A Bountiful Season (Bridgerton Season 3 Rewrite)

Social Obligations

Woohoo first chapter of Episode two!!! This is where the changes are going to start being more noticeable, as I add and remove from the side plots. Polin is still going to take the main stage, but episode two is where I plan to start the ball on a Theloise reunion. I also want to add more importance to Francesca and John than the show gives them. That will all come in due time, though. There's only so long I can make a chapter without killing the pacing. As always, I love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to comment!
See the end notes for historical context and fun facts in the footnotes.

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Mid-February 1815

Buckingham House, London

Charlotte and Agatha stared in shock at the opulence that lay before them. In the weeks since the season's start, Charlotte had received many a gift in attempt to buy her favour for daughters and sisters. It would not work, of course, the Queen was not a woman to be bought. Still, the spread was rather impressive.

A pineapple (1), gilded with a fine layer of gold leaf, sat upon a velvet cushion in vibrant scarlet. The pineapple, of which Charlotte already proudly had three, had been draped with diamond necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. The table upon which the bejewelled pineapple sat was barely visible under the many other gifts of jewellery and accoutrements that Charlotte had received. All diamond. The ladies of the ton were not all that subtle. Nor were they especially observant, it seemed, as all of them had failed to notice her proclamation that emeralds were her favoured jewel. All the more reason to not declare a diamond, that Eloise girl had known such a basic fact, and she was hardly the perfect subject, according to Whistledown.

"Evidently, diamonds are not so rare after all." Lady Danbury could not help but to remark smugly. As closest Lady to the Queen, Agatha had been put under considerable pressure to open the Queen's mind to a new diamond. Agatha was not the kind of woman to be easily pushed around but had found herself inclined to agree with the rest of the ton in that each season should have a diamond. If nothing else, it provided for some excitement, and Agatha did so love to meddle.

"Which is exactly why I am not choosing one," Charlotte looked in distaste at the table of jewellery. She had accessories in spades, and diamonds by the tonne. "No matter how many jewels anxious mamas might send me."

Agatha steadied herself with her cane and began to circle the table, and by extension, Charlotte. Though no one could intimidate the Queen, it was in Agatha's habit to make herself as formidable as possible, and her shark-like mannerisms had become second nature for when she wanted to get her way. "So, you are unperturbed by what Lady Whistledown has written?" Some people might have considered the pamphlet to be treasonous with how often the Queen was criticised.

Charlotte scoffed, "That she thinks I am afraid of choosing a diamond? Why should I be? I hear my choice last year, Miss Edwina, has made a splendid match abroad." She too, began to pace so that the Queen and Lady Danbury circled the table of gifts like two wolves prepping for the kill. "Lady Whistledown is a fool, and evidently does not have ears beyond the borders of London as I do. Lord Auckland is a promising young man, and nothing less than an asset to the crown. His political mind is sharper than all others in India, and I have no doubt he will make something great of himself. He will become someone whom Edwina lives to laud, if he is not already."

Agatha opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Charlotte's continuation, "Whistledown acts as if Viscount Bridgerton was such a superior choice to Auckland, but they are not so different in rank. Bridgerton, affluent that he may be, is just a Viscount."