Society dictates that a young debutante must join the marriage mart in order to obtain a suitable husband. Beatrice Sinclair would disagree, instead proclaiming that women should be able to gain an education and experience the wider world before bei...
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Season 1 Episode 7 - Oceans Apart
A duke and a viscount are said to have initiated a brawl in White's a mere two nights ago. While this behaviour can be expected at any gentlemen's club, for bets and debts can cause even the most honourable men to turn feral, it is rather unexpected that the two men in question are a certain Duke of Hastings and Viscount Bridgerton. This Author wonders if the newly married Duke and Duchess of Hastings are quite as in love as we all assumed them to be. - Lady Whistledown Society Papers, 12 July 1813
When the clock struck to signify the commencement of a new hour for the fourth time that afternoon, Beatrice threw her arms up in the air. She had been waiting in her parlour for hours to be graced with a visit from Matilda and still she had not come. Since the moment she had awoken that day, her thoughts had been encompassed by one overriding question – how had Peter proposed? In an attempt to drown out these thoughts, Beatrice opened up her book once again, her eyes scanning over a page that she had attempted to read three times previously that afternoon. It seemed that whenever she had made any progress in processing the words, something would distract her. From creaking floorboards to the sound of her family's staff conversing with hushed voices in the hallway, any miniscule sound would gain her undivided attention. By ten minutes past 4 o'clock, five distractions had pulled Beatrice's attention from her novel. On the sixth, she had refused to look up upon hearing the sound of shuffling feet, instead choosing to complete the line she was reading. However, unlike the previous instances, Phillips voice had greeted her, informing her of Matilda's arrival.
"Finally!" Beatrice cheered. She leapt to her feet, placing her book on the small table in front of her seat before rushing over to her friend. She encased Matilda in a tight embrace, muttering incoherent phrases to herself. As she pulled away, she grasped her friend's left hand, searching her ring finger for, well a ring. Upon finding a diamond on her finger, she squealed, jumping up and down on the spot.
"You really are to be married," she mused dreamily. "I can hardly believe that my best friend is to marry another of my friends."
Matilda nodded her head, her smile being the widest that Beatrice had ever seen it. "I can hardly believe it either. I was all but speechless when Peter asked me."
Grabbing her friend's hands, Beatrice dragged her towards the settee, pulling her down next to her. "I insist that you tell me everything. Peter was rather vague when telling me that he was to propose."
"Well-"she began, recounting what had occurred barely two hours prior.
Matilda's mother had never insisted that she join her for a wander around London for the day, yet on the 9th July 1813, she had not allowed her daughter to stay home. That alone, had confused her. More commonly than not, when her mother had suggested the idea, Matilda would accept, yet that morning she did not fancy the idea of wandering aimlessly through the shops of London. Typically, when she would decline, her mother would accept her choice, taking to asking one of Matilda's younger siblings to join her instead. But for some reason her request only had one valid answer that morning, and that was yes.
