The Duke and I (Bridgertons, #1)(23)

"Not true!" Benedict said with a laugh.

"I don't know if you've met Colin, actually," Anthony continued. "He was probably too young to have crossed your path."

"Pleased to meet you," Colin said jovially.

Simon noted the rascally glint in the young man's green eyes and couldn't help but smile in return.

"Anthony here has said such insulting things about you," Colin continued, his grin growing quite wicked, "that I know we're sure to be great friends."

Anthony rolled his eyes. "I'm certain you can understand why my mother is convinced that Colin will be the first of her children to drive her to insanity."

Colin said, "I pride myself on it, actually."

"Mother, thankfully, has had a brief respite from Colin's tender charms," Anthony continued.

"He is actually just returned from a grand tour of the Continent."

"Just this evening," Colin said with a boyish grin. He had a devil-may-care youthful look about him. Simon decided he couldn't be much older than Daphne.

"I have just returned from travels as well," Simon said.

"Yes, except yours spanned the globe, I hear," Colin said. "I should love to hear about them someday."

Simon nodded politely. "Certainly."

"Have you met Daphne?" Benedict inquired. "She's the only Bridgerton in attendance who's unaccounted for."



Simon was pondering how best to answer that question when Colin let out a snort, and said,

"Oh, Daphne's accounted for. Miserable, but accounted for."

Simon followed his gaze across the ballroom, where Daphne was standing next to what had to be her mother, looking, just as Colin had promised, as miserable as could be.

And then it occurred to him—Daphne was one of those dreaded unmarried young ladies being paraded about by her mother. She'd seemed far too sensible and forthright to be such a creature, and yet of course that was what she had to be. She couldn't have been more than twenty, and as her name was still Bridgerton she was clearly a maiden. And since she had a mother— well, of course she'd be trapped into an endless round of introductions.

She looked every bit as pained by the experience as Simon had been. Somehow that made him feel a good deal better.

"One of us should save her," Benedict mused. "Nah," Colin said, grinning. "Mother's only had her over there with Macclesfield for ten minutes."

"Macclesfield?" Simon asked.

"The earl," Benedict replied.

"Castleford's son."

"Ten minutes?" Anthony asked. "Poor Macclesfield." Simon shot him a curious look. "Not that Daphne is such a chore," Anthony quickly added, "but when Mother gets it in her head to, ah..."

"Pursue," Benedict filled in helpfully.

"—a gentleman," Anthony continued with a nod of thanks toward his brother, "She can be, ah..."

"Relentless," Colin said.

Anthony smiled weakly. "Yes. Exactly."

Simon looked back over toward the trio in question. Sure enough, Daphne looked miserable, Macclesfield was scanning the room, presumably looking for the nearest exit, and Lady

Bridgerton's eyes held a gleam so ambitious that Simon cringed in sympathy for the young earl.

"We should save Daphne," Anthony said.

"We really should," Benedict added.

"And Macclesfield," Anthony said.





"Oh, certainly," Benedict added.

But Simon noticed that no one was leaping into action.

"All talk, aren't you?" Colin chortled.

"I don't see you marching over there to save her," Anthony shot back.

"Hell no. But I never said we should. You, on the other hand ..."

"What the devil is going on?" Simon finally asked. The three Bridgerton brothers looked at him with identical guilty expressions.

"We should save Daff," Benedict said.

"We really should," Anthony added.

"What my brothers are too lily-livered to tell you," Colin said derisively, "is that they are terrified of my mother."

"It's true," Anthony said with a helpless shrug.

Benedict nodded. "I freely admit it."

Simon thought he'd never seen a more ludicrous sight. These were the Bridgerton brothers, after all. Tall, handsome, athletic, with every miss in the nation setting her cap after them, and here they were, completely cowed by a mere slip of a woman.

Of course, it was their mother. Simon supposed one had to make allowances for that.

"If I save Daff," Anthony explained, "Mother might get me into her clutches, and then I'm done for."

Simon choked on laughter as his mind filled with a vision of Anthony being led around by his mother, moving from unmarried lady to unmarried lady.

"Now you see why I avoid these functions like the plague," Anthony said grimly. "I'm attacked from both directions. If the debutantes and their mothers don't find me, my mother makes certain I find them. "

"Say!" Benedict exclaimed. "Why don't you save her, Hastings?"

Simon took one look at Lady Bridgerton (who at that point had her hand firmly wrapped around Macclesfield's forearm) and decided he'd rather be branded an eternal coward. "Since we haven't been introduced, I'm sure it would be most improper," he improvised.