šGif Quote Series: The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinnšpart 1 of 3š
My edition. (For the page number references).
My audible audiobook.
The season has opened for the year of 1814, and there is little reason to hope that we will see any noticeable change from 1813. The ranks of society are once again filled with Ambitious Mamas, whose only aim is to see their Darling Daughters married off to Determined Bachelors. Discussion amongst the Mamas fingers Lord Bridgerton as this yearās most eligible catch, and indeed, if the poor manās hair looks ruffled and windblown, it is because he cannot go anywhere without some young miss batting her eyelashes with such vigor and speed as to create a breeze of hurricane force. Perhaps the only young lady not interested in Lord Bridgerton is Miss Katherine Sheffield Sharma, and in fact, her demeanor toward the viscount occasionally borders on the hostile. And that is why, Dear Reader, This Author feels a match between Anthony Bridgerton and Miss Sheffield Sharma would be just the thing to enliven an otherwise ordinary season. - Lady Whistledownās Society Papers, 13 April 1814
Page 3
Anthony cradled the Bridgerton pocket watch to his chest...
Page 4
Page 7
[Violet] placed a hand on her belly, full and round with child.
Page 9-10
The topic of rakes has, of course, been previously discussed in this column, and This Author has come to the conclusion that there are rakes, and there are Rakes. Anthony Bridgerton is a Rake. A rake (lower-case) is youthful and immature. He flaunts his exploits, behaves with utmost idiocy, and thinks himself dangerous to women. A Rake (upper-case) knows he is dangerous to women. He doesnāt flaunt his exploits because he doesnāt need to. He knows he will be whispered about by men and women alike, and in fact, heād rather they didnāt whisper about him at all. He knows who he is and what he has done; further recountings are, to him, redundant. He doesnāt behave like an idiot for the simple reason that he isnāt an idiot (any moreso than must be expected among all members of the male gender). He has little patience for the foibles of society, and quite frankly, most of the time This Author cannot say she blames him. And if that doesnāt describe Viscount Bridgerton-surely this seasonās most eligible bachelor-to perfection, This Author shall retire Her quill immediately. The only question is: Will 1814 be the season he finally succumbs to the exquisite bliss of matrimony? This Author Thinksā¦ Not.
Lady Whistledownās Society Papers, 20 April 1814.
Page 11
At twenty-six twenty (nearly twenty-one, if one was going to be scrupulously honest about it), Kate was a bit long in the tooth to be enjoying her first season in London.
Page 14
Page 15
Whoever Lady Whistledown was, (and no one really knew who she was), she was a well-connected member of the ton.
Page 19
Edwina turned to Kate and asked, "Have you decided what you're going to wear tonight?"
"The green gauze, I think.Ā I should wear white, I know, but I fear it does not suit me."
This is actually a recoloured fandom edit, but I just thought it was pretty :)
Page 24-25
heād spent the decade of his twenties in a mindful pursuit of pleasure, tempered only by his overwhelming sense of responsibility to his family. and so in between anthonyās rounds of parties and horse races, heād sent his brothers to eton and oxford, gone to a mind-numbing number of piano recitals given by his sisters (no easy feat; three out of four of them were tone deaf), and kept a close and watchful eye on the family finances. with seven brothers and sisters, he saw it as his duty to make sure there was enough money to secure all of their futures.
Page 25
He was the firstborn Bridgerton of a firstborn Bridgerton of a firstborn eight times over. He had a dynastic responsibility to be fruitful and multiply.
Page 26-27
Anthony downed another sip of his scotch and straightened his shoulders, pushing such unpleasant ruminations from his mind. He needed to focus on the matter at hand, namely, the pursuit of a wife.
Being a discerning and somewhat organized man, heād made a mental list of requirements for the position. First, she ought to be reasonably attractive. She neednāt be a raving beauty (although that would be nice), but if he was going to have to bed her, he figured a bit of attraction ought to make the job more pleasant.
