Chapter 24
"Jane, I begin to fear that it may come to more than an embarrassment, I fear she may actually ruin us," said Elizabeth, suddenly sharing her thoughts with her favorite sister as she brushed her hair. Elizabeth was still unsettled by what she had witnessed in the street. She knew she could not do the inflection of his speech justice, and his words may very well seem innocent enough, may even have been innocent enough, as Elizabeth knew, she was only privy to a few phrases. It was her sister's encouragement of the man that worried her more than the man himself.
"Surely not Lizzy," gasped Jane. "You can not believe that, I'm sure she knows better, she is not, after all, actually wicked, just high spirited."
Elizabeth reflected on her sister's words, wishing, rather than believing them to be true. She began to recollect a time in London while visiting her aunt and out shopping for the day, that she had then commented that a woman across from them reminded her of Lydia, in manner, though not appearance. Her aunt lost all color, hurrying her along, silencing Elizabeth until she collected her own thoughts. After a time, as delicately as could be said, her aunt implied the woman seemed to be of the sort who sold her charms.
Elizabeth was horrified, she had known vaguely of such things, but at such a tender age at the time, she never thought about the matter extensively. How did women arrive in such an occupation? At the time Elizabeth assumed they would choose it, preferring money to respectability, income over extreme poverty.
Now, being more mature, she began to see it may be the only choice left to a woman who had been seduced into ruin. She realized those women likely made one choice that they then could not unmake, thus dictating the rest of their lives. It did not take much to destroy a reputation in an instant, even a whisper would do, about an unmarried woman being of questionable virtue. The whisper need not the benefit of being the truth or even need to be believed to be true, for every respectable family to feel compelled to shun the questionable one.
Elizabeth had only seen it once, questioning its justice even at the time, though that was all that was needed to know for certain that there was no swimming against such a tide of salacious gossip.
Was that the natural progression for a notorious flirt such as Lydia? Did it start innocently enough, merely a young girl enjoying the attention of man enough to encourage him? Lydia may not be willing to intentionally ruin them, but could she truly understand how her actions may someday be misperceived? Did even their mother? Certainly not. Was Lydia ever even suspicious enough of a handsome face to question a charming man's motives or intentions towards her? No, Lydia thought every man who flirted with her must mean to marry her. She thought them all to be in love with her. There was nothing else in her head. Worse, Lydia was entirely unaccustomed to consequences for her actions, entirely sure they could all just be waived away, further encouraging her confidence in her own boisterous behavior.
"Jane, she may be only willful and not wicked, but I think we must ensure she is properly looked after. She is often brazen, without knowing how she ought to act in a situation, or even holding to what is proper when she does know it. I concur she would not do us such an injustice with intent, or herself for that matter, but I daresay her silliness could do us twice the harm. I think we must ensure her ignorance does not cause consequences that can not be undone."
"Of course Lizzy," replied Jane. Though she would not say it, she was quite shaken by Elizabeth's turn in the conversation. Her sister dearly loved to laugh and was not at all prone to melancholy imaginations. Whatever had prompted Elizabeth to be so very guarded, Jane trusted it was not an exaggerated response.
Elizabeth, for her part, wished she had better heeded her aunt's warning for her and Jane to take Lydia under their wing. Elizabeth discarded the recommendation swiftly after implementing it, finding Lydia's hysterics at guidance and her mother's indulgence to be too much to overcome. Their aunt, being so far away, could do little to aid Lydia's understanding, though she had tried to strike up a correspondence that resulted only in Lydia's demands for more gifts from town, on the rare occasion she wrote.
Elizabeth simply did not realize, until that moment, that the only thing that could compel her aunt to say such things to a maiden, however tactfully and abstractly, was fear for her niece's futures. Elizabeth believed, at the time, that her aunt merely found it horrifying and unladylike that Lydia had mannerisms in common with such a woman. However, Elizabeth now realized for the first time that a gently born woman known to her could end in such an occupation and for a reason other than her own preference. That point echoed in her mind, causing the world outside of Loungbourn to feel far more real, hardship far closer to her front door, for realizing that someone she knew could end as such. Elizabeth was now committed, Lydia would be under her wing, like it or not, until she showed some kind of improvement in both her behaviors and her ability to reason.