Thank you all for your reviews and suggestions. I want to address some of your concerns. For those who are believe Jane was OOC, that was exactly the point. She is meant to be portrayed as out of character. The poker was meant to be too much, even for the characters as you will see in this chapter. Those who mentioned that Mr Bennet had done nothing, I would like to remind you that Lizzy, his favourite daughter, strongly cautioned him about letting Lydia go to Brighton and he laughed it off in the actual book. As for Lydia's self awareness, I firmly believe that all the Bennet girls were intelligent or capable of intelligence, thus explaining Lydia's self awareness. Also someone mentioned that the body would be buried as soon as possible. While that is most likely true, I did some research and I did find it wasn't uncommon for the body to remain for several days until appropriate mourning attire could be made or dyed and relatives could be summoned for the funeral. It didn't specifically mention the Regency Era, but I believe that the custom would have been of some duration. Mrs Bennet has at this point only been lying around upstairs for the past five days. She died on the Friday, her funeral is on the Sunday next. She would be placed in the coffin the moment it could be brought to the house, and she would be dressed by her daughters. If that isn't the case then it is now for the purpose of this story progression.
Now I do not condone abuse, but for the purpose of this story it had to happen. Jane will be punished, not in the way that some of you may think but in keeping with Jane's normal character such a punishment would have an impact on her. Someone mentioned that for Jane to beat Lydia, when it wasn't common in her household suggests something evil. Now I agree with that conclusion, normally that is what it would suggest. But people do strange and often incredibly hurtful things in their grief. The victim blaming was a terrible thing to do, but Lydia had been doing that for the past several days, and not just at Jane. Kitty snapped too, but far more mildly than Jane's reaction.
I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I hope it explains the events of the past two chapters.
Not long after Kitty came back downstairs, she was summoned into Mr Bennet's study by Lizzy. The trembling young girl stood awkwardly before her father before he waved at her to sit in a chair, beside Lizzy. For several seconds he stared at her, before speaking so suddenly he startled poor Kitty.
"Well my girl. What did you find out?" There was another long silence and then Kitty began to sob. The affect it had on Mr Bennet and Lizzy was immediate. Both looked extremely alarmed as her sobs grew until she was fairly red in the face with crying. Mr Bennet coughed loudly to gain Kitty's attention and when her tear-stained face rose to meet his, he shifted his chair to the side and held open his arms. With another loud sob Kitty flung herself out of her chair, around the desk and onto his lap, clinging tightly to her father with all her might. Mr Bennet grunted at the impact, but simply wrapped his arms around her and rocked her back and forth as he had done many times before when she was a child. For Kitty had been a colicky babe and there had been many a night that he had paced the floor with her in his arms. That he was surprised at the strength of her reaction, he did not show it and simply looked up at Lizzy with a raised brow. Lizzy for her part seemed shocked that Kitty should react so, and her eyes begged her father to find out the truth. Mr Bennet nodded and repeated his question to Kitty, who through hiccuping sobs told them all she had learned from Lydia and what she had seen. As she revealed the extent of Lydia's injuries, Lizzy looked more and shocked and Mr Bennet's countenance turned grim. When she told them what Lydia had said, Lizzy got up and began pacing the room. After she had finished relating it all, Mr Bennet stood Kitty up and then removed himself from the room with a pat of her back and a loaded look at Lizzy. Elizabeth, for once in her life was completely silent. Kitty, however was still full of emotion, and when she met Lizzy's strong gaze, she shrank back.
"I would have never condoned it Lizzy, I swear. I thought Lydia was jealous of Jane at one time or another, we both were! I never believed that it would lead to her attacking Jane! I'm not a horrible person, I couldn't have stood hearing those things that Lydia said, but I do understand where she is coming from." Kitty hiccuped but some stopped sobbing, though her body still convulsed with repressed crying, and she wrapped her arms around herself and moved to look out the window. As the warm sunlight bathed her face, she seemed to strike Lizzy as such a young, vulnerable woman that she was moved to compassion. Lizzy quickly crossed to Kitty's side and put an arm around her waist.
