Bridgerton is going decidedly off-script with its third season, as another member of the Ton’s favorite family is stealing the limelight before they should.
Season 3 of the smash-hit Netflix Regency romance drama focuses on the growing affection between fan-favorites Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan)… But that’s despite the duo not taking center stage until the fourth book of the novel series by author Julia Quinn that the TV show has always closely drawn from.
Instead, book 3 — titled An Offer from a Gentleman — stars Benedict Bridgerton, the second eldest Bridgerton son as played on screen by Luke Thompson. Benedict is still in season 3, but he’s definitely not looking to follow many of his siblings and settle down just yet. But who can fans expect him to marry later down the line, according to his story in the books?
Who is Benedict Bridgerton’s wife in the Bridgerton books?
Photo via Netflix
Just as many of Quinn’s novels borrow tropes and elements from classic romantic stories and fairy tales — e.g. The Viscount Who Loved Me lifting from Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew — An Offer from a Gentleman is a twist on the Cinderella narrative, with Benedict in the role of Prince Charming.
Benedict’s love interest, and ultimately his wife, in the books is Sophia “Sophie” Beckett. The two meet and strike up an instant intense attraction at a masquerade ball, but before he can get her name Sophie vanishes at midnight. Leaving behind, not a glass shoe, but a silk glove.
Two years later, Benedict is still hunting for his dream woman who he met at said ball when he rescues Sophie from a group of ruffians and offers her a job to be a maid in his household. Although treated as lower-class, Sophie is actually the illegitimate daughter of the Earl of Penwood, but was never treated as such by her — you guessed it — wicked stepmother.
Of course, Benedict ultimately works out that the maid who he is falling for and the masked woman he’s been dreaming about for two years are one and the same. He marries Sophie, finally rescuing her from the emotional abuse of her stepmother. The couple go on to have four children — Charles, Alexander, William, and Violet (named after Benedict’s mother).
When will Benedict and Sophie’s story make it into Netflix’s Bridgerton? We eagerly await that answer.
