Masks of Decorum

A Pride and Prejudice Variation

Masks of Decorum
A proposal refused.
Two spirits torn asunder.

In the silence that follows the disastrous proposal in Kent, Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy take their leave of one another upon roads that lead them far apart—each wounded, each resolved to forget that moment. Yet, in the bitterness of spirit, each is more deeply hurt than imagined, and each binds themselves to promises that cannot be broken.

Darcy, his pride stung beyond endurance, is not merely wounded by Elizabeth’s refusal but inflamed by a resentment he has never known before. In that hour of weakness, he is pressed by Lady Catherine into a promise she had long desired, yet scarcely dared to hope would be fulfilled.
Elizabeth, leaving Kent with a storm in her heart, finds no solace in her refusal. Instead of peace, she carries a gnawing disappointment back to London—a state of mind that drives her to accept another proposal, one equally binding and inescapable.

When truth strikes like sudden fire, both discover—almost at the same moment—that in their hearts lies not hatred but a love fierce and unquenchable, a love unlike any other in their lives. Yet now it seems too late. Regret is bitter, the path forward barred, and hope all but extinguished. And the new lives each seeks to build only draw them together again and again, within the same circles from which they would fain withdraw, until every encounter becomes a torment.

A tale of pride, regret, and inexorable passion—where every step seems to lead away from happiness, and yet the heart cannot wholly renounce.

Is it too late?
Or can love defy even the promises that should never have been made, and cannot be broken?
But then, we must not forget whose tale this is. It is the destiny of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. And as Jane Austen herself was certain, their love will have the last word.