While her two eldest daughters were making plans on how best to counteract their parents' profligacy and the youngest was, perhaps for the first time in her life, made to see the precariousness of her position, Mrs. Bennet had no such thoughts.
Without any worries for her daughters' reputations, she was making the tour of the neighbourhood complaining loudly of how they have been mistreated first by Mr. Bingley and then by Mr. Wickham.
Furthermore, she told all who would listen that her Jane was to London to bring Mr. Bingley to point and she was so convinced that all will be well in that account, that few dared to contradict or even question her.
She also continued to sink Mr. Wickham's character as much as she could. To be sure, she knew no actual harm of him, but she did know he was a wicked young man. When her friends asked her to prove her more fantastical claims - such as Mr. Darcy being the wronged party in their dispute, she asked back what proof Mr. Wickham himself offered as to the truth of his word. In this she was aided by her sister Phillips, who remarked that her husband would never write a will that could not be enforced. Either Mr. Wickham was left something and he would have prevailed in court or he was not left anything and then the better question was why was he not.
Enough was said that at least some of the town gossips were willing to spread the word further and it made its way into the merchants' shops and homes. From there it was a matter of moments until astute wives saw how it could affect their husbands if Mr. Wickham was proved to have played them false. By Saturday evening at least some of the merchants were wise to the possible extent of Mr. Wickham's debts.
The talk after the Sunday services amplified the scandal to such an extent that Sir William was applied to and they decided to meet on Monday morning and take stock.
-`o´-
Colonel Foster had planned to visit the Bennets on Saturday, but there was one emergency after another, what with strained winter supplies and a few fights breaking out between the men. Then it was Sunday and he decided to wait until Monday.
Late morning on Monday he was met by a most serious Sir William, the town magistrate, together with a representative of the town's merchants. He couldn't make heads or tails of their story, but it seemed the townsfolk had caught wind that one of his men, namely Lt. Wickham, had misrepresented himself to the neighbourhood. On top of this he had incurred debts of more than 16 pounds in barely a month.
They demanded the accounts be settled or none of the officers would be provided anything at all without paying upfront in full.
He promised to investigate and see to it personally, although he already knew there was little he could do. He couldn't believe Wickham was almost 17 pounds in debt already! What did the man do?
He cursed his men for their loose tongues, Wickham the most, and then he cursed Bennet too!
He was not the desultory squire they were led to believe he was. The man had taken offense and intended to make life as hard as possible for Foster!
There was no getting around his chore, he had to go to Mr. Bennet and ask him to undo the damage he caused. The militia were to winter in Meryton and without being included in the neighbourhood's activities and having to pay for every little thing, he was sure he would have nobody left under his command in a matter of weeks.
His advancement would be hampered and there was every chance that word of the scandal would go back to the family of the young woman he courted.
He cursed again and prepared to depart for Longbourn; but first he'd have a word with Carter, Denny, and Wickham.
-`o´-
By the time Col. Foster interviewed his men, which proved a complete waste of his time, the town was abuzz with the debts of Mr. Wickham. Since the rest of the officers were in general a very creditable, gentlemanlike set, nothing in the way of extravagant spending was discovered in their accounts. All the rest of them together were worth less than five pounds of debt to the town's merchants.
It was this that sealed Mr. Wickham's fate. That he could spend three times as much as all the rest of them and spend coin he obviously did not have, marked him as a wastrel of the worst sort.
Mrs. Philips was in much demand among her female acquaintances to explain how it was not possible to ignore a will and some wondered if it was not the case that Mr. Darcy quit Netherfield to be rid of one who would slander his good name. And of course his friends followed him.
His general unpleasantness and haughty manners were forgotten or excused. Much would be excused to a man who paid his bills in full.
-`o´-
As it happened Mr. Bennet was in Luton on Monday, so he did not know anything of what was going on in Meryton. Not that he would have cared had he known.
He was pleasantly surprised to find out from Hill that Col Foster did call in his absence on an urgent matter and left word that he would be back the next morning.
