The Little White Horse: Loveday and Benjamin and the Geraniums
The fight between Loveday Minette and Sir Benjamin
TL;DR
First of all, Loveday and Benjamin are first cousins. Yes, you read that right, First Cousins. And Robin and Maria? Second cousins.
Yeah I don’t like it either.
“My father and Sir Benjamin's father and your grandfather were brothers," said Loveday. "There were only the three of them, and each of them had only one child; Sir Benjamin, myself, your father; and so now the Merryweathers are a very small family, just Sir Benjamin and myself and you."
When Loveday was orphaned at the age of ten, she moved to Moonacre Manor with her Aunt, and her Twenty-Five year old First cousin Benjamin.
Let me repeat that: HER TWENTY-FIVE YEAR OLD FIRST COUSIN.
So Sir Benjamin is a predator.
Heavens above, anyway.
When Loveday comes to Moonacre Manor, all she has are the clothes on her back and ten pots of geranium cuttings. Salmon Pink Geraniums. Now, despite how silly that is, these flowers matter to Loveday because they were the “pride of Cornwall”. They are the only thing she has to remember her home and parent’s by. These aren’t just flowers to her, but the final mementos of her family.
Sir Benjamin’s mother's hatred of pink and geraniums leads to Loveday’s inability to wear pink, or keep the geraniums anywhere but in her room. Loveday tells Maria that her aunt was severe and strict. Loveday loves the color pink, and she loves her geraniums, but Loveday is restricted by her Aunt and unable to wear what she wants to wear freely, and keep something that she views as a representation of her parents and family, private.
“When I was a child of ten he was a splendid young man of twenty-five, and, as I said, he was kind to me and I loved him; even though he shared his mother's dislike of pink geraniums. For he was not like his mother, always talking about the things he disliked; he just kept his mouth shut and did not mention them.”
A couple of years pass, Sir Benjamin (in his early thirties) and Loveday (still a fucking teenager) are engaged to be wed in springtime. In winter, his mom dies, but they don’t move their wedding date and still plan on getting married in a few months. Despite the fact that you were expected to mourn for at least a year, I imagine the mourning period would also include not getting married, but I digress.
It is also made very clear how Sir Benjamin feels in regards to the women in his life:
“I cannot tell you how much I loved him, Maria. And he loved me, too, though he loved his mother more."
Now, I’m sure that your synapses are just firing off, that your reading skills and critical thinking abilities are great and you know what’s coming next!
“And then, Maria, one spring evening just before our wedding day, I did a very stupid thing."
We really only get to see this story from Loveday’s perspective, and not from Sir Benjamin’s, I’m sure Goudge is expecting us to find Loveday a reliable narrator, and I’m sure Loveday isn’t lying, but it would have been nice to at least get Sir Ben’s perspective.
The night before their wedding, or just about, the Merryweathers are having the Parson over for dinner, for what I imagine is similar to an engagement dinner, rehearsal dinner, and wedding counseling for us. While Sir Benjamin is out on a horse ride, Loveday decides to take all of her Salmon Pink Geraniums out of her room and decorate the house with them. At this point, her room was overflowing with pink geraniums, and there was simply no more room for them in her chambers. So, what I find to be very arrogant, Loveday takes all the geraniums out of her room, wears a pink dress, and greets both cousin/fiance and Parson at the door.
Of course, Sir Benjamin is furious (and in my opinion, I do think Loveday, up to this point, is in the wrong. As far as I’m concerned this is a clear lack of communication, and very disrespectful to her mother-in-law/aunt/the woman who took care of her most of her life) but can’t do anything because the Parson is there, and he has to be sociable.
“When Old Parson had gone he told me exactly what he thought of me. He has the Merryweather temper, you know, even though he is so sunny and genial, and when he was a young man he could behave like a roaring lion. And he raged and stormed that night until his anger nearly lifted the roof off. He said that I had insulted the memory of his saintly mother and that I was not worthy to follow in her footsteps. And he said other things that made me very angry, so that I said hard things too. Among other things I said that his mother had not been a saint at all but a very wicked woman to be so severe with a little girl as she had been with me over my love of pink. And no saint hates geraniums, I said. Saints love all the flowers that God has made, especially the salmon pink geraniums of Cornwall, because God never made lovelier flowers than those. And at that Sir Benjamin picked up all the pots of geraniums within reach and flung them out of the window into the rose garden."
So Loveday runs away and marries a lawyer out of pure spite.
“And the son of the house [she was working in], a young lawyer, fell in love with me on sight, and I married him as soon as it could possibly be arranged, because he was kind and I liked him, and in my pride and anger I wanted to put it beyond Sir Benjamin's power to get me back again."
Now I would like us to take a look at the fight that happens in the Secret of Moonacre.
Sir Benjamin is not insulted by her choice of floral arrangements, he is angered by the fact that she is the daughter of his enemy. He believes she came and tricked him into loving her, that she was using him to find the pearls.
Loveday lies to him about her name to protect herself. While we are not given her reason as to why - it could have been that she was trying to find the pearls, and didn’t want his wrath and anger, so donned a false name; it could have been she was sent by her father to find the pearls but fell in love with him nonetheless - we know that she did truly love him, and chose him over her own family.
Either way, the fight Loveday De Noir and Sir Benjamin have is much more nuanced. It is reasonable for these people to be upset. Sir Benjamin is angry that he was lied to, and Loveday is upset because he could not look past her name and love her regardless, that he would not listen to her as she tried to tell him that her love for him was genuine.
Also, Loveday De Noir doesn’t go off and petty-marry a lawyer so he can’t have her.
The fight that Sir Benjamin and Loveday Minette have in the book is childish and moronic, while the fight Sir Benjamin and Loveday De Noir have is nuanced and devastating.
Edit: my sister mentioned that Loveday was treated very harshly as a child, and felt free to express herself for the first time and was treated harshly for it. I don’t think this changes my stance on Loveday being in the wrong (they both are) as a couple, they lacked communication, which is a cornerstone for relationships. However, that does make me more sympathetic for how Sir Benjamin treated her
Conclusion: they miscommunicated, but Sir Benjamin is a grooming pedophile, so he’s definitely in the wrong
