Author's note: I don't know who I've done a greater disservices to, Elizabeth, Mrs. Bennet or Jane Austen herself. Poor Elizabeth… it's not her fault that I am writing this melodramatic piece of fantasy but written it is, and I am an extrovert and love to share, so I give you
Disclaimer: I am not Jane Austen. SURPRISE!
Mystery Solved! [or Catharsis]
In the drawing room of Longbourn one evening in December, the first flurries of snow began to fall beyond the windows of the parlor where six women named Bennet sat and busied themselves with the nothings that women were allowed to busy themselves with in the name of being genteel.
The matron of the family held some piece of embroidery that she had not bothered to raise a stitch to in some time. She simply sighed, softly at first, but being one who required a sympathetic ear, she raised the volume of her sighs until her eldest and most sympathetic daughter questioned.
"Are you well, mama? Is there something I may do to relieve your suffering?"
"Oh dear Jane… who suffers as I do?"
Four sets of eyes rolled in synchronicity.
"A glass of wine, shall I get you one" responded her eldest.
"If only that could solve the problem," her critical eyes assessed the room, "Look at you, five girls, oh if only one of you would have been born a boy. Now with Mr. Bingley gone and Lizzy having run away Mr. Collins, who shall take care of us when your father is dead?"
"Papa is in good health, we need not lose all hope." Replied her middle daughter, whose hopeful response surprised the room, herself included.
"But Mary, you are so plain, you cannot be our hope" Mary pushed her head further into her book, her face red in embarrassment as her younger sisters giggled in response. "At least you could be livelier like Lydia. Even Kitty emulates Lydia, you could learn from her"
"You see as beautiful as Jane is, she could not secure Mr. Bingley. I wonder Jane, what could you have done to have driven him away."
Jane lowered her eyes in response to her mother's reprimand, her skin colored with all the pain she felt at Bingley's abandonment.
"Yes, it was Jane that drove him away," scoffed a cynical voice from her place beside her younger sister, comforting her after her mother's harshness.
"You dare speak Miss Lizzy? We would all be saved from the hedgerows had you done your duty to your family and married Mr. Collins"
"Mr. Bingley would have proposed to Jane had you held your tongue!" Her voice rising with her displeasure. Five gasps filled the room. The youngest in the room ceased their molesting of ribbons to openly gawk at their elder sister.
"Elizabeth Sarah Bennet, what did you say to your mama?" a shocked Mrs. Bennet exclaimed in her shrillest of shrill tones.
"How can you blame poor Jane for losing Mr. Bingley when our family declared itself unsuitable before all of Meryton and beyond at the ball at Netherfield. Who would want to connect to such a family after making such a spectacle of itself before their friends? Did you not see the looks we were receiving? Of course not, you were enjoying your punch."
"Lud! Lizzy has lost her mind" squawked Lydia with a snort.
"What choice do I have? If things do not improve here, we will all be here into our dotage, destined to sit six abreast in this room as no respectable family will want to be a part of us!"
Mrs. Bennet still sat in silence, her mouth gaping open.
"Now you are silent madam!"
"Lizzy, you are distressing mama. We must have been mistaken on Mr. Bingley's regard." Jane's tone increased in firmness, though her mind rolled her sister's assertion to a place for later perusal.
"No Jane… let us now be forthright, as it seems we shall be us six together for some time. What man would want to be attached to such a family?" She looked into her elder sister's eyes absorbing her pain and her shame. "Do you not realize how your behavior reflects upon us all?" Her fine eyes gripped each of her younger sisters and her mother in turn, this magmatic pit had simmered too long, and now was the time to erupt.
"Fordyce admonishes a young lady…" Elizabeth cut her sister's words before she could began to rationalize by sermon.
"No Mary, what do YOU say…? You read enough for your mind to be informed to form opinions of your own. What do you have to say?"
"I… I do believe… I do believe no one has ever asked me what I thought before," Mary replied her voice filled with wonder as she silently contemplated what she really thought.
