Here you go! So sorry for the late update but it couldn't be helped. Hope you like this interlude and, of course, next chapter the real Pride and Prejudice events will start.

Interlude

Miss Lydia Bennet of Longbourn in Hertfordshire was unaware of the fact that, in another life, she had been Lydia Hale, English student at the University of Hertfordshire and born in 1993 from two very successful lawyers who had unfortunately died in a plane crash when she was but 12. Nor was she aware that she herself had died in a car accident while leaving her house to buy some grocery and had been reborn two centuries in the past and inside the plot of her favourite novel.

It was, perhaps, fortunate that she remained oblivious to her odd circumstances or she would most probably have ended up in Bedlam.

Mercifully, as we already established, she was none the wiser and she lived in the 19th century as if she had always belonged there.

Miss Lydia was the youngest of five daughters and was surpassed in beauty only by her eldest sister Jane. Lydia did not envy Jane for this, however, because Jane was as handsome in appearance as she was sweet and kind in character. Jane's countenance and conduct could, in fact, be described as angelic.

The same adjective could not be attributed to Lydia though, whose sharp-witted nature was perfectly reflected in her lovely blue eyes. In that, she was very similar to the second-eldest sister Elizabeth, or Lizzy as she was most commonly called in their family.

Lydia and Lizzy were as similar in disposition as their features were different. While Jane and Lydia favoured their mother in colour, Elizabeth had inherited the dark hair and green eyes of their father.

Kitty as well, – Lydia's twin and older than her by only three minutes – though not as handsome as Lizzy, had taken after their father in appearance though she was also unfortunately the one who resembled their mother the most in temperament.

Mary, the middle child, shared the same colours as Elizabeth and Kitty though, in comparison to her other sisters, she was rather plain. Yet, she was still more handsome than any other girl in the neighbourhood.

Their mother – Mrs Bennet – was not a sensible woman. She was prone to fits of nerves, she loved to gossip, her behaviour was often inappropriate and her only objective in life, it seemed, was to find husbands for her five daughters.

Her behaviour could be partly excused by the fact that Longbourn, the estate they lived in, was entitled away to Mr. Bennet's cousin – a Mr. Collins – since the Bennet couple had been unable to produce a male heir that would have inherited the property.

Mr Bennet, the Master of Longbourn, was as intelligent as Mrs Bennet was flighty and as indolent as she was anxious. Mr Bennet was not an attentive master or father, preferring to spend his time in his study to read than pay attention to his daughters or wife. Still, he was not so completely careless that he did not make sure her daughters would be well taken care of when he would be gone.

As a matter of fact, Mr Bennet was not supposed to inherit Longbourn, being a second son. Still, his father made sure that he would have something to live on anyway. The old Mr Bennet, having only two sons and no wife – she died of childbirth the second time she gave birth – took care every year to put aside a certain amount of money for his second son, so that in about 35 years, he had saved up more than 20.000 pounds. Of those money, half of it were invested and since old Mr Bennet had a knack for business, these investments soon tripled its initial sum, so that, before his death, he was able to leave about 40.000 pounds to his second son.

Mr Bennet's older brother – unmarried and with no children – died soon after of a fever who took him rather suddenly and therefore, Mr Bennet was left with the running of the estate and this large sum of money.

Taking his father as an example, he decided to put aside as much money as he could every year and to invest the 40.000 pounds as well, asking advice to his brother-in-law Mr. Gardiner. Thanks to some rather fortuitous investments, he was able to put aside 20.000 pounds each as a dowry to his five daughters plus another 20.000 for his wife (those money – or those left anyway – would then be divided among his five daughters after Mrs Bennet's death, in addition to those 5.000 pounds that had been Mrs Bennet's dowry).

Mr Bennet couldn't, in fact, stand the idea of his daughters having to rely on the kindness of Mr Collins who would inherit the estate or risking marrying for monetary reasons instead of for affection and respect. And what would have happened in the case that none of his daughters would be able to marry or marry well? He couldn't think of this possibility, especially in regard to his favourite daughters Elizabeth and Lydia, who in disposition and character were those who more resembled him, though Lydia had a sweetness to her and a desire to think the best of people as much as it was possible that resembled Jane more than him.

