Basically, an acquaintance, I'll call her A, fell out with one of her friends, B. B was then under the impression that they had sorted out their differences (A had been the one causing the problem in the first place) but A continued to bitch about B behind her back to everyone they both knew. I was not comfortable with this, or with the position she was putting us in. I have been trying to distance myself from her rather than having an argument and putting everyone in an even more difficult position.
Yesterday A confronted me and accused me of trying to "break up the group" and deliberately excluding her. I had a few people round last week for a cuppa, nothing formal, just B and another close friend, and one acquaintance who I had spoken to in passing and then invited over to catch up with us. I assume this acquaintance then mentioned it to A.
B had already mentioned to me that she no longer wished to see A as she had heard what A had been saying about her. A has plenty of other friends and she and I were not particularly close to start with so it's not as though I had previously invited her over and had stopped - I think she has only been over once in the whole time I've known her.
A has now been telling other friends/acquaintances of mine that she had not been saying anything about B and that I have been deliberately trying to divide the group of friends. She has also spoken to B and told her that she has never said anything about her. I know this is not true, as do others.
I do not want to get into a petty he-said-she-said type situation, nor do I wish to drag anyone else into the argument, but I'm concerned that if I don't say anything whilst I know she is bad-mouthing me to everyone we know that I will come out of this the "bad guy". It's like being 15 again!
Really I'm just looking for something non-confrontational that I can say in response to her accusations, and to anyone else who wants to know what's going on.
I'm trying so hard to be reasonable and impartial, and I almost feel like maybe I shouldn't as I know she isn't, but really I do want to just rise above this.
Sorry that was so long, and a bit complicated, any advice would be appreciated :) and also if I'm in the wrong then it'd be good to know so I can apologise.