Hello, I am very sorry you had to wait so long for the update. Life got in the way. Now I have the time to continue. Thank you for everything! Enjoy! The next chapters will be longer!

It was astonishing how fast gossip worked. Friday morning, thanks to Mrs. Nichols and the servants of several households, Meryton knew what happened at Netherfield the day before and agreed to give Mr. Darcy a chance to redeem himself. Most of the residents thought him a little arrogant and dismissive, and of course they remembered the slight at the last assembly, but they had to admit that the staff at Netherfield never said a bad word about him, now even praised him. At present they waited, waited for him to do the right thing and be forgiven or to do the wrong thing and be condemned.

Mrs. Nichols pondered a long time if she was doing the right thing. She had no chance to stop the talk about Miss Bingley´s actions on Tuesday, she was however in control of releasing the information about the conflict between Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley. She deliberated on the question who did she owe her loyalty to. Mr. Bingley was only the lessee, he did not hire her, he could not dismiss her. Would the owner reprimand her, maybe even fire her, if he knew what she was about to do? She was in charge of the household and the servants suffered. They suffered from Miss Bingley´s cruelty, they suffered from Mr. Hurst´s unwanted advances and most of all they suffered from either Mr. Bingley´s ignorance or reluctance. This was the crucial factor, the one reason to break confidence and not only allow the gossip to escape Netherfield, but to active participate in it. She informed Mrs. Hill, she sent young Roberts again to his father with new knowledge and she encouraged everyone to spread the word.

The Bingleys and the Hursts had an interesting evening. After Mrs. Hurst left the study, she informed her husband of Mr. Darcy´s decision and did not get the desired reaction. She would have loved to leave Netherfield, either to the town house and to be for the first the mistress of a house, or to the estate in Wiltshire to live with Hurst´s parents and learn how to be the mistress of an estate. Much to her regret Mr. Hurst declined both possibilities. He had two passions, eating good food and drinking a lot of alcohol. In the town house he would eat not as well as at Netherfield and had to pay himself for the food. At the estate of his parents his father would not allow him to drink so much. He didn´t care about society here, Wiltshire was to far away in his opinion to be affected by the gossip, so he decided they would stay.

At the dining table only Mr. Hurst had an appetite. The three Bingley siblings moved lackadaisically their food on their plates and thought about what to do next. Mrs. Hurst contemplated how to persuade her husband to live somewhere else, Miss Bingley planned her visit to Darcy house and Mr. Bingley dreamed of dancing with his latest angel. Then Mr. Hurst asked a question and all hell broke loose.

"Caroline, what did you do so Darcy broke with Bingley and threatened you with the cut?"

"What did I do? I did nothing wrong! How dare you ask such a thing? You poor excuse of a man, you drunkard, you glutton, you parasite! You live at our expense, you took Louisa´s dowry and it was apparently not enough for you and your inconsequential parents, you disgust me!" Miss Bingley screeched to everybody's shock.

Mr. Hurst looked first to his brother-in-law, then to his wife, then to the fishwife that sat in the place of the mistress, as neither Charles nor Louisa uttered a word against the tirade from their sister he resolved to have a little fun with Miss Bingley.

"Oh yes, the twenty thousand pounds you always talk about. It must be unbearable for you to know that I and my as you said inconsequential parents now have them. Can you imagine how much worse your husband will be? What, you don´t see connection? Did you know that your father had let me choose between you and your sister? Fifteen minutes were enough to pity your future spouse, so I went for Louisa. How desperate for money a man has to be to bind himself to you for life? And how much will he have to drink to forget that he is? Your wishful thinking about marrying Darcy and being the mistress of Pemberley, which by the way amused everyone I know, will stay a dream to never come true. It was absurd when Darcy and Bingley were friends, now it´s just ridiculous. Considering you are not getting any younger, it is very possible for you to keep your twenty thousand. I´m sure Miss Lucas will be so good and make some room for you beside her on the shelf.

"So," he turned to the footman, "it´s time for the next course."

The wineglass missed him by a couple of inches.

Miss Bingley stood up so quickly that her chair fell backwards and yelled so loud even the ones in the kitchen could hear her:

"You will leave my house tonight and I will never recognise you again!"

With that she stormed out the door and up the stairs to her room believing she had won the argument.

Hurst continued to eat his meal as if nothing had happened and only the light coughing from Bingley let him look up.

"Charles, are you getting ill? Did you get wet in the rain and were not offered a towel to dry yourself?" and looking to his wife added, "Or did somebody kick you out knowing you are feverish? Never mind, I think I am full and this evening I prefer to get drunk in my room. I will see you both in the morning."

Mrs. Hurst and Mr. Bingley sat there like some statues, both could not comprehend what just displayed in front of them. Louisa understood that her husband knew about Miss Bennet and pondered over the implications and for Bingley the words used by Hurst were somehow familiar but he could not put his finger on it.

In the end both retired for the night and decided to see what tomorrow would bring.