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F anny Bennet was beside herself with anger. She had just birthed another daughter. Like the two prior times she had been with child by Mr Bennet, she had convinced herself this was the needed son and heir. That would have led to a cessation of her marital duties, but no, another girl!

At least this one was not dark like the two before her; however, her hair was a light brown, so she would not look like either her mother or the beautiful Jane.

So it was that Fanny demanded the disobedient girl be sent to the cottages to be fed and cared for by a tenant.

With no sons so far, all of Fanny’s hopes coalesced around Jane catching a rich man who would take care of mother and daughter one day when her husband passed away.

She refused to be turned out into the hedgerows by the Collinses she had heard about.

Mrs Hill did as had been asked of her; as soon as the mistress sent her newest daughter away, she sent a groom to Mr and Mrs Phillips with the news.

Within the hour, the two arrived at Longbourn. Mrs Phillips, once told which cottage her niece was at, made for it. Mr Phillips marched into Bennet’s study without knocking or waiting to be invited in.

“Bennet, what kind of man are you? How can you allow your wife to banish the daughters of your body from your house, while her daughter, no relation to you, and to whom you have refused to give your name, lives under your roof?” Phillips demanded.

“What am I to do? There will be no peace in this house if I gainsay her…” Bennet stopped in surprise as Phillips slammed his hands down on the desk.

“That is a lie you tell yourself to placate your conscience,” Phillips barked out.

“Since the moment you married her, your wife has demanded you adopt Jane Millar. No matter how much, as you put it, she has caterwauled, you have not given in to her. You sit here, sipping your port, reading, and doing as little as is possible for you to do. You have chosen not to fight for your daughters!”

“I need a son; and daughters do me no good,” Bennet whinged peevishly. “It is not like a female can be intelligent enough to understand the books I read, debate with me, or play chess. Unlike a son, she would not be able to assist me in running this infernal estate.”

“You, Bennet, are a waste of a human being. As you do not care, I have prepared this document for your signature. Hattie and I will gladly take in your unwanted daughter.” Phillips threw the contract down in front of the man who he disdained.

As it meant less effort and expense for himself, Bennet signed without reading the document.

He signed the second copy which Phillips gave him for his own records.

He pushed it into a drawer in his desk where he stored things he would not need to look at again.

“She has not been named yet. When will you take her? Does she not need a wet nurse?”

“We will name her Catherine Jane after my mother and Hattie’s mother,” Phillips shared.

As disgusted as he felt at the shell of a man at the desk, he was pleased in the extreme to be a father.

As much as Phillips did not think Bennet deserved a son and heir, he hoped there would be no more daughters to be rejected by the two most selfish people in the world.

“We know of a wet nurse looking for work, so we will employ her and make sure Cathy is fed. Hattie is collecting her now. By the by, do you know, or even care, how you and Fanny are reviled by your neighbours? You did not think no one would hear how heartless you two have been to your own offspring, did you?”

“What care I what others think?” Bennet responded dismissively.

Phillips left the study, and soon enough he and Hattie were on their way home, the latter holding her surrogate daughter lovingly.

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

December 1796

Seeing that she was far larger than she had ever been before, Fanny was certain that this time she carried a son. Surely He would not be so cruel to her and make her endure her husband’s attentions if it was another girl.

She need not have worried because, even before knowing what the child was, Bennet had decided to never go to his wife again.

He had always hoped never to have to lie with a woman, and now he had endured the distasteful act far more often than he had ever wanted to.

If there was no male child this time, then one day when he went to his final reward, the estate would go to a Collins.

It was very distasteful to think of one of that line being master of Longbourn, but it was far worse to perform the disgusting act of coupling, which was anathema to him, ever again.

Bennet was willing to endure his wife’s whinging about being tossed into the hedgerows one day after he went to his eternal reward, far better than joining with her. As it turned out, he did not need to tell his wife he would never come to her again.

It was not because she delivered a son. Rather, it was another daughter, his fourth and her fifth.

What took care of the issue was the size of the newest Bennet daughter.

Her birth had caused damage that made it very unsafe for his wife to be with child again.

The new apothecary, Mr Jones, agreed with the midwife’s assessment that the chances were his wife would never be able to carry another child.

When Fanny had been told it was another daughter, and her birth had left her unable to bear another child, regardless of the babe’s hair, which was of similar colour to hers and Jane’s, all of her resentment was focused on the child, who she called as wilful and unnatural as the first child she had had with Mr Bennet.

Hence, she refused to touch her. Bennet named her Lydia and then sent a message to the Phillipses telling them there was another daughter if they wanted to act as her guardians.

As she loved Cathy, who was two, no less than if she been born of her body, Hattie replied in the affirmative with no hesitation.

The same wet nurse who had provided the initial sustenance for Cathy was employed for Lydia.

As much as she disliked her younger sister, Hattie was more than pleased that thanks to Fanny’s nastiness and selfishness, she now had two children more than she had ever thought she would have.

It took a few days of recovery before Fanny was able to see her beautiful Jane.

She had given up trying to present her as Jane Bennet because it was known throughout the area that Mr Bennet had not adopted her and refused her the use of his name.

It had taken some time for Fanny to finally accept it would never be as she wanted.

Eventually, after the fifth time her beautiful daughter returned home in tears because she was laughed at for calling herself Jane Bennet, Fanny had finally told her not to use the name any longer. Such an unfeeling man she had married.

At eight, Jane’s looks were everything her mother could have desired. Thanks to the inculcations since Jane had been a babe, not only did Jane look like her mother, but she had her mother’s character as well. She was pleased that none of the demon children lived in the house with her.

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

By the time Lizzy was four and Mary past two, Madeline and Gardiner were aware that the former was inordinately intelligent and talented.

Before Lizzy turned five, they had employed a governess for her, and it soon became evident she would need far more than the traditional education that girls normally received.

She was reading rather complicated books before she turned five, could write, and had started to learn French.

Aunt Maddie was fluent in the language and could also read and write like a native.

Maddie’s grandparents had come to England from France when they were newly married and had spoken only French at home when it had been just the family present.

Her father had continued the practice after his parents had passed on, and her brother Adam was also doing the same with his children.

The speed at which Lizzy picked up the language was phenomenal.

Within six months she could speak, read, and write the language as well as her aunt.

Soon after, tutors were employed for Lizzy.

By now, when she was close to being six and Mary recently four, Lizzy had mastered Latin and Greek.

If that were not enough, she was well on her way to being fluent in German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Portuguese.

In addition, she had an ear for music. Before her first lesson on the pianoforte, she had been able to find the keys she needed to play a tune she had heard.

She had been taught by a master for about three months already, and he was flabbergasted at her progress and abilities.

He claimed she played better than some of his students more than twice her age.

Although not at the same level of intelligence as Lizzy, Mary was far above average.

She had recently begun with the governess.

She could read and write like a child some years her senior and had begun learning French, which came to her a little harder than it had for her older sister, but still at a much faster pace than most.

The girls had blossomed in the loving and accepting environment the Gardiners fostered. Within a few short months of living in Gracechurch Street, Lizzy stopped asking if she would ever meet her mother and father. Mary never enquired after either.

As much as Maddie prayed for children of her body, she was certain of one thing.

She and Edward could never love Lizzy and Mary any less if they were ever so blessed.

In the summer of 1795, when Lizzy was four and Mary not three yet, the Gardiners and their nieces had travelled to Lambton to visit the Lamberts.