Hello everyone! I've corrected the story and it's done now. Thank you so much for the unbelievable interest and amazing comments you left while I published it. People, I owe you a lot.

Here I'll gather a few thoughts that originally appeared as Author Notes, but I rather leave the story clean and have them all here.

I hope they're good to spark a discussion or two, or maybe they'll help you go about writing your own story. Don't hesitate to contact me in PM or message if you need a hand with your writing!

Reviews:

Everyone who stopped by and left a comment has my gratefulness, but some readers' input was particularly important: they were fia-blue, LotsOfLaundry, darcysfriend, Bonbonnett, jytte, TheChocoholicofAusten, Nuingarién, justlovefanfiction2901, GreenRibbon, Ally J., barnabus67, coldie-voldie, fishistix, Lady Forrest, makaem, janashe and allboyshouldhavelonghair.

Fellow writers: consider yourselves lucky to have these ladies (and/or gentlemen) as your readers.

I was left wondering about all the readers who chimed in at the first or the most critical chapters saying they were interested and wanted to read more, but didn't hear back from them again. Did they like the untangling of the story? Or did they find it disappointing?

A similar thing applies to when someone pointed out they didn't like and I replied defending my point of view, and I never heard back from them. Were they offended? Or did they believe it was an automated message?

Length of chapters:

I was often criticized for the short length of my chapters. I often wonder if the people who write long and winded chapters, spelling out every feeling and thought by every character, get blasted too. Hmmm?

Things from my own previous knowledge and other details:

Austen's stories are notoriously vague in terms of actual places or people. I think a lot of (very enjoyable) fanfics may not be out of character but are completely out of style when they stop to describe an actual historical character or event. I dated the original story as happening in the publishing year (1813) and had this story develop roughly in 1818-1819. Colonel Fitzwilliam fought in the Napoleonic Wars, and they're over, but I didn't mention them by name. I checked Vauxhall and Hyde Park existed at the time, but I'm not sure they would work as true settings. Matter of fact, I don't really care.

Georgiana's dollhouse is inspired on the (more modern) Queen Mary's dolls' house. Look for it, it's amazing.

I'm a huge fan of tea and pastries, and the Chelsea buns Georgiana sends Elizabeth and the tea case Darcy hands Charlotte are actual stuff quite in vogue at that time. I have the buns' recipe and plan on doing them next winter (I already master a similar recipe with challah dough), and I fancy myself a tea "connoisseuse".

I understand engagements in Regency England would be quite short, of around 4 to 6 weeks, and would be longer only when the groom didn't have enough money to support a family. From what I gathered, weddings themselves weren't much of a big deal and people would never travel out of town for one. People like Mr. Darcy could be married in a very short time, only days if they wished so. I made him want a very long engagement (of just 4 months!) to abide by our modern sensibility :-)

Characters: Georgiana, Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth, Mr. Collins, Charlotte, Mrs. Annesley, Mrs. Wainwright

I love how Georgiana turned out in my story. The chapter where she bares her brother without any effort, in their conversation about funding Lydia's funeral, was incredibly fun to write.

I built her around three premises: that she would be well meaning as her brother, would be a lot like her aunt (but in a good way), and that after the Wickham's situation she had promised herself to be her own woman, to take the reins of her own private life instead of handing them over to someone else. I kept the shyness of the original, so that might be the only truthful thing about her.

Some of you have pointed Georgiana as childish and why she asked Darcy for permission to keep Lizzy's friendship. Remember that women were not allowed to take such decisions on their own, and would defer to their fathers, brothers or husbands. Georgiana has a husband, but she's in the company of the two men that were legally responsible for her so she might have been in the habit of doing so before. Besides, if Lady Catherine cut the Bennets off, she should be expected to do the same - after all they're family, aren't they?

Similarly, I built Darcy around two premises (none too original, really): that he was too lonely for his own good, and that he's always in the know, and has done something about it, before you even noticed something was amiss. More than his ability to love Elizabeth or his physical desires, I thought these two traits were better lines to work on with my story.

There's one thing in which my Mr. Darcy is completely out of character, but I thought it was necessary: he has a great deal of self deprecating humour. He tells Charlotte that "you excel at hosting unanounced guests for tea", in which he's actually referring to himself dropping by at his whim (and most likely, the tea box is a gift from himself). He later tells a very upset Elizabeth that she has "a long and illustrious career" turning down marriage proposals, a comment which backfires but would have had Lizzy laughing had she been less distressed. And finally, the one that had YOU all cracking, the butler comment. I believe money and good looks are fine, but a man must know how to make a woman laugh to be seriously considered. My views, not Austen's.

