Hi silent_dreamer, pleased to meet you, lurker! V glad you liked the story! And do not encourage my sins against Shakespeare, for they are wrong and when I end up in the special hell it will be with regular visits from Nahum Tate (he of the 'polite' King Lear that was the only version performed in the English public stage between the Restoration and Victorian era, Cordelia lives and marries Edgar, argh!.)

As to the ending of P&P, I'm not against a good spot of snogging and it was certainly very sweet, but I just found it outrageous that some producer somewhere determined that American audiences wouldn't go for the enigmatic, or, alternatively, that European audiences wouldn't go for the sweetness. Because either way it is somewhat patronising. Pick one and stick to it!