her.
During the days, he spent time in his study reading and enjoying some of his favourite port. It was not at the expense of what needed to be done to keep Longbourn running and producing.
As his wife was not the true mistress of the estate, Mrs Hill continued to visit the tenants, and Bennet was very diligent in making any repairs she told him were needed in the tenant cottages. The master of the estate would ride out to see the tenant farmers from time to time, which gave them the confidence that Mr Bennet cared about their concerns.
He was not an indolent man. That being said, Bennet did not exert himself to increase Longbourn’s annual yield beyond what it was. This was because in his opinion he did not see why he should when it would all fall to Collins soon enough if no son was born. He did enough to maintain the income at two and a half thousand pounds per year. With the birth of Jane and the beginning of the symptoms his late father had told him to expect, Bennet was not sure he would be alive to see the birth of his next child, son or daughter. If his wife bore him a son while he still lived, then at that point, for as long as he was able, Bennet intended to do what he could to increase the estate’s income.
Considering that the estate’s annual expenses were only at or below one thousand pounds, Bennet sent any profits to his brother-in-law Gardiner. Gardiner had started a business in London which he named Gardiner and Associates. His was an import and export concern, and added to that, thanks to the fact that Gardiner had an eye for excellent investment opportunities, he invested both for himself and a small, but increasing, number of clients. Bennet trusted the man implicitly. So far, the investments Gardiner recommended had all paid off handsomely. Hence, there was no question about looking to put his money anywhere else.
Given that Bennet refused to use the legal services of Elias Gardiner, he used the services of the same man Gardiner used in London, a solicitor by the name of Mr Matthew Crawley. He had Crawley draw up his will to make sure that neither his wife nor his miserly cousin would be able to touch any money he left behind when he went to his eternal reward. The will stipulated that the money would remain with Gardiner until any daughters married or reached the age of five and twenty, whichever came first. If there was ever a son born, he would receive his legacy on attaining his majority. The funds were to be split equally between any children of his body, regardless of sex.
Thankfully, the entail was written in such a way that any money the previous master amassed before his death was not included with the estate. All the new master could lay claim to was the rents due in the quarter his predecessor passed away. As long as Mrs Bennet had no way of touching the money he left, he was at peace.
When his wife complained that she had delivered a daughter and not a son, and somehow he was at fault, Bennet did not bother to correct her and point out that God determined the sex of a babe, not him.
In the little more than a year they had been married, Bennet had learnt that trying to correct his wife’s wrongheaded ideas was akin to hitting his head against a stone wall. Once she decided something, not even irrefutable proof was able to get her to reconsider her position. Knowing that the time he would have to bear being married to her was finite made it easier for Bennet not to care what she said. As it was, other than at meals and when he had to do his distasteful duty at night, he was never in her company.
There was one thing he could use when needed. His wife was a very selfish being, and if she understood that her intransigence would cost her in a material way, then she would relent.
So far she was living within the rules he had imposed, so Bennet had not seen the need to employ such methods.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
It had taken Elias Gardiner the better part of a year to rebuild trust with the community in and around Meryton. Hattie’s death, along with that of his grandson, had begun the thaw in relations. Many of his neighbours felt sympathy for him for the loss of family members. He regained most of the clients he had lost due to his supporting Fanny. However, the one client lost forever was Bennet and any of Longbourn’s work.
Knowing it was a lost cause, Gardiner did not attempt a rapprochement with the master of Longbourn. He had not met his granddaughter yet and understood that until Jane was old enough to come into Meryton with Fanny, that would not change.
He knew that Fanny and Jane were doing well thanks to reports others gave him, especially William Lucas, the owner of the general mercantile and haberdashery in Meryton. His wife Sarah was one of those permitted to visit Fanny at Longbourn on occasion, and she had told her husband all about the new Bennet who had been born. The Lucases had three children, Franklin, Charlotte, and Johnathan, seven, five, and two years of age, respectively.
Ever since he supported Fanny, there had been a distance between Gardiner and his son. Edward would visit soon, and unlike himself, his son was welcome at Longbourn any time he wanted to call. Gardiner was certain that Edward would not withhold information about Jane from him.
As promised, Edward came to visit in December, a few days before the holy day of Christmas. Gardiner was pleased to hear all about his granddaughter of five months.
On his first visit to Longbourn after his arrival in Meryton, Edward Gardiner had spent time with Bennet going over promising investments he recommended. From there the two men had walked up to the nursery. Nurse told them that Mrs Bennet had already fed Miss Janey, and the young miss was awake in her cradle.
On seeing his niece for the first time, Edward Gardiner had lost his heart to the little babe. Now he understood Bennet’s motivation in providing a secure future for his children.
