Upper Ten Thousand// Anthony & Benedict Bridgerton

three

Lady Bridgerton has invited Valentine and I to dinner. She usually extends an invitation once a week and Val and I are always eager to accept. I enjoy dinners with the Bridgertons. It is always lighthearted and jovial as opposed to most dinner invitations that are brooding and somber.

I am however supposed to see that the duke has also received an invitation. If I had to guess it has something to do with Lady Danbury. It almost always does.

"Haven't you heard what we're talking about?" Benedict asks.

"For all we know, Whistledown may be some interloper living in Bloomsbury, of all places," Anthony offers.

"What should be so terrible about Bloomsbury? That people there actually work for a living?" Benedict says.

"She does seem to be someone with access," Daphne offers.

"Who knows if Whistledown is even a she?" Colin asks.

"Fair point," Anthony says.

"Because she is simply too good to be anyone but a man?" Eloise says.

"Well, I think it rather obvious that the writer is Lady Danbury," Francesca offers.

"Lady Danbury enjoys sharing her insults with society directly. She would never bother herself writing them all down," I reason.

"Could it be Lady Featherington?" Hyacinth questions.

"No!" everyone says with a laugh.

"You have yet to read what Whistledown writes of the Featheringtons, little sister," Eloise tells her.

"I doubt any of the Featheringtons are capable of being Lady Whistledown," I say with a smile, "but you Bridgertons though..."

"Us?" Anthony questions.

"I would not rule it out," Val reasons.

"And what of you Lockharts?" Benedict asks. "Could it not be one of you?"

Val lets out a loud chuckle. "Do you really believe it could be my sister or I?"

"Maybe it is both of you," Eloise offers.

I laugh. "Were both Val and I to write a scandal sheet I do not think we would make it to the first publication."

"Gregory!" Hyacinth pounds her fists on the table. "Would you stop tossing peas at me?"

"Those peas were already there. You cannot tell me what to do. I am older," Gregory tells her.

"And I'm taller," Hyacinth counters.

"Children..." Lady Bridgerton scolds with a chuckle.

"He does have a presence about him," Francesca says.

"If rakish dukes were one's thing," Eloise offers.

I chuckle. "I think a rakish duke is everyone's thing beside you, Eloise."

I notice Anthony staring at the duke and Daphne. I lean in to whisper to him, "Is there a reason that you are staring so intently at the two?"

Anthony gives me a look. "I do not know what you are talking about."

I laugh lightly. "Is it because you can see by the way they speak with one another that they are intrigued with each other."

"Intrigued?" Anthony asks.

"Well, it is too early to tell if it is love," I tell him.

"Love?" Anthony asks. "Whatever are you talking about, Mercy?"