An Unlikely Acquaintance

Poised to take control of the Meryton Barracks, Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam anticipates exchanging a lonely Christmas for an even lonelier year, made worse by his cousin's sudden and surprising exodus from Hertfordshire. He could never dream that his new post would bring the possibility of new romance when he crosses paths with an equally lonely Jane Bennet.

Saddened by her sister's apparent abandonment and determined to secure her happiness in some way, shape or form, when Elizabeth Bennet senses a spark of interest between Jane and the family's newest friend she sets herself the task of matchmaking - certain of success now that Mr Darcy is not present to undermine her efforts at every turn.

Kept in London out of loyalty to his friends and his sister, Fitzwilliam Darcy is only too surprised to stumble across Mary Bennet and even more so by the immediate and fervent friendship that springs up between her and Georgiana. Through Mary he learns more about the people he left behind in Hertfordshire, and his only possible course of action soon becomes clear: to reunite Charles with Jane Bennet and confront his own feelings for another of the Bennet sisters.

But Darcy hasn't counted on the influence of an old adversary, or that his own perceived interference – again! – in the lives of others might not be welcomed by one Elizabeth Bennet.

Book One in the Strangers and Second Chances series, a variation on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.