Chapter 34

Mrs Phillips was not particularly pleased to have her sister visit, especially when that lady had been the subject of so much gossip in town over the last few days. It was abundantly aware that Mrs Bennet was unaware of the stories that were circulating through town, though Mrs Phillips had begun many of them, and they had only grown worse since they started. Many were angry at the Bennet family, particularly the parents, for their treatment of their niece over the years. The youngest girls had been guilty of treating her poorly at times, though Jane nor Mary had ever been observed doing the same.

"Sister, I am very disappointed in you. Clearly you have not heard the news in Meryton as if you had, you would know the whole town is most upset that you and Mr Bennet have lied to us all for years. You allowed everyone to believe Lizzy was the natural child of Mr Edward Bennet when you knew she was the daughter of Elizabeth Bennet Tomlinson. All these years, you have treated her like a poor relation and been given sympathy and praise for taking in such a child while receiving a stipend for her care, which is nearly equal to the annual income of Longbourn. How could you?"

"What do you mean?" a confused Lydia asked. "Do you mean that Lizzy is not the bastard child of my uncle?"

"Lydia!" Mrs Phillips reprimanded. "You should not even speak like that, nor is it at all true. Lizzy is your cousin, but she is your father's sister's child. And she was respectably married to a landowner when the child was conceived, though he had died by the time she was born. She came to live at Longbourn after both her parents and her grandparents died."

"Mama and Papa always said she was Uncle Edward's natural child. She is poor, and my parents were generous to allow her to live with us," Lydia insisted.

"Your parents were paid a generous stipend for allowing her to live with you. If not for the money received from Lizzy's estate, you would not have had all the nice dresses and things that you do. However, since the money was not spent on Lizzy as it was intended, and your father lied to her guardian, then they will have to begin repaying Lizzy for many of these things. They have already confiscated your father's books and some of your mother's jewellery that was purchased with these funds and have chosen not to take the clothing or ribbons and things. The money that was intended to be used to ensure Lizzy and all of you girls, really, were well educated and had accomplishments was diverted to provide your parents with many unnecessary indulgences. They also allowed the citizens of this town to believe a lie for years. Many people are upset with your parents for not telling her she was the legitimate daughter of Elizabeth Bennet, whom many people admired and missed."

"What difference does all of that make? Now Lizzy is married to that boring Mr Darcy and will have loads of nice things, so it is not as though my parents not using that money on her affected her."

"Lydia, Lizzy has been an heiress her whole life. Instead of knowing that, she has been allowed to think she was a penniless relation, beholden to your family for her care. She was denied knowing about her parents, knowing her heritage, and many of the advantages she was born to. How would you feel if your entire life had been a lie? Not only that but have you ever paid attention to anyone besides yourself? Have you never noticed how Lizzy was treated in your family? Not so much by the townspeople or the tenants, as they loved her for her kindness despite what they believed about her origins. Most did not treat her differently, but occasionally someone would hold her in contempt because of what they believed about her. She was always treated differently when, in reality, she was far above the rest of your family. She deserved more."

"La, Aunt Phillips, I do not understand why it even matters. All has turned out well enough. As I said, she captured a wealthy husband despite all of that."

"You are a fool, Lydia Bennet, just as your mother is. You should both leave and not come back. You will not find a warm welcome in Meryton any time soon. Everyone knows that you will be required to retrench and that your three most intelligent daughters have chosen to forgo the name Bennet for Gardiner. Sister, you should know that no one will have anything to do with you after this, and do not think that such an offence will be forgiven soon. Not by your daughters, not by your niece, and not by your neighbours."

"What do you mean, Agnes? How does everyone know all of this? Why should they think of this as some sort of offence? What have we done wrong?" Mrs Bennet asked, not understanding why she should be censured.

"You have lied for years to everyone in this town. They are very upset at you for your deception and feel offended that you have not told the truth. Why, when arriving at Longbourn and discovering your niece there, would you allow it to be told that she was the illegitimate daughter of your brother? You and your husband knew the truth and did nothing to correct the misunderstanding. Instead, you actually encouraged the lie and spread it about for years. No one would have thought poorly of you had they known the truth."

Mrs Bennet stared at her sister. "Lizzy will forgive us, and then you will all regret not being more accepting of us. She will invite us to London, and there will be grand parties that we will be invited to you while you remain here in Meryton."

