Page 114 of A Most Beloved Sister
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Several hours later, the Bennet carriage returned to Netherfield. Elizabeth, awaiting her family’s arrival in Jane’s room, could hear her mother long before she actually saw her. She braced herself just as the door flew open to the chambers in which Mrs. Bingley lay.
“Oh, my dear Mrs. Bingley! My poor, poor girl!” Mrs. Bennet wailed, pushing into the room and flinging herself on top ofJane’s prone body. She gasped out great, heaving sobs of denial over her daughter’s present condition.
Mr. Bennet entered the room as well, followed by Kitty and Lydia. He stood near the foot of the bed, taking in the scene with a slight grimace on his face. Kitty sat on the other side of the bed opposite her mother and took Jane’s hand in her own.
Elizabeth was relieved that at least one of her family members was willing to act maturely and acknowledge the realities of the situation with tenderness and selflessness. As for Lydia, she wandered around the chamber, looking at the furnishings and picking up several expensive items to inspect them more closely.
“My darling girl, my dear, dear Jane,” wept Mrs. Bennet, still draped across her eldest daughter. “How cruel this all is! How unfair! Come, now, Jane—be a good girl and get up for your mama.”
Mr. Bennet gently pulled his wife back until she was sitting on the chair. “I know, Fanny. I know,” he said in a soothing tone. “There, there now.”
Mrs. Bennet’s weeping turned into pitiful sobs that wracked her entire frame. Kitty, too, was crying, and Elizabeth felt almost like an intruder in a private moment, even though only family members were present. It was as if she’d been away from Longbourn for so long, her dynamics were so altered, she could scarcely recognize them. For all of Mrs. Bennet’s histrionics, she truly did love her daughter.
She went to her mother’s side and put her arm around her shoulders. “Jane loved you, Mama. She loved you so much. You taught her everything she needed to be a good wife and a good mistress of her own home.”
For one of the first times in her memory, Elizabeth felt her mother’s arm come around her waist in a tight hug. “Thank you, Lizzy.”
The tender moment was then interrupted when Lydia came out of the changing room. “Look at this, Mama! Isn’t it perfect for me?”
The foolish young girl had been going through Jane’s dresses in the closet and pressing them to her face in the mirror to check her complexion. As the eldest and youngest Bennet girls had the most in common based on appearance, each of the colors and styles that Jane had chosen for her trousseau were also quite flattering on Lydia.
“When Jane is dead, I’ll be taking all her dresses. The rest of you are too plain to look well in them, I daresay. And with Mary being a boring old clergyman’s wife, Lizzy an old maid, and Kitty following a poor soldier in rags, I will be the only one who will need them.”
She pranced around the room with the dress held up to her figure as everyone gaped at her. Even Mrs. Bennet had ceased her dramatics as she watched her youngest daughter’s vulgar and callous display.
Mr. Bennet opened his mouth to speak, but Kitty rose to her feet first. “How dare you, Lydia Bennet? I have never seen a more selfish girl in all my life! To think I once thought you the best of all my sisters.”
She ran out of the room in tears, brushing past her younger sister with her shoulder as she went. Lydia stopped dancing and watched her go, then turned back to the others. “Well, there’s no need for her to be in such an upset about it simply because I am prettier than she is.”
His face darkening with rage, Mr. Bennet stepped forward and ripped the dress from Lydia’s hands. “Are you lost to all common decency? Have you no shame?” he hissed in a deadly quiet voice. “Your sister isdying, and you care for nothing but… but… fripperies and nonsense! I have long thought you to be the silliest girl in England, but I daresay you have surpassed eventhat. You, Lydia Bennet, are nothing more than an unfeeling, selfish little chit, and I am ashamed of you.”
Lydia’s face flushed red at this epithet and, stomping her foot, turned to her mother in fury. “Mama, tell him I may have the dresses.” When Mrs. Bennet remained silent, she stomped her foot again and demanded, “Tell him!”
This last shout seemed to be the straw that finally broke the camel’s back, as it were. Mrs. Bennet rose from her chair and silently marched forward to where her husband and youngest daughter were standing. Lydia smirked at her father, but Mr. Bennet, being the studier of character that he was—and he had, indeed, been studying his wife and her nerves for these twenty years at least—saw an expression on her face that he had never seen before.
To be honest, it terrified him, and he had absolutely no idea what was going to happen next. Even when Lydia had been punished for her reaction to Kitty’s engagement, Mrs. Bennet had only held her ground for a day or so before pleading for her favorite to be allowed to return to society.
Mrs. Bennet stood in front of Lydia and then, without warning, boxed her ears—hard.
Lydia collapsed to the ground, howling, with her hands cupping either side of her head. Mrs. Bennet leaned over, grasped her blubbering daughter by the nose, and pulled her to her feet. Turning to her husband, she said calmly, “I will take Lydia to the carriage, then return to say my goodbyes to Jane. Will you come with me to ensure that this foolish girlremainsin the carriage?”
With an admiring grin, Mr. Bennet gave a low bow. “At your service, my lady wife.”
Still leading Lydia by the nose, Mrs. Bennet departed the room with her husband right behind her. Elizabeth blinkedstupidly at the door for a few seconds, then turned to her elder sister lying undisturbed on the bed.
“Well, Jane, I’m sorry you weren’t able to see Lydia finally getting what she deserved.”
“With her generous nature, it’s probably best she missed it. Especially Lydia’s cruelty.”
Elizabeth turned to see Kitty standing in the doorway. She beckoned her younger sister to come in. “That is a fair point, Kitty. I’m sorryyouhad to miss it, at least.”
Kitty grinned. “I heard it, at least. I was standing just outside in the hall. I wanted to say one last goodbye to Jane, but I couldn’t do it while Lydia was still here.”
“I completely understand.”
After going to her sister’s bedside, Kitty leaned over and kissed her gentle brow. A teardrop fell from her eye and onto Jane’s face. “Goodbye, dear Jane. You were the best sister and the best person I’ve ever known. Heaven will be so fortunate to have you.”
