1803 (Jane 14; Lizzy 12 Mary 11; Kitty 9; Lydia 7)

Jane, Elizabeth and Mary walked home from Meryton where they had spent a pleasant morning of tea and cake with their Aunt Philips. They loved their aunt - she was a little loud, but was very kind to all the girls, not having any children of her own and reminded them pleasantly of Mama in her caring way. The sun was shining, and it was a beautiful day. Mary was fussing that Elizabeth had gotten mud on her skirts on the walk and what would their mother say, when they heard running footsteps coming up behind them. The girls turned in consternation at the sound just as Margie Robinson caught up to them and grabbed on to Jane's arm. Margie was the youngest daughter of the Robinson family, one of the four and twenty families in the area. She and her sister Harriet were a little older than Jane but both out, although only fifteen and sixteen. "Jane," she gasped, then bent over to catch her breath. She must have been running hard, thought Jane! "Jane," she continued when she had caught her breath, "did you see Hattie in Meryton?"

"No," replied Jane bewildered, "I haven't seen her since Wednesday last when we had tea at your estate".

"Oh no, oh no, oh no," wailed Margie, "I don't know what to do!"

Jane looked around. "Come, sit," she said, dragging the still heavily breathing girl to a log beside the road and sat down beside her. "Catch your breath, you can't help her if you can't talk." A little pause let the girl's breathing calm. "There, that's better. Now, what is wrong?"

"Its Hattie. I think she has run off. Are you sure you didn't see her in the village?"

Elizabeth spoke up, "We were mostly in our aunt's front parlour, not walking between the shops - but the window looks out over the street. I didn't see Hattie pass at all". She looked concerned.

"Oh no," Margie whimpered, "she did it. I didn't think she would. I hoped she had just gone to the village. When I saw you passing, I ran down to the road, hoping against hope that you had seen her in the village. But... oh no…". Margie started crying.

"What? What did she do?" cried Jane, in real alarm now.

"I think she has run off with Edgar Hankin!"

"Who is he?" asked Jane, bewildered - she didn't know the name.

"He was at the assembly last week. He is a cousin of the Oatleys and is visiting them for the month. Harriet was so impressed with him. He's eighteen and said he is going to join the army. I heard her telling him big fibs about how big her dowry is. She told him it was twenty thousand pounds! I think she was trying to impress him, but she knows our portion is only three thousand. Jane, I think he's a rake and means to ruin her so she has to marry him - for money that papa does not have!"

Jane looked shocked - there must be some misunderstanding, surely!

But Elizabeth, without Jane's assumption of goodness in people, understood straight away. "Well, why are you chasing us! Have you told your father?" she cried.

"I was hoping you had seen her, and I was wrong!" the girl wailed in response.

Jane was unhappy. "This must just be a misunderstanding. This sounds like something in a novel! I haven't met Mr Hankin, but surely no one in the real world would act like that!"

Elizabeth looked at her sister and shook her head. "Jane dear, I have never understood how you, with your good sense, can be so honestly blind to the follies and nonsense of others! If Margie is right, then there is a real problem."

Jane huffed then made a decision, "Very well. Margie - go home and tell your father immediately. Tell him I am rousing my father. Go on, run!" Margie took off like something was chasing her. Jane turned to her sisters and cried "Come on girls, we need to run to papa!" The three of them took off at a dead run.

~~ HoL ~~

"Papa!" cried Elizabeth as she entered Longbourn, and ran to his library but found it empty. "Oh! where, where is my father?" she cried. Elizabeth was the fastest runner of the girls and had beaten the others back by a couple of minutes, the Robinson estate being about a third of the way towards Meryton and Margie having chased them some little distance. Mr Bennet came to her from the direction of the kitchen entry, wearing his riding clothes - he was clearly not long back from seeing tenants. "What is it my little Lizzy? You look very upset. Have you been running? Your mother will not be pleased!"

"Papa, it was an emergency!" she cried. Just then, Jane and Mary arrived. Jane took her father's hand and breathlessly beseeched him "Papa, your library and shut the door, please".

