Kate,

Thank you for your question! I’ll say for a start that the whole story is finished. We post as we edit, but we cannot now write scenes anew without changing all the rest that we already have. You’ll see how we solved things soon enough, and I hope it will be to your liking.

However, there are some things I’d like to address. Last year when we’ve been writing this story I spent months on researching customs, rules, and real behaviours, reading books written by other authors than Austen etc. Well, I rather think that rules are rules and people are people and everything I read confirms it. Even in Victorian times some bathed only in bathing machines, while one could see others doing the same completely naked. And queen Victoria was collecting pictures of naked men. Quite shocking!

In Regency times, not the Victorian, it was still ok for young people to walk alone in places where they couldn’t be seen, or ride horses together, just as it was still ok for Lizzy to take solitary walks; she wouldn’t be allowed later. The one rule they break here is that their rides are clandestine. That is it would be still ok if Lizzy told her aunt they were doing it. We don’t really know what was Edmund doing during his riding lessons with Miss Crawford. Austen wasn’t detailed at all. But one can imagine that some accidental gestures would become more and more intimate. There is a good reason why everyone in Mansfield Park sees them as destined for marriage, while they are not even engaged.

Here also, Lizzy opened a completely new door. It was her wish that the rides were clandestine for a completely different reason than any intimacy between them. But by the same they are alone everyday. Hadn’t Darcy be in love with her, it would probably mean nothing. But he is, and I really cannot imagine that he wouldn’t, even if only subconsciously, get closer and closer to her. Some of his suggestions are made just as “it’s always better to try than not” and some of her decisions surprise him. But it’s a pleasant surprise, and he’s certainly not going to hold it against her. Similarly he would never suggest to her that the lessens were kept in secret, but he’s not going to defy her wish.

Of course he might be expected to propose. Note, not forced really. Her reputation would be at stake, but not his. The double standards were very double. There’s no way that Mr. Bennet might force Darcy to do anything, just as he couldn’t force Bingley to propose, even though Bingley gave much more social reasons to it than Darcy in our story so far. It was all about appearances and what the others were seeing and thinking. In our story the others don’t see the rides. Of course, Darcy would propose when needed, he’s a decent guy, but a man in his position could at best pay some money to a father in position of Mr. Bennet. Darcy with his money would still find any wife he’d wish and nothing would threaten his reputation even if he left Lizzy with a child.

Also, JA was from the middle class, as well as Lizzy, but the class of people like Darcy was very lax back then (that’s among others why they had the Victorians later). There must have been many ladies of Darcy’s acquaintance who had sex with Prince Regent and with many other men as well. There were affairs with married ladies involved, taking place even in their husbands’ own houses. They were becoming a problem only when they were getting publicly known like that one with Lord Byron and Caroline Lamb, but the moment where Caroline Lamb crossed the line was when she called on him. It was still fine until it was he, who was calling on her and they were having sex at her place. Still, Mrs. Lamb managed to keep her own marriage on good terms even though her own indiscretions. There were many people living in concubinage. Bigamy was much more notorious than it is today (well, today there’s almost no bigamy). For Lizzy her reputation was everything because she didn’t have any money. For Darcy it was a matter of choice. He cared about his good name because he wanted to, but he didn’t have to.

Additionally, I don’t believe that rules change during one night. So I think that things that were accepted in the late 18th century and early 19th century would refer to Lizzy and Darcy, but certainly not the ones of the Victorians which none of them could know by then. There were women posing naked to painters, some of them very well born. There were women working as sailors under disguise and still could find a husband later. It was a rule that women shouldn’t be well educated, and yet some were (for many people education of women equalled sexual laxness). There were many illegal children and men paying alimony without marrying their mothers even if they were gentlewomen. In other words there are rules and realities. The rules were to prevent such situations, it doesn’t mean they succeeded. Austen new about it well, but she, in those times, couldn’t write that in her books. It doesn’t mean that her heroes were all propriety. There are some rules all her heroes ignore directly, and some they break when it comes to their own happiness. There are also places where Austen never takes us to, leaving things to our imagination. Most of Lizzy and Darcy’s private encounters, or those of the heroes from her other books aren’t described at all. We only know they took place. Also, Austen never had sex, she probably was never kissed nor was in any intimate situation with men before publishing P&P, it doesn’t mean it was a normal situation for every woman her age. I understand that she wasn’t writing about things she didn’t know, leaving them rather to her readers’ imagination. But as we write the story with Laura, we know things Austen didn’t, and we’re not going to pretend it’s otherwise. It’s not our fault really that Austen’s life wasn’t a happy one, and i.e. she disliked reading letters written by young brides, or avoided any sappiness in her own books. There were other women in Austen’s times who were much more forthcoming with such information. On the other hand, when Austen was in love, she was prone to behave rather like Marianne than Elinor, what leads me to believe that she wouldn’t really think twice when a right man would be involved.

Here we put them in some situations, and we decide how they would behave. I don’t think that Darcy would propose riding lessons to any other woman. On the contrary, he’d rather stay as far from them as possible. Lizzy knows well that she shouldn’t take the lessons without anyone’s knowledge, but then she cannot bring herself to regret it. They didn’t plan the rides to take longer than about 2 hours, however, sometimes they just forgot about time. Well, it happened to Edmund and Miss Crawford as well, and Fanny was kept waiting. I say sometimes, because I don’t think it happened more than two or three times. Darcy would never propose to Lizzy a picnic alone, but once they are alone it seems natural that they would sit and eat. What happens there isn’t a result of cunning on neither part, rather two people very much in love act on their instincts more than anything else. I don’t believe that anyone who knew Darcy would suspect him of anything malicious, and I think that Lizzy trusted him very much. Also, he cannot really think badly about himself. He cannot stand outside the scene and look at himself. All he knows is that he would never do anything to hurt her. Still, he didn’t seem very concerned about her reputation while paying her visits when she was alone in Hunsford or Lambton.