Second, she couldnāt be stupid. This, Anthony mused, might be the most difficult of his requirements to fill. He was not universally impressed by the mental prowess of London debutantes. The last time heād made the mistake of engaging a young chit fresh out of the schoolroom in conversation, sheād been unable to discuss anything other than food (sheād had a plate of strawberries in her hand at the time) and the weather (and she hadnāt even gotten that right; when Anthony had asked if she thought the weather was going to turn inclement, sheād replied, āIām sure I donāt know. Iāve never been to Clement.ā)
He might be able to avoid conversation with a wife who was less than brilliant, but he did not want stupid children.
Third-and this was the most important-she couldnāt be anyone with whom he might actually fall in love.
Under no circumstances would this rule be broken.
He wasnāt a complete cynic; he knew that true love existed. Anyone whoād ever been in the same room with his parents knew that true love existed.
But love was a complication he wished to avoid. He had no desire for his life to be visited by that particular miracle.
And since Anthony was used to getting what he wanted, he had no doubt that he would find an attractive, intelligent woman with whom he would never fall in love. And what was the problem with that? Chances were he wouldnāt have found the love of his life even if he had been looking for her. Most men didnāt.
Page 26-27
Page 28
"the diamond of this season"
From the transcript of 2x07 of the Netflix's Bridgerton, "Harmony":
- But there was that damned scent again. Lilies. He could swear it was lilies.
Page 37
Kate fumbled for her dance card, which was tied prettily to her wrist with a ...ribbon.
Page 45
[Kate] would certainly never be considered a diamond of the first water like her sister...
Page 52
His manner was too cold, too superior.Ā He was, [Kate] thought a touch unfairly, too handsome as well, with velvety brown eyes that matched his hair to perfection.Ā He was tall, certainly over six feet, although probably not more than an inch, and his lips, while classically beautiful (Kate had studied enough art to regard herself qualified to make such a judgment) were tight at the corners, as if he did not know how to smile.
Page 55
Edwina was truly a diamond of the first water, and Kate could never be more than average and unremarkable.
Page 56
"And you are so ancient at what, twenty years of age?"
I want to clarify that Kate is 21 in the book, and Edwina is 17. So they are both much younger than their tv personas.Ā Edwina is still, technically, a child in the book.
Page 59
He raised a brow as he adjusted the huge bouquet of flowers he had tucked under his arm. Pink roses, she noted.Ā Perfect buds. Thy were lovely. Simple and elegant. Exactly the sort of thing she'd choose for herself.
Page 61
He grasped the bouquet of flowers-which had been tucked under his right arm-with his other hand, and as he brought it forward Kate saw that it was not one massive bouquet, but three smaller ones.
āThis,ā he said, putting one of the bouquets down on a side table, āis for Edwina. And thisā-he did the same with the second- āis for your mother.ā
He was left with a single bouquet. Kate stood frozen with shock, unable to take her eyes off the perfect pink blooms. She knew what he had to be about, that the only reason heād included her in the gesture was to impress Edwina, but blast it,Ā no one had ever brought her flowers before, and she hadnāt known until that very moment how badly sheād wanted someone to do so.
āThese,ā he said finally, holding out the final arrangement of pink roses, āare for you.ā
Page 65
Kate fanned herself. "It's a bit hot in here, don't you think?"
Page 67
āGood day, dog,ā he said firmly.
The dog stopped in its tracks, sat right down, andā¦
Smiled? Barked.
Page 73
āKate had the distinct impression he was agreeing to go for the sole purpose of vexing her.ā (Chapter 4)
Page 77
]
He cleared his throat and took a deep breath, hoping it would clear his head. Instead, he simply got an intoxicating whiff of her scent, which was an odd combination of exotic lilies and sensible soap.
Pages 85-86
Page 91
It has come to This Author's attention that Miss Katharine Sheffield took offense at the labeling of her beloved pet, "an unnamed dog of indeterminate breed."
This Author, is, to be sure, prostrate with shame at this grievous and egregious error and begs of you, dear reader, to accept this abject apology and pay attention to the first ever correction in the history of this column.
