Chapter One – A Most Proper Scolding
Thomas Henry Bennet tossed back his port and stared morosely at his dear friend and mentor, the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. "So then, now I'm supposed to leave..." he waved his empty tumbler, "... all this and a promising career as a professor in order to become Master of Longbourn, an insignificant little estate in Hertfordshire. I would happily hand the whole lot over to my second cousin, but Fanny is quite enamored with the idea of being genteel. Tell me, Thomas, can you see me as a gentleman farmer? Preposterous!"
He reached for the decanter, but Thomas Postlethwaite placed a restraining hand on the top. "Bennet, I am quite disappointed and unimpressed with you at this moment."
Bennet reared back slightly, slightly shocked. Postlewaite had been his friend and fellow academician since their early days and he'd never heard the man adopt that tone with him... though the man had often used it on misbehaving students. "And why, Master, do you say that?"
"You have always been a brilliant man, Bennet, but I'm afraid that you've been an indolent man as well..." He raised a hand to forestall the younger man's obvious outrage, "No, let me finish, please.
"You are one of the most studious and dedicated learners who I've ever had the privilege to meet, Thomas, but when it comes to the real world, outside of the school, you can be downright lazy. Worse, you don't seem to see the need to take on your rightful responsibilities."
With a cold tone, Bennet said, "If you were any other man, we would be meeting on the field at dawn. As it is I will hear you out for now. Please elucidate."
"As you wish, let us take your marriage for example. You met, proposed, and married Mrs. Bennet in only a month, and that while we were out of session so that nobody who knew you ever had the chance to advise you on your choice. Fine... you had no responsibility to gain our approval, or even your brother's. But when you discovered that your Frances was... let us say... intellectually challenged, you simply pulled back and made no effort to improve her understanding. Instead you have begun to openly disparage her in front of your peers.
"Not enough, you begat your beautiful little Jane with your wife, but you never seem to spend any time with the girl, and there is another one on the way... on a teacher's salary! So your brother dies and suddenly you find yourself the rightful master of an estate with a small but valuable income... And all you can do is complain!"
As he had already noted, Thomas Bennet might have disdained similar censure from any other, but coming from one of his dearest friends and a most respected educator, he felt shame. The Master of Trinity College softened his tone as he continued, "Thomas, I fully realize that you have always seen yourself as an academic, and you are, indeed, one of the best. Had you chosen to take orders, you might have eventually risen to my own position. But you chose to take a wife and you chose to beget children, all of which means that you now have serious responsibilities which must take priority."
He lifted the decanter and poured a portion for his friend and himself. After taking a sip, he regarded the younger man sternly, "So then, Thomas Henry Bennet, Gentleman and Master of Longbourn, I expect you to apply the same level of study and application towards being a husband, father, and squire as you have displayed in becoming a teacher. Look at this new adventure as an academic challenge. How can you make your land a success and your family blessed."
Both men drank and he leaned forward, using the authoritative expression which made adult students tremble, "Because if you go there, ignore your wife, your family, and your land, I will hear about it, Thomas Henry Bennet... and I will be most seriously displeased."
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