Both Lizzy and Darcy broke many rules in P&P, and some of those broken by Darcy had or could have had much graver consequences. As I see it he was always choosing his own judgement over any rules, and Lizzy acted rather on her instinct than Dr. Fordyce’s opinions. There is a good reason why Lizzy was called pert by Miss Bingley, or even by some of JA’s contemporaries, who didn’t like the fact that a man like Mr. Darcy married such a badly bred woman like Lizzy. Those were Austen’s own preferences to build the characters with disrespect to the rules, and she knew well she was risking social disapproval by picturing Lizzy as she did. There is also a reason why she pictured Mary Bennet or Mr. Collins in such a negative light. Here, Darcy is with the very woman he loves, and her acceptance or refusal of his gestures take precedence over any rules. I really don’t think that she’d accept some of them from Mr. Collins. The rules themselves were much more focused on organising social life than private encounters. That changed of course with the Victorians when private encounters would be out of question, and the rules for engaged people very strict. But when Darcy is alone with Lizzy I don’t think he’s thinking - “I shouldn’t do that because it’s not generally accepted,” although I think he is very careful not to do anything that might be not to her liking. So he’s rather receptive to her reactions than any rules. Still, it doesn’t mean he’d behave like that in public where it might threaten her reputation.

I know very well how women’s hands should be kissed, because I come from the last country where the custom is still vital and my hands were kissed on many occasions. Certainly what Wickham did in 1995 P&P was the worst way possible. You’re right, the kiss should always be accompanied with a deep bow, otherwise a woman’s hand would be twisted. I mean it, it can hurt, and while writing it I always envision that Darcy is bowing unless they are both sitting. I don’t always describe his every move. I just assume that he knows how to do that. But if it doesn’t seem like that in reading, then please, let me know where. The one kiss on her palm was indeed different, and I put it on his troubles with keeping restraint when she’s concerned. Also, it’s still a rule, even today, that a man’s lips shouldn’t touch a woman’s skin. There is a good reason for that. Simply women don’t like having their hands slavered by some guys they don’t even like (similarly women were wearing gloves at balls, not to touch so many sweated hands of men, it had nothing to do with intimacy, but everything with hygiene). It’s not that anyone else is paying any special attention to how someone’s hand is kissed, one doesn’t get pregnant from it really , or that anyone else would be able to observe it even if they paid attention. The vision is very much obscured by the man’s head. So unless one bends down to peer there, one cannot see it really. But the woman herself would take her hand quite abruptly if it wouldn’t be done to her liking. However, that’s why it’s an important element of courtship. A man is slowly moving forward, otherwise how he’d know if his beloved is going to accept him? Few men would risk proposal without being assured of a lady’s feelings, and certainly not the proud ones. So when Darcy’s kisses become more and more intimate, he’s judging his chances, and Lizzy lets him know about her own attitude by accepting it. That he is blind and insecure is another matter. I don’t agree that only engaged men could kiss woman’s hand publicly. There was a rule, however, that engaged couple shouldn’t kiss on their lips publicly. A rule quite often disregarded. I think it’s still quite like that today. It’s not that it’s polite towards the others when young people kiss during a dinner, still some do. There were of course men, such as Fordyce, who thought that engaged couples shouldn't touch at all, but it seems Austen didn’t have any high opinion about him.

The way Vian kisses Lizzy’s hand certainly takes her by surprise. He’s French, and she doesn’t know what rules there are, so she doesn’t know how to react. It’s not something she would expect, but it’s his own technique of dealing with women.

Actually I don’t think that Arabella is liberal at all, however it may not yet be seen in this part of the story. I think Mr. and Mrs. Bennet would be much more liberal. Arabella’s public opinions aren’t really liberal, rather the way she voices them, and her attitude to young people certainly isn’t. I also don’t think that people living in Scotland then were more liberal than those living in England. The Marriage Act 1753 didn’t hold there, which means they could still marry at younger age without parental agreement. But I don’t think that in practice it meant that every 12 year old girl was marrying at her will as soon as she could. They just had to guard their daughters more carefully. I.e. it was said then that French women had much less freedom before marriage but much more after than the English ones. It was an effect of laws, and how people tried to secure their own interests in the face of the laws. It was impossible for parents to dissolve a Catholic marriage against their child’s will. Here, even if Wickham succeeded in marrying Georgiana, Darcy could still dissolve the marriage, and no doubt he would and pay someone else to marry her. If they were Scottish, he wouldn’t be able to do anything, he’d have to accept the marriage. So I think he’d be more cautious if he lived in Scotland than living in England. His power over Georgiana being more limited in such a case.

Certainly Austen left a lot to imagination of fanfiction writers. Some people prefer to hold to the rules faithfully, even those created by the Methodists, although they were so unpopular at that time, and some prefer to allow free will and personal choices of the characters. Laura and I certainly belong to the latter group. We don’t try to discard Austen’s opinion about her own characters, but that’s how we read them knowing Austen’s own attitudes and the realities of those times. We can be wrong of course, as anyone else, no one is able to interview Austen today, but in our opinion those authors who hold to the rules without allowing for personal preferences are wrong.

I still understand how it can spoil your fun if you expect something else. I guess it’s like mine is spoiled when I read that a married couple is somehow ashamed to share one bed while sleeping at an inn. I can assure you that all Darcy and Lizzy do in our story is well thought of and checked with the historical facts (it’s not always so with other characters that were originally written by other authors in this story), however, you’re still free not to like our choices. I guess that maybe sometimes you’ll like them and sometimes not.

Sylwia