Disclaimers: Pride and Prejudice belongs to Jane Austin. Delusions belong to me. I write what I want to and rarely stick to 'authentic' characterizations. For this work of art I superimposed 2024 teenagers over the 1806 characters...
Chapter 1
Jane blinked back tears as she and Lizzy hid from their mother. The woman had always been taken with wild flights of fancy, but lately she was just downright ridiculous. And she was always more verbose and ridiculous after paying visits to other ladies. Jane had absolutely refused to call on her neighbors with her mother because it was mortifying to listen to the woman go on about how she was so beautiful that it could not be for nothing. The other women agreed that Jane was stunningly beautiful. However, they rarely spoke about how she was going to save the ladies of Longbourne Estate from the hedgerows by marrying well and providing for everyone after Mr. Bennet passed and his heir, a Mr. Collins, came to control the estate.
Lizzy looked over at Jane and hissed, "If I were Mr. Bennet I would have taken her to task before now. All she does is act like a petulant child while we do the work to keep this place running smoothly." She raised her hands as if to pull her own hair out. "You would think that after seventeen years of marriage that he would have exerted some type of influence over her bad behavior. But, No. All he does is bray like a jackass about how stupid she is. He is as bad as she is. Both of them act like children who need their bottoms tanned and sent to bed with no dinner."
Jane giggled. "That is an appealing picture you paint, sister dearest. Although it is harsh that they get no supper, I can see your point. If they stay awake with hunger pains they might think about what it is they are doing to us children."
"When have we ever got to be children, Jane? Grandma Bennet began training us up to take over the duties of Mistress long before we focused on how utterly revolting our parents act. It is like Grandma knew we would have to carry the load that they are too lazy or stupid to do."
"Hush, Lizzy. We will prevail. Just hang on and keep doing as Grandma taught us." Jane wrapped her arms around her younger sister. Sometimes she forgot how young the two of them really were. It had always been them doing the work of the estate while their parents squandered money, wasted their time on frivolous pursuits, or just outright neglected the five daughters of the house.
Lizzy turned tear drenched green eyes up to look at Jane. "It is just all so much since Grandma passed away. Mama acts the fool constantly and Papa is no better for laughing at her instead of correcting her."
Jane acknowledged the truth of Lizzy's complaint. "I wonder how they ever got together. Do you think she set her sights on him and just wore him down?" She tried to make Lizzy laugh by adding, "You know how Mama says we are all insensitive to her nerves. Maybe he is numb to her at this point because it is a fact he no longer pays any heed to her complaints."
"If I hear one more time just how insensitive we are to Mother's nerves I shall do something which she will repent of." Elizabeth, or Lizzy as she preferred to be called, glared at the closed still room door that hid them from their rapacious mother. Knowing her mother was standing on the other side of it, shrieking about how hard done by she was due to the fact her children were so uninterested in saving her, and by extension themselves from the hedgerows was more a source of vexation than chastisement. Her voice was little more than a hiss as she visually strove to incinerate the offending bit of English Oak that separated the two girls from the harridan venting her spleen.
Jane turned her head to focus on Elizabeth. "What do you intend to do, Lizzy?" Her expression was only mildly quizzical, but her voice shook slightly, an indication that Jane was feeling uneasy regarding Lizzy's comment. "I am not sure she really means what she is saying. After all we are only sixteen and fourteen. Mother could not have seriously considered Mr. Gleeson as a match for me. He is forty-six to my sixteen." She visually drooped after admitting that her mother had in fact entertained the idea.
Lizzy looked at her beautiful sister who was shivering in revulsion as she mumbled, "Short, fat, smelly, stupid…" Under no circumstances… She giggled as Jane nudged her shoulder. "Mayhap we should quote the Colonist Thomas Paine as he asserted 'Give me liberty or give me death'."
Lizzy grimaced one final time before nodding. "Quite apt for the situation. However, I think it was Patrick Henry who said that." She wrinkled her nose as she thought before speaking again. "I wonder if we could induce Mother to abandon us and take up residence with Mr. Gleeson since she found him so endearing."
Lizzy could barely control her mirth as she thought of their glorious mother pandering to said man. After giving the idea some thought she shook her head. "No. She would never willingly give up being Mistress of Longbourne. She sees herself as the leading matron of society here. She would not give that up because she considers it more prestigious." She tilted her head to the side as she contemplated a bit more. Her thoughts did not escape, and Jane did not learn what Lizzy was planning.
Jane did her best to wait out whatever thought processes were going through Lizzy's mind.
Eventually Lizzy refocused on Jane. "I cannot see a way to get Mother interested in Mr. Gleeson. She considers him good enough for you but not for her." She went back to making faces and staring out the window as she considered and discarded different schemes to rid Longbourne of its Harpy infestation.
Jane revisited her question. "Seriously, Lizzy. Do you have anything planned? I fear Mother will only become more and more determined to match us with whomever expresses interest despite our incompatibility with such persons."
"I have a few schemes which are highly likely to be successful it implemented. I am more than weary of Mother blathering about hedgerows while neither she nor father do anything to correct the situation. All I ever hear is it is my fault the Bennet family has no heir to inherit Longbourne." Her eyes flashed as she imagined their mother swooning on the chaise lounge as she whined about needing her salts because her nerves were all aflutter. Lizzy's lip curled in mockery of a sneer as she added in a low agitated voice, "How they get it is my fault is beyond me. They might as well scream that is my duty to fix their problems." Anger burnt out the last vestiges of her fear of failure and she snarled, "We need to go to London."
Jane looked at Lizzy with a serene face, but Lizzy could see the fear in her eyes.
"Do not fret so, sister dearest. I shall fix the problem for them."
Jane could not help the misgivings. "Lizzy, I cannot help but feel this will not end well for you."
