Daphne Basset, Duchess of Hastings: Do you ever wonder what Father might say on a day such as this? He was the only one you ever truly respected. The only one you ever listened to. If Papa was still here...
Viscount Anthony Bridgerton: You cannot know what he would say. Father had different words for me than he did for you. So please do not insult me with your baseless conjecture.
Daphne Basset, Duchess of Hastings: I have been here. And I have seen you at all stages. I witnessed you change the day he died. Do you know you did not even weep once? And you stopped laughing, altogether, in fact. It was as though you had become an entirely different person, consumed by the expectations of others.
Viscount Anthony Bridgerton: And what choice did I have? I changed so that our family might survive, so that you could be respectable enough to marry a duke. I am happy for you, Sister, but I'm not like you. I have never wished to succumb to the blind delight of being in love. I cannot so indulge myself.
Daphne Basset, Duchess of Hastings: You can choose to be happy. To follow the desires of your heart instead of pushing away any feeling that comes to the surface. It should not be a luxury, but a right to choose, to fight for the family that you want.
Viscount Anthony Bridgerton: I fight for the family that I have. And you will never understand because you were born to marry into another family while I was born to carry on the Bridgerton name. That is what outweighs anything else. It is rather easy to be selfish when you have no one else to whom you must answer.
Daphne Basset, Duchess of Hastings: I mourn for you, Brother. All of these decisions that you seem to make and then resent us for. Though they do not make you worthy of your family's respect. They simply make us pity you. Nothing more.
Queen Charlotte: I chose you as the season's diamond for a reason. Yes, you possess great beauty, but you made an impression. You still do. And you still can. Even after all the confusion of the day. And after, most especially, all that has been witnessed in private.
Edwina Sharma: All that I have witnessed, ma'am, is the love a king shares with his queen and nothing more. I should certainly not find the proper words to discuss it even if given a million lifetimes to do so.
Queen Charlotte: The challenge of the Crown is that it is tangible. It is a physical reminder of the position. It is why, say, Lady Whistledown circulates her pamphlets instead of trading in whispered rumor. A whisper is relevant for only as long as it is spoken, but a paper represents more. Its physical form grants permanence. The same cannot be said of true love, of course. It changes. It forgets. It forces you to remember who you once were. And it forces you to choose how you will live with it again and again.
Edwina Sharma: How does one make that choice?
Queen Charlotte: That, I cannot dictate. I am your queen, but I suppose even I must recognize the importance of each person deciding what to do in the face of true love. Everyone deserves to make that choice, just as everyone deserves to feel its power. But one must know it is the hardest and greatest choice one can ever make.
Viscount Anthony Bridgerton: All I find myself thinking about, all I find myself being able to breathe for is you. Do you think that I want to be in this position? Contending with these thoughts of wanting to be nowhere except with you. Wanting to run away with you. Of acting on the most impure, forbidden desires, no matter how much I must remind myself I am a gentleman, and you are a lady.
Lady Agatha Danbury: We have all been busy keeping the elder Miss Sharma in mind until, as we hope, she recovers. From her fall?
Queen Charlotte: Of course. I shall send a few necklaces to express my sympathies.
Lady Agatha Danbury: That is kind of you.
Queen Charlotte: It's not a problem.
Penelope Featherington: [after Eloise deduces she is Lady Whistledown] You have no idea how horrible it has felt to keep this from you, from everyone, for so long! Whistledown has been all I have had, and I have given it up. I am done with it. I wrote what I wrote, and I gave it up for you.
Eloise Bridgerton: I do not even know you. I look at you now, and all I feel is pity for you. Sequestered here in this very room, writing your secret little scandal sheet, tarnishing everyone in town because you are too scared to stand up for yourself in reality. You are something, Penelope. An insipid wallflower, indeed.
Penelope Featherington: At least I did something. All you ever do is talk about doing something. You have all these great ambitions, these great plans, but I am the one who did something great. And you cannot stand it, can you? And what do you think that makes you?
Eloise Bridgerton: I wish never to see or speak to you again.
Viscount Anthony Bridgerton: I love you. I have loved you from the moment we raced each other in that park. I have loved you at every dance, on every walk, every time we've been together, and every time we've been apart. You do not have to accept it. You do not have to embrace it or even allow it. Knowing you, you probably will not. But you must know it in your heart. You must feel it because I do. I love you.
Kathani Sharma: I do not know what to say.
Viscount Anthony Bridgerton: You do not have to say anything.
Kathani Sharma: I do not think there is anything else to say other than I love you too.
Viscount Anthony Bridgerton: I want a life that suits us both. I know I am imperfect, but I will humble myself before you because I cannot imagine my life without you, and that is why I wish to marry you.
Kathani Sharma: You do know there will never be a day where you do not vex me.
Viscount Anthony Bridgerton: Is that a promise, Kathani Sharma?
Penelope Featherington: I do not wish to see a citrus color ever again.
Lord Debling: And why do I have the feeling that you, in turn, know how to make one wither?
Colin Bridgerton: Do you not need a chaperone?
Penelope Featherington: Spinsters do not need chaperones.
Colin Bridgerton: You are not a spinster.
Eloise Bridgerton: Where were you?
Colin Bridgerton: Nowhere! What are you reading?
Eloise Bridgerton: Nothing!
Eloise Bridgerton: When you spread gossip about someone, it will inevitably end up in Whistledown. You must know that. But perhaps that was your goal in communicating the secret I told you in confidence. Or can you really just not help being cruel?
Cressida Cowper: I did not communicate your secret. But I did notice Miss Livingston whispering around the room after hovering nearby. You were rather indiscreet when you told me about Penelope. Perhaps if you were more decided about your former friendship, you would not have felt the need to gossip. I do appreciate your concern about cruelty, but perhaps you should like to find a looking glass rather than looking at me.
Lord Debling: Enjoying the party?
Penelope Featherington: Immensely. And yourself?
Lord Debling: Rather. Besides the fact that I am feeling a little like, well, prey.
Penelope Featherington: So you've come to my hiding place. Welcome. Although typically only abject failures and social outcasts are allowed.
Lord Debling: You'll not take pity on a hunted man?
Penelope Featherington: Unfortunately, I require all pity for myself. But I can offer you social contagion in exchange.
Penelope Featherington: One should not overlook the sparrow!
Lord Samadani: I find books so captivating. I have a collection of over a thousand myself.
Eloise Bridgerton: Nothing a book loves more than to be collected.
Colin Bridgerton: For God's sake, Penelope Featherington, are you going to marry me or what?