"Surely, Kitty you would have known that you could have found solidarity with Papa. You could have always gone to Mary and I. Why didn't you?" Kitty laughed bitterly and launched into a diatribe that shook her sister to her core.
"Lizzy, you say that with all the assurance of one who could never do wrong in the eyes of Papa. It is no secret to the whole of Meryton that Papa considers Lydia and I the silliest girls in all England! How could I go to you? You would not understand. You are in Jane's confidences all the time, you never spend any time with us younger girls. Mary used to have me for a companion until Fordyce's sermons turned her head, along with Papa's strictures and Mama's complaints. Now Lydia and I have each other. Neither of us has any wish to become bookish like Mary, but we three all know that we will never have the attention of Mama and Papa the way you and Jane do. Even by acting ridiculous does naught but drive Mama into fits of silliness with us and Papa raises an eyebrow and dismisses us as childish and stupid. We cannot compete by being intelligent. We cannot compete by being pretty. The only possible hope of attention that we would receive in order to avoid being driven to the back wall and left in the cold; are to stand out in our ways. Lydia and I chose to be mischievous and wild, and Mary chose to be bookish. And yet for all the effort we put in to noticed and to try and receive our share of parental love and affection, or even dare I say, sisterly affection, goes awry for it comes out in strictures or complaints! The only time you have ever spoken to Mary for the past few years was to tell her to play different tunes or to ask her whether she would like to walk to the bookshop. You certainly never talk to Lydia or I unless you deem absolutely necessary! Why ever should I entertain the notion that behaving well and being a good girl would get me the love and affection of my family when previously when I did behave I received near the same treatment I do now?! That embrace I received from Papa was the first one I have had since I was seven, and that was nigh on nine years ago! Neither you nor Jane ever go out of your way to speak to Lydia and I unless we have behaved poorly and even our behaviour is deliberately designed to receive that notice. Why do you think we never heed your advice? Why do you think I agreed to behave at the Assembly when you all promised to dance with me? It certainly wasn't because I realised I was behaving badly! It was because you finally decided to play nice to me, and I did my utmost to encourage it. Of course, Mary would have danced with me, I never had any fears regarding that score. She is a good older sister to me." Kitty concluded wistfully, and Lizzy, who had clamped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from speaking or crying, now removed it and stared at her younger sister, whose head was stubbornly turned away.
"Oh Kitty, I never knew! I never figured that you three behaved the way you did for love and attention. I always thought Mary loved her books more. And yet, Kitty if you truly love Mary so, why do you and Lydia torment her? That is hardly the actions of a caring sister." Kitty snorted and moved away, fingering the back of a chair as she spoke.
"Oh la, Lizzy another mystery you have yet to solve. For someone who prides herself on noting the characters of those around her, you are remarkably dense with those closest to you! There is an agreement between Mary, Lydia and I that Lydia and I shall torment Mary at the most opportune moments and she shall try and regulate our behaviour by quoting Fordyce and the Holy Bible. In doing so, we are bound to draw attention to ourselves, specifically with the hope that either you or Jane will strike up a rapport with Mary, and once one is established, she will then begin drawing us into the conversations, and we will over time get our behaviour under regulation and you will believe that it was all your doing. And yet, so far our plans have failed. Thus Mary shall always play the pianoforte badly and be bookish, Lydia and I shall always be silly, boisterous and mischievous, and so the cycle shall continue until you and Jane are married and we can find husbands or our own to lavish us with attention and love. That is unless we both become as cynical as Mary." Again Lizzy looked shocked.
"Mary? Cynical? What ever could she have to be cynical about?" At this, Kitty finally turned to face Lizzy and there was such a look of utter disdain on her face, that Lizzy drew away from her.
