So while reading I guess I skipped a part because the lady who was treating Jane horrible is her aunt. Her mother has died , the brother of the mother had to take her in. He hates having to take in family. He is a very rude and horrible man but she has no where else to go. The three siblings a very mean to Jane and she fears the oldest son John Reed. He is very much a bully and gets away with it. This child could basically get away with murder cause his mother is always protecting him. " John Reed was a schoolboy of fourteen years old; four years older then I, for I was ten: large and stout for his age, with a dingy and unwholesome skin; thick lineaments in a spacious visage, heavy limbs and large extremities. He gorged himself habitually at table, which made him bilious, and gave him a dim bleared eye and flabby cheeks. He ought now to have been at school; but his mama had taken him home for a month or two, " on account of his delicate health". Jane really does fear John she is actually hiding from him in the window sill hoping that he wont see or hear her because she fears that he will beat her up,like he always does.