I love and hate Miss Austen in equal measures for giving us only peeks of Darcy. We just get two tiny glimpses of his mind, one lengthy letter and his actions, related by others more often than not. He shows himself in his true colours when he proposes and only a couple more times, and that's it (and what's more baffling, that's enough!) It's no surprise, I think, that fan fiction stories try to delve deeper and focus on him - the author gave us a marvellous character but he's absent most of the time!

I almost don't describe the physical features of my characters. I usually find that as mark of unnecessary writing, for a very simple reason: the assessment of beauty depends a lot on emotional states, and the reader's emotion toward a certain character doesn't necessarily match the characters' emotions among themselves. So I don't describe Elizabeth's vitality and beauty, but I had four men's marriage intentions to her known to Darcy. Darcy's own, of course, then Charlotte tells him that Collins first proposed to Elizabeth, then Colonel Fitzwilliam tells of his own thoughts after they meet in the park, and finally Elizabeth herself tells him of the servant's proposal. That tells us that Elizabeth is very attractive, but I'm convinced that it matters little or nothing at all whether she has brilliant eyes, curly hair, freckled nose or whatever.

We see her mostly through Darcy's eyes, which I believe is one of the most amazing thing about this story: that true appreciation of beauty is born from the appreciation of character and love. Not genetics or common approval, but something quite personal. (Caroline Bingley and Jane Bennet seem to be much prettier than Elizabeth, but none really catches Darcy's eye, do they?)

Mr. Collins represents society and he does what everyone does. If he cuts off the Bennets, believe me, it's not because he's the only one; rather the opposite. Yes, he's disgusting, but he's the best gauger we really have of how large the gap between Darcy and Lizzy is now. And, if you haven't realised about it yet, I'm keeping everyone very class conscious here. Not just Darcy and Lizzy and Collins, but everyone.

Charlotte turns out to be another victim of Wickham's wrongdoing. I thought it would be very important that Darcy values her as a person (and so he thinks that going to Rosings isn't all punishment), and that he would feel it was somewhat his responsibility to help her reconnect with Elizabeth.

Mrs. Annesley somewhat takes over Mrs. Gardiner in this story. I love writing positive characters, and this one almost wrote herself.

Mrs. Abigail Wainwright, Elizabeth's employer, is Caroline Bingley in disguise, but turned out to be less cunning and more clumsy, but not really bad. She gets her comeuppance in her gauche management of the news of Elizabeth and Darcy's engagement.

Faces to my story:

About halfway writing this story the farther I got the more I believe Winona Ryder and Daniel Day-Lewis would have made an impressive Lizzy / Darcy pair back in the 90's. I can't get Winona's face or voice out of my head, but Mr. Darcy is getting Matthew Macfadyen's voice more and more at every turn. I know many of you disagree, but of course, I'm alright with that.

Writing:

I plot my stories backwards, and often that's how I write my chapters too. I first decide how it will end, and only then, I figure out how things are going to get there. Chapter 28 contains the idea that struck me when I read "The Reawakening", so the previous 27 were the build up to that point and the remaining ones are just the tying of loose ends.

Another thing about writing is that at least until now, I have never been able to break a pretty strict timeline of event. What happens first is told first, and what happens last is told last. I think it would be interesting to try to write stories chronologically built differently (I'm thinking of Time's arrow and Citizen Kane, two obvious examples - but fine to try, I believe).

I start out with a pretty clear idea of where I'm heading. However, reviews are very important to know what to stress in the next chapters, so I really find it's best to publish the story "as is" and then go back and correct with reviews in mind.

They've kissed and they're engaged, so what's next?

My favourite Darcy's line belongs to the week the Bennet sisters spend in Netherfield, the argument about defects ("your defect is to hate everybody!" says lizzy, to which he replies laughing "and yours is to wilfully misunderstand them"), but Ch. 58 (the whole second proposal) is just amazing. I don't know why more romance writers don't take this page out of Austen's book and have their characters sort out their misunderstandings more articulatedly...

I like to give a glimpse of very much later in life. I know sometimes love dies and things are not rose coloured anymore, but sometimes people fall in love with each other time and again. It's not always the habit of waking up next to each other, but a feeling that keeps finding itself anew. I actually like better the Epilogue of my other long story, "North and South - Modern Take", but this one is not bad, I guess.