"You are delusional if you believe that, Fanny. Lizzy might, one day, forgive you, but she will never invite you to London. Had Lydia gone with the Gardiners, she might have included her in an invitation once she is old enough to attend such things, but since she chose to remain at Longbourn, that will never happen now."

"Who cares about London? I will marry an officer to go to parties and balls every night. I will not miss out on anything, and I will not have to go to some stuffy school like Kitty and learn to be boring."

"Your family will not be receiving any further invitations to any events in Meryton. I dare say Kitty will have far more fun than you will." Mrs Phillips had begun to look at her youngest niece in something like contempt, finally realising just how foolish she and her mother had become. Not long ago, she would have been of a similar mind to her sister, but realising the depth of her sister's deception had forced Agnes Phillips to look at things differently. That, and the sound talking to her husband had given her for bandying the Bennets' business about town.

"I will still visit with the officers. They will not care about such rubbish," Lydia continued to insist.

"No one in town, including the officers, will have anything to do with the Bennets any time soon," Mr Phillips said when he entered the room. "You, Lydia Bennet, are a fool for turning down the opportunity to better your life by going to your aunt and uncle's. Unless Thomas turns things around and begins to pay attention to the estate, you will have very little to live on soon as he scarcely has enough at present to pay what you owe in town. Not only that, but as I understand it, your housekeeper has left, and the two of you will be far too busy to be visiting anyone. I suggest that the two of you return home and remain there for some time. You all will have much to learn, especially you, Lydia. No officer will marry a woman who does not know how to do anything to care for the home, as most of them live hand-to-mouth. They cannot afford servants and will not want to marry a woman who does not know how to cook or clean or keep her mouth shut."

Lydia and Mrs Bennet were both offended by Mr Phillips' statements and left the house in a snit. "We will show them how wrong they are, Lydia. I will speak to Mr Bennet as soon as we return about hiring a new housekeeper."

Both women were very disappointed upon arriving at home and finding Mr Bennet out on the estate. They could not speak to him about hiring a new housekeeper, and instead, Mrs Bennet had to speak to the cook and the maids about the evening meal. There were a number of questions that Mrs Bennet could not answer, and Lydia was too bored to pay attention to any of it. But she remained with her mother as she did not have Kitty there to entertain her.

"This is boring," she complained.

"If you want to be married, you will need to learn to deal with problems such as these. Perhaps my sister was correct when she said that you need to consider such things if you want to be the wife of an officer. Most of them are living in barracks designed for single men — in fact, I am not certain any of the officers, other than Colonel Forster, have even mentioned the idea of taking a wife. I wonder why none of them are married."

"What does it matter? Please, Mama, can we do something more fun?"

"No, Lydia, you need to learn how to properly care for a household. If you were married, you would need to know how to do all these things."

Over the next several weeks, all of Mrs Phillips' predictions came true. No one from the neighborhood visited Longbourn, and all attempts to visit others were denied. Lydia was most upset that none of the officers paid a call, but her mother would not allow her to walk to Meryton by herself. She was so disappointed that she attempted to sneak out one night to pay a call, but her uncle found her and promptly returned her home. Her mother was so upset she locked her in her room each night and ensured she could not escape again.

All three Bennets were rather miserable. Mr Bennet could not retreat into the silence of his bookroom as he now had to ride out on the estate regularly. Nor could he escape into another world of his books since he only had a handful remaining and no ready funds to purchase any more. What money they did have was required to purchase the necessities, and at the end of the quarter, they barely had enough to pay the remaining servants.

The two letters Mrs Bennet sent to the Gardiners were both returned with notations that the requests for funds were inappropriate and that complaints about the situation they found themselves in were not welcome. A more official notice arrived from the solicitor informing them that the funds to repay the Darcys and the funds for the care of the three girls needed to be sent immediately lest Mr Bennet be thrown into debtors's prison and additional funds be demanded based upon the terms of the agreement.

For Mr Bennet, who had intended to keep those funds for himself, it was all very depressing. He wondered what would happen were he to disappear, but then he realised how much trouble that would be. While part of him really did not care that much about what happened to Mrs Bennet and Lydia were he to disappear, he did realise how very selfish that thought was. It did not stop him from contemplating it, though he did not attempt it. Instead, he put more effort into making the estate profitable and found he was able to make a couple of minor improvements, though he regularly wondered if it was all worth it.