Chapter One

October 14, 1811

Lizzy woke up to the noise of someone screaming at the top of their voice. Their voice was suspiciously similar to her own mother's voice but there was something wrong with it…

"Hill! Hill, oh, where did you go? Have you seen Lizzy? She usually returns from her walk before we break our fast, but she is yet to do so! Oh, something must have befallen her. I have warned the girl against tramping about the countryside countless times, but she still insists on vexing me so! Oh, my poor nerves!" Yes, that was her mother's voice. But it was so strange! It sounded so… English, with none of her usual American loudness (though her voice was still plenty loud) and since when did Mom use words like befallen? Who was Hill? And she didn't take a walk in the morning, she went to the gym! The language sounded a lot more formal than she was used to hearing, too. Something was fishy, and Lizzy didn't like it.

"Not to worry, mum. Miss Lizzy is still asleep. Miss Jane reckons that her walk to Meryton yesterday in the wind must've given her a headache. D'you want me to wake her?" Lizzy vaguely registered that this must be the woman that Mom referred to as Hill. But she wasn't quite paying attention to the conversation now because she'd opened her eyes fully and had looked around her room—which seemed like something out of an old novel. There was an old-fashioned four-poster bed, an ancient looking dresser and… what was that visible in the other room? A chamberpot? Like the one she had seen in the museum? There were melted candle stubs all around the place and not a sign that electricity had ever been used in this place.

Where was she?

Panicked, Lizzy threw off the covers from her body and made to get out of bed—realising that her beloved pyjamas were gone, and were instead replaced with a flimsy nightgown. This raised her anxiety and she went to check her appearance in the mirror. What was happening? As she stared into the mirror, she could see herself—a frightened woman with brown eyes and brown hair. But there were differences. Maybe it was the nose, or maybe it was the shape of her eyes. It wasn't her. It wasn't Elizabeth Alice Bennet's body. She could feel it, she was in someone else's body, somewhere far away from home. No… some other era, long before hers.

Lizzy felt a little faint thinking about it.

Before her thoughts could travel down that lane, she heard someone banging on the door. "Lizzy! Lizzy! Mama wishes that you join us for breakfast and stop being lazy! Lizzy!" The sound of the person's fist against the door was unbearable, so Lizzy went to open it.

Outside, there was a strange young girl of maybe fifteen years. She was pretty, tall and plumpy without being too fat. Her whole demeanour suggested an air of a devil-may-care attitude, which Lizzy didn't particularly like.

And she also resembled Lizzy, quite a lot.

"Wh-who are you?" Lizzy question, dreading the answer.

"Heavens, Lizzy, are you quite alright?" The girl laughed merrily. "You can stop teasing now. You very well know who I am." However, seeing that Lizzy's expression still remained confused and rather panicked, the girl continued, "Lizzy, I am your sister! Lydia Bennet! Did you hurt your head? Have you lost your memories?" She seemed delighted at the idea, rather than being concerned.

Lizzy's mind spun. Sister? She had only one sister, Jane. Who was this Lydia? "N-no, you can't be my sister. I have only one sister, Jane. That's impossible."

The delighted look on 'Lydia's' face finally morphed into a frown. "Lizzy, you have four sisters. Jane, Mary, Kitty and I. A-are you truly ill? Should I call Papa?"

Four sisters! She really was in another place. How did this happen? It was so bizarre and something that everyone thought was impossible. Her mind spun thinking of how, when and why she had ended up in this situation. Her name seemed to be the same, but she was in a different era—that much she could tell. What did this mean? That she could time travel? That she'd somehow switched bodies with this Lizzy Bennet?

Suddenly, she remembered her wish, the one she made in that little park before heading home. How she'd wished for a different life. Oh, no… Such things didn't actually work, did they?

Did they?

As Lizzy stared into Lydia's confused eyes, the implications of her wish came crashing down on her. It had come true. A flippant, frustrated wish had come true, and she was stuck in some kind of historical era, never to return to her home.

And right there, before her newfound sister, on the floor of her new, but ancient-looking home, Elizabeth Bennet dropped into a dead faint.

For one blissful moment after opening her eyes, Lizzy believed that everything was alright. It was just another weekday, she just had to get through it without raising her boss' ire and try to evade her mother's matchmaking schemes. That's it. She'd be alright.

But then, she noticed the candle burning next to her, the only source of light and she remembered that morning's events.

And she screamed.

