It was a truth universally acknowledged by everyone living in Meryton, a small market town idyllically situated in the southern county of Hertfordshire, that Mrs Bennet, mistress of a modest estate named Longbourn and one of the most prominent members of her gentry community, was the worst kind of fortune hunter. Mother of five girls with her home entailed on to the male line, Mrs Bennet had no qualms whatsoever about getting her daughters husbands in any manner possible.
The tales of Mrs Bennet's mercenary tendencies first started when the Bennets' eldest daughter, Jane Bennet, a beautiful girl with a serene and sweet countenance, turned fifteen years old. Mrs Bennet wasted no time before introducing her into society and together, the two of them attended assemblies, dance and dinner parties and soirees held by other matrons looking for husbands for their daughters. Not much luck was to be had in this endeavour, for their community was a very close knit one, with only some four and twenty families inviting each other to various events and parties, and for every eligible gentleman looking for a wife, there were at least five eligible ladies looking to get married.
It was not until six months after Jane's fifteenth birthday when the Gardiners, Mrs Bennet's younger brother and his wife, came to stay at Longbourn for Christmas and brought with them a fairly well to do friend, who was also Mr Gardiner's partner in business, that Mrs Bennet saw an end to her hunt.
Robinson Clark was a tradesman of nearly thirty years in age. In possession of a middling height and a pudgy figure, his was not an unfortunate countenance, though nobody would deem him especially handsome. Mr Clark's wine and tobacco business had flourished in the last couple of years and the man now boasted an income of a little over 3000 pounds a year. Though not a gentleman by society's standards, Mr Clark exhibited some gentle mannerisms, especially when in gentry company. Mrs Bennet had taken one look at their guest and deemed him the perfect life partner for her beautiful, if a little too stumpy, Jane.
The Gardiners and their friend planned to stay at Longbourn for a week. On their fifth night, Mrs Bennet, with the help of her ever trusty servant and housekeeper Mrs Hill, conspired to get Mr Clark alone with her daughter. Mrs Bennet had noticed that her guest, after everyone had retired to their rooms, had a habit of smoking his cigars late into the night in Mr Bennet's library where the gentleman kept his best port. That night, she simply gave Jane two very vague, very strange instructions- The first was that once she had prepared herself for bed and changed into her nightclothes, she was to go into the library and fetch the book Elements of Geography and of Natural and Civil History that Mrs Bennet had, only that afternoon, placed on the very top shelf such that it would be very easy to find, but very difficult for her rather short daughter to procure.
The second- she was not to step onto the carpet that was laid in front of the shelf, but rather walk around it.
Jane was not a stupid child, but she was a fairly naive one. In Jane's eyes, everybody was an angel and nobody could do anything wrong. And so, though she found the requests very strange indeed, Jane did what her mother told her to do.
The little girl, only very recently out of the schoolroom, was stretching onto her tiptoes, trying to reach the top shelf (strangely enough, the footstool that was usually kept in the corner was not there) when she heard the doorknob turn.
Mr Clark, though very surprised to see the eldest Miss Bennet in the library at such a late hour, instead of leaving her alone and retreating back to his rooms, thought only to help a child with her predicament and so came forward to grab the book himself. When his feet did step on the carpet, he realised with a jolt that some of the floorboards underneath were missing, and so he tripped and fell right onto the young girl's rather buxom chest, who screeched in surprise and panic.
Mrs Hill was in the room in an instant, screaming compromise! on the top of her lungs and waking up the whole house. Fanny Bennet and the Gardiners bustled in with wide shocked eyes (though only two of the three were genuine). Mr Bennet, the master of the estate, was slower to follow, stumbling into the room with bleary eyes and sleep-mussed greying hair. He took in the picture before him, Mr Clark and Jane now standing feet apart, with his daughter's face a compound of an embarrassed blush and panicked tears and the man's countenance all disgruntlement and chagrin.
There was no doubt in Clark's mind that he had been deliberately trapped and yet, there was nothing he could do except to marry the young girl if he wanted to keep his own reputation from getting maligned. Even as it was, Mrs Bennet was wailing, and screeching that she and her family were certainly ruined! and you must make him marry her, Mr Bennet, you must!
Mr Bennet, Clark did not understand much of, despite having stayed under the man's roof for almost a sennight. Gardiner said that his brother was maybe a little older than forty, but Mr Bennet looked well over five and fifty with his ashy hair and reedy frame. Perhaps he had a weak constitution and was not a very active sort of a fellow. He was certainly not man enough to take his wife in hand when she behaved like a banshee. Even now, Mr Bennet simply watched the circumstances play out in front of him as if he was an audience at the Theater. He gave Clark a sardonic half smile,
"What say you, Mr Clark? Jane is a pretty sort of a girl. And if her mother is any indication, she will further grow up to be a very beautiful woman indeed."
The girl standing next to him whimpered quietly, calling his attention to her. She really was quite pretty for someone so young, with an almost full womanly figure and cherubic features. His limited interactions with her had revealed a sweet, if not a little dull, personality. But above everything else, she was a gentlewoman and to Clark, who had every intention of purchasing an estate in the future and becoming part of the gentry himself, he could certainly do worse.
Clark looked over at the Gardiners with a glare, both husband and wife looked equal parts confused and shameful. He could speculate why. He might have been forced to marry their niece, but he would make sure every one of his acquaintances knew to never associate with Gardiner or his family. The man was a snake. Clark turned back to Bennet,
"We should talk somewhere more private." He said with gritted teeth. Mrs Bennet's eyes were positively sparkling with triumph, and disgust was filling his veins anew at her audacity, her cunning. He had never expected himself to be the kind of man in danger from a desperate mother. Perhaps, that was his first mistake.