Chapter 18Pickings have been slim this past fortnight for marriage-minded misses and their mamas. The crop of bachelors is low to begin with this season, as two of 1816s most eligible, the Duke ofAshbourne and the Earl of Macclesfield, got themselves leg-shackled last year.
To make matters worse, the two unmarried Bridgerton brothers (discounting Gregory, who is only sixteen and hardly in a position to aid any poor, young misses on the marriage mart) have made themselves very scarce. Colin, This Author is told, is out of town, possibly in Wales or Scotland (although no one seems to know why he would go to Wales or Scotland in the middle of the season).
Benedict's story is more puzzling. He is apparently in London, but he eschews all polite social gatherings in favor of less genteel milie