"Lizzy!" A soft voice exclaimed. A moment later, she felt a hand on her arm, stroking her soothingly to calm her down. Lizzy calmed down enough to notice that the dampness on her cheeks was probably due to the fact that she had been crying and that the woman seated beside her looked very much like Jane Bennet, save the blonde hair that was up in a bun on her head—her Jane had darker hair. And her eyes—they were blue in the candlelight, while the Jane she remembered had green eyes. Otherwise, the two Janes could have been twins. But she did not care, at this moment, of the differences. All she cared about was the fact that her sister, the only one she had ever known, was there by her side, in some form.

"Jane?" She whispered, unable to believe her eyes. Lizzy had desperately been searching for a semblance of normality, anything, and here she was, Jane, in all her angelic beauty. At least Jane's beauty remained unquestionably constant. Lizzy, knowing that she was in a completely different world knew that it was highly likely that Jane was still unmarried. She felt thankful for that fact.

"Yes, Lizzy, I am Jane. Are you alright?" She asked, gently helping Lizzy lie down again. "You had us all worried. Lydia told us that you didn't remember who she was, and you believed that I was your only sister…" She trailed off, looking troubled. "Did you get hurt, Lizzy? The doctor seems to think that you must have injured your head, because of your memory loss."

"No, Jane. It's… I…" How could she explain this, whatever was happening to her? How could she tell Jane that she was not the Lizzy she remembered, at least not the same Lizzy? She felt a dull throb in her head.

At that moment, Lizzy took a decision. She probably couldn't solve the situation by blabbering things that would seem like nonsense to Jane and the other Bennets. No, what she had to do was utilise what she had wisely, figure out a legitimate solution to this stupid thing (which in all honesty, seemed like something out of a rom-com movie or something) and convince people that no, she wasn't going crazy. For that, she had to adjust to this world… no, era.

And she also had to swallow the fact that she would have no electricity or internet. Lizzy groaned inwardly at the thought.

Taking a deep breath to steel herself, Lizzy began, "Yeah, I slipped on my way back home yesterday, fell and hit my head. I thought it was no big deal, so I didn't tell you."

"Hm," Jane hummed, looking at her strangely. "I wish you had told us, Lizzy. It must have been quite a fall, for you are talking in a very strange manner, too!" Lizzy bit her tongue and cursed herself. She'd unknowingly slipped into modern slang and Jane had noticed. She vowed to be more careful in the future.

"Yes, it was rather painful. I'm—I am sorry that I didn't, er… inform you." That was archaic enough, right?

It seemed to satisfy Jane since she shook her head in a fond way and patted Lizzy's cheek. "Get some rest, Lizzy. Doctor Wilkes will visit tomorrow to examine your condition. Mama has asked Hill to send you a tray, so do not fret about joining us for dinner. I will return soon."

With a brilliant smile, Jane made to leave, but Lizzy caught her by the wrist. A question was eating away at her mind—one that Jane might find strange, but Lizzy hoped that she'd disregard it as an anomaly due to her 'memory loss'. "Jane, this might seem strange, but, would you tell me what year we are living in?"

Jane seemed shocked, her mouth forming a perfect 'O' as it fell open in surprise. But she recovered quickly, saying, "It is eighteen hundred and eleven, Lizzy." After a moment's hesitation, she continued, "You will reach the age of one-and-twenty, next April. I shall be two-and-twenty in January. Do you remember that?" Lizzy nodded vigorously, maybe a little too enthusiastically, but Jane seemed convinced. Bidding a soft goodbye, Jane shut the door, leaving Lizzy to her swirling thoughts and emotions.

1811. More than two hundred years before her time. She was twenty, not twenty-five. And instead of feeling comforted by the fact that she was significantly younger here, Lizzy felt scared. She had travelled back in time, for God's sake! This world seemed like an alien one! And Lizzy had no idea how to go back to where she belonged.

At that moment, Lizzy came to understand what regret truly meant. She regretted that stupid wish. She regretted her resentment, her cowardice that prompted her to make the wish. She regretted everything.

Hello, and yes, this quick update schedule will be the norm, because I already have twenty chapters or so written! :D

Thank you for your kind reviews, Guests and Lynned13: your reviews were so quick and they really fuelled me to proofread this chapter and publish it!

Another thing I might've forgotten to mention: Lizzie had only one sister, Jane in her 'modern' avatar.

Sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but it is an exposition so it was bound to be short. The next two are slightly but from chapter five onwards, the word count is almost double of this chapter's count.

Hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a review if you did!