"It may have escaped your notice Lizzy, but Mary is quite lovely without her spectacles and her awful fashion sense. But I believe I can safely answer your question by quoting her own words by telling you 'If I cannot find love in my own family, from my parents and my own siblings, I surely shall never attract that romantic love that is so beguiling to me, and it shall suit me never to seek it lest I be sorely disappointed in those great endeavours only granted to those more fortunate than I'. So you see Lizzy, Mary believes she shall never marry, and that she shall presently join Charlotte Lucas in the state of spinsterhood. A state I am determined to avoid, and if I can possibly help it, Mary shall avoid it too. You want Jane and yourself to marry for love, yet you never consider that your sisters want only the same thing. And for all the love you have received, I believe that us younger girls deserve a loving husband far more than the pair of you." And Kitty gave her sister another hard stare before she whirled around and stormed out of the room, leaving her extremely hurt and perplexed elder sister behind.
In another room, Mr Bennet was having far more trouble with Lydia than Kitty had had. The moment he had entered the room, he had been privy to watching his youngest daughter flinch the second she saw him. He did not understand why she should be so afraid of him for he had put on his most fatherly, kind face. Yet even as he moved toward her, she shrank back on the bed, immediately seek to protect her injured side from him. Her eyes were guarded, watching him warily and he sat on the seat that Kitty had vacated.
"My child, why would you fight so, especially after your mother's death?" If it was at all possible, Lydia shrank back even more. Her posture and the martial look in her eye reminded Mr Bennet of a coiled snake about to strike.
"I miss Mama dreadfully. I wanted to hurt Jane so I did." She said, in a quiet, neutral tone. Mr Bennet stared at her.
"But to hate her?" He questioned and Lydia's face went taut, every muscle suddenly rigid, and a fleeting look of fury crossed her face followed by betrayal. As quickly as those emotions came so did they leave and Lydia returned to neutrality.
"I never told you I hated Jane." She replied, and Mr Bennet took a moment to appreciate her cunning mind.
"No, you did not say it to me, but you said it to Kitty, and she said it to me. You do not know how much it hurt your sister to relate it to me. I held her in my arms as she wept." He was momentarily taken aback by the reaction Lydia had to that particular sentence. Jealousy warred with pain on her face, and he wondered that Lydia should feel jealous.
"Aye, I told Kitty." She replied, and he waited a moment for her to continue before realising she would say no more. It took him a full moment to realise that she was subtly trying to control the interrogation, for interrogation it was. She would give him no more and no less than she felt he should receive. He considered on abandoning the fatherly act, but figured that with Lydia being as stubborn and guarded as she was, it would only cause her more pain and she would never give in. It was perhaps unfortunate for him that she possessed the same stubborn, fiery spirit that Lizzy did.
"Why do you hate your sister, Lydia?" And he realised he should have framed it better when she replied, oh so quickly.
"Which one, Jane or Kitty?" Mr Bennet stared at her, the kind look on his face being replaced by a frown. He had never matched wits with his youngest daughter, he had never suspected her of having anything akin to cunning or intelligence. He was also highly aware that this was the longest conversation he'd ever had with any of his daughters below Lizzy.
"Jane, Lydia, Jane. Unless you hate Kitty too."
"I should dislike her, or even blame her for sharing my confidences. But I do not hate her. I am not so stupid as to hate the person who tended my wounds."
"But still you hate Jane."
"Jane has not tended my wounds."
"Jane is still your sister."
"An unfortunate connection for her, I suppose. I do not relish it either."
"Child, why should you hate her. She has never done you ill." Mr Bennet was now thoroughly confused. Lydia did not disappoint on her clarification.
"Never done me ill? If a mother never harms her babe, feeds her, teaches her, and yet never touches her beyond what is necessary I suppose she never does her child ill. Yet the child shall always feel lacking." Lydia retorted and Mr Bennet pounced on her metaphor.
"And you feel like that child do you? You feel lacking from Jane. As far as I have seen she has always been civil to you."
"Civil! Ha, if civility pertained to talking to someone only when necessary, an acquaintance might not be slighted by such strictures, but a sisterhood should surely promote greater intimacy."
"You have your own intimacy with Kitty." He replied, and Lydia snorted again.
