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And then—thank God—it was over, and the girls were nodding andquite pleased with theht like to hurl herself through a

Gareth turned when he heard his grand uncharacteristically sympathetic

The Sirls were notorious in London, and each performance was soht there was no possible way to make a deeper mockery of Mozart, a new set of Smythe-Smith cousins appeared on the scene, and proved that yes, it could be done

But they were nice girls, or so he’d been told, and his grandmother, in one of her rare fits of unabashed kindness, insisted that someone had to sit in the front row and clap, because, as she put it, “Three of them couldn’t tell an elephant from a flute, but there’s always one who is ready to melt in misery”

And apparently Grand a duke that he hadn’t the sense of a gnat, found it vitally ieneration whose ear wasn’t made of tin

They all stood to applaud, although he suspected his grandmother did so only to have an excuse to retrieve her cane, which Hyacinth Bridgerton had handed over with no protest whatsoever

“Traitor,” he’d murmured over his shoulder

“They’re your toes,” she’d replied

He cracked a smile, despite hierton She was vaguely a, but one couldn’t quite help but admire her wit

Hyacinth Bridgerton, he reflected, had an interesting and unique reputation aerton siblings, famously named in alphabetical order, A-H And she was, in theory at least and for those who cared about such things, considered a rather good catch for entially, in a scandal, and her family and connections were beyond compare She was quite pretty, in wholesome, unexotic ith thick, chestnut hair and blue eyes that did little to hide her shrewdness And perhaps ht with a touch of the cynic, it hispered that her eldest brother, Lord Bridgerton, had increased her dowry last year, after Hyacinth had completed her third London season without an acceptable proposal of e

But when he had inquired about her—not, of course because he was interested; rather he had wanted to learn reat deal of tirandmother—his friends had all shuddered

“Hyacinth Bridgerton?” one had echoed “Surely not to marry? You must be mad”

Another had called her terrifying

No one actually seemed to dislike her—there was a certain charraces—but the consensus was that she was best in sent than they are,” one of his shrewder friends had con stupidity”

She was, Gareth had thought on randmother And while there was no one in the world he adored more than Grandmother Danbury, as far as he was concerned, the world needed only one of her