Expectations: The Transformation of Miss Anne de Bourgh (Pride and Prejudice Continued), Volume 1

Pride and Prejudice and Pirates….

It is a truth universally understood—but never acknowledged—that an heiress with no husband and no prospects is an object of derision and pity.
And an heiress who had a prospect—for decades—but her intended was stolen away by a rival with no family, no money, and no connections, is so profoundly to be pitied that she must not even be talked about behind her back.
Except, of course, if she is not in town.
And most definitely if she is the daughter of that imperious old harridan, Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

Three years after her cousin Fitzwilliam Darcy broke their engagement to marry Elizabeth Bennet, Anne de Bourgh’s life is sputtering to a halt. With failing health and a cloudy future, in desperation she takes advantage of a peace treaty between England and France to spend a warm winter in the Italian kingdom of Naples. But when war erupts, Anne and her party must scramble to find safe passage back to England.
Accompanied by a mysterious gentleman from Naples and a doting young doctor with secrets of his own, Anne de Bourgh commences a voyage that will change forever the life of one of literature’s most famous third wheels. Pulled from the shadowy recesses of Pride and Prejudice and thrust into the spotlight of her own story, a woman with no wit, no vivacity, no charm—and the mother of all mothers—will seek her only, slim chance at happiness.