ouinason

She didn't hide the letters. She snatched one of the earlier ones in order to forge one after he hadn't responded to her letter about the baby for a long while. George never responded to the baby news at all because he died in the middle of writing her back.

The prequel books for the Bridgertons are quite good, even if the later books of the main series sort of drop off in awesome.

I think one of the factors in sending Marina to the Featheringtons in London was most likely that she didn't have another appropriate female relative to bring her out. If Marina's mother was dead, ill, or just not born of the correct social class then her father HAD to find someone who could be her chaperone and minder in London for the season. Lord F has a wife who moves in the correct circles and is also bringing out their daughters, so dad uses the debt as leverage. That's just how things were done (according to the approximately 500 regency romances I have read anyway). Marina could have the money, but not the social standing. She could be the poor cousin. Or, she could just have a dead or unable mother and need a sponsor for the season. We really don't know enough about her to judge, besides her disdain for conspicuous consumption.

Penelope is in Derry Girls, and is adorable.

Lady Danbury is a widow, so her money and property were left to her by her deceased husband and/or her family at some point along the way. You can only be "Lady (last name here)" through marriage except in some pretty weird and extreme circumstances, from what I understand. She would be "Lady (first name)" otherwise. Also, depending on what her husband's actual title was, that might not even be her last name, just the name of the title. Like the Duke of Wellington's actual family name was Wellesley and not Wellington. So his widow would have been Duchess/Lady Wellington, even though that wouldn't have been her last name.

You know, I watched the scene directly after the infamous moment again and Daphne says that she really thought it wasn't true. So here I am thinking "was this a test". Not that it wasn't still what it was, but that she really, until that moment, did/wanted to believe that he physically COULDN'T come inside her (and btw, this is the weirdest and most graphic conversation about sex I have ever had about a TV show). Because Simon told her that he couldn't have children, and Rose told her that it involved spilling inside her, therefore she went into it thinking "if he can't pull away it just might not happen" or something along those lines. It's like she's putting him in a position where he is either unable to come at all or he's revealed as a big fat liar. It's super messed up, when she could just ask him. And he could lie, but she'd know it. And again, Simon (invested as he is in not getting his wife pregnant) does know that pulling out is a very shitty form of birth control, right?

Marriage contracts were a huge deal then for that reason.

All in all, things worked out pretty well for Marina. She got married and most of the world, not knowing about George, will assume that Phillip was the father all along and consider it all tidied up and the scandal will go away (in a wider sense, small town gossip is still small town gossip). She won't be shamed or ostracized (much) and her children will not be looked down on or anything. She's basically getting what she wanted with Colin, only Phillip knows the deal instead of being lied to. So, Marina didn't get the dashing Bridgerton, but her life is not ruined any more than it would have been if she'd married Colin and had a very "premature" delivery.

The show (I think either Lady Danbury or Simon himself) stated that his mother had had several miscarriages and still births and was told it was dangerous for her to keep trying to have a baby, but she did it anyway because she was desperate to have an heir for her husband. So Simon doesn't have any legitimate older siblings at all. I have no idea why he didn't remarry and keep trying.

It's Christmas so maybe Maxie had a holiday "lets all just get along for the holidays and be a family" moment. Britt is a part of their family after all. I'm just glad we didn't have to worry about her trying to get Dr. O invited too.

The only bi main character in a Regency Romance novel I can think of is a Grace Burrows hero. It was one of the Haddonfield brothers, though I can't remember which one. One of her other heroes let people think he was gay to keep out of the marriage mart.

Yeah I don't get that either. "My revenge on you is to make the rest of my life all about you" is self defeating.

And that wouldn't give Colin a choice, it would mean that the ton assumed him the father instead and forced his hand anyway. Because if people thought he was the father and he didn't' marry her, that would be an even bigger scandal. Also Penelope not only could not seek Colin out, because scandal, young women were also forbidden to WRITE to unmarried men. It was a huge no no. She couldn't stay with Eloise and hope Colin came home at a reasonable hour (for them), she couldn't go find him, she couldn't write him a letter that anyone in his family might maybe see..... I don't think her solution was right, but I don't know that there was much alternative besides letting him be victimized.

I think the reason that it gets people off of Simon's back is sexism. Daphne is a product up for sale. Seeing someone else up drives up her value. Simon on the other hand, is seen as being ... mid negotiation for buying that product, therefore other sellers are moving on to more available buyers.

I get where you are coming from, but it would be insulting to a lot of people if they changed the characterization of one of the most beloved characters in the franchise because she was cast to TV as a black woman. That is why I appreciate that they didn't do that. They stayed absolutely true to the character. OK, she was actually a lot nicer. I have to be honest, she was mean in the first few books. I'm personally interested in seeing if the color conscious casting carries into the future seasons of the show, and I want to know about the various POC that were seen at the balls. There were some lovely young ladies there and I want them to be fleshed out.

hopefully in season 2 they can get into Penelope's motivation and maybe even out the characterization.

they can both be wrong

Lady Danbury is a widow, indicated by her name. That's all we know about her in the book that this show is based on either. She's exactly the same character, regardless of race, in both mediums. I appreciate that. She's an interesting character and I hope they use her as much in the further seasons of the show as she was in the further books. The book character has more details revealed about her later on. She's not related to Simon, she was his mother's closest friend.

If Marina had just told the truth, I wouldn't have any issue with her actions.

Benedict had NO idea that Lucy was Lady Granville when he slept with her, he found out at the party later. Her husband seemed rather smug about it and Benedict was shocked.

The moron Baronet's crime wasn't having the illegitimate son, it was refusing to take care of him. Sending the pregnant maid away and just forgetting about it was just not ok, even back then. You were supposed to provide a small living, maybe get a farmer to marry her (KNOWINGLY) and give them a big dowry. It made him look like as big of a tool as he actually was and shamed him out of town (probably temporarily) so he couldn't pester Daphne. Many romance novel heroes have children outside of marriage, but they take care of them (well... usually, or at least eventually).

I forgot about that, you're right. Though I don't think wanting the opportunity to do other things (go to school, travel, anything) makes her super bookish or bluestockingish. She didn't seem particularly grounded in study, just grasping at something, anything, to do for herself. I quite like Eloise in the series because she is young and wants things. She's not who she's going to grow up to be yet, and she's feisty.

I don't think the show takes up more than 3 months all together. I know that the London Season was basically spring and people spent the summer out of the city, because it stank in London... bad. Colin didn't have his own home from what was shown, so he'd have brought Marina to live with his family. Someone would have figured it out. He would have hated her and probably never trusted her again. Most likely getting himself a mistress and not touching her. Or leaving to travel the world and her alone with his family who hate her. There was never going to be a happy ending.

Yes, I wanted to see them talk about it. I wanted her to apologize for doing that, and I wanted him to apologize for lying to her and taking advantage of her naivety. I would have rather her not to have done it. I sort of feel like maybe it was kept in to make the situation less "Simon is the bad guy". The more realistic way for it to have come out would be her getting pregnant and being confused and elated and not understanding and him having to explain himself.

I just don't want to live in a world where it's ok to treat people that way.