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“And yet you made no effort to nurse your sick daughter. You left Elizabeth there clearing up the mess that you had created.”

“If that hoyden.”

“Be silent. The only hoyden is sitting at the other end of this table. I am seriously considering taking my thickest and heaviest belt, dragging you to the stables and thrashing you. This family is broken, torn apart because of your stupidity. If I thought that I could beat some sense into you, I would do so in an instant. But I do not want to hang.”

He looked round the table.

“I will eat my breakfast in this room, and on my own. No one else is allowed to enter until I have finished and gone to my study. I will eat my lunch there every day. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I will eat my dinner in this room. You will eat in your room. On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday I will eat in my study and you may eat here. I will eat dinner with my family on the Lord’s day and no other.”

He glowered round the table.

“You will never raise your voice at me ever again. If you do, I will thrash you. Martha Philips is no longer welcome in this house. If she is ever here, I will thrash you. And listen well. You are never to mention the name of our second daughter ever again. Should there be any reference to Elizabeth, Lizzie, a hoyden, or any of the other insults you have casually bandied about, then I will thrash you morning and night for a week.”

He stood up from the dinner table.

“And know this. I hope you fail. I have an endless well of anger and I want to take it out on someone.”

Thomas Bennet, a typical weak man, had taken out his frustration on those who could not fight back.

--

“Jane has changed.”

Madeline Gardiner nodded in agreement.

“She lets no one in. Before she wore her deep heart on her sleeve. Now, she is angry at the world.”

“A good way to describe it. Do you think she is angry at us?”

“Oh without doubt. She is just less angry at us than she is at her parents.”

“What should we do?”

A deep sigh. Not a good sign.

“We give her a week or two, see if she regains her composure. Frankly I am fed up dealing with Bennet daughters who have been poorly parented. The Fisher Fleet leaves in six months, and if Jane does not improve then I suggest we send her out to India. There is a limit to how much the Bennet family can impose upon us. We have four young children of our own.”

It was an uncompromising attitude but Edward Gardiner knew his wife was correct. It was not up to him, or his family, to solve every problem created by his older sister.

What they did not realise was that Jane was of the same opinion. She had heard of the Fisher Fleet and the thought of escaping to India filled her with joy. She would risk the diseases for the chance to get as far away from Longbourn and her parents as possible.

In less than a year, the Bennet family had completely fallen apart.

Chapter 5

It seemed like Elizabeth had been on the verge of panic for months. Ever since that night at the start of November she was always just five seconds away from panic. She had gone to the edge many times, had fought back but it was all in vain. When she finally fell apart it was a cataclysm, her tears were unending.

Yet it was caused by a simple accident. An old man stumbled coming down some steps, his own footman just half a second too late in reaching for him. The old man pitched head first towards the ground, just seconds from death based on the speed his head was going to hit the ground. And he was saved by the unknowing and utterly random presence of Elizabeth Bennet. She broke his fall at the cost of her own health. The old man slammed into her right shoulder which was bad enough. But he bowled her over transferring his momentum to her resulting in Elizabeth being knocked to the ground. Her whole left side, especially her hip, crashed into the ground. Following in the blink of an eye by the old man himself, further injuring her right shoulder and the whole of her left side.

The entire incident took barely a second. Before anyone else could act a ragged street urchin grabbed Elizabeth’s bag and was off in a flash. Her life savings of £77, augmented by a few pounds thrust into her hand by an embarrassed aunt, were in the bag. And they were gone.

Her whole body ached, several parts were screaming in pain, but Elizabeth did not care. Her life was over. Her last vestige of safety, the few pounds that would keep the alternative at bay were gone. The tears started and they just would not stop. She emotionally disintegrated.

--

Peter, Baron Napier knew he was on borrowed time. His doctor had been clear and this latest check-up only confirmed his diagnosis from earlier visits. His heart was worn out. The doctor had said all the right things, as a physician he always tried to accentuate the positive. Yet he had not demurred when Napier said he would prioritise finalising his affairs.

As his foot missed the step and he felt himself falling forward the thought flashed through his mind that this was a fraction sooner than he would have hoped. But in that instant, Napier was also resigned to his fate. The disposition of the estate would be an almighty mess but he would be dead, there was an element of ‘what did he care’.