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“I did. As you can imagine her composure was lost for a moment or two.”

“Now that is a masterful understatement. How did she respond?”

“She resorted to appealing to her brother, ‘how can you let her speak to me like that?’. Words to that effect.”

“What did he do?”

“Muttered and spluttered without really saying anything. I saved him struggling for the words and apologised for making the party uncomfortable.”

Lady Maria called for fresh tea and the ladies took a chance to refresh themselves at the same time. Once the hot tea had been served the conversation resumed.

“Surely she must have stopped at this point, retreated to lick her wounds?”

“There was a break but it was just a respite. She turned her attention to Mr. Darcy and spent the next 20 minutes bothering him.”

“Mr. Darcy, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy?”

Elizabeth thought back to their introduction, finally achieved during the dinner at the Long estate.

“I do not believe I was told his first name when introduced. I think it was just Mr. Darcy. He was not addressed as anything other than Mr. Darcy except for Mr. Hurst and Mr. Bingley who just addressed him as Darcy. Why?”

“There is a lot to talk of there, so may we lay him aside until the end of your tale rather than get hopelessly distracted in the middle of it?”

“If that is your wish. So Miss Bingley spent 20 minutes lauding everything she could think of relating to Mr. Darcy and events they had attended. It was a sadly obvious attempt to demonstrate that she moved in higher circles than me. As far as I could tell all she did was annoy him with the endless interruptions. But after 20 minutes of that she must have gotten bored and she returned to attacking me.”

Elizabeth looked at Lady Maria.

“I responded extremely harshly to her attacks. As expected she started inquiring about my absence for so many years here in London. I refused to indulge her intrusive questions about how long I had been here. She bluntly asked if I was keeping secrets to which I responded it was a family matter. But she just would not stop.”

Another deep fortifying breath.

“She blatantly phrased her question so that there was a disgusting implication. She asked me if I missed. Here she paused deliberately. Living with him. Followed by another pause.”

Lady Maria gasped in astonishment.

“She never did.”

“Yes, I am afraid she did.”

“Surely her brother must have said something, apologised to you, just as you had apologised to him.”

“No he did not. Let me recount this last part and then we can return to Mr. Bingley. I lost my temper and my composure.”

“Please tell me you did not strike her?”

“No, despite the temptation. Instead I stood and performed a deep court curtsey, announcing my surprise that the Hapsburgs were in Britain. I followed that by asking if she was Catholic, sad that the self-styled Henri IX had died recently, and finally whether she was an agent of a foreign power.”

Lady Maria Leonard was not so much stunned as clubbed into silence. Eventually she found her voice.

“That might be the most brutal putdown I have ever heard, or ever heard of. She deserved it after that disgusting attack but still.”

“Like I said a few minutes ago, there is a deep instinctive antipathy. I will not go looking for a fight but respond if provoked. I retired immediately and left before breakfast the next morning.”

“And your sister?”

Lady Maria was no fool.

“She acknowledged the implication made by Miss Bingley but tried to excuse it, whereas she accused me of being extremely rude. When I talked it through the next day it was clear that she took the side of the Bingley family. I do not actually think she took Miss Bingley’s but rather was concerned about the impact to her friendship with Mr. Bingley.”