Her Father’s Eyes (Pride and Prejudice Variation: Family Matters)

Prologue

She stepped from the carriage, her movements unconsciously slower than usual, and looked at the large, dark brick town house.

Glancing this way and that, she momentarily felt like the grandeur of Grosvenor Square was pressing in on her.

Shaking off her disquiet, she sternly told herself she was being ridiculous.

“I have been invited. She is expecting me,” she murmured. Immediately, she wondered, But am I welcome?

For as long as she could recall, she had been known as Elizabeth Bennet.

But she had another name, the one she had been given at birth, and today, she might reclaim it.

That would depend on how she was received.

And what I wish, once we have met. Would she want to know the woman and whatever other family there was?

According to Mr Gardiner, the countess had a husband, sons, and a brother and his wife and children.

Clutching her reticule, Elizabeth nodded her thanks to the coachman and glanced at the maid who had accompanied her from Gracechurch Street. Then Elizabeth climbed the steps and knocked at the door.

When a liveried butler answered, she held out a card and announced, “I have come to see Lady Romsley.”

Thomas Sterling’s—my true father’s—sister. My aunt.