Angel of the Morning: A Pride and Prejudice Variation

In the year 1809, an eighteen year old girl travels to Scotland with her aunt and uncle and meets a young man at a bridge overlooking a river. They talk about their hopes for the future and the things they wish to do. The conversation is unique and memorable but only lasts for half an hour. At the end of it, the girl leaves and neither ever knows anything about the other except the middle names of each. Months later, they both become engaged to other people at the request of their fathers.

One year after that, they encounter each other for the second time - in a field of wildflowers in Derbyshire. So happy to be in one another’s company once more, they trek through the woods together but get caught in the rain and eventually spend the night in a hunting lodge. Despite the intensity of their love, they part ways again, because she is now engaged to her cousin William (the parson of Hunsford) and he is now engaged to his cousin Anne (the heiress of Rosings.)

In the fall of 1811, they meet for the third time at an assembly in Meryton. And she is finally introduced to him as Elizabeth Bennet of Longbourn, while he is introduced to her as Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley. They dance together, ecstatic to be once more in each other’s company. But their happiness is short-lived because, despite now knowing who the other is, they are still betrothed to other people and realise that they can never be together.

This stirring Pride and Prejudice variation revolves around the unfulfilled love between two people who choose to do their duty but cannot help but give in, occasionally, to the temptation of being together.