The Gilded Masquerade

One Christmas night. One forbidden kiss. A love that cannot be unmasked.

Sweet, romantic, and emotionally compelling, The Gilded Masquerade is a Victorian/Gilded Age Pride and Prejudice Christmas variation about love at first sight, the burden of duty, and the power of charity, hope, and two enchanted hearts.
Seventeen-year-old American Elizabeth Bennet is in her second year at a Swiss finishing school when she accompanies her aunt and uncle Gardiner to Pemberley for a glittering Christmas masquerade—an evening meant to refine her manners and introduce her to the elegance of English society.

But at the height of the festivities, Elizabeth finds herself hiding in Pemberley’s library, where she overhears a candid conversation never intended for her ears. Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, heir to the grand estate, is a gentleman bound by expectation and the looming obligation to marry his sickly cousin.

When Mr. Darcy discovers the masked young lady in his bookshelves, what begins as an awkward intrusion becomes something neither expected: a meeting of quick minds and an undeniable magnetism that turns one stolen evening into a memory to last a lifetime.

This sweet, angst-free 25,000-word novella is entirely human-authored by Cat Gardiner, who has been publishing Jane Austen–inspired fiction since 2014.