Because Sophie’s face would be covered, there was little chance anyone would recognize her. She and the other maids found Sophie a dress to wear and fixed her hair so she could attend the dance. Gibbons, the housekeeper, heard Sophie’s wish. One evening as Sophie helped the women dress for a masquerade, Sophie wished out loud that she could attend the party. When the earl died, his wife, Araminta Gunningworth, forced Sophie to work as an unpaid housemaid and lady’s maid to her and her two daughters, Rosamund and Posy. Until she was 14, when her father died, she lived the life of the daughter of an earl. She came to live with her father when she was three. Sophie is the daughter of the Earl of Penwood and his mistress, a housemaid.

She knew, however, that because she was the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman who worked as a housemaid that she would never be an acceptable wife for someone of Benedict’s standing. Meanwhile, Sophia “Sophie” Beckett, the mystery woman, avoided London because she had fallen in love with Benedict. Benedict searched for the woman for months after the dance, but was unable to find her or even anyone who knew who she was. In the romance novel An Offer From a Gentleman, Julia Quinn’s third installment in her Bridgerton series, Benedict Bridgerton believed he had found his future wife when he met a mystery woman dressed in silver at a masquerade ball.

The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: Quinn, Julia.

An offer of a gentleman