Anniversary February: Lydia and Wickham’s Second Anniversary

anniversariesTo commemorate our second anniversary, we invite you, our loyal readers and friends, to join us this month at Austen Variations. We have grand plans! For February, we intend to share the endearing (or otherwise) moments of Jane Austen’s beloved characters as they celebrate their own anniversaries.

 

 


Anna carefully stirred the stew over the fire, sweat running over her temples as she tried to avoid burning her fingers on the edge of the black pot again. She hoped that the brown mess would be edible tonight…she didn’t have much experience cooking and she wondered if she had remembered to put in everything her mother told her to. Somehow, it didn’t look the same as that of her mother, a capable woman who fed her large family and at least two boarders twice a day with hearty, filling food.

Perhaps Anna should have spent more time at her mother’s side before hiring herself out to the Wickhams. But then, she had been hired as a nursemaid to care for Mrs. Wickham’s two children, a boy of 15 months and a baby girl of five months. Since she had taken this position she had realized that “nursemaid” meant “nursery maid, laundry girl, and cook.” She had hoped that working for such a handsome officer as Ensign Wickham would put her in the way of meeting other soldiers at the camp, but she never had time to leave the house, except to buy the food at the market.

Mrs. Wickham spent most of her time sleeping in until noon and then dragging herself into her clothes to go out to the shops, although she did not have enough money to keep her little boy in decent clothes, let alone buy fripperies.

Anna looked again at the stew. Perhaps it would be good today. She wondered if she should put another potato in it to soak up some of the liquid and make it go further. She had not seen Mrs. Wickham since one of the clock, so she did not know if she and the Ensign were to be home for supper or not.

Before she could think further about this, the baby started crying and she put down the spoon to go take her out of her crib. Her grizzling had also awakened little Edward who began whining about being hungry. The rest of the afternoon she spent running between the two children to entertain them and prevent them from swallowing the pin cushion Mrs. Wickham had left on the arm of the chair, or reaching into the pot of stew and burning themselves.

It was not long after six of the clock that Ensign and Mrs. Wickham came in. They were both unsteady and watery of eye, and the missus had a tear in the hem of her gown. Anna helped the missus out of her scarf, an unneeded flourish to her dress in the heat of early fall, and the two plopped down on the settee, their legs sprawled before them. Little Edward ran to his father to show him the wooden soldier he had been playing with and was told to go play quietly. “Settle down, Eddie, my boy! Mama and Papa are tired.”

Anna ventured a comment. “Do you need some supper, sir, ma’am?”

Wickham answered her with a loose-lipped smile. “No, indeed, Anna, me darlin’! Mrs. Wickham and I have dined. Today is the anniversary of our marriage and we celebrated at the Fox and Hound. It’s been two years since our wedding, eh, Lydia?” He nudged her with an elbow and his wife opened her eyes. “Yes, my dear Wickham! It is indeed our anniversary! Two whole years!”

Little Kitty began crying again at the over-loud voices of her parents in the small room. Mrs. Wickham wandered over to the nursery crib and tried to pick up her daughter.

“Come to Mama, Kitty! I hope your aunt Kitty will be able to come see you soon! What a pretty baby you are!” She jostled the baby up and down to make her stop crying. “Why is she crying, Anna? Do you just let her cry all day? Do something!” Anna took the baby and tried to give her some milk in a cup, but she was having none of it. Then she patted her on the back to see if she needed to burp, but her gentle pats just seemed to make the baby scrunch up her face and shriek even louder. It was not long before Edward was screaming, too, and Anna could barely hear her mistress as she complained about the noise.

Within a few minutes, Ensign Wickham jumped up off the settee and whirled to face his wife. “Lydia, can you not quiet those brats down? Don’t just sit there!” He paced the short length of the room, becoming more and more agitated as the shrieking continued. Mrs. Wickham, in the meantime, had retired to her room but she stepped out again, her gown half off, to join the shrieking. “You do something! They are your children. I spend all day here taking care of these brats while you are out enjoying yourself with your friends!”

Anna could see that there was a storm blowing up between her master and mistress and she quietly picked up little Kitty and Edward and took them into the nursery. She tried to stop her ears as she cleaned them up and got them ready for bed, hoping that her master would not slap her mistress, as he often did during their frequent battles. Maybe they had both had enough to drink that they would tire quickly and fall asleep. It would be nice if their anniversary would not end in blows.