"It will end faster if naught is done. The only thing I shall ask of you is when we go to Aunt Gardiner's at Easter that you beg them to let me attend events with you."
"I shall. I will do what you ask and pray for the success of your plans. I only ask you do not speak to me of what they are. I need plausible deniability."
Elizabeth knew the game she was planning to engage in would lead to complete ruin of the whole Bennet family if she were caught out. She was just so tired of her mother's rants about being tossed out of the family home and being forced to live in the hedgerows. She was willing to lose her reputation to shut the old trout up. She knew it was her father's responsibility to care and protect the family, but his indolence was only enabling the craziness that was suffocating the family.
The girls waited for Fanny to move away from the still room door before easing it open and making their escape from the house. Baskets in hand, they headed out to gather herbs and sundry bits. Grandma Bennet had trusted them to tend to the tenants of Longbourne and one of those duties was to make tinctures, salves, and poultices for when they fell ill. Not everyone could afford a doctor. It was the responsibility of the landowner to provide as much care to his tenants as was feasible.
Jane and Elizabeth did what they could. They did far more than was expected and the tenants of Longbourne and some of the surrounding estates appreciated their dedication to duty.
Fanny Bennet had not always acted crazier than a shit house rat. That changed with the birth of her youngest daughter Lydia. The abuse she heaped on her children was not acknowledged because it was not physical abuse. No, her cruelty was more subtle than scars from cuts and bruises. Most of her abuse was mental and yes, it left scars in the psyche of all five of her daughters. Ten years of hearing about going to live in the hedgerows, multiple times a day most days, had wreaked havoc on her three oldest daughters. The younger two were not immune to her vitriol either, all five daughters' emotions were ready to erupt into disaster.
Elizabeth drew the most abuse from Fanny, therefore it was only logical that she became determined to do something about the situation. She devised a plan and waited to set it in motion while trying not to dwell on the damage and negative impact that she felt justified her actions. Fanny was relentless as the tides with her belittling and harassing her middle three daughters. One only had to look at them to see the damage. The oldest and youngest were also damaged though since there was no escaping Fanny Bennet's rampant idiocy. The damage was easy enough to spot.
Jane was told her looks would be what saved the family from living in the hedgerows. Jane was a truly beautiful girl; tall, slender but buxom, with blond hair and blue eyes. To hear her mother blather ad nauseam regarding her Christ-like capabilities terrified her to the point she became socially handicapped.
Elizabeth's coloring was different from her four blue eyed, blond sisters. Having chestnut colored hair and green eyes obviously meant she was not pretty enough to entice a male. When her propensity to act hoydenish was factored in, Mrs. Bennet considered her practically unmarriageable.
Mary was the middle child. Although she was a better than average looking girl she had been neglected by both parents until she developed unacceptable coping mechanisms to compensate for not having loving attention. Moralistic and pedantic were more than just multi-syllable words when applied to Miss Mary. She believed the trite nonsense her mother spouted about being plain and rather than having her sisters help her shine in her own right she settled in as dowdy, wearing boring colors that clashed with her hair and skin, reading Fordyce and quoting his sermons despite her lack of comprehension, and playing the pianoforte and singing quite ill. In all, a thoroughly disagreeable female.
Catherine, or Kitty as she preferred to be called, was heckled into being a door mat for her younger sister Lydia. She had a somewhat submissive personality and that combined with a health issue that caused frequent coughing fits left her being neglected and taken advantage of by both her mother and the youngest sister. She had an artistic bent but was not allowed to develop it, instead she was shepherded into doing whatever her younger sister wanted to do.
Lydia was a budding sociopath in the making. Mrs. Bennet described her as being high spirited. Her true character was of a greedy, manipulative, spoiled brat who received whatever she wanted by virtue of being Mrs. Bennet's favorite child.
Thus, Elizabeth at fourteen years old was doing the best she could to rectify a situation she should not have been introduced to. She decided that if Fanny could not have another child, she would present her parents with the son they needed. She was so exhausted from listening to Mrs. Bennet going on about living in the hedgerows because there was no son to inherit Longbourne she was more than ready to sacrifice her future. She would fix this the situation. If her parents could not produce an heir, she would do it for them. Fanny was plump enough that she could claim she was breeding again, Elizabeth was confident that she could hide being with child right up until the last month or so.
She set her plan in motion when she and Jane did their usual three month stay at Uncle and Aunt Gardiner's home over the Easter holidays. Being allowed to visit Uncle's warehouse provided her with an alibi when she disappeared during the day. She did attend the warehouse and learned quite a bit about business from Uncle. She learned to sort and grade items, catalog, and display them. She also learned about short term and long term investments, material acquisitions, and the time spent there also allowed her to meet gentlemen and determine who would best meet her requirements.
Prior to implementing her plan Lizzy researched the subject of genetics quite thoroughly and devised a list of traits which the next heir of Longbourne would find useful. First, and foremost, she would need a man who carried the physical and mental traits that mimicked Mr. Bennet. She determined that the gentleman she picked for breeding purposes should be tall, dark haired, intelligent and be a young man of good breeding. She also discussed the idea with Jane that the man should be handsome if at all possible, but she dropped that requirement when Jane laughingly remined her that all men look the same in the dark and she would do better to focus on a man who bathed regularly.
After spending several hours chatting with the various specimens that frequented Uncle's warehouse, she made her selection and proceeded to flirt with him. William Edward Rhees-Jones was articulate, educated, and appeared to be willing to push the boundaries of propriety with Miss Elizabeth when she asked him if he would assist her in dealing with a small problem. The last hurdle to clear in her plan was to convince him to assist her with said plan. They agreed to meet at the theater that evening and discuss the final details of Elizabeth's plan.