An Offer From a Gentleman

Lady Whistledown notes that Miss Posy Reiling seemed to be searching for someone at her mother’s musicale. Benedict interrupts his mother’s lecture on eligible maidens to ask about when she met his father. Lady Bridgerton says that she’d always scoffed at the notion of love at first sight, but she knew the first time she spoke with him that he was her husband-to-be. Benedict feels jealous that his parents knew true love. He asks what he should do if he falls in love with someone not of their social class, and Violet responds that she loves her son and would support him. Benedict realizes from their conversation that his mother had been a wallflower, which explains her sympathy for girls like Penelope Featherington.

Benedict realizes that he loves Sophie. He goes to look for her and finds her in the nursery with Hyacinth and the cousins. They are playing blind man’s bluff, and Sophie, as the blind man in the game, is wearing a scarf over her eyes. When Benedict sees her, he recognizes that she is the woman he met at the masquerade ball. He is angry that she has not told him her identity and accuses her of withholding that information.