Page 16 of Great Uncle Henry (Pride & Prejudice Vagary)
Even though he would never be added back as a beneficiary, so far in the four years Lizzy had been living at Longbourn, at least Thomas had kept his word as far as protecting her went.
Henry was aware his nephew was driven by selfish reasons, which is why he took the trouble to honour the agreement regarding Lizzy.
His actions did not redeem Thomas in Henry’s eyes.
He had not interfered in the education of his daughters, as it cost him nothing, not even when the masters began to arrive at Longbourn to teach his daughters.
The first to arrive, when Lizzy had been seven and Mary five, had been Signore Alberto da Funti, one of the most sought-after music masters in the realm.
Since his arrival, the pianoforte playing of both Lizzy and Mary had improved exponentially.
Lizzy had developed her fine contralto voice, something which would only improve as she and her body matured.
She did not love practising, while Mary relished doing so, but Lizzy did so anyway.
Henry was aware she did not want to disappoint him, as she knew how much he loved hearing her play and sing.
Thankfully, neither Thomas nor Fanny had an inkling of who the man was and what it cost Henry to employ him.
Besides paying him a high rate for a full day each time, the agreement that he would travel to Longbourn once a week included a carriage provided by Henry so the Signore could teach his nieces.
Around the same time, the language masters began to arrive.
The advantage with Signore da Funti was that the girls learnt music and Italian at the same time.
Her mother’s discouragement notwithstanding, Jane enjoyed the lessons and especially the time with the music master, who helped her with her proficiency on the harp.
She had a basic proficiency in French and Italian, but she was not close to Lizzy’s abilities with foreign languages, which went far beyond the two Jane was learning.
The threat of the loss of pin money was enough to have Fanny recede and cease her attempts to convince Jane that being educated was a waste of time when all she needed was her beauty. It frustrated her greatly that her husband was being so high-handed in this area of her daughters’ lives.
Fanny was afraid her darling Lydia would be forced into lessons as well when she was a little older.
Over the years, especially after Lydia was brought home at the age of two, it became clear the girl could do no wrong in her mother’s eyes.
At the same time Catherine, who by then had been close to turning four and was still called Kitty, was taken from the tenant’s cottage and placed in the nursery at the manor house.
Her cat, Cleopatra was not allowed in the nursery with her, so for the nonce, she lived in the kitchens.
As her mother’s favourite, seeing how much alike Fanny and Lydia were in both looks and character, the youngest Bennet was spoilt rotten by her mother.
That meant that when Lydia wanted things belonging to her older sisters, Fanny allowed her to claim them.
The fact that all Lydia would do was to play with the item for some moments and then destroy whatever she had claimed did not cause Fanny any pause .
Her mother could not see that her youngest was a dog in the manger, but truth be told, even had Fanny seen it, she would have excused the behaviour in her favourite.
When her mother told her she was not allowed to take anything from Lizzy, Lydia had thrown a tantrum for the ages, which caused her mother to relent.
Bennet did not want to lose the daughter who was already debating with him, and for almost a year, had been beating him in chess.
That day, Lizzy had defended her property by slapping Lydia, which had earned Lizzy a slap from Fanny.
Hence, when Thomas asked what had caused the screaming in the house, Mr Hill apprised him of what happened.
Bennet then marched into the nursery and removed Lizzy’s hair combs from Lydia before she was able to harm them.
When the girl had attempted to grab them from Thomas and had bitten his hand in the process, he had turned her over his knee.
She had cried, but the shock of being disciplined had shaken Lydia to the core.
She had, of course, run to her mother to tittle tattle on her father.
As Lydia knew she would, her mother made for the study to punish her father.
All Fanny’s screeching at her husband had achieved was the loss of six months’ allowance, and she had been told that from then on for each time she allowed Lydia to steal from any of her sisters, whether it be Lizzy or one of the others, she would lose a further quarter’s money.
For Fanny, this had been a quandary: give in to Lydia like she wanted to and lose allowance or stand firm. The latter had won out when Fanny realised how much pin money she stood to lose.
Lydia’s whole world had tilted on its axis.
First, her father had spanked her, and then her mother, rather than set things to rights with her father, told her she was not allowed to take anything that belonged to anyone else.
Worse, all tantrums bought her was her being locked in the nursery— alone.
By 1801, when she would be five, the only one in the house who would give in to her, and that was only in things which would not lose her allowance, was her mother.
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In February 1801, after Lydia’s spanking, as she was about to turn ten, Lizzy was assigned a bedchamber of her own.
At the same time, Bennet decided that thanks to Lydia’s antics, Mary and Kitty would share a bedchamber where they would be watched by one of the nurses who had been with Lizzy all of the time.
Henry had agreed to that arrangement because Lizzy no longer needed three nurses.
One of the two remaining became Lizzy’s maid; the other acted as a maid for Jane, Mary, and Kitty.
Henry was aware Fanny was not happy Lizzy had her own maid, but she was too worried about her husband docking more of her allowance to verbalise her concerns. Also, Henry cared not a whit what Fanny thought, that is, when she actually did so.
He was aware that Fanny thought the dower house was a place not fit for peasants, and that opinion was formed without ever seeing it.
Fanny did not realise, because she point-blank refused to go to the infernal hovel , as she called it, that the house was somewhat larger than half of Longbourn’s manor’s size.
With him in his seventh decade, Henry was determined that the house would be put to use in the next few years.
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In Henry’s opinion, the changes Frank Phillips had made in the last four years were positive in the extreme.
Gardiner had told Henry about what Phillips had done shortly after Lizzy went to live at Longbourn again.
Gardiner had opined that Henry’s refusal to allow a document with his name on it to be in Phillips’s office, had shocked his brother-in-law to the extent he realised the problem of his wife and her habit of going through his office was a serious one, which was directly affecting his ability to earn his income.
His business partner—Gardiner and Associates had doubled the number of ships in their fleet in the last few years—had assured Henry that Hattie Phillips would never again have access to anything in Phillips’s office.
He had reserved judgment to see if Phillips would hold firm.
He had. As such, Henry began to use Phillips’s services in Meryton, which included Phillips being informed of who truly owned Netherfield Park.
As there was no need to do it, Henry did not share the extent of his wealth and property with Phillips, but the latter had an idea—which he kept to himself.
That idea was that Mr Henry Bennet was far wealthier than people thought.
Phillips had learnt a hard lesson, and as word spread that he had taken steps to secure his office, clients who had gone elsewhere began to return to his practice.
Henry had heard that Hattie had made long and loud complaints about her husband not trusting her.
When he had told her bluntly that he did not trust her when it came to clients’ confidential information, Hattie had ceased importuning him on the subject.
Through Phillips, Henry allowed short-term leases on Netherfield Park, along the lines of a hunting lodge which was conveniently close to London.
For three months, November, December, and January, Henry resided at Netherfield Park to be close to Lizzy and Mary.
In addition, he reserved the month of March, which essentially left the estate unrentable for five months each year, so he could be close by for Lizzy’s birthdays.
By spending time in the area, he was able to come to know Kitty as well. Thankfully, unlike Jane and Lydia, she did not listen to her mother’s ramblings about Uncle Henry. It was fortunate that the second youngest Bennet was much closer to Mary than Lydia.