"Well I will tell you what I think," Mrs. Bennet fanned frantically. "I think your father has spoiled you, this is all his fault that you would behave so to your own mama… Do you know how many hours I was in my confinement awaiting your arrival, for you to only be another girl…? "
"Mamma I have been a girl these twenty years, do you not believe you may find it in your heart to forgive me my birth? " Elizabeth pronounced sardonically while primly sitting very straight in her chair.
"I think..." pronounced Mary slowly, "I think you are right Lizzy. We all know that Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley did not look well on us. I saw them laughing at us often when we were in company. They were nice to Jane, but spoke rapidly behind their fans when she walked away. And the ball at Netherfield. Lizzy, I wanted so badly to do well. I try very hard to do well at my music. I am plain, we all know this, what am I to do among four sisters to be noticed if I am not accomplished? "
"Very good Mary!" replied Elizabeth emphatically.
"Well, you could at least try to entertain the officers. Out of all the officers at the ball and you did not dance once, I however was never without a partner," a triumphant Lydia smirked.
"Yes, and who among them has called on you since," Elizabeth enquired.
"Well, Kitty, Lydia, what say you… where are your red coats now? Do they pay you court? Are they seeking father's permission to properly court your favor as befitting a gentleman's daughter? Do you wonder WHY they do not?"
Kitty paused mid cough to ponder her sister's words. An indignant and not to be denied Lydia huffed in exasperation.
"Well if I had a dowry like Mary King I would have an offer by now. I know that the officers like me most of all," she spoke triumphantly.
"Do they really Lydia? Do they pay you any mind when you are not demanding their attention? What women of quality would be found in the streets yelling at officers? You may as well be Nell.'
Since Nell was not the sort of woman a gentlewoman was to even know existed, let alone speak of in company, the whole room became deathly silent.
"Lizzy… you WILL hold your tongue. That is improper." Mrs. Bennet whispered, a tone of which no one believed she had any knowledge, "What know you of Nell and her… her… her business? You should not read so much."
"Yes mamma, I should read, all your daughters should improve their minds with extensive reading that they may be knowledgeable about what a man of character truly values, and what kind of woman he does not."
"Lizzy," asked Kitty with wonder, "Do you really believe that the officers see us like Nell? I do not want to be whispered about the way they whisper about Nell. Are we so bad, I only thought it great fun, I did not believe it to be so bad to laugh with the officers."
"Kitty, you tell me what you believe."
"I only thought… I only wished…, it is so very hard to be one of five girls. How are you to ever be seen? Jane is beautiful, you are clever, Lydia is friendly and outgoing. Who am I among such sisters?"
Mary and Kitty looked at their elder sister as if the answers to all of life's questions would come from her mouth,
"You are who you choose to be Kitty, and you as well Mary. The only thing we have is our reputations. The respect of our friends and neighbors is not to be taken lightly for a gentlewoman of small fortune. We are not often in London, so we are defined by our reputations here. Do you believe a man of sense will want to be attached to a family who cannot exhibit proper behavior in their own neighborhood?"
"Whatever do you mean? Why we are among the premiere families of the neighborhood. What care we for members of the ton who only turn their noses up at us? They are not so very great with their proud manners and haughty looks," replied Mrs. Bennet, now fully engaged in the discussion.
"Mama, how can we attract rich husbands, if those husbands are members of the ton you so despise?"
"Mama," ventured Jane after her elongated silence, "I do not, that is, I do believe we could have been wrong in the estimation of Mr. Bingley's ah… of his," she breathed deeply, "Of his feelings for me. But I have heard, that is… in passing, there have been comments about Lydia and Kitty's behavior, and sometimes, mama, they have said things of you as well."
"Oh people will talk Jane, never you mind my dear. Do not stress yourself you may lose your beauty, then where would we be?"
"I believe a woman should be more than beautiful mama. You have told me I was beautiful since I was fifteen, I am nearly three and twenty now, but I am still here. I have not found a husband. No. I am sure there is more to finding a husband than beauty."