The 4 of them went in, closed the door and the girls explained what they knew. Mr Bennet sat back as what they had told him sunk in, then stood abruptly. "Right! Jane, you are with me. Elizabeth and Mary, to the upstairs drawing room! Not a word to your mother of this, but I want her to hear all about the morning you spent with your aunt. I don't want her to have a breath of suspicion of what you have just told me. I love your mother dearly, but she cannot keep a secret. And this must be a secret! Not a word to anyone - this is very important." He looked around at the three girls. "Do you understand? If this gets out, young Harriet is ruined!" They all nodded soberly.

Jane and her father ran out to the stable where a stable hand readied the gig for them. Mary and Elizabeth went upstairs to where their mother sat in the parlour "We get the boring task" muttered Elizabeth. "But also very important" replied Mary. "I suppose so" sighed Elizabeth.

In a very few minutes, Jane and her father were in the gig and flying down the road. Her father drove, and they went faster than he ever allowed Jane to drive. She kept her hand on her bonnet for fear the strings wouldn't hold in the wind. Presently they arrived at the Robinson estate. They left the gig before even the stable hand had arrived to take it and ran into the house. Mr Robinson was just coming to the door with Margie behind him looking worried. He was a widower, the girls' mother having died in childbirth with Margie. He was raising the girls alone with naught but a governess and a house full of servants to help him.

"James," cried Thomas, "my girls told me what happened. Do you have a plan?"

Mr Robinson looked desperate and put his hand on Mr Bennet's shoulder, "No! Where could they be?" he cried. Mr Bennet patted his hand in response. "I am thinking they will have headed for the staging inn, outside town, to get to London. It doesn't leave until 4pm, so we should be able to catch them there. No harm should be done."

The men went to the stables to saddle horses. "Jane, follow us in the gig!" instructed her father, "Do you know the coaching inn this side of town?" Jane nodded and went to the gig while her father and Mr Robinson rode away. She clucked to the horse and followed in their wake, quickly being left behind as the men galloped off ahead.

When she reached the staging house, she saw her father and Mr Robinson had already found Harriet, and she realised - it was all true! Someone really had tried to run away with a sixteen-year-old girl! Mr Bennet hustled Harriet over to Jane and put her in the gig. To Jane's horror Harriet didn't want to stay in the gig. "Don't make a scene!" hissed Jane, "people will notice". Harriet looked a little disturbed at this, looking left and right to see if anyone at the inn was known to them, then she whispered to Jane "but… Edgar! We were eloping!"

Jane, for the first time in her life, was overcome with anger - how could anyone believe such a thing? "You stupid girl!" Jane burst out, but managed to maintain her lowest tone, not wishing to draw attention. Harriet turned and looked at her dumbfounded. "Jane, we were eloping! It was going to be romantic"

Jane dropped the reins, turned to her, and took both the girl's hands. "You were not eloping," Jane said, "he was stealing your dowry." Harriet's jaw dropped, but Jane continued, "One you had lied to him about. He was going to force your father to allow your marriage to get his hands on your supposed twenty thousand, and then he would have dumped you back to your father, even if it hadn't turned out your portion was only three thousand".

Jane turned and picked up the reins again. "Hattie, I can't believe you fell for his slimy words!" She said, somewhat sternly. Then a thought crossed her mind and she glanced at Harriet. "Your mother isn't with you. Did not your governess explain this?" Harriet shook her head mutely.

Arriving at the Robinson estate, they dismounted from the gig and Harriet's father took the girl's arm and pulled her into the house. Jane looked at them walking away from her, glanced at her father standing beside her then straightened her shoulders and marched after them. She had caught up by the time they reached the house, her father following behind wondering what the look on her face meant. As they entered the house, Jane spoke loudly enough to be heard. "Mr Robinson, we will be having tea in the blue drawing room - yourself, your daughters, *your governess* - and me." She led the way in, having been here many times.