Miss Katharine Sheffield's dog is a corgi. It is called Newton, although it is difficult to imagine that England's great inventor and physicist would have appreciated being immortalized in the form of a short, fat canine with poor manners.
-Lady Whistledown's Society Papers, 27 April 1814
Page 102
āAnd stop crumpling your cloak,ā Mary added. āIt will be wrinkled all evening.ā
Page 102
"[She] has a novel to read.Ā The latest by that Austen woman."
(Most likely this would have been Pride and Prejudice, which is really fitting for this particular novel).
Page 104-105
The studyās windows looked out over Grosvenor Square, however, and so he had been amusing himself watching the carriages arrive and the guests alight. When Kate Sheffield had stepped down, sheād looked up at the facade of Bridgerton House, tipping her face up in much the same manner sheād done while enjoying the warmth of the sun in Hyde Park. The light from the sconces on either side of the front door had filtered onto her skin, bathing her with a flickering glow.
Page 107
He'd stripped naked and soaked in a hot bath for nearly an hour, trying to remove the chill from his bones.
Page 108
He'd awakened in an instant, stting bolt upright in bed and shaking from the horror of it.Ā It had been the most vivid erotic dream he'd ever experienced.
And his worst nightmare.
Page 111
The guest performer was none other than Maria Sienna Rosso, the Italian soprano who made her debut in London two years ago and has returned after a brief stint on the Vienna stage.
Page 111
With thick, sable hair and flashing dark eyes, Miss Rosso proved as lovely in form as she did in voice, and more than one (indeed, more than a dozen of society's so-called gentlemen found it difficult indeed to remove their eyes from her person, even after the performance had been concluded.
Lady Whistledown's Society Papers 27 April 1814
Page 115
Kate smiled warmly at the girl, who looked to be about the same age as Edwina.Ā Eloise Bridgerton had the exact same color hair as her older brothers, and her face was lit by a friendly, wide smile. Kate liked her instantly.
Page 119
Kate looked around quickly as she shut the door...The walls were lined with books...
Page 124
...he could swear that he could smell her.Ā It was that maddening combination of lilies and soap, that beguiling scent that had washed over him while they were out in Hyde Park last week....
...there was that damned scent again.Ā Lilies.Ā He could swear it was lilies. And soap.Ā The lilies were intriguing, but the soap made sense.Ā A practical sort of woman like Kate Sheffield Sharma would scrub herself clean with soap.
Page 128
āThe touch of his skin against hers was so powerful it seemed to control her body. She breathed when he paused, stopped when he moved. She had no doubt that her heart was beating in time to his pulse.ā
Page 130
āIntimidation had been his intention, and so heād moved closer and closerā¦ she wouldnāt know what it was like to have a man so near that the heat of his body seeped through her clothes, so close that she couldnāt tell where his breath ended and hers beganā¦ He was going to stop right there and leave her bothered and breathless. But when there was barely an inch between them, the pull grew too strongā¦ the prickles of desire heād meant to spark within her suddenly ignited within him.ā
Page 132
A low, triumphant growl emerged from Anthonyās mouth as he moved his mouth back to hers, kissing her fiercely, daring her to continue what sheād begun. āOh, Kate,ā he moaned, nudging her back until she was leaning against the edge of the desk. āGod, you taste so good.ā
Page 137
Page 147
Hyacinth, who was now just eleven, had never even been held in her father's arms. Anthony had tried to fill the gap as best as he could, but he knew he was a very pale comparison.
Page 149
There were some bonds, he was coming to realize, that were stronger than those of blood.Ā These were not bonds he had room for in his life.
Which is why, when he married, the face behind the veil would have to be Edwina's...
Page 150
Kate had expected to be impressed by Aubrey Hall. She had not expected to be enchanted.
Page 151
...Kate could see the ribboned hems of walking dresses disappearing...
Page 157
Kate Sheffield Sharma, dressed in a pale lavender frock...
Page 159-160
She fiddled with the flower some more, then blurted out, āYou shouldnāt have picked this.ā
āYou should have a tulip,ā he said matter-of-factly. āIt isnāt right that Edwina receives all the flowers.ā