"Borne of necessity, I utterly reassure you. Kitty and I rarely agree on anything. Not novels, not books nor fashion. For sisters as close as she and I, we have little in common beyond the usual things. Such a singular intimacy would be highly agreeable mixed in with the other sisterly intimacies women share, and yet she and I have only the one intimacy and so it becomes most disturbing when you are out of sorts with one another. We cannot remain pleasant with each other, yet we cannot remain angry lest we are cut off."
"Borne of necessity! Singular! Upon my word, Lydia, I believe you to be telling the veriest of falsehoods! Are you informing me that you have not one single intimacy amongst your family other than that of Kitty?!" Mr Bennet exclaimed, and he stared at her in astonishment.
"Are you so intimate with me, Father, that you can remain blind to my lack of friendships within my sisters? Does it truly astonish you so?" She replied sardonically, and he was completely and utterly taken aback. That Lydia, lively Lydia should feel isolated within her own family should not ring true, and yet he could see that she was truly angry.
"Can you truly tell me without a lie upon your conscience that you do not have any familiarity with any of your sisters other than Kitty?" He asked, and Lydia met his eyes unequivocally.
"I can and I do." And for a moment Mr Bennet was completely bereft of anything to say. He faltered and stared at Lydia quite remorsefully, but his inexperience with his younger daughters had led him to be unequal to reassuring them.
"You have always been loved, Lydia, never doubt that."He said uncertainly, but Lydia was having none of it.
"Of course, I forgot that love had a funny way of being shown through neglect and impatience. True love must always manifest itself through silence and uncaring manners. Through disdain and condescension. Naturally such love is the deepest kind and will never show itself through patience, kindness, tenderness, understanding and fairness. I shall always consider being called 'the silliest girl in all England' the highest compliment I could ever receive." She replied contemptuously, and Mr Bennet flinched. He eyed her contemplatively for a second, and then stood.
"Regardless of your hatred for your sister, I cannot allow you to act in such a manner. Therefore after the funeral and the wake, not one person in this household shall speak to you. You shall not go out into society, not anywhere. Your punishment shall continue for a full two weeks. You will receive plain meals. And I will see that you are always in some useful employment. The mending work for the tenants and the poor shall be your workload. I shall have Lizzy inspect every article you mend. In addition you will spend one hour every morning reading the Bible and another full hour reading etiquette manuals. I will then expect a page long essay every evening comparing your behaviour to that of the Biblical women and the women described in the manuals. You will practice your accomplishments by playing the pianoforte for one whole hour, and Mary shall listen to you and report to me. You will also work with Jane to take apart your mother's gowns. If I hear that you are intentionally carrying out your punishment in an ill mannered fashion, I will double your punishment. If this behaviour continues I will delay your coming out until Kitty is married. And even then if you are still ill mannered I shall marry you to the dullest man I can find." The mutinous look that crossed Lydia's face would never be described well enough to do it justice, her eyes were full of suppressed fury and her nod was terse. Grateful that she had quietly acquiesced he left the room quickly. There was only Jane to contend with, but he doubted that she would present much of a challenge unless she had completely lost her wits and senses.
It wasn't hard to find his eldest daughter. All he had to do was follow the sound of her sobbing to his wife's chambers and step in. Jane was kneeling beside the bed, weeping as though her life was about to end. She looked up when he closed the door, and then buried her face in the bed sheets and wept even harder.
"I had not realised my mere presence was cause for such sorrow." Mr Bennet said wryly and Jane shook her head.
"Oh Papa I lost my temper! I couldn't help it! It was like evil possessed me! I don't know why I wanted to hurt her so badly, but I did! And I couldn't stop it once I started!" She cried, and Mr Bennet stepped closer to her.
"But the truth is my dear girl, is that is exactly what you did. You are aware my child, that if Lydia had reacted in such a way I might have been forced to send her to Bedlam. Indeed people have been sent there for less!" At these shocking words, Jane launched herself at her Papa's feet, looking for all the world as though she was grovelling. And indeed she was.
