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
This author did not believe that a concert would take precedence in today's column but it seems that the Bridgerton and Hastings families felt it necessary to put on their own performance in light of an otherwise dreary evening. -Lady Whistledown's Society Papers, 18 July 1813.
Normally, Beatrice Sinclair would be overjoyed to be invited to join Lady Danbury in her box for a concert, in fact she was until they had decided to join the Hasting's in their box instead. It was not at all their fault that their box happened to be situated directly opposite the Bridgerton's. Although it was Daphne's fault that when Anthony and Violet Bridgerton appeared across the theatre, making themselves comfortable in their seats, she felt the need to gain their attention by waving to them. She knew she could not blame Daphne for this, they were her family for goodness sake, but making Anthony aware of her presence meant that he would plague her for the entirety of the performance.
He had only just realised that she was in attendance that night and already, as she politely waved to Violet Bridgerton, he deemed it to be the perfect time to vex her. He had leant forward, positioning himself so he blocked Beatrice's view of Violet, taking the opportunity to wave at her instead. Feeling her fingers tingle with the impulse to throw an obscene gesture in his direction, Beatrice settled for clenching her fists tightly in her lap, instead mustering up the most venomous glare she could manage. This glare somehow managed to grow even deadlier when Anthony smiled at her, acting as though she did not completely hate him. Well, completely was an overstatement, but she was not prepared to admit that yet, and certainly not in that moment when he was being so arrogant. His mother seemed to be equally unhappy about having her view of Beatrice obscured as she hit her son in the arm with her fan, causing him to slump back into his original seating position. The women had shared a look of understanding as Beatrice's lips ever so subtly tilted upwards.
The first half an hour of the performance was a blur, and quite frankly, Beatrice had not listened to a single symphony that was played. Instead, she spent her time flickering her gaze between Anthony Bridgerton and the space between the conductor and pianist. No matter how hard she tried, she could not drown out the sound of her thoughts with the melody that she was sure was being beautifully played. Whether it was due to his irritatingly perfect smile or his downright vexing character, she did not know, but whenever she was not glancing at Anthony, all she found herself doing was attempting to convince herself that she did not want to do exactly that. Yet every so often, she gave into that urge, allowing her eyes to meet the side of his head. On a few occasions, she had found herself meeting his gaze. At first, she had felt rather embarrassed about being caught, replacing her shocked expression with yet another glare before quickly turning away, but as the event reoccurred, she instead maintained eye contact with him, not wanting to lose the battle.
It was only when she heard shuffling beside her and saw Violet exiting her seat beside her son – in her peripheral vision since she had been engaged in yet another staring contest with him – that she had finally broken out of the relentless cycle. The Hastings box was seemingly missing an inhabitant too, with Daphne's chair now empty. Beatrice assumed that the pair must have both exited at the same time but decided to whisper to Simon beside her to truly understand what had occurred.
