Bridgerton - His One True Love

Chapter Sixteen - Dinner

The Basset siblings entered the Bridgerton's home and were immediately greeted by Violet and seven of her children.

"Welcome, Your Grace, Lady Hastings. Do forgive my son Anthony, he is running late and shall be here momentarily" she apologised while curtsying to the siblings.

"It is quite alright Lady Bridgerton, Anthony has never been known for his punctuality" he said with a smile.

"You could say that again" Colin could be herd muttering to his siblings, causing them to erupt in fits of laughter and causing Violet to glare at her children.

"Oh please brother, as if you can speak of punctuality" Jen scoffed and rolled her eyes. Upon hearing this Violet relaxed, seeing the Hastings siblings did in fact have a sense of humour and would not be offended by Colin's comment.

"Let us hea-" but before she could finish her sentence the door was pushed open revealing Anthony.

"Oh! Pardon my lateness, I got caught up finishing some business and lost track of time" he said with a smile, hoping his mother was not too angered by his lateness and surprised to see the Bassets stood in the house for he had not expected to see them upon his arrival home.

"All is forgiven Bridgerton, now shall we?" Simon questioned while clasping him on the back, and with that they all headed for dinner.

Unlike any other dinner the Bassets had been invited to, this was the first where the whole family sat at the same table to have dinner. They both found it entertaining watching how they all communicated and messed with one another while eating their dinner. The topics of conversation amused them to no end and they wished their dinners consisted of this every night.

Simon had been seated beside Daphne, Simon pretended to hate the idea, but Jen knew he in fact did not hate it, he rather enjoyed it. Jen had not been so fortunate; she was sat between Benedict and Colin. Not that she did not like their company, she just wished to be sat next to her beloved, but as the head of the house he had to take his rightful seat at the head of the table. The furthest he could possibly be from her but at least she was sat opposite her brother.

The topic of conversation since dinner had been served was the identity of the illusive Lady Whistledown, a topic that the Bridgerton siblings had many theories for, all of which cause great amusement for both Jen and Simon.

"For all we know, Whistledown may be some interloper living in Bloomsbury of all places" he suggested while looking around the room to see if anyone agreed with his speculations.

"What should be so terrible about Bloomsbury? That the people there actually work for a living?" Benedict quipped back with a raised eyebrow and a look in Anthony's direction.

"She does seem to be someone with access" Daphne mused while taking a bite of her dinner, earning a nod from Jenifer who did agree. For Whistledown to know all that she did she would need to have access to all the social events of the season and be a part of everything in the ton.

"Who knows if Whistledown is even a she?" Colin interjects causing a moment of thinking to occur, only for the men in the room though.

"Fair point" Anthony replied while pointing his fork at his brother.

"Because she is simply too good to be anyone but a man?" Elouise sarcastically questions her brothers, astounded by their lack of intelligence and that they would entertain the thought of Lady Whistledown being a male.