Thank you, Suzanne. I’m sorry for your loss and touched the image of Elizabeth dancing with their children spoke to you. I’ll try to explain how I intended it. In the original draft, Darcy was remembering a real event--say, their present-day children at a picnic on Pemberley’s lawns. But on every read-through I wasn’t at ease with it, and it took me a while to figure out why.
I’m not sure I can communicate this clearly, but it comes down to something very personal. I love and delight in my living sons, yet I’ve never viewed them as a consolation for the babies I’ve lost--even though well-meaning people have often commented to that effect. Each of my children--the living and the never-born (what a nice way to phrase it)--is a precious gift, and one life doesn’t make up for another. My comfort is the faith and hope that the life denied them on this earth they live in heaven, and one day I will meet them too.
So when I edited the story, I wanted to give Darcy that same hope as a consolation in loss. I did leave it ambiguous, and I realize readers will make of it as they wish. Interestingly, in the alternate reading of Elizabeth’s actual death and the concluding scene yet another flashback, that fragmentary vision becomes even more significant.
