The Runaway Bottom

Thursday, July 24 08

Mrs Bennet was pleased. She had insisted that her elder daughter, Miss Naomi Bennet should face her fear of dogs and come with her to her exercise class. Yes it meant sitting on the sofa in close proximity to a tiny dog, but Miss Bennet had stuck it out and was rather pleased with herself for doing so and so was Mrs Bennet. To be honest it was an achievement she had got all five girls there in the first place.

Miss Rosie Bennet, who was rather a speedy crawler, was too quick for her mother. As soon as her nappy was off the bare bottom crawled away leaving a frustrated Mrs Bennet crawling after it before any accidents occurred. Miss Bennet Number Four thought this was highly amusing and only sought to do this more, much to the amusement of the other Miss Bennets!

But after tightening her assets this morning, Mrs Bennet felt better and found it far easier to cope with her children, a trip to the park, a picnic, designing treasure maps in the local museum and cooking tea. How she got through the day – which was unusually hot – without collapsing she didn’t know. But she did and her reward – half an hour with Mr Latte even before she had had a proper conversation with her own dear husband.