49 pages • 1 hour read
Julia QuinnAn Offer From a Gentleman
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 13-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Chapter 13 Summary
Lady Whistledown reports that Lady Penwood has discouraged a possible match between Miss Rosamund Reiling and Mr. Philip Cavender, as she wants more than a “mere mister” for her daughter (220). Sophie feels a sense of apprehension as Benedict brings her to his mother’s house, in part because she does not want to see Araminta. She accuses Benedict of kidnapping her. Benedict, for his part, feels like he understands Sophie well now and can usually guess what she is thinking.
Lady Bridgerton no longer lives at Bridgerton House in Grosvenor Square; she has a house in Bruton Street. Benedict insists that Sophie use the front door, as she is respectable, even though she doesn’t act like a housemaid. Benedict introduces Sophie to Lady Bridgerton, who thinks Sophie looks familiar. Lady Bridgerton agrees to hire Sophie as a lady’s maid. Sophie sees the joy that Lady Bridgerton takes in her son, and she feels touched by the love among the family, even as they tease one another. She feels as if she is entering into the family, too.
Part 2, Chapter 14 Summary
Benedict’s younger sister, Eloise, who is 21 and unmarried, corners him. Eloise asks Benedict about where he has been. Benedict says that he was recovering from his head cold and has brought the new maid whom their mother has hired. Eloise reveals that their lady’s maid left to work for Lady Penwood. Lady Bridgerton interrogates Benedict about Sophie, who is too educated to be a housemaid; she understands French. Violet suggests that Sophie might be the child born out of wedlock of a nobleman. She guesses that Benedict is interested in Sophie and is pleased.
Sophie feels comfortable in Lady Bridgerton’s house but fears running into Araminta. She knows that Araminta hates her enough to try to make her life miserable. Lady Bridgerton visits her room to ask Sophie if she needs anything, which Sophie thinks is reversing their position as employer and servant. Lady Bridgerton asks where Sophie grew up, and Sophie offers the fictitious name of Blackheath Hall near Swaffham, Norfolk. Eloise also comes to meet Sophie, and Sophie feels that “[t]hey [a]re treating her like family, something even her own family had never done” (249). She finds this wonderful and “ha[s] the oddest feeling that her life ha[s] just begun” (250).
Part 2, Chapter 15 Summary
Benedict visits his mother’s home to see how Sophie is settling in. She runs into him several times and accuses him of waiting for her. Sophie is hurt when Benedict says that her life sounds dull. He approaches her while she is reading in the garden. Sophie realizes that he makes her angry, but “[i]n her heart she long[s] for this man, dream[s] of a life that could never be” (260).
Benedict says that he wishes Sophie would tell him her secrets. He lashes out, upset that she would choose drudgery over being with him, and then kisses her. He realizes that he’s never imagined building a life with anyone else but the lady in silver until he met Sophie, and the difference is that Sophie is before him; he decides that “he [i]sn’t going to let her get away” (263). Benedict asks Sophie to come home with him. She refuses. He realizes that he will ruin her reputation if they are seen kissing in the garden, so he pulls away. Benedict asks Sophie to smile as he leaves.
Part 2, Chapter 16 Summary
Lady Whistledown reports on a dinner party between the Featheringtons and the Bridgerton women. Sophie is kept busy as a lady’s maid but is invited to take tea with the Bridgerton women, including Lady Bridgerton; Eloise; Francesca, who is 20; and Hyacinth, who is the youngest. Sophie enjoys spending time with them. One day, as the women discuss Benedict, Sophie keeps stabbing herself as she does her mending. When Benedict arrives, Sophie hurriedly leaves, saying that she needs a thimble. Benedict distracts her, sending her downstairs and outside, where she sees Araminta getting into a carriage. Sophie recalls that the new Earl of Penwood has taken over his townhome in London, which means that Araminta has changed her residence. Araminta shouts for Posy, and Sophie fears that Posy has become Araminta’s target of criticism. As Posy emerges from the house, she recognizes Sophie.
Benedict finds Sophie in distress on the street and takes her to his house, which is just a few houses down the street. He is glad that Sophie is coming to care for his family but realizes that she has more reason to refuse to become his mistress since she won’t want to disappoint them. He tells Sophie that he is merely the “Number Two” Bridgerton, and she says that he’s much more than that. Sophie is touched that he needs her approval. She tells him that he has the soul of an artist. Benedict realizes that he loves her.
Part 2, Chapter 17 Summary
As he undresses Sophie, Benedict reflects, “He wasn’t certain how this woman had come to mean so much to him. It seemed that one day she was a stranger, and the next she was as indispensable as air” (288). Their lovemaking is sweet and tender, and for Sophie, it feels “as if, after twenty-two years of life, she [is] finally coming alive” (291). She feels logically that it is wrong to proceed, but she wants him. Benedict feels that his need for her is almost spiritual. He wants her to love him in return.
