Page 3

HERTFORDSHIRE

“M r Bennet, Mr Bennet! ” The frenzied matron of the Bennet household rushed from room to room, shrieking. She eventually found her husband standing in the stable yard, discussing a situation that had arisen with one of the horses. The horse had fallen when its foot found the edge of a deep rut in the field that had been created overnight. Gypsies had passed through it to camp on the far side of the field in a clearing at the edge of a forest. The veterinarian had been called and the stable master waited anxiously with Mr Bennet. Mrs Bennet screwed up her face as she stood at the edge of the stables. The smell of the horses and the manure was unpleasant to her and she refused to walk inside the stables in case her clothes became dirty. “Mr Bennet, I simply must speak with you, now!” The matron fussed from the doorway.

The wounded horse looked up from its resting place as if to say, ‘What is the fuss?’

Mr Bennet sniggered at the horse and turned quietly to his wife. “Mrs Bennet, I am sure that whatever you have to say can wait until the horse has been cared for.”

Mrs Bennet placed her hands on her hips. “This cannot wait! I was going through the wardrobes of the girls – it simply will not do. Their clothes are in a terrible state! I must take them all to get new dresses.”

Mr Bennet walked over to his wife and pulled her away from the stables, where the stable master was caring for the wounded animal. “You disturb me and my stable master for this? You and the girls have your allowances I am sure that you can make do with your budgets. Otherwise, what do I provide such money for?”

Mrs Bennet huffed and waved her husband’s frustrations away. “Lydia and Kitty told me this morning that they have none of their allowance left and it is not fair for me to pay for their new dresses and not give Jane, Lizzy, and Mary new dresses too. It is simply essential that you and I buy all the girls new dresses. Netherfield has been viewed by several interested parties. Our girls must not be embarrassed.”

Mr Bennet shook his head. “It is not possible for the girls to have new clothes if it does not come out of their allowances. Each one has ample pin money to buy new clothes and other accoutrements. If Lydia and Kitty have spent their allowance right now, then they must wait for new dresses. I cannot afford to be paying out vast sums of money on clothes.”

“Mr Bennet! You simply do not understand. They must have new Sunday dresses, ball gowns, and other such attire. We can make do for morning gowns and at a push day dresses,” Mrs Bennet insisted.

Mr Bennet glared at his wife. “Mrs Bennet, you insist on lavish dinner parties and living to excess. You exceed your pin money and have taught your youngest daughters to do so also. The extravagances that you have insisted on for years have left us in a position where I cannot pay out the extra funds that you are requesting. I cannot spend vast sums of money on their wardrobes.” Mr Bennet did some quick sums in his head. “They will have to make do with either cotton or muslin dresses and five for each of the girls at a maximum.”

“Only FIVE dresses for each of our girls?!” Mrs Bennet screamed.

Mr Bennet heard two of the horses shy from his wife’s screams.

“You would see us disgraced!” She continued to harangue him.

“No, Mrs Bennet, I would see us manage to stay within our income for at least one year! Since the day that Jane was born, you would have bankrupted us with your constant demands and frivolous spending,” Mr Bennet angrily accused her.

“At least allow the girls to have two or three silk ball gowns,” Mrs Bennet grumbled.

Mr Bennet shook his head. “No, it is time that they understood they cannot exceed their income and have nice things.” Just then the veterinarian was making his way up the path to the house, to aid the wounded animal. Mr Bennet walked away from his wife, muttering about it being another expense that he could ill afford.

Elizabeth Bennet, the second of the five sisters, turned around from her bedroom window. The argument between their parents was not a new one. She looked at her eldest sister, Jane, who was sitting on her bed. “It looks like Lydia and Kitty will be begging us to buy them their dresses,” she sighed.

“I know, Lizzy. I do not want to say no to them, but I do not have much saved after mama insisted that I go to London for the season last year,” Jane said. “Aunt and Uncle Gardiner were good to me, but they do not move in the right circles in Town.”

Elizabeth sighed. “My savings will not help either. I will be able to buy myself two silk gowns and that will be the limit of my abilities.”

Just then the door flew open and the girls’ younger sisters barrelled into the room, led by Lydia, the youngest of the five Bennet girls. “Lizzy, did you hear what papa said? We shall be the laughingstock of with just five new cotton gowns. It is not fair! Why should we suffer like that? Charlotte Lucas has just had a whole brand-new wardrobe made for her. She is so old already. I do not see why she should have a whole new wardrobe every year, while we only get five useless cotton dresses. We need silks, not boring cotton!” Lydia wailed. “I have heard that there is to be a militia coming to visit Meryton in a few months. I should be ashamed to go around in plain old cotton rather than silk. We won’t impress the officers dressed like that.”

“Calm down, Lydia. You are more slender than I am, perhaps you can remake some of my gowns from last year,” Jane said. “There are a couple that Mama does not know I never wore.”

“I do not want your hand-me-downs! I want new dresses,” Lydia snapped. “I am sick of the dresses I have.”

