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“Stop right there, Mrs Bennet! I have never before fallen for your contrived maladies, and I do not intend to begin today!” His words had the effect he knew they would.

His wife suddenly looked well and sat up.

“No one is pushing you anywhere. It is your inability to regulate your behaviour and vitriol which is leading to your banishment. You and that horrible daughter of yours will be out of my house at first light on the morrow.” Bennet held up his hand.

“No amount of caterwauling will get me to change my mind. If you do not wake on your own, you will be thrown out of your bed! I need what my daughters can deliver far more than anything you can. As soon as you were unable to have more children, you became useless to me.”

Had her husband slapped her in the face, Fanny would not have been more stunned. “How can you be so cruel? To send my beautiful Jane and me to the cottages like peasants all because of those wilful, disobedient things,” Fanny screeched.

“You have just proved my supposition that you are not able to see that you and you alone are the author of your fate. It matters not; you are leaving. I will finally have peace and quiet in my house. I should have done this years ago.” Bennet rang the bell.

When the butler entered the study, Bennet issued his orders.

He watched as the shocked woman was led out of his study.

He was greatly looking forward to meeting his daughters. Mayhap they would be the first females he would enjoy being around.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

“What do you mean we are no longer to reside in the manor house?” Jane Millar’s voice got higher with each word she said. “What did you do to anger your husband?” she demanded after her mother had told her she needed to pack.

“It is those unnatural devil’s spawns who were born of my body. My husband is banishing us because he wants to have them here now. I always told you they were evil,” Fanny wailed. “Just look at what they are doing. Their devil-like ways have infected my husband, and now we are discarded.”

For once in her life Jane was not willing to accept her mother’s words at face value. Even though she hardly said more than two words to Mr Bennet at mealtimes, she knew she needed to speak to him to discover the truth of the matter.

“Mama, you need to pack, as do I if we are to leave this house in the morning,” Jane suggested. She needed her mother to leave.

With a huff, Fanny, who was vastly disappointed that Jane had not joined her in railing about the unfairness of being pushed aside for those things, left Jane’s chamber to supervise her packing.

She had many questions. Would she have servants, and if so, who would pay for them?

All she received from her husband was ten pounds per quarter.

Anything else she wanted or needed, like clothing for herself and Jane, was acquired using her household budget, which was something to which she never adhered.

She would have to speak to her cruel husband herself to get the answers to the questions she was asking.

First she would go rest.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

Bennet heard a soft knock on his study door.

He knew it was not his wife because she would have been much louder and marched in before he said anything.

“Enter,” he called out. He was rather surprised to see Miss Millar enter the room.

He could not remember a time he had ever seen her in his book room.

“Miss Millar, how may I be of assistance?” Bennet asked sarcastically.

“Please tell me you are not here to plead your mother’s case? ”

“No, Mr Bennet, I am here for myself. Mayhap I should have done so sooner, but in the last months, I have begun to question my mother’s assertions.

I have come to the conclusion that most, if not all of them, are not based in fact.

” Jane paused as she gathered her courage.

“It was not my half-sisters who demanded that Mama and I be sent away from Longbourn, was it?”

“Indeed not. Your mother demonstrated her inability to behave with propriety around my daughters. It led me to suspect that at the least she would be verbally abusive and possibly worse. Hence, I made the decision to send her out of my home. Until this rather surprising statement by you, I believed the same would be true of you,” Bennet stated thoughtfully.

It was shocking to see Miss Millar speak with what amounted to good sense, or close to it. “What is it you are asking of me?”

“I am well aware I am not any sort of relation of yours, blood or otherwise.” Bennet inclined his head to acknowledge the truth of Miss Millar’s words. “This is the only home I have ever known; I ask that you allow me to remain in my chamber for now.”

“That would be most irregular, Miss Millar. As you correctly stated, we are not related,” Bennet responded.

“If you are worried about my being chaperoned, the maids and Mrs Hill are in the house, and are my half-sisters not to be in residence soon?” Jane queried. “I will not be trouble for you, I vow.”

“Firstly, my daughters will not sleep here, certainly not at the beginning. Their Uncle Gardiner—well I suppose he is your uncle too—owns Purvis Lodge. They will make their home there and visit here during the day.” He saw the shock in Miss Millar’s look.

