Hello lovely readers!

This week we are reading Chapters 16-21.

Here’s a recap for Chapters 13-15:

We’re finally at the ball! Christopher is overwhelmed by all the glitz and glamor, not to mention the people. Luckily his friend Horace is there. But Horace is distraught over a love affair that’s ended badly. The lady in question is also at the ball, though he declines to name her, as he cares for her reputation. He welcomes the distraction of introducing Christopher to Verbena Montrose, who needs to find a husband following her family’s financial decline.

Christopher spends a delightful turn around the ballroom with Verbena, not dancing, just walking and chatting. She knows all the best gossip and is happy to share it. One item in particular concerns an attendee, Lady Belinda, whose elder sister went missing years prior and is presumed dead. Christopher undergoes another light panic attack at this story and excuses himself to get some fresh air. He ends up in the garden, where he overhears two people having a secret meeting. Even unseen, he recognizes Harding’s voice promising to meet the woman soon in Grosvenor’s Square. He’s angry about his valet conducting secret love affairs—not very discreet—and becomes even more incensed when he sees the lady is Belinda. As she’s the daughter of a powerful duke, this makes the whole affair even more fraught.

Christopher makes his way to Grosvenor’s Square intending to put a stop to the tryst. He sees a lone light in a window on the square; all the other residents are at the ball. He climbs a trellis to reach the window, but the trellis collapses, leaving him to tumble inside the room. He interrupts Harding and Belinda’s tete-a-tete, but finds he was mistaken about the meeting. Harding and Belinda, they explain, grew up together, as Harding served the duke’s family as a boy. Harding wasn’t trying to conduct an affair; he only wanted to ask Belinda in private if she would consent to marring Christopher in name alone.

Christopher’s embarrassed by the whole thing and gets a well-deserved dressing down from Belinda. Then the duke unexpectedly arrives home early. Belinda feigns being sick in bed as cover while Christopher and Harding hide in her wardrobe. Erotically charged close quarter moment!

Once the duke leaves the room and they’re free, Christopher is shocked to find that Belinda is amenable to marrying him. She says she’s in a similar boat of needing a husband while having no desire for a real one. Christopher and Harding sneak out of the house and make their way home feeling pretty pleased with themselves.

Time passes as Christopher pretends to woo Belinda with Harding’s help. Her father, the duke, is pleased by the match and all seems to be going well. Christopher is escorting Belinda on a walk in the park, chaperoned by Harding and Belinda’s maid, when Belinda bursts into tears. Christopher manages to get a moment alone with her to find out what’s wrong. He assumes Belinda is still traumatized by her sister’s disappearance, but she tells him the truth: she’s in love with Horace, but the duke has forbidden them from marrying. Christopher hates the idea of keeping them apart and promises to help them. After seeing her off, Christopher castigates Harding for not giving him the entire story. He declares his intention to help the poor couple elope and Harding pledges to assist.

And that’s a recap!

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rikkila in the Discord server asks: Did you do any research into the history with intent to center the story in it? Or did the story come first and the historical details were sprinkled in after?

The story definitely came first. I know/knew very little about the Regency era, at least compared to the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Especially with this first book, I was not too fussed about getting the history correct because I didn’t feel I owed it to a genre that so often erases certain facts and people. But I am a nerd, so I did look things up if and when I thought they’d add to the story.