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The debt, sadly, was not forever, it barely lasted four months.

“Come in Lizzie.”

The Gardiners were acting as if someone had died. Elizabeth did not realise that it was not someone but something. Her last links to family were about to be severed.

“You are worrying me Uncle. Is there something wrong?”

The knot in her stomach doubled in size as he nodded while being unable to look her in the eye.

“Tell me please.”

“Your disownment is known in London and the fact that you are residing with us is now causing problems for my business, and the family.”

Elizabeth said nothing, just sat there defeated. She was surprised to discover herself crying, the tears dropping into her lap. In amongst everything else, she noticed that a handkerchief was not offered.

“I reach my majority next Friday, nine days away. Will you allow me to stay until then? I will be gone by the following Monday morning.”

“Yes Lizzie, of course.”

“There is no of course when it comes to me and my situation. I will spend the next week contacting all the hiring agencies in the hope of finding a position.”

Left unsaid was what she was going to do in 12 days if she did not have a position. The stories of what happened to young women alone on the streets of London were legion and there were no happy ever afters. Elizabeth Bennet knew nothing of the marriage bed and was petrified she was going to find out in the most brutal way imaginable.

She crumpled to the ground, literally scared unconscious.

--

Edward Gardiner found his wife weeping in the parlour. And not a gentle sob but heartfelt tears.

“Madeline, what happened? What did Lizzie say that upset you so much?”

Edward Gardiner was starting to work himself into a righteous state of indignation. His wife’s answer punctured him so thoroughly that the pain was as bad as a stab wound.

“Lizzie asked me to explain the marriage bed in case it became necessary.”

Even that was too much and Madeline Gardiner sobbed anew. Edward Gardiner was in an equal state of shock, although he kept his tears in check.

He had read of disownments, he had even gossiped about them with fellow business owners over a glass of port or brandy. Never again. Snide or supercilious comments hid this reality. Young women with nowhere to go had one choice. And it did not make him feel any kind of a man to know that he was the one doing this to his young niece.

But sadly she was only a member of his extended family. Which meant that his own, immediate, family had to come first. One week from Monday his niece Elizabeth would be alone on the streets of London. Afterwards he would drink himself senseless but he could not and would not be diverted from his duty to his family.

The last of her family prepared to acknowledge Elizabeth Bennet as part of that family was turning her out onto the streets. With the likely prospect of having to learn the secrets of the marriage bed without the bother of actually being married.

Chapter 4

Jane Bennet sat in a pew at the back of Longbourn Chapel, silent tears running down her face. Her life was not ruined, she knew all too well what ruin actually looked like, but her life was chaotic, everything that she had believed in lying in shattered pieces at her feet. It was the realisation that her dearest sister Lizzie was lost to her forever that collapsed the façade of her beliefs.

She had so many regrets. But the one that would never fade was believing the vicious lies of Caroline Bingley and of the local community. Everything flowed from that. Lizzie had not been gone for long before Jane had started to see things which gave her pause. The attitude of her mother and her aunt was inexplicable. They did not appear to care about Elizabeth the person. They were happy for her to be gone, almost revelling in the fact despite the social isolation of the family. Yet at the same time they were both vicious in their criticism of Elizabeth, pre-emptively blaming her for the inevitable hedgerows. And through it all she, Jane, was still seen as the saviour of the family. It defied belief.

And then there was the attitude of the Lucas family. Lady Lucas had been ruthless in her crowing about Lizzie’s supposed fall from grace. And through it all Charlotte was silent. Jane was a good friend with Charlotte Lucas, or at least had been. But despite the difference in age, Charlotte and Lizzie had been the closest of friends for close to a decade. Yet that friendship resulted in nothing but silence. And to compound matters she had agreed to marry the heir to the estate.

It was one more painful thing in an autumn full of them. The hitherto unknown heir had announced his intention to visit, arriving mere days after Lizzie was banished, although her father had known of the visit for a month. The fat sweaty windbag lasted only a day, the very smallest of mercies, before he left the scandal-ridden Longbourn Manor. It took him less than a week to secure Charlotte Lucas’ hand in marriage. She was now settled at Hunsford Parsonage with her new husband, both of them waiting for the news of the passing of Mr. Bennet so they could return as the Master and Mistress of Longbourn.

Jane was beaten down by the unrelenting stream of bad news. The Bingleys blithely held a ball back in November, an event the Bennet family was unable to attend. Then the whole party upped and left the next day, with the house now closed up. Mr. Bingley had done right by the estate and the staff, there were no unfulfilled obligations, but the family had not made one friend in their two months in the area. Looking back on the end of the autumn and the start of winter, one of the few good things that resulted from the disgrace of the family, was that her two youngest sisters had not been in the company of the Militia officers.

It was one more thing that Kitty and Lydia berated and blamed Lizzie for. Wailing away at the unfairness of it all, with the loud encouragement of Mrs. Bennet. The relentless unforgiving attitude of her three remaining sisters had started to grind on Jane, and made her more reflective and self-aware.

But then that very morning, the letter was received from Uncle Gardiner with the news that he had demanded that Lizzie leave their house on Gracechurch Street. News of the scandal had reached London and Gardiner and Associates, and the Gardiner family, were now being tainted with Lizzie’s supposed disgrace, as she lived with the family.