Elizabeth stood up. Her sister was behaving like a spoilt two-year-old. She went to her sister’s room and looked at the clothes in her closet. She had only come out last year. Elizabeth was sure that her mother was wrong when she said that Lydia would need new dresses and sure enough when Elizabeth looked through the closet, there were dresses that she did not remember Lydia even wearing. It was clear that at least one of the girls was not in any dire need of a fresh wardrobe. “Lydia, unless you have grown six inches, all of these dresses will do you well.” Elizabeth waved over at least half of her sister’s wardrobe.

“What do you know, Lizzy? I think that you just do not want to pay for us to have anything nice,” Lydia sneered.

Elizabeth walked past her sister and whispered in Lydia’s ear, “You and I get the same amount of pin money, but you spend yours frivolously. So, no, I do not want to spend my savings on your dresses when I need new ones myself.” She carried on out of her sister’s room and into Catherine’s room. Elizabeth stood in shock at the sight that assaulted her eyes. It seemed as if every dress that Catherine owned was strewn over the bed. Her mother was right. Catherine would need new dresses. Her eye was cast over the material that lay there. The material was threadbare and even with her considerable skill with the needle, Elizabeth would not be able to remake any of those dresses. They were ready for the rag pile only. Poor Catherine. She had been out for three years. Why did she not have any clothes that were of good quality? Elizabeth thought over Lydia’s burgeoning closet to Catherine’s threadbare one. A nasty thought occurred to Elizabeth that Catherine was giving her good dresses to Lydia. Elizabeth walked back to her room, where Jane and Catherine seemed to be arguing about Jane needing to buy Catherine new clothes.

“Be reasonable, Kitty, mama wants us all to have new clothes this year. Papa has set a limit on what we can have. We will have to be content with that,” Jane said.

“I need a whole wardrobe, not just five cotton dresses. I do not see why you need new dresses anyway. Mama bought you new ones last year,” Kitty grumbled.

Jane sighed. “I am sure that I do not, but mama is insistent that I have them.”

“Lizzy sews well enough that she could make over all of our wardrobes in a week. I reckon she could easily make us new clothes,” Lydia grumbled.

Elizabeth shook her head. “Lydia does not require new clothes. However, I am, and Kitty definitely is. The last time either of us had new dresses was two years ago and having looked at Kitty’s wardrobe it is in a worse condition than my own is.”

“That’s because mama doesn’t think that you, Mary, or Kitty will get husbands. You’re as good as old maids in mama’s eyes.” Lydia laughed. “Jane is already close to being an old maid.”

“Lydia!” Jane chided.

Before Jane could say anything else, their mother bustled into the room. “Girls, I promise that each of you will have at least two new silk dresses. Your father is teasing us as usual,” the matron stated. “However, let’s get to the draper’s shop and buy the material. I will take it to the modiste tomorrow.”

“Mama, Mary and I can make the dresses,” Elizabeth said.

Mrs Bennet turned in shock and exclaimed, “You will do no such thing….” A shrewd idea entered the matriarch’s head. “On second thoughts, you could make yours, Mary’s, and Kitty’s dresses. The money we save on labour could buy a few more yards of material for Jane and Lydia to have two or three more dresses.”

“But mama,” Catherine complained, “it is not Lydia who needs new dresses desperately, it is Lizzy and I who do. Not even Mary’s wardrobe is in such bad shape as Lizzy’s and mine.”

“Hush, Kitty! You and Lizzy will have new clothes, neither of you have either the looks of our dear Jane nor the spirit that Lydia has. Quite simply, even Mary has more chance of capturing a man than either of you. I simply do not know what I am going to do! If a young man were to take Netherfield tomorrow, none of you would be suitably dressed – except maybe our dear, dear Jane.” Mrs Bennet cupped her eldest daughter’s face. “Jane, you are such a credit to your father. You look after your clothes and are everything proper. I simply do not know where we went wrong with your sisters.”

Jane looked at her sister, in a silent plea for help, but Elizabeth took a guilty pleasure in being left out of her mother’s favouritism. Jane frequently complained that she had to live her mother’s ideal rather than what she wanted. When they were younger her mother had tried to make Jane into a copy of herself, including not allowing Jane to read very much. Secretly, Jane had done the things her mother would not let her do. But in the end, her mother would win the arguments. Now Jane was a quiet girl who showed the world little of her inner self. All five of the Bennet girls were within an inch or two of each other in height, with Jane and Lydia being the tallest at five foot six and Elizabeth the smallest at five foot four. “Mama, I do not need new clothes. Let Lizzy and Kitty have the whole budget. They are the ones whose wardrobes are about to fall apart. I also know that Lydia does not need new clothes either.”

“Traitor!” Lydia grumbled.

Mrs Bennet shook her head. “No, I will not have Lizzy and Kitty getting new clothes while you and Lydia get nothing.”

“Mama, I had almost a whole wardrobe last year when they got nothing. I am content dressed as I am. Besides, I am sure that if papa knew how old and threadbare Lizzy’s wardrobe is he would give a larger allowance,” Jane suggested. In truth, Jane knew as much as the rest of the girls that their father would give Elizabeth extra on the sly.

Mrs Bennet sighed. “If Elizabeth would only look after her wardrobe better, I might agree to that. However, she does not. Her wardrobe gets abused, not used. I will talk to your father more later on, but for now get yourselves ready. We have a trip to the drapers.”