“You do know you have an uncle who lives in London and an aunt who lives here in Meryton, do you not?” Bennet felt a tinge of guilt when he mentioned Mrs Phillips.

His two youngest daughters were with her and Phillips.

“Mama told me her brother and sister were dead,” Jane managed.

What she did not know was that after repeated requests from Fanny for money and other forms of assistance were ignored, she decided her brother and sister were dead to her.

“That was a prevarication. Your mother is aware that her sister lives in Meryton and is married to the town’s solicitor.

Her brother runs a rather successful business in London,” Bennet revealed.

“The two older girls are wards of the Gardiners, while the Phillipses have guardianship of the younger two.”

Jane remembered the name Mrs Phillips and had always wondered why one of the woman’s daughters looked a lot like herself and Mama.

When she asked, all Mama would tell her was the woman was a tradesman’s wife and too low for them to associate with.

She began to question how much of what her mother had told her over the years was true.

Could it be a man was looking for more than beauty?

It was what her mother had been telling her for as long as she could remember.

“Mr Bennet, I have a question, which you are free to refuse to answer.”

Bennet extended his hand, palm up, to signal her to continue.

“My mother told me her beauty caught her two husbands, and that was all she needed. Was that true?” Jane questioned.

“What do you know of your father?” Bennet enquired.

“Mama told me he was a colonel in the army who was killed defending…” Jane stopped when she saw the amusement on Mr Bennet’s face. “That was not the truth, was it?”

“Your late father was a captain in the militia. I am sorry to tell you that his death was not heroic; he was caught in a compromising position with another man’s wife, and the man shot him.

” Bennet paused. He did not like Miss Millar, but he did not want to inflict intentional pain.

“Are you sure you want to know all?” The young lady nodded.

Bennet told her all he knew regarding his wife and her former husband.

“So, her dowry was not stolen by avaricious relatives?” When Bennet shook his head, Jane continued, “My father wanted her money and married her for it. Had it not been for the dowry, I would have been illegitimate,” Jane realised.

Bennet nodded his agreement. “And I am assuming it was not her beauty which won you? She did not compromise you, did she?”

“No, to both of your questions.” Bennet explained why he had needed a wife, something he had never intended before his father and brother were taken. He told Miss Millar why he had selected her mother.

Jane Millar had never been so shaken. Her whole life had been a lie, a lie perpetrated by the one who was supposed to love and protect her.

No wonder her mother, and she by extension, was reviled in Meryton.

Mama had always blamed it on anyone and everyone, except herself.

She recovered enough of her equanimity to remember the original purpose of her entry into the study.

“Will you allow me to remain in the house until I can find a situation for myself?” Jane held her breath as she waited for the reply.

“Yes, you may remain…” The door burst open at that moment, and his wife stood there looking like the cat who got the cream.

“My clever Jane, you convinced my husband not to be cruel. I hope that means that those things will not be admitted into this house. I knew how it would be; you could not be so beautiful for nothing…” Fanny ceased her burbling when she saw the looks of disapprobation on both her husband’s and her daughter’s countenances.

“Mrs Bennet, nothing has changed for you. I am, however, allowing Miss Millar to remain at the manor house,” Bennet stated coldly.

“Jane, surely you would not allow your mother, who loves you and who has given you the best care over the years, to be used so ill, would you?” Fanny forced some tears from her eyes.

“Your false crying will not gain you anything. I know it all! The way you have dissembled to me the whole of my life. I am ashamed to call you mother,” Jane bit out.

“I have an aunt and an uncle and half-sisters, right here in Meryton. Another aunt and uncle in London, where two more of my half-sisters live. I also know the truth of my late father, who only agreed to marry you for your dowry, not your beauty.” Jane stood and marched out of the study, head up, with tears of anger rolling down her cheeks.

“How could you turn my daughter against me?” Fanny shrieked.

“You did that all on your own. All I did was to answer the questions she asked me, exposing her to a unique concept. The truth,” Bennet said in dismissal . “You need to go pack. You will be out of this house in the morning.”

Fanny stalked out of her husband’s study. This was all the fault of those unnatural daughters. She would make them pay, especially the eldest one. This was all her doing. If she had just agreed to be born a son, then none of this would have come to pass.