The group gathered and tea was brought and then Jane shut the door, closing the servants out. Fourteen, she thought, was too young for this! Miss Gallimore, the governess, looked curious at what was happening. Jane sat and gave instructions, "Margaret, please pour the tea. Harriet, please relate for Miss Gallimore's edification what happened today."

Harriet looked from one to the other and then in a small voice recounted the events "Edgar Hankin convinced me to elope with him. We were going to London. Jane says he only wanted the twenty thousand pound dowry" her father turned his shocked face to her "… that I had lied to him about having, to get his attention". Miss Gallimore's teacup slipped and fell to the ground, the spilled tea lying unregarded on the soft carpet.

"And why, Miss Gallimore," interrupted Jane, "were these young ladies unaware that lying and eloping was not acceptable behaviour? They have, I believe, been in your care these last five years". The angry look on her face was something to behold.

"I… I am sure I have told them…" Miss Gallimore sat taller and stiffened her spine, "I have certainly told them how a young lady should behave" then her spine slumped a little, "but perhaps I have not supervised the novels they have been reading enough."

The conversation resolved after that. Mr Robinson did not decide to dismiss Miss Gallimore, but more oversight would be needed. The girls would remain out, mostly to minimise confirmation of any rumours that happened, but they would be leaving assemblies earlier and their behaviour at the assemblies would be monitored more closely. The Bennets trudged wearily to the gig to head home. Mr Bennet had a new look in his eye as he glanced at Jane.

~~ HoL ~~

Jane and her father sat in the wing back chairs around the fire in his library, spending some quiet time after supper. "This was a long day!" said Mr Bennet.

Jane was still somewhat in shock and sat mute. How could all this have happened? How could someone, a young man Hattie had admired, have been so bad?

"So," started Mr Bennet, "I am thinking we need not noise it around beyond those who already know that you are the heiress of the estate, my Jane." Jane looked up. She had not extended the situation to herself yet. Her father continued, "I suggest should any young man enquire of you what your portion is, you respond with something indistinct like 'Papa says my marriage portion is a few thousand pounds'. and hopefully that will be enough to keep the fortune hunters away'

Jane looked at him with big eyes "you mean… lie? To a suitor?"

Mr Bennet tilted his head. "Yes, and no. The cash you will have on your marriage will be but a few thousand, the same as it will be for your sisters. Possibly you will forego it to be distributed amongst your sisters, possibly not. I suppose that will depend on your intended. Obviously when the settlements are written we will make it clear to him - but the estate isn't really something you bring to the wedding because it won't be yours until after I am gone. Possibly once you are deep in a courtship you might reveal more. But for early days in getting to know a young man… it's not a false answer. Fortune hunters are never interested in the far future. So, it isn't really a lie."

Jane nodded slowly and responded "I see. That does make sense. And after today… I think it is a sensible approach." She leaned back into the sofa, very tired. "But I think I would want a suitor to know the true situation before he proposes. I think". Her father nodded.

"You probably don't realise" he continued, "but our situation is very unusual. Most estate entailments are only to the male line, so in that case the estate would go off to a distant cousin upon my death" - Jane looked at him shocked - "and if it wasn't entailed at all then it would be split amongst you 5 girls and that never goes well , there is always someone who can't agree with the rest on how the estate should be distributed when that happens. The estate would be broken up. So, with no son, most people won't know about the entail and will assume that is what will happen to Longbourn when I am gone, although many years in the future. But my great grandfather planned better than that - I don't see that Longbourn need ever leave my descendants".

Jane looked at him with even more respect, if that was possible.

A/N - see, its not only Lizzy who gets to have adventures in PnP! ;)

Btw, if you are wondering how it is that the Bennet sisters have a dowry, I put together a little spreadsheet showing how it could be. Goto

bit dot ly slash bennetdowry

and replace the dot and the slash with the appropriate characters (its a google spreadsheet)

If it sounds like a lot, remember that in this story, Mr Bennet "increased the estate's income by another 50%" (without telling Mrs Bennet ;) ) so they had 3000 a year to work with!