Afterward, Benedict assumes that Sophie will stay with him, but she knows that she cannot spend a lifetime with a man who is not her husband. He complains about her rejection, but she says that she won’t be any man’s mistress. Benedict reminds her that he cannot marry her, which she already understands. He still dreams of marrying the woman from the masquerade, but he believes that he could be happy with Sophie. She informs him that she refuses to bear a child out of wedlock. She doesn’t regret making love with him, but she asks him to respect her choice. Benedict leaves the room, and Sophie cries.
Part 2, Chapter 18 Summary
Lady Whistledown notes that Benedict Bridgerton has not been seen much at social functions. Sophie doesn’t see Benedict for two weeks. She feels like her heart is breaking. She is also worried that Posy might be looking for her or might have mentioned something to Araminta. She thinks again that all she wants is a family of her own: “Someone to love. Someone who’d love her. All within the bounds of respectability and marriage” (310). Sophie tries to avoid having tea with the Bridgerton women, but Lady Bridgerton draws her out. Sophie reveals that Benedict is a talented artist, which no one in his family knew. Penelope Featherington comes to visit, and Sophie fears that Penelope will recognize her from the masquerade. Hyacinth asks Sophie to help her entertain her young cousins who are visiting that evening.
Benedict is coming to visit his mother when Anthony and Colin meet him outside the house. Colin complains that his mother has been suggesting that he marry Penelope and announces his objections just as Penelope appears on the doorstep. Benedict realizes from Penelope’s expression that she is in love with Colin. She answers that she never asked Colin to marry her, and Anthony walks Penelope to her house. Benedict goes inside to see his mother, who begins chatting about eligible young women whom Benedict could marry.
Part 2, Chapters 13-18 Analysis
Social status and its resultant worth take center stage in this section. In her position as a maid in Lady Bridgerton’s household, Sophie’s employment poses a new barrier to her relationship with Benedict because of the difference in social class. Both Benedict and Lady Bridgerton interrogate this difference, as they identify Sophie’s education and manners as being more like those of someone of genteel status rather than the servant or working class. This adds to the confusion about her identity and further develops the theme of Hidden Identities and Secret Selves.
Servants—especially upper servants who waited more directly on their employers and often had supervisory power or authority over other servants in the household—would typically acquire manners more like their employers, in part to emphasize their superiority over their peers. This provides one possible explanation for Sophie’s polish, but her knowledge of French is a different matter. In the absence of universal or compulsory education in this period, education was a private undertaking. A governess hired to teach a gentleman or nobleman’s daughters would typically teach French and some history along with etiquette and fine arts such as embroidery and music. (Latin was not customarily taught to girls, though boys headed to schools like Eton would have had instruction in the language.) Sophie’s facility with languages signals that her identity and background aren’t quite what she has communicated; this further develops her hidden identity. In particular, it deepens the mystery and casts uncertainty as to how wide the social chasm between her and Benedict is. This speculation leads Lady Bridgerton to suspect an upbringing in an upper-class household, possibly as an “illegitimate” daughter, since a “legitimate” and acknowledged daughter would presumably have the economic support of her family.
Sophie’s status as a maid proves to be a barrier most significantly because of the convention that people of this period only married those from or above their social class; it was frowned upon to marry into classes below. There are historical instances of gentlemen and, in rare cases, noblemen marrying women of the servant class, but this was not a generally accepted practice. There are likewise several examples of “illegitimate” daughters of noblemen marrying into the nobility or upper gentry, but for drama, Quinn leans on a clear distinction—one apparent to both Benedict and Sophie when he explains that he cannot offer her marriage. Sophie declines to enter into a sexual relationship where, given a general lack of contraception, an “illegitimate” child could likely result. This is because she is all too familiar with the lack of economic security and social standing that attends out-of-wedlock birth, as it puts one on the wrong side of cherished notions of respectability. Her decision supports the theme of Family as a Source of Nurturance or Status, as this factor weighs heavily on her refusal of a sexual relationship with Benedict. This provides a further obstacle to a happy union between them, although feelings of love are developing on both sides.
The devices of dramatic irony and humor continue in these chapters. In particular, the Bridgerton women are testing Sophie and deciding that she is worthy of Benedict’s interest despite the differences in social class. That love will win out over social convention is a guarantee of the romance genre, and the plot must simply find a way to overcome all the intervening obstacles. Quinn foreshadows Sophie’s later confrontation with Araminta in the glimpse that Sophie has of her stepmother and recognition on Posy’s part. This establishes suspense for the confrontation to follow.
The novel counters the restrictions of social class with depictions of the bonding power of love and family. Interactions among the Bridgertons are warm and modern. Lady Bridgerton’s wish to see all her children happily married is a running joke throughout the books, and this adds tension and interest as Benedict realizes that he, Eloise, and Colin are among her targets. The interaction between Colin and Penelope is a scene that will have further relevance in the next book in the series, Romancing Mister Bridgerton, in which Penelope and Colin fall in love; here, it serves as a parallel to Benedict’s situation, as he, too, feels unrequited love. He is still invested to some degree in his Fantasy in Opposition to Reality of the woman from the masquerade, which will add to the dramatic action of the novel’s final chapters.
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