An Offer From a Gentleman

Benedict drives Sophie to his house, which is nearby. She thanks him for rescuing her but struggles with the awful realization that he doesn’t remember her. She reflects, “People saw what they expected to see. And Benedict Bridgerton surely didn’t expect to see a fine lady of the ton in the guise of a humble housemaid” (120). Sophie has thought of Benedict every day for the last two years and imagined him falling in love with her and asking to marry her.

When he questions her about her background, Sophie says that her mother was a housekeeper to a generous family who tutored Sophie alongside their daughters. Benedict asks if they’ve met before, and Sophie decides that it is best if he goes on thinking of her as a housemaid. Benedict recalls his mystery lady at the masquerade and how flat the world felt when she disappeared. He still looks for her and has been reluctant to marry. He worries that he will find his mystery lady after he weds. It begins to rain and renew the symptoms of Benedict’s previous head cold; Sophie takes over the reins. They reach Benedict’s cottage, and when he sees that she is upset and embraces her, Sophie cries. They enter the cottage to find the caretakers gone, and Sophie is concerned that they are alone.

Lady Whistledown notes that Lady Penwood stole Mrs. Featherington’s lady’s maid, who later left Lady Penwood because she was overworked. Sophie builds a fire in the cottage, and Benedict loans her breeches and a shirt to wear. Instead of the servant’s quarters, he insists that she take a guest room. Benedict falls ill with a fever, and Sophie helps him into bed. She returns to his room when she hears him groaning and realizes that he is quite ill.

In his delirium, he demands that she kiss him, so Sophie does, whispering that she loves him. She brings him a cool cloth for his forehead and stays with him, looking at the items in his bedroom. She sees miniatures of his family and a sketchbook full of drawings. Sophie is struck as she looks at the sketches, thinking that his drawings “seem[] to capture the whole and true moment” (150). She is astonished to see a sketch of her in her mask and silver dress, running from the masquerade. When Benedict wakes up, she gives him water and tends to him.

Sophie is alarmed to wake up in Benedict’s room and find Mrs. Crabtree, the housekeeper, watching her. Benedict asks for tea and breakfast. Mr. Crabtree notes that Sophie is wearing men’s clothes. The breeches, too big for her, cause some comic struggle. Benedict remembers that he dreamed of his mystery lady. Sophie doesn’t look anything like her; her hair is shorter, and she is thinner. He wishes that he at least knew his mystery lady’s name: “Something to whisper in the night, when he was staring out the window, wondering where in hell she was” (161). Sophie returns wearing a dress that she borrowed from Mrs. Crabtree. Benedict is angry to realize that she is very hungry; he feels protective of her. He thinks, “They had an odd little bond, he and the housemaid. He’d saved her and she’d saved him” (164). Sophie is embarrassed when she remembers how she’d kissed him. Benedict is high-handed about Sophie working for his mother, and she throws the stump of a candle at him. Her spirit delights Benedict.

Lady Whistledown reports that Benedict Bridgerton did not attend the Covington ball. Benedict is recovering at My Cottage. He dumped Mrs. Crabtree’s tonics out the window, where they’ve killed the rose bushes. Benedict enjoys Sophie’s company. He invites her to join him for tea and notices how graceful she is, “as if she’d been to the manner born” (173). He assumes that these are lessons she learned from her childhood employer. Benedict realizes that he desires her and tries to disguise his physical response. She reads him poetry, and his desire grows. Benedict convinces Sophie to leave and then climbs out the window and heads to the lake for a cold swim. Sophie is annoyed that Benedict says he doesn’t think of her as a servant but insists on finding her a position in his mother’s household. Sophie, enjoying her momentary freedom, goes for a walk outside and sees Benedict swimming naked in the lake.

Lady Whistledown reports that, in London, the housemaid wars continue. Sophie decides that she will be wicked and watch Benedict swim: “[S]he was curious, and she was more than halfway in love with this man” (187). Benedict senses someone watching him, the way he had an intuition on the day his father died. He calls out, guessing it is Sophie, and threatens to chase her if she runs away. He demands that she wait while he dresses, though she argues. He draws her close to him, and Sophie longingly thinks, “She had spent the last two years remembering what it felt like to be in his arms, and she wasn’t sure she’d make it through the rest of her days without at least one more memory to keep her going” (198). They share a sweet kiss and then a deeper kiss, but when he asks again who she is, she won’t tell him. Benedict feels drawn to her the same way he was drawn to the lady at the masquerade. He asks Sophie to be his and says that he will give her anything she wants.

Sophie says that he is asking her to be his mistress. Benedict kisses her again, and she thinks, “He made her long for him, long for all the things she couldn’t have, and curse the things she could” (204). She further thinks, “She had been living on dreams, and she wasn’t a woman for whom many had come true. She didn’t want to lose this one just yet” (205). Their embrace continues, but Sophie realizes that she can’t risk having a child and pulls away. Benedict is angry that she is refusing him. He insists that she come to work for his mother; he can’t leave her alone to fend for herself. They argue, Sophie punches him, and Benedict pulls her down to the ground. When she returns to the cottage, he follows, admitting that he is unwilling to let her go. As Sophie packs, Benedict guesses that she is “illegitimate.” She admits that she doesn’t know who her parents are. He blackmails her into coming with him by threatening to tell the magistrate that she stole from him. He claims that he can’t live without her.