Good morning!

My back is better and so here I am. sorry for yesterday just did not want to sit in my chair for too long. good thing it was not my sciatica - whew that takes weeks and epidural steroid shots in my back to fix.

Now, I have just caught up with my responses. I think everyone is ready for my next post. But will they be happy? mmm. I don't know. I get this sense that the readers are now most worried about Elizabeth preferring Blake over Darcy even if Blake and her do not get together. They do not want her heartbroken or marry Darcy on the rebound. Well, her character would never marry someone on the rebound. But I know this is what is worrying so many. What do I tell them? How is her attraction to Blake different than her attraction to Wickham in P&P. Look at her actions about Wickham in Austen's story: She admitted she liked him to Jane. She is the one that brought him home to meet her parents for tea. She introduced him to her favorite aunt. She danced with him the first time he asked. She dressed in her best for him for the NP ball. She defended him wholeheartedly. She was disappointed when he was not at the ball. She was a girl very much acting like she was falling in love. Even Lydia knew it. She asked Lizzy not to "Keep him to herself". She even continued to champion him after he was engaged to another simply for a 10000 pd. dowry.

So, Lizzy was as close to be in love as possible. What would have happened if he had fortune? I don't think there is any question in my mind what she would have done. But that is the issue because I have put that question square in front of my readers. Blake does have fortune enough. He is charming, just like Wickham; he shows her much attention, just like Wickham. I had always wanted a rival for Darcy and I always wanted Elizabeth to be put in the position of having to choose between Darcy and a charming suitor with money. So I wrote this story (well that was one of the reasons - or I guess I should say wrote this subplot). Now we are at the point where Blake is ready to make his move - is he a Wickham or a Darcy? If he is Wickham, we can see Elizabeth saying no easily enough because she is no Lydia. but if he is honorable as Darcy, then what? What would she do? What would she have done had Wickham been able to court her properly? She showed a weakness for charming men (Wickham and Col. Fitzwilliam) - so she was not immune to pretty words. But would that be what she clearly wanted.

What are Elizabeth's expectations?

The story will reveal it all and in its own schedule, not mine.

till tomorrow.