He mustn't be without a stepmother either!
Her stepmother-- Jonny's mother-- had said as much.
His own mother taught him to read, and his stepmother urged him to study.
The second Mrs Godwin was energetic and painstaking, but a harsh stepmother; and it may be doubted whether the children were not worse off under her care than they would have been under Godwin's neglect.
For incest with his own mother, both were burned to death; with a stepmother, the man was disinherited; with a daughter, the man was exiled; with a daughter-in-law, he was drowned; with a son's betrothed, he was fined.