"Oh Papa please! Papa do not send me there! I will behave, I promise! I will be a model daughter and sister, I will! Please don't send me there, please!" She cried and Mr Bennet felt his temper renewing. That his daughters should automatically assume the worst of him and to be begging before him tried his patience. He reached down and grasping Jane by the shoulders, roughly pulled her to her feet. He all, but frogmarched her to the window seat and curtly bade her to sit. Jane stared up at him, her blue eyes reddened and he shook his head at her.
"I am not G-d, nor the King, nor a slave-master that you should beg before me, child! I am not heartless, and indeed I could never countenance the thought of any of my daughters being in that place, no matter how wild! But I have already had to ensure that the servant's do not gossip or ruination would be upon us. If you had acted so in company I would have had little choice, but to send you off there and marry your sisters to tradesmen before the taint of scandal befell them! I heard from Kitty what Lydia had said to you, I heard her description of the bruises you left on your little sister's body! I have never and will never condone such shocking violence amongst my own household! Do you know why I will never condone violence?!" Jane shook her head at him, and he sat down next to her. "My dear child, your cousin Mr Collins, who is the heir to this place shares the same paternal grandfather as I do. My grandfather, Henry Bennet, was much deceived in the countenance of James Collins, my uncle-in-law. He wed your grand-aunt Penelope Bennet to James Collins upon Mr Collins asking and Penelope's conceding. He was up, until the day before the marriage took place, unaware that James Collins had forced his attentions on Penelope and raped her. He had placed his child inside her belly, and she knew this and gave in to his blackmail in which her dowry of five thousand pounds would cede to him upon her marriage to him. She bore him a daughter six months after she wed him, and after that day there was not an hour that went by that my grandfather did not fear for her life and that of her daughter. He was correct to fear, because as the servants gossip went, she was raped daily and beaten near hourly by the miserly codger until she almost passed away. Her daughter, Louisa Jane, was suffocated in her sleep, although there were no witnesses to say so. She would have been a year older than me." Silently, he got up and began pacing the room. Jane swallowed her sobs and watched him for several minutes.
"As the years went by eventually she bore him a son, and another daughter. The son grew up to be a belligerent tyrant, the daughter was disgraced when she left to remove to another county upon the village learning she was pregnant with what everyone believed was her father's baby. There were reports from my father who tried to find her, but we learned that she gave birth to a stillborn son who was named Quentin, and then she passed not long after. She was my cousin Vivian. Not long after that news tore through the town, Penelope took ill and died. We believe she suffered a shock at her the news of what her husband had done. Her husband drunk himself into a stupor and attempted to force himself upon the magistrate's daughter in some obscure little town in Cornwall. He was called to a duel and died the following morning. The son, Arthur, moved away from Hertfordshire and went up north to Lincolnshire, where he took his own wife and she bore him a son. We received no further reports. But I grew up knowing Vivian, seeing the bruises on her body and those on her mother's face. My father never resorted to violence, and neither will I. And that is why, my girl, I will never condone what you just did to your sister. It is a despicable act, cruel and hateful, and I will never allow it to happen in my home." Jane looked down, ashamed of herself.
"I couldn't help it, Father." She said softly, and Mr Bennet sat down next to her.
"Then pull yourself together. You are the eldest of five daughters, and with your mother dead you are now Mistress of Longbourn! And mistresses of fine estates do not behave like tyrannical old biddies with nothing better to do than beat their children and gossip. You are a fine woman, Jane! A fine, intelligent young woman! Don't let some evil impulse get the better of you. I know you are better than that, I raised you! Now as to your punishment." He said and Jane looked up in alarm.
"Punishment, Papa?" She enquired hastily and her father raised an eyebrow.