As soon as little Kitty had settled down, ignoring the yelling still going on in the other bedroom, Anna crawled into the other bed with Edward and put her arms around him. She hummed a lullaby into his ear and soon they both fell asleep as the fight in the other room dwindled into snores. Anna smiled as she drifted into sleep.

 

 

 

 

20 comments

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    • Glynis on February 15, 2016 at 3:41 am
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    Yes that is how I imagine those two would live. I feel so sorry for the children, they are lucky to have Anna so at least someone loves them. Thanks for this post.

    1. I hated to write such a depressing post, but thought that the Wickham’s story provided contrast with the happy endings, as it did in the book. πŸ™

    • Hollis on February 15, 2016 at 8:54 am
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    Poor babies and poor Anna. Such an end to Lydia and Wickham, but that was the prediction, was it not?

    1. I’m hope to redeem her by making her have to grow up someday…but she’s not on the top of my stack of story ideas yet!!

    • Carole in Canada on February 15, 2016 at 10:12 am
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    Such a sad state of affairs. Of course, they don’t blame themselves for the situation they are in but each other.

    1. Precisely!! πŸ™‚

    • Stephanie L on February 15, 2016 at 10:13 am
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    and all of her hard work on the stew is for naught because no one told her they would not be dining at home that night. *sigh* Yes, this is how I would picture Lydia and Wickham. Those poor munchkins.

    1. At least in this vignette the children have a nursemaid who cares about the children!! Maybe she can save them from their parents…

  1. Pretty depressing but just about what I thought would happen. I hope something happens that will make life easier for their kids.

      • somandyjo on February 16, 2016 at 10:28 am
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      I’ve always liked the continuation stories where the Wickham kids (like all 12 of them) are living with their various aunts, getting a much better start on life than they would have otherwise. Lots of sons joining the army or navy, and daughters getting enough of an education to marry moderately well. One good thing about their parents’ selfishness as that they would have no objection to farming their kids out to whomever would take them. Thankfully there are good homes available for them to grow up in.

    1. I’m sure, though, that any extra money would turn into a new ballgown for Lydia, or a new pair of boots for Wickham instead of a teenage girl who doesn’t even really know how to cook! πŸ™

    • Anji on February 15, 2016 at 11:26 am
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    Yes, definitely how I imagined things would turn out for them. Two children in as many years and more to come almost certainly. Lydia telling her husband that she cared for the children all day? It made me spluteer over the cup of tea I was drinking at the time!

    1. Yes…we know exactly what she does, but Lydia is a master manipulator along with very lazy!
      This difficult scenario was why I wanted to do this “anniversary”!! thanks for commenting!

  2. Yep, that’s about right…sigh. I feel sorry for poor Anna, trying to do the work of three servants all at once, and then having to deal with Lydia’s selfishness and Wickham’s drunken violence.

    Very realistic portrayal of what their lives would have been. Sad, but realistic.

    Thank you!

    Warmly,
    Susanne πŸ™‚

    1. Thanks, Susanne: yes, not a pretty picture, but I do have plans with them in the future! πŸ™‚

    • Sheila L. M. on February 15, 2016 at 5:16 pm
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    Sad how none of us picture it any different. And the stew will burn and the children will be hungry. Yes, laughable how Lydia claims to be caring for them all day. And he hits Lydia – why am I not surprised? Well written and could it have been any other way? No.

    1. Yes, the domestic violence was something I had to work on…I don’t think he would be very violent because he has spend too many years sucking up to others in hopes of fleecing them that it is second nature to him. He also has the eyes on the main chance and won’t do anything that might jeopardize the money he will eventually get when her parents die. I would imagine that Darcy made him sign a contract setting up the rules and holding a tight hand on the purse strings. Ready to draw them tight if Wickham doesn’t keep up his part of the bargain in marrying Lydia. I’m sure domestic violence would make Wickham lose his money sources from Darcy. These are the things that I would like to explore. I could easily see her as another whining Mrs. Price!

    • Audrey Reed on February 15, 2016 at 7:45 pm
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    Thank you for the story!

    1. Thanks for reading, Audrey!!!

    • Deborah on February 17, 2016 at 6:27 am
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    Unfortunately, this is the way I would picture them Lydia and Wickham over imbibing and the physical abuse Lydia is enduring. Sigh. Those poor kids.

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