Page 27 of I Thee Wed
Chapter 17: Clandestine Liaison
August 1811
The summer lay warm and golden over Hertfordshire, the fields heavy with ripening grain and the lanes bright with hedgerows. Yet tranquility had little place at Longbourn. With Mary well-settled in Kent as Mrs. Collins, and the elder sisters staying with the Gardiners in Gracechurch Street, the younger sisters were left more exposed than ever to their mother’s whims and the enticements of the militia quartered nearby.
Lydia was bored and restless, eager to find something exciting to do. Captain Carter had marked this Bennet sister for his special notice and went out of his way to offer smiles and flatteries, which the fifteen-year-old, in her vanity, delighted in. She had contrived to meet the captain twice on the Gladstone trail, each time returning to Longbourn triumphant at her own daring. The clandestine meetings would have continued further had not Kitty, by chance, discovered a folded paper inserted in a crack of the garden gate.
Curious as to what it might be, she read it. The contents were alarming, even to Kitty, who was not in the habit of thinking very deeply about anything. The letter was a summons from Captain Carter himself, in which he begged Lydia to meet him at the creek beyond the elm grove at their usual place. Kitty’s hands trembled as she folded it again. Here was danger, and she immediately carried it to her father’s study.
Mr. Bennet read the note silently, but his frown grew more severe with every word. “So,” he growled, “Lydia is playing the heroine in her own farce. She shall learn that I will not have awanton under my roof.” He placed a hand on Kitty’s shoulder and commended her for bringing the note straight to him. “You did well, Kitty. I shall not bring your name into this. I know you and Lydia are close, and I will not have you suffer for saving your sister from certain ruin and our family from disgrace.”
Mr. Bennet rang the bell and asked Alice to send Mrs. Bennet to him at once.
That afternoon, Lydia was summoned. She entered the parlor with her usual flounce, laughing when she saw her father so grave. “La, Papa, you look as stern as if I had committed some crime! What have I done now?”
“You have disgraced yourself with secret meetings,” he said, holding up the missive. “And you would have gone again tomorrow had this not come into my hands.”
Lydia’s eyes widened, then flashed with defiance. “That is my letter! Who dared to meddle with it? Give it back to me this instant!”
Mrs. Bennet, wringing her hands, cried out in distress. “Oh, Lydia, how could you? To be writing to a married officer, to be planning secret meetings, you will bring ruin upon yourself and upon all your unmarried sisters! And worse, what if you are already with child?”
Lydia started, her eyes wide with astonishment. “With child? La, no, Mama! I have not lain with Captain Carter. He said that such delights should be reserved for my sixteenth birthday.” She blurted this out with unabashed frankness.
Mrs. Bennet pressed a handkerchief to her eyes and began to weep. Mr. Bennet stood speechless, staring at his headstrong daughter who spoke without an ounce of shame. At last, Mr.Bennet found his tongue. Fixing Lydia with a stern look, he said, “You shall not be permitted to leave this house unescorted until you have turned seventeen.”
“I will not be treated like a child!” Lydia exclaimed. “Captain Carter admires me, and I like him. What harm is there in a walk?”
Mr. Bennet’s tone silenced her at once. “Enough. From this moment, you will no longer be without an adult companion. You will return to the nursery, where a governess shall take you in hand. “Your hair will be worn down, as befits a girl not yet ready for society, and your gowns shall all be given to Kitty. You will wear nothing but plain frocks, such as proclaim to the world the child you truly are.”
Lydia gasped in horror. “Papa, you cannot mean it! I am soon to be sixteen, nearly grown!”
“You are fifteen and nearly ruined,” he replied with finality. “It is decided.” His brow darkened as he fixed her with a stern gaze. “Lydia, if you dare speak of this to anyone, you shall be sent to a school where the pupils labor for their own keep, and you will not return to Longbourn until you are nineteen. Do I make myself understood?”
She turned to her mother for support, but Mrs. Bennet, subdued for once, could only whisper, “Your father is right, child. Better to be thought severe than to be whispered about in disgrace.” Lydia fled the room in tears, her cries echoing through the house.
Mr. Bennet next rang for Kitty, who was brought in trembling. She, too, was given her father’s decree. Though her only offence had been to linger too long at her sister’s side, she was placed under the same restrictions. She would no longer be consideredout, her hair must be worn down, and she was to remain under the eye of a governess. Mr. Bennet looked sternly at his daughter. “Kitty, above all, you are to keep absolute silence about Lydia’s indiscretion, because the smallest whisper will bring us all to ruin. You will especially not speak of this to Maria Lucas, because her mother holds us in contempt at present, having wanted Mr. Collins for Charlotte. Do you understand me?”
Kitty was shocked by the vehemence in her father’s manner. “Yes, Papa.” She curtsied and withdrew to her chamber.
When she left the room, Mr. Bennet turned to his wife with a deeper frown on his brow. “Frances, if you so much as breathe a word of this to your sister Phillips, or to any soul in Meryton, be certain that I shall cut off your pin money entirely, and you shall lose the use of the carriage.”
Mrs. Bennet was alarmed by his countenance and pressed her handkerchief to her bosom. “You have my word. Under no circumstances will I repeat a syllable of what has passed. I would not give Lady Lucas the triumph of crowing over me and my daughters.”
“Very well,” said he. “Then the question remains, how are we to ensure that the two youngest keep their silence?”
Mrs. Bennet considered gravely, a rare moment of composure overcoming her usual flutter. “They are children still, with no sense of propriety. They must remain at home. They may attend church, but must be kept beside us at all times. And we must hire a strict governess, one capable not only of keeping them in order, but of teaching them to comport themselves and to hold their tongues.”
Mr. Bennet inclined his head. “It shall be so.”
Thus, it was agreed. The Bennet household, once so free and noisy, would now be brought under discipline, its youngest daughters consigned to a stricter rule than ever before.
Miss Farrow, the prim governess, arrived two weeks later. She was a brisk, no-nonsense gentlewoman whose influence was immediately felt in the household. Mr. Bennet had decreed that Lydia was to be stripped of her finery and that she should wear her hair unpinned and loose about her shoulders so that no man could mistake her for anything but a child. She was then moved back to the nursery; she was a schoolgirl again.
Officers were no longer welcome at Longbourn, and the house, once filled with Lydia’s noise, was now much quieter. Unfortunately, Lydia’s frequent sobs and protests often brought chaos to the upper rooms, which served as a warning to Mr. Bennet of the storm that had been averted only just in time, but which would surely break over them if he loosened his control over her actions.
Jane and Elizabeth, on receiving the account from Kitty, were not surprised. They could only pray that it was not too late to steady the youngest sister’s course.
Chapter 18: Wimpole Street