So they sat, one unhappily married woman, and five young confused unmarried women contemplating those things it took to find a husband. If Jane with her beauty and propriety could not find a husband, and Lydia with her high spirits and beauty could not find a husband, what was a gentlewoman to do?
Then it occurred to them, Elizabeth had been the only one of her sisters to have received a marriage proposal, which she rejected! A marriage proposal that would have secured all their futures should something unseemly happen to their father.
"Lizzy," Mary broke the contemplative silence, "Why did you not marry Mr. Collins. I know he was not so nice as Mr. Bingley, nor as handsome or smart as Mr. Darcy, but he was a respectable man, with an income and a connection to Lady Catherine De Bourgh, surely you could have married him to save our family.' Her voice held no condemnation; she just thought that she would have done it for a comfortable home.
"Would you have married him Mary?" asked Lydia, shocked at the thought.
"I would have, if he had but noticed me. But he did not." Mary spoke quietly; the sting of rejection drenched every syllable. She was accustomed to being overlooked, but it did not remove the pain each new instance caused.
"It is simple, we did not suit. I could not marry where I do not respect. My personality forbids it. We would have been miserable."
"Oh posh, what is respect in a marriage. All a woman needs is a comfortable home. Husbands may go where they may, and we may do what we may."
"That is not enough for me mamma,"
"Nor, I... there must be balls and entertainments. I want new dresses and to travel. That is why I am to be a soldier's wife, so that I may meet many new people and dance the night away."
"Really Lydia, do you not know that a soldier's wife cannot afford new dresses, or silks and lace, or even many servants? Do you not know that you may have to do some of your own cleaning, and remake your clothes? A soldier may be called away to war, and he may not return."
Two hearts were scandalized as their pretty pictures fell from the shelves of their hearts and shattered.
"But Mrs. Foster does not, that is, Colonel Foster… oh, no, this can not be so."
"Yes, he is a Colonel. Not a Lieutenant, or even a Captain."
"But, he's so… so.. so OLD!" screeched an even more scandalized Lydia.
"Lydia, do not say such. He is only five and thirty. A respectable age and able to provide well for his wife." Entered Jane, she did not think so much as Lizzy, and though she had given some thoughts to her wants in a husband, she never considered all aspects of provision and comfort.
"But Lizzy, I thought you loved Mr. Wickham?" inquired Kitty, quite overwhelmed by all the information she was receiving on this day.
"I find Mr. Wickham quite as handsome and charming as most of the girls in Meryton I assume. I can not say my pride was not hurt when he began to devote all his attentions to Miss King."
"But she has 10,000 pounds Lizzy, 10 times what either of us has."
Mrs. Bennet sniffed, "I think I agree with Lizzy here. Why Lizzy is much more beautiful than Mary King. Such.. freckles!"
"Mamma I think that is the kindest thing you have ever said about my physical appearance."
"Oh posh Lizzy.. do I not always say that my girls are the most beautiful in the county. Are you not one of my girls? You do not look as classically beautiful as Jane, few could really, but you have you father's eyes. So bright and beautiful, I quite lost my head over them when I first met your father."
"Mother, you have never mentioned that, it is a story I would love to hear," piped in a curious Mary and all the girls shook their heads in time and gave their mother an expectant look.
"Oh girls, your father was not an officer. I had quite a fancy for a man in Colonel Miller's regiment. That is why you girls remind me of myself when I was young. Oh but your father. He was so smart, and I do not believe I understood one word in five he spoke, but I wanted to! I was a tradesman's daughter as you know and had no more thought at being the wife of a gentleman. But your father asked me to dance twice! Then he asked my father for permission to call on me. I was quite silent I was so nervous."
A chorus of giggles of varying degrees followed this proclamation.
"Your father called on me for three days straight and on the fourth day, he asked me to marry him!"
"So soon?!" exclaimed Jane suddenly, quite surprised.
"Oh yes… You know girls, now that I am thinking about that time, I was quite in awe of your father. I think I didn't speak very much for the first three years of our marriage."
Mystery solved! Thought Elizabeth, with their uneasy accord established, she did not wish to agitate her mother further by voicing this assertion.