Pain in the back

yes, I have one and I will be trying to nurse it this week. Unfortunately, I am not able to sit in a chair very long. Aagh! that means I cannot spend much time on the blog or the responses to the commenters or chapter 30.

But I did want to say, there is a general feeling that I am torturing Darcy. Well, not true. I am torturing the readers who want a Darcy that does not struggle with his feelings for Elizabeth, a Darcy that is not arrogant, a Darcy that does not believe he is above the folks at Meryton, a Darcy that would warn the Meryton folks about Wickham, - well, I could go on and on but it would still be the same - they want a perfect Darcy from the beginning.

My Darcy will have conflicting thoughts and will not find his road to Elizabeth easy. He did say he struggled. And there will be more struggle to come. the Darcy they want is not the one that would propose in such a way.

Butt in? They are mad that he is butting in? What the heck do they call separating Bingley and Jane but butting in? His butting into Blake's affair is different than the Bingley/Jane match up. First, he is a little skeptical about Blake's intentions, unlike Bingleys. Second, Darcy never wanted Jane like he secretly wants Elizabeth, and third he has just gone through his sister's fiasco which should have left him with a sense of guilt for not controlling that situation better.

So, my question to my fans is not why am I tortoring the poor soul, but why do the other writers give him such an easy pass when Jane Austen did not intend for Darcy to succumb to love so quickly.

I suspect my readers want two things: 1. Hurry up and get to Hunsford so this can be resolved; and 2. Lizzy's thoughts.

1. My story is from the men's perspective and lives. I added the competition but everything else is on target time wise. Now, the Bingley and Darcy did stay in NP for quite a while even in P&P but we never saw what they did other than shoot some birds. I just gave them things to occupy their time. So, since it is from the men's perspective we are moving the storyline through a different and slower path to Hunsford. But we do get there.

2. LIzzy feelings. Well, Austen did not give us Darcy's thoughts or feelings - just a line here or there. I know the lack of Lizzy is frustrating to the readers but I did warn everyone that this is not a romance and romances follow the story from the heroine's perspective. Austen kept the readers guessing about Darcy until the end. Remember he admitted to himself he was glad to see LIzzy leave NP because he was in danger of his heart being captured by her. We did not get to hear what he thought of the one dance at NP they shared. In fact, we went from a few verbal discussions at NP to the Hunsford. I am afraid, my story will be the same except it is Lizzy instead of Darcy that is held back in the story.

Everything changes after next week.

till tomorrow