With no communication between the two gentlemen, Darcy realized that Bingley was taking the forced separation from Miss Bennet much harder than he would have expected because it was Darcy’s experience that his friend was often in love.

Upon learning of Charles’s return from Surrey, Darcy immediately went to the Bingley townhouse. While waiting for his friend, he was sitting in the drawing room trying to figure out what it was that he found so annoying about Caroline Bingley. There were nine Bingleys, and he had met seven of them. But it was only Caroline who got under his skin. Not even her intellectually challenged sister, Louisa, came anywhere near to irritating him as much as Caroline did just by entering a room, and that is exactly what she had done thirty minutes earlier.

“Mr. Darcy, please join us for some refreshments,” Caroline offered. “There is something about an autumn day in London that makes one want to drink coffee.”

But before he agreed to join them, he wanted to know where Charles was and when he would be expected.

“Charles has decided to replace his entire wardrobe, and today he is visiting the boot maker. He has been gone two hours, so I do expect him momentarily.” Actually, Caroline had no idea when her brother would return, but she would detain Mr. Darcy as long as possible. She was convinced she held some attraction for the gentleman as she often caught him staring at her, as he was doing now.

Caroline was correct. Darcy was thinking about her. He found her to be an attractive, intelligent woman. With her ability to draw, paint, sing, play the pianoforte, and speak French fluently, she truly met the definition of an accomplished woman. However, she was also catty, but so were most of the women in London. Just last evening at a card party, he had overheard two women lavish praise on a third lady, only to tear her to pieces as soon as she had left the room. He simply did not understand it. With the exception of political debate, it was something that men did not do.