While with Jane and Lizzy, he was worried that they wouldn't be able to find a husband worthy of them, with Lydia he rather despaired that such a man did, in fact, not exist. Lydia was both clever and artless, quick-witted and amiable, proper and independent, sweet-tempered and passionate. Mr Bennet was rather afraid, in fact, that she would fall in love with someone who would only see her beauty and kindness but not the fierceness underneath. Lizzy couldn't marry a man she wouldn't be able to respect but Lydia couldn't marry a man she didn't love or that wouldn't love her completely in return. Nevertheless, Mr Bennet was reassured by the fact that, would she decided not to marry, she would be perfectly able to support herself, just like all of his other daughters.

Lydia, for her part, was not particularly worried on that account. She was conscious, of course, that women were expected to marry and – if her mother had anything to say about it – she would have to marry well and yet, she hadn't made of marriage her sole purpose in life. Not that she was opposed to the idea but she was rather more hopeful that such a thing would occur than concerned that it wouldn't like her mother feared.

Mrs Bennet would often comment, like she would with Jane, that Lydia couldn't be so beautiful for nothing but, while her mother was convinced that beauty would be enough of an inducement for men to ask for her hand, Lydia wasn't satisfied with the idea of being just a beautiful face.

Lydia had a thirst for knowledge that was only rivalled by her sister Lizzy and a desire to become accomplished more for her sake than to capture a future husband. She was rather fortunate on that account that, if she put her mind to it, she would often excel in whatever area she chose. It was unfortunate though, that they didn't have a governess and that the five sisters had to, therefore, rely solely on their mother's teachings and since, like already stated, Mrs Bennet was not particularly educated, those teachings were only centred around household affairs or the typical 'accomplishments' that men expected a woman to know like trimming, sewing and embroidering.

Still, their father made sure they had access to all the books in his library (and it was a rather extensive library), therefore they were free to widen their knowledge at their own discretion, and he did pay for a master to teach those who wanted to learn – mostly Lizzy, Lydia and Mary – at least one modern language, to play the piano and the harp and sing and to draw and paint (the last one only Lydia because she was the only one who really had the talent and the patient for it).

Regarding the harp, their father had mostly bought it for Lydia, after much begging and pleading. The fact was that, at home, they didn't have access to the piano as much as they wanted since there were five of them and Mary would often play for long hours every day, leaving little time for her sisters. Lydia had therefore resigned to the fact that, like Elizabeth, she would learn to play the piano very ill.

It was both a happy and unhappy coincidence therefore that, one year when Elizabeth was 12 and Lydia 10, Elizabeth had gotten sick and therefore had been unable to go visit their uncle and aunt Gardiners in London. Lydia had begged her father to go in her place and, as it was often the case when it came to his other favourite daughter, he had relented in the end and let her go. Lydia had therefore spent two pleasant months at her aunt and uncle and returned to Longbourn desperate to continue learning to play the harp that she had started to during her stay with them.

Like already stated, when Lydia put her mind to it, she would not give up on learning that particular subject until she would excel in it. She liked drawing, therefore she became very accomplished at drawing, she liked playing the harp and singing and therefore she excelled at it and she loved to read, therefore she would read as much as she could, on every subject she could find (even those subjects that weren't considered very lady-like such as Latin, Greek and biology – especially anatomy). Knowing a little about human anatomy meant that she knew much more than a gentlewoman like her should about what happens between a man and a woman but Lydia was not one to concern herself with what a woman should and should not learn.

Her interest in human anatomy was directly correlated to her knowledge about healing plants. It was not rare, in fact, for her to 'scamper about the countryside' as her mother would call it, to collect herbs and flowers. Lydia, like her sister Lizzy, loved to walk though she was an excellent rider as well, mostly because she loved the thrill of riding astride as fast as she could on her horse when no one would see her (though she was perfectly capable to ride side-saddle like a lady should).

Other subjects, like mathematics, were uninteresting to her and particularly difficult to learn beside so she didn't bother. She could count, of course, but nothing more than that. In this case she was lucky that women weren't required to learn mathematics and that, in fact, knowing more than she did would be considered unlady-like. Concerning modern languages, she had learnt only Italian and a little French (mostly because her sister Lizzy had learnt it) but she hated German with a passion (she simply didn't like the sound of it) and she hadn't even bothered to learn Spanish.

Mrs Bennet would, of course, complain that she read too much and that no man would marry her, no matter how beautiful she was, because no man would be interested in a bluestocking as a wife, especially one as impertinent as her. Lydia would smile and laugh at her because it simply wasn't in her nature to be offended by her mother's remarks. And, like already stated, she was completely unconcerned with catching a husband. Maybe she was naïve but she liked to think that whoever she would choose as her husband, rich or poor it didn't matter, he would be able to appreciate all of her and that he would love her for these qualities and not in spite of them.