For himself, Mr. Bennet was content. It seemed to him the Colonel had had his lesson after all.
"Oh, Mr. Bennet," his wife said as soon as they were all seated around the dinner table, "you will not believe the shocking news I had from Lady Lucas!"
"You will certainly wish to enlighten me and I am not against hearing it," he replied. Sometimes his wife's gossip was amusing.
"Why, Mr. Wickham is almost twenty pounds in debt in town and very likely more!"
"Twenty pounds?" he could not help but exclaim. It was a prodigious amount for a man who had, by his own admission, no means of support other than his militia pay.
"Yes, but that's not the worst of it."
"Indeed?"
"Indeed, Mr. Bennet! For I had it from Mrs. Long that Mr. Darcy left Meryton because of Mr. Wickham's slander and he took Mr. Bingley with him," she continued, completely ignoring that it was Mr. Bingley who first departed and the rest of the party followed him. "What a lucky thing for our Jane!"
"For our Jane? How so?" Mr. Darcy leaving the area because of slanders that were not even bandied about during his stay, at least not to Mr. Bennet's knowledge, he discounted as drivel. Jane's name being mentioned made him pay attention again for a moment.
"Oh, must you be so tiresome? You know that our Jane went to London to meet Mr. Bingley and have him do the right thing."
"I know nothing of the sort, madam, and I must ask that you abstain from mentioning the gentleman again. I'm sick of Mr. Bingley!"
He thought he should caution his wife not to share such notions with the neighbourhood at large, lest the reputation of Jane suffer even more when she came back unmarried, but then what did it matter. His wife would pay him no mind, no matter what he said or did. Even now she was talking animatedly to him, not noticing he did not listen to her anymore.
-`o´-
Author note:
Thank you to everybody who left reviews, you are wonderful!
Guest who asked about a governess for the three Bennet daughters still at home: it will happen, although not quite yet. The Bennet parents are not 100% convinced about the necessity, so I guess more needs to happen ;)
Guest who believes Elizabeth is OOC because she doesn't get on board right away: my idea is that Elizabeth herself didn't have a shock. Not yet, it will come. Jane was rejected by a man she loved. She had more incentives to ask why.
Guest who said that Elizabeth is her father's favourite, so might be less willing to assign blame to him: it is true, Elizabeth really loves her father. At least this is my view of her in the original novel. She'll get there though. Even if she would want to make excuses, Mr. Bennet is his lazy, sarcastic self, and what was seen cannot be unseen ;)
Guest who is glad someone finally pointed out to Lydia what it means to marry a poor officer: Lydia listened, but she was not really convinced. (Because of course she wasn't!) What needs to happen now is to practice at living on very little money. This is what the Gardiners intend: to make sure she has real life skills.
Guest "andioanb": You're absolutely right, my grammar sucks. I won't go back to fix what I can now, because it's a lot of clicks and some of the times I've re-uploaded some chapters and the formatting was all wrong and it's frustrating. I'll go over it once it's finished, fix what I know how to fix, and re-upload.
However, if you'd like to beta read and are good at grammar, message me.
Or if anyone else would like to help with the grammar, I'm all for it.
Guest who said Mr. Bennet is the worst and left a long, thoughtful message on the situation of the Bennets: I agree with pretty much everything, except probably the part about Lydia going to Brighton.
I believe he genuinely had no idea that some men would do this to a girl that young and he would never have believed Lydia herself would agree to an elopement.
Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet (and Lydia too) are the kind of people who only see what they want to see. Once they reach a conclusion, they believe it's self evident and they believe everybody must see things the same way. They never question themselves, never doubt, never really care about anybody else.
"he is directly responsible for the lack of prospects his daughters have." Oh, yes, without a doubt.
I have about 10 possible plots in mind with a bad Jane :D Not bad as in actively malicious, but blind and self centered to the point of stupidity. This story is not one of them, however. This Jane will be nice and kind.