"Yes Jane, punishment. You didn't think I would let you get away with it. From a month after the funeral and subsequent wake you will remain isolated in this house. No one will speak to you, and your position as mistress will cede to Lizzy until the month is through. You will not go out into society, you will not receive calls on your behalf. You are to work in the still room preparing the medicines for the tenants to receive. No one is to assist you though I am fully aware that you dislike that work at the best of times, and that usually Lizzy does it. You will be provided with the herbs and such as you require. I expect you to put your best effort into it. I also expect you to devote an hour every day at the pianoforte to sharpen your skills. In addition you will study your French, German and Latin daily. I will expect essays in each of those languages on a subject of your own choosing at the end of the month and you are to write me essays on the properties of the herbs that you use in the still room. I will give you a list of the things I expect that essay to contain. In addition you will read etiquette books and the Bible daily. You will have plain meals, and you will only be allowed a cup of tea once a day, and no wine at dinner. I will also have you and Lydia take apart your mother's gowns and use them as you see fit. The stays, petticoats and the like may be turned into rags and bandages, but I expect you to see that the lace, ribbons and fabric are reused accordingly. You may wish to make sentimental keepsakes out of them. If you do not keep to your punishment with the grace and equanimity I know you have, I shall double it." He stopped and looked at her quizzically. There were tears in her eyes and yet she maintained her composure remarkably well. He nodded at her, and gave her a half-smile before he softly left the room to go downstairs. On the way to the parlour he met Lizzy, who was leaning against the wall wiping tears from her cheeks. She met his eyes and shook her head as if to dismiss his thoughts. What had occurred he did not know, but for Lizzy it had the greatest impact.
Not long after Kitty had left her alone in her father's study, she had followed her to the parlour where she could hear Kitty and Mary's voices. As she got closer it became apparent that they were talking about her.
"I couldn't help it Mary, I snapped. She was pretending that she understood us and how we felt. I couldn't stand watching her be so upright and mighty and pretentious."
"Be as that may Kitty, I will not stand to be on the receiving end of Lizzy's sympathy now that she knows. It would hurt me to much to endure it."
"Yes, but Mary, you and I both know that you possess a certain loveliness when you dress differently."
"A loveliness that never attracted Mama's attention or approval, nor Papa, Jane or Lizzy's. They are all so used to my being plain that they never considered age would make me more womanly. I am full aware that my spectacles hinder my beauty, and that the gowns I have chosen as well as the hairstyle I wear do nothing to improve my appearance. But that is my own choice brought about by years of being told not to put myself forward."
"I know Mary. You don't have to give up you know."
"Give up? Kitty, I have not given up."
"So the fact that your gowns have become more drab, and your hairstyles more severe over the past two years has nothing to do with the fact that John Lucas was easily persuaded to pay attention to Lizzy by our mother, despite the fact he stayed by your side for half an Assembly when you could not dance. And then subsequently you were told to not put yourself forward because Mama believed you could never attract a man. Henceforth you have played ill without any care for playing ill, and have done everything to reduce people from looking at you. I know that you wear bindings under your stays, sister, in order to maintain your bosom. I only ask whether you are hoping to suddenly transform from the ugly duckling into the swan, or whether you are have given up all hope of a suitable match?"
"Oh Kitty dearest, if you think I have any hope of being beheld as a swan while Jane and Lizzy remain unwed and in Meryton, you have a confidence beyond what it should be."
"Mary, we neither of us have Jane's beauty. She was blessed with the classical English rose looks, fair of hair and blue of eye. I have auburn hair, and grey eyes, and I am slim figured with barely a womanly decolletage. You have dark brown hair and grey eyes also, but despite your extremely admirable attempts to reduce it, you have do have an ample bosom. You know that all Meryton views you as the ugly Bennet sister. I do not know why you persist in continuing this charade, when you know full well that it only takes a certain hairstyle and more fashionable spectacles along with an entire wardrobe overhaul to make you a beauty."
"And why should I do that Kitty? You know Jane and Lizzy will view me pityingly, thinking that I am undergoing some dramatic change each morning to beautify myself. Not until I find a man who is willing to look beyond appearances, will I change my appearances to suit my personality." Kitty smirked at her sister.
"Of course Mary, shall you wear shimmering pink silk to match your sparkling wit and vivacity?" From her vantage point by the door Lizzy heard Mary pick up a book and throw it at Kitty who dodged with a small laugh. Mary did not appear angered though, and she settled back easily into her seat.
