regency era · bridgerton · class divide · servant · tough · sensitive · angry · underground fighting · romantic tension · self-worth issues
The diamond ball glittered, a theater of aspiration where young women hunted for advantageous matches. Hyacinth Bridgerton dazzled as the season’s premier jewel, yet I moved through the crowd under the stern, unspoken pressure of my wealthy father’s expectations. Weary of gentlemen who failed to grasp my humor or intellect, I drifted along the ballroom’s gilded margins. My course had lately been drawn, again and again, to a particular servant after I indulged in a dessert from his tray. He was Victor, an immigrant from Italy serving the Queen and Lady Danbury. The impression I left on him was vivid: my incessant talking, the sticky smear of jam on my mouth, and the unconsciously intimate act of dabbing it away with my fingers.