Episode: “The Duke and I”
Season: 1, Episode 5
Original release: 25 December 2020
Director: Sheree Folkson
Writer: Joy C. Mitchell
Based on: The Duke and I by Julia Quinn
Daphne and Simon speed up their wedding after their encounter in the garden threatens to become a scandal, but misunderstandings leave both believing the other does not truly want the match. After their wedding, they finally admit their feelings for one another and begin their marriage on very different terms.
Daphne wakes the morning after the duel and tells Violet that she is engaged – not to Prince Friedrich, but to Simon Basset.
Violet is delighted, although Daphne cannot tell her the full circumstances behind the sudden decision. She and Simon need to marry quickly before Cressida Cowper reveals what she saw in the garden.
A normal engagement would require them to wait, so the families apply for a special licence allowing the wedding to take place within days.
The problem is Queen Charlotte.
The Queen blocks the licence as she is offended that Daphne has rejected her nephew after apparently encouraging his courtship. Daphne and Simon are summoned to explain themselves.
Their engagement is already strained. Daphne believes Simon is marrying her solely because she forced his hand, while Simon believes he has deprived Daphne of the family she always wanted. Both keep their real feelings hidden behind awkward politeness.
When faced with the Queen, however, Simon finally speaks with conviction.
He explains that their supposed courtship began as a ruse but became something neither expected. He describes how Daphne has occupied his thoughts and admits that Prince Friedrich’s arrival forced him to recognise what he was about to lose.
Daphne joins him in insisting that they love one another.
The Queen is won over and allows the marriage to proceed.
Preparations move quickly, although Daphne remains painfully ignorant about what marriage will actually involve. Violet attempts to explain marital relations before the wedding but becomes hopelessly embarrassed, leaving her daughter little wiser than before their conversation.
Simon and Daphne marry.
Their wedding day is quieter than the grand society event that might have been expected. The circumstances surrounding the engagement have left a distance between them, and that tension follows them as they begin their journey to Simon’s country estate.
Elsewhere, Marina Thompson abandons any hope that George Crane will return and focuses on securing a husband before her pregnancy becomes visible. Her relationship with Colin develops rapidly.
Lady Featherington is alarmed. Colin is young and unlikely to marry quickly enough to solve Marina’s problem, so she continues pushing Marina towards a more immediate match.
Marina refuses. She believes Colin is kind and knows that marriage to him would give both her and her child security.
Penelope is devastated by their growing attachment and attempts to convince Marina not to pursue him. Her objections are driven by feelings she cannot admit: she is in love with Colin herself.
Marina nevertheless presses ahead. Before Penelope can stop it, Colin proposes.
Marina accepts, and the couple plan to marry at the end of the season.
Anthony faces the consequences of his own choices as well. After imagining a future with Siena, he discovers that she has left. His attempt to return to her has come too late.
Eloise continues to try to unveil the identity of Lady Whistledown, while the Queen becomes interested in the same mystery and expects Eloise to produce results.
For Daphne and Simon, however, the episode’s most important conversation comes after the wedding.
During their journey, Daphne finally admits that she believes Simon does not want her. She knows she has sacrificed the possibility of children to marry him and assumes he resents being trapped into the match.
Simon is stunned. Everything he told the Queen, he explains, was true.
He cannot stop thinking about Daphne. She occupies his mornings, his evenings and his dreams. He has wanted her throughout their supposed courtship and followed her into the garden because he could no longer resist that desire.
Daphne finally understands that Simon’s reluctance to marry was never a lack of feeling for her. The attraction they have spent weeks suppressing is no longer something either needs to hide.
Simon tells Daphne that he burns for her. She admits that she feels the same.
For the first time since their engagement, the misunderstandings between them fall away, and Daphne and Simon consummate their marriage – beginning their life together not as reluctant participants in a forced match, but as two people who finally acknowledge how much they want each other.
