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20 minutes later she was hysterical. This was not an attack of her ‘nerves’, attention seeking but just part of her character. If there was such a thing she was loudly catatonic. All anyone could understand was ‘hedgerows’. Eventually Martha Philips slapped her face, and not gently, to shock her out of her babblings.

“We are ruined, utterly ruined. When you are dead Mr. Bennet we will be out in the hedgerows. I will be dead just weeks after you. That girl is too much. I want her gone Mr. Bennet, do you hear. Gone.”

She allowed herself to be led away by her sister, and within minutes Mary, Kitty and Lydia Bennet were also aware of the supposed disgrace of their sister.

--

Elizabeth knew she was going to be sent away. Her majority was not until March, a full five months away. Judging by the wailing and lamentations of Mrs. Bennet there was no way she would be allowed to stay at Longbourn. Based on her mother’s reaction she did not want to stay anyway. Yet at the heart of the matter, here she was, a woman who had been fast asleep behind a locked door, and it was her that was being forced to leave the only home she had ever known.

What was the most disturbing was how her own family bought into the lies of Caroline Bingley, taking her side of the story rather than that of their own sister. That her mother blamed Elizabeth was all but a racing cert. Elizabeth had been unable to do anything right in Mrs. Bennet’s eyes ever since she was a small girl. Mrs. Bennet could have been asleep in a second bed in that very bedroom and she still would have blamed Elizabeth.

But it was the cliché that was annoying her the most. Elizabeth was going to strike the next person who said ‘there is no smoke without fire’.

The betrayal of her sisters hurt Elizabeth much more than that of her mother. For several years Elizabeth had been trying to get Lydia and Kitty to present themselves as genteel young ladies, with no success whatsoever. They took the opportunity presented to them to throw all of Elizabeth’s teachings back in her face. She got nothing but mocking glee from the pair of them.

Elizabeth did not help her cause with Mary when she ripped the Rev Fordyce’s book of ‘wisdom’ out of Mary’s hands, lifted the window and pitched it into the garden. Tedious, trenchant moralising was bad enough but when Mary started on about Elizabeth having imperilled her mortal soul her patience finally ran out. She had wanted to do such an act for at least a year. At least it got Mary out of her bedroom.

But Jane’s betrayal hurt Elizabeth the most. Jane never said that most infuriating of phrases but it was clear that she judging Elizabeth by it. Jane kept Elizabeth at a distance, but literally as well as figuratively and it seemed clear to Elizabeth at least, that Jane was more worried about the loss of the attentions of Mr. Bingley than she was about her own sister.

So much for family.

As for her father? He had been married to Fanny Bennet for nearly 24 years. There was a reason he hid in his study all day. She knew exactly where to stab the knife, only figuratively otherwise Elizabeth would have been in danger, and she wore her husband down.

“Come in Lizzie.”

Elizabeth sat without being told and stared at her father. Her face was totally expressionless, but there were two spots of red on her cheeks and careful observation would show a vein clearly throbbing on her temple. She was anything but calm even as her expression tried to portray such an emotion.

“I am sorry Lizzie but you must leave Longbourn. And forever. The family name is being dragged through the mud throughout the neighbourhood. We have to be seen to act and act immediately. There is no alternative but to disown you.”

Short, bald and to the point. Elizabeth wanted to say so much, to rage at the unfairness of the world, but all that happened was that as she tried to stand, instead she slumped forward, scattering the papers on Mr. Bennet’s desk and crashed to the floor.

She awakened to find herself in her room, laid out on the bed. She recalled Mr. Bennet’s words but then nothing. Judging by her sore shoulder, elbow and hip, she had collapsed. Rather than get up she lay there thinking about the last week. And much more pertinently, what her future held. She shifted on the bed and became aware of a rustle of paper. Sitting up she found a letter stuck in the folds of her skirt. The wax from the seal sufficient to stick it against the fabric.

Normally she would have never considered reading a letter addressed to her father. But that was then, this was now. She idly scanned the letter and realised that it was from the previously unknown heir. She read it more carefully stopping in several places to reread passages. The olive branch section was read very carefully.

It took but a minute to scribble down the address before she folded the letter back up. She would give her father one final chance to be a man. She returned to his study.

“Did I faint?”

“Yes Lizzie you did.”

When her father looked out the window for a moment, she dropped the letter onto the floor.

“Is there any point in my being here, in this study? There is nothing I can say that will change your mind.”

“I am sorry Lizzie.”

Elizabeth Bennet looked at her father, as if seeing him for the first time. The whole week had been a revelation, and not a good one, in terms of her seeing her family for what they truly were.

“You once lectured me about a decision I had made.”

Her tone was not respectful.

“Do you remember? You took great joy in castigating me for doing what was easy rather than doing what was right. When was the last time you read your bible sir? Luke Chapter 4 since your memory seems to be selective.”

Before her father could explode in anger at her she stood and headed for the door.

“Save it for a member of the family.”