]It never occurred to me to think that Mary could be jealous of Anne and Charles being together. I can't see it myself.

Nor can I. She is jealous, though, but about something else all together.

Mary is jealous because everyone else believes Anne is better equipped to take care of Louisa. (And like you posted earlier in the thread, she doesn't want to be left out.)

She's also such a hypocrite! In addition to the laughable hypocrisy of Mary's appreciation of the "province" of nursing (when she has already admitted after little Charles' fall that she does not have any inclinations in that area), she is also a hypocrite about her deference for familial ties.

Her main reason for insisting that she should be the one to stay in Lyme is based on familial relations: Anne, who was nothing to Louisa, while she was her sister, and had the best *right to stay in Henrietta's stead! Why was not she to be as useful as Anne? So Anne isn't close enough (in relation) to Louisa to be preferred over her, yet Anne, being "only" little Charles' aunt, is quite good enough to have the care of the boy while Mary (his MOTHER) goes to the Great House for dinner.

Mary suddenly has nursing skills when it suits her, and also feels the strong bonds of family when it suits her. She likes to have things both ways --- if it suits her.