I hear that all the time ... "I don't want my child to be lonely."

But what we see is that a younger sibling, relatively close in age, can be lonely - and that you can be lonely in a crowd. Perhaps lonelier than when one is actually alone.

There tends to be the general assumption that Lady Elliot favoured Anne while Sir W favours Elizabeth. I imagine that isn't true. We aren't really told it is - are we? Lady Elliot is shown as being kind and loving - so I imagine she loved her eldest as only a mother can. ;) But perhaps this is not based in the text. I'll have to re-read.

However, I'm sure Elizabeth was as scared by her mother's death as Anne was. She was 16 and thrust into her mother's role. Perhaps she clung to her father and found her comfort in him - a resource Anne could not share.