"In all seriousness, Kitty, I have no intentions of changing my present course simply because the ruse is up. Jane and Lizzy will never change, and neither will Papa. They will disbelieve you simply because they are superior in age and therefore believe themselves superior in their accomplishments. Lizzy and Papa for all their character study have known me my whole life, and still they do not realise who I am and what I do. They will never take the time to learn. They do not know how accomplished either one of us is, nor do they know that Lydia is really nowhere near as silly as her mannerisms suggest, though I fear she has taken it too far."
"Oh Mary, she told me that she hated Jane. I knew that she disliked her, and I can understand her dislike, but hatred? I cannot understand it."
"Hatred? I was never informed."
"Mary, I never knew myself. We have all had our grievances against Jane and Lizzy, but I do not believe either of us descended into hatred."
"Indeed not. I may not like them because of their lack of affection but I do respect them for their characters despite the flaws they both possess." Mary replied, and Lizzy, her head spinning from the information she had learnt, leaned back against the wall and allowed tears to flow down her cheeks. How long had she neglected her younger sisters? Long enough for Lydia to learn to hate Jane, enough that Mary hid herself in a shell and refused to come out until they had left. When had Kitty become so rational? She did not know. In recent years Lydia and Kitty had left girlhood behind and become sillier and sillier, but far from being dissuaded they had gotten worse with each reprimand. Of course Lizzy realised that in all those years, she had never taken the time to sit down with them and learn what each sister was like. Mary had never stood out, she had her good features but she had never really been spectacular and she had blossomed late. Her bosom had come into it's own at sixteen, and her features had become more womanly, but by then her mother had despaired of Mary. And Kitty and Lydia! What lacking there?! Had jealousy prevailed so strongly as to induce hatred? She stood there hearing everything and at the same time completely unable to comprehend it. How long she stood there she did not know, but there she remained until Mr Bennet came down the stairs. He raised an eyebrow at her obvious distress but she shook her head and he let it drop. They entered the parlour together, and he informed them all of the punishment waiting to befall Jane and Lydia. Though they were surprised, no one disputed the punishment and Mr Bennet spoke quickly to them regarding their duties during the punishment. After he was down Lizzy slipped upstairs to her room.
As she sat on her bed she wondered what she could do to make it up to her sisters for the lack of love she had given them. As she thought, her eyes wandered and fell on the long discarded embroidery hamper and inspiration struck her. There was nothing as infamous about Elizabeth Bennet as the two facts all Meryton knew. She despised embroidery, and she loved taking long walks. Therefore a well done piece of embroidery would clearly show that she had put love into the project and the long hours of labouring over such tiny stitches. She went and grabbed the hamper and looked inside, tearing out old projects and patterns. Finally, she found an instruction book that she had oft used and then discarded in frustration. Then Lizzy pulled out a piece of paper and charcoal to draw a pattern. Hastily sketching several designs she combined a few into a piece that she decided would suit each sister equally. Then as she turned another idea struck her and she reached over and grabbed a romance book that she had read and decided was far too wild for her tastes. However, Lydia would enjoy such a novel, and so with her hamper in hand and the book in the other she made her way to Lydia's room. Upon receiving permission to enter, she traipsed through the door and set herself in the chair not long vacated by her father. Lydia looked up at her warily and in some confusion. Lizzy held out the book to Lydia.
"I though you might appreciate a novel to read." She said, and Lydia looked at the book and accepted it slowly, though she made no move to open it. Lizzy smiled at her, pulled out her sampler and then began sorting through her threads to choose the appropriate colours. Lydia stared at her in surprise, clearly aware of the rarity that saw Lizzy sitting down with embroidery. Lizzy met her gaze. "Would you mind reading it aloud? It would help pass the time, I believe."
"Of course." Lydia replied slowly and settling herself on her elbows she began to read in a soft, clear voice. In her heart a small thread of dislike for her sister slowly rotted and was replaced by a much happier one as Lizzy laughed at the appropriate points and exclaimed at others. So began a pattern that would continue for the entirety of Lydia's confinement to her room.
Thank you for reading! Your reviews are most appreciated as are any suggestions you have to make. :)