Page 37 of Eavesdroppers Never Hear
“To what purpose, Lizzy… to what purpose? I can accept or resent it, and I will still have five daughters to marry off. I know you find my efforts silly, and perhaps they are, but it still must be done.”
“Perhaps you will have some help with that soon,” Elizabeth said, but quickly regretted it.
“Can it be?” Mrs Bennet said with a hint of nervous wonder.
“It is possible. Things look promising now, but we should not count our chickens just yet.”
“That is why I dragged myself out of bed to meet you this morning.”
Elizabeth raised an eye questioningly and nodded for her mother to continue.
“Your father seems to take great exception to my promotion ofourdaughters… apparently thinking suitors grow on trees by the dozen.”
“Was that a question?”
Mrs Bennet looked carefully. “It was not, but if you choose to answer, I will not gainsay you.”
Elizabeth mightily wished she did not need to continue, but hoping was unlikely to produce the desired result.
“For the most part, we just wish you went about it differently. You always push Jane and Lydia, while denigrating the rest of us. Both are…” she said, then paused significantly, striving for the right word. “…self-defeating.”
Mrs Bennet frowned, and Elizabeth thought she might have gone too far.
“I suppose I should promote you evenly?”
“I cannot say… perhaps… less… vigorously. Nobody can deny that Jane is about five times prettier than the rest of us, and she is of better character as well. I can hardly fault you for holding out so much hope for her when I have been doing the same thing for some time.”
“Did you see Mr Bingley when he approached us? He barely noticed the rest of you, and he is not the first to react so.”
“Do you think beauty is what will attract a husband?” Elizabeth asked, feeling curious about her mother in a way she never had before.
Mrs Bennet stared wistfully for a few moments. “It did for me. I was the Jane of my day. I was naught but the daughter of a solicitor and caught the biggest fish in the pond.”
“How did it go down?”
Mrs Bennet chuckled. “In the end, it was lumpy, chewy and full of gristle, if I am honest… but your father gave me my girls, so I have no room to complain.”
“And yet you do,” Elizabeth said, once again regretting it.
“I suppose that is my way. I cannot rightly say.”
“How did it all come to pass, Mama?”
“Do you really want my old wives’ tales?”
Elizabeth wondered, not for the first time, if she really did. There was something to be said for not knowing, but eventually she nodded.
“Let me start with why I promote Lydia… and before you say it, I know I am doing neither her nor the family any favours, but I have a hard time knowing that in the moment.”
“What is it about Jane and Lydia? Is it that they look more like you in your youth and we look more like the Bennets?”
“Perhaps, but that is not quite it.”
Elizabeth waited patiently while her mother relived older days for a time, then finally let out a long sigh.
“People say having babies is what we are made for, and we should enjoy it; but I can assure you that each of my five children cost me months of misery. I could barely eat or keep what I did eat down for the first three months. Then I had a month or two of not-too-terrible. The rest was just an endless slog to birth. I do not say that to frighten you. Most women have it better than I did, but it happens.”
“I know that much,” Elizabeth said, but since maidens were supposed to be as ignorant as children, she said no more.
