Page 5 of Miss Gardiner
“...is gone. Perhaps you will need to find a better hiding place,” Mr Bennet said dismissing her further complaints.
“Papa, I know it is wrong for a gentlewoman to work, but I do not want to be poor when you die. Mamma tells us all the time that we will have nothing when you are dead,” Elizabeth reminded him. “How are we to survive?”
Displeased to hear his wife’s constant complaint repeated by a daughter, Mr Bennet said shortly, “Like women through the whole of history, you will marry, and your husband will support you.”
“But what if he is not a good husband?”
“Do not worry about that. Your husband will take care of you to the best of his ability. Once you are married, your husband owns you…” Mr Bennet misspoke and immediately corrected himself saying, “He will be responsible for you.”
“Own me? Like a cow?” demanded Elizabeth. “Last week you and Mamma argued over the cows, and you said that you own all the cows at Longbourn!”
Mr Bennet stared at his daughter for a moment before he decided to be frank, “Elizabeth, women are not capable of handling business matters. Your husband will manage all matters of finance and the important decisions.”
“But…”
“Lizzy, women are not capable of working in business beyond working behind the counter in a shop. Is that what you want?”
Elizabeth sat on the stairs and said nothing to Mrs Hill or the chambermaids who slipped around her as she waited for her mother and sisters to return. The carriage returned with Mrs Bennet and four of her daughters, carrying paper packages and hat boxes.
“Oh Lizzy, we had the most fun,” Lydia said. “Mamma bought cloth to make new dresses, bonnets…”
“Mamma, did you spend all my money?” Elizabeth asked.
Mrs Bennet’s good mood vanished in that instant. “What do you mean, Lizzy?”
“The purse you took into Meryton is my purse and my money.”
Sighing, Mrs Bennet said, “You are my daughter. You do not have any monies that are not mine. Nowbe quiet.”
“Lizzy, you can sew new dresses for all of us,” Kitty announced.
“And she can remake our old dresses to wear herself… like the gowns for the maids,” Lydia teased. “When she is grown, she will be a seamstress in some small shop and stick pins in people for fun.”
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When Mr and Mrs Gardiner and their four children arrived at Longbourn for Christmas, they found the Bennet family healthy and relatively happy. After sharing greetings at the door, sending the children to the nursery and dismissing the gentlemen to Mr Bennet’s library, Madeline Gardiner inquired about Elizabeth, Mrs Bennet replied, “Lizzy is petulant and sits in the parlour with a book. I despair of her ever being a regular girl.”
Rather than drawing attention to the missing member of the family, Mrs Gardiner greeted each of her other nieces and discussed her own children with Mrs Bennet.
“How I envy you having little Andrew,” Mrs Bennet said. “If I had a son, we would be secure in Longbourn.”
Madelyn Gardiner eventually made her way to the parlour and immediately crossed the room to sit beside Elizabeth who held a copy of Fordyce’s Sermons, a book filled with sermons that gave instruction on proper conduct for young women. At some point in her youth, Mrs Gardiner read several of the sermons and found them to have some good direction, but she would only allow her daughters to read them if they could immediately discuss the admonitions for young women.
“Lizzy, you did not come out to greet us. Are you well?”
“I am well, Aunt Gardiner but I must read three sermons each day until I agree to sew new gowns for Mamma and my sisters.”
“I do not understand.”
“Two weeks ago, Lydia stole my purse and gave Mamma the money I saved since Easter. They took the carriage into Meryton and spent all my money on cloth, ribbons and bonnets. Papa laughed and said that I cannot make money. Mamma said that any money I had belonged to her.”
“Oh Lizzy,” Aunt Madeline said as she hugged her niece and held the girl as the tears flowed freely that she had held back previously.
“Mamma says that until I agree to sew new gowns for my sisters, I must sit in the parlour and read three sermons every day.”
“And does your mother ask you questions about the sermons?”
“No,” Elizabeth replied.
