The Second Born Bridgerton // Benedict Bridgerton

King of fools

Now that I have faced Violet, and she has been more kind to me than I ever could have asked for, the queen's tea does not feel as though it can be too stressful. After all, if I can survive the wrath of Anthony, then perhaps I can survive anything, or that is what I tell myself. It does not stop me from feeling anxious, but I know I must relax. Benedict seems to agree, not bothered at all of rising and getting bathed and looking presentable. It is something I have always found myself jealous of, he does not have to spend hours on his hair or any time at all rouging his cheeks or worrying if his dress shall be appropriate or not. He simply wakes, donning the same black suit that he always shall, and combing his hair. I suppose he perhaps has slightly more choice than say Anthony, since he sometimes chooses to wear those coloured undershirts, but that does not amount to any time whatsoever. "Peaches... why are you up so early? I demand you come back to bed."

"You may be able to rise from bed with only a few moments before we must leave but I cannot. It has already been days since I have bathed and I do not have a lady here, I must do my hair alone. I shall not be attending our first function as husband and wife looking as I do!" I smile a little as I glance back at him. He extends his arms upwards in a yawn, his hair wild over his eyes and his face already in a large grin. "And what reason do you have to grin like that?"

"You have said it yourself. Our first function as husband and wife. Is it not exciting? Tea this afternoon, the opera tonight, Daphne's ball tomorrow." He stretches his arms wide across the bed, yawning once again. "I shall be able to introduce you as Lady Peaches Bridgerton, and I shall be able to speak of you freely and no one shall be able to stop me. Not even Anthony."

"Yes, you certainly put Anthony in his place yesterday. I rather enjoyed watching it." It makes me laugh as I think of his startled face on the previous day. "You are rather proud of yourself for this, are you not?"

"I certainly am. I was like a knight in shining armour, defending my fair maiden. I thought it was rather romantic, actually. I am the king of romantic gestures."

"You are the king of fools. Now would you help me with this dress?"

"Dress, Peaches? We have a couple of hours at least before this tea shall begin, you do not need to be getting dressed so early on. Oh, you are stressed, darling... come here." He holds his arms out towards me, raising an eyebrow until I give in and sit back down beside him. His arms wrap around my shoulders, his head resting on top of mine. "Do not feel so tense of this. Things cannot become worse than they already are, my sweetheart. You need only look as gorgeous and act as perfect as you already are. You have charmed my mama, have you not?"

"Your mama is different than the queen. Anthony is ridiculous, yet he does speak the slightest bit of sense. He is correct when he says that we must not do anything that could be considered a scandal, at least not for a while." I relax into his chest, allowing myself to sigh. "I just... I have not allowed him to get to me, I have not. But I still do not wish to embarrass you, or make anything worse. That should be the very last thing I wish to do. I just should wish to make such a  wonderful impression that no one shall even recall what has happened over the past few days and what Lady whistledown has written of us..."

"People shall have forgotten, my love. And if they do not then they shall as soon as they see how madly in love we are." His hand is gentle as it strokes through my hair to comfort me. "Or when they see just how gorgeous you are. How can they expect me to resist when you look like so?"

"You are attempting to compliment me and I do not like it. It is not funny, benedict, you are not funny. We must dress." I giggle a little and wrestle from under his arm, wobbling to my feet by the side of the bed as he once again tries to pull me back to the bed. "Benedict!" I shriek, as he tackles me, his arms wrapped around my waist so that he might lift me up, and he does. I am thrown over his shoulder, squealing and laughing. He drops me onto the bed and jumps so that he is above me, enclosing me with his arms. "Benedict stop it! Stop! No, no, no, I just did my hair!"

"You can do it again, we have that much time. You look much lovelier with it all down anyway." With one hand on my hip, the other picks out a few of the pins I have only just placed. I fight with him, unable to stop giggling so that I begin to get pain in my side from how much I am laughing. "You say I am not funny and yet you giggle like this!"

"You have ruined my hair!"

"I shall put it right. See, watch." He grapples to find the pins, sticking them oddly into my hair, raising an eyebrow and leaning down to kiss me, his hands wandering elsewhere until there is a knock at the door. "I am beginning to get rather fed up with everybody being so insistent to stop me spending time with my wife. My goodness, we got more time alone when we were not married. It is unreal and I shall brutally murder the next person who does it."

"You are so ridiculous." I stroke his face, glancing to the door. "You must answer it, you know. We cannot pretend we are not here."

"That is a fantastic idea, we shall pretend we are not here and we do not exist." He tickles my ribs which makes me squeal with laughter. "Well we cannot do now you have made noise like that! Ugh... fine, come on in! Anthony, how lovely. It must always be you that stops my time with my wife."

"I came only to apologise. You feel I have been unfair and I should not like you to think that. If you wish to have this celebration that mama suggested then I am more than happy to welcome such. I am also happy to offer Aubrey hall if you should like to reside there." Each sentence is short and with purpose, he does not like to apologise and he seems to finding it difficult to do so.

"Aubrey hall? Very generous. I am sure you rather enjoyed mama forcing that on you." Benedict nods, hardly looking at his brother. "Thank you. Goodbye."

"Benedict, do not be so harsh. He has said he is sorry, we cannot ask for any more." I look to Anthony, nodding and forcing a smile. "Thank you, we appreciate it. Do we not?"

"Sure." My husband rolls his eyes and turns his back so that he shall have no further interaction with his brother.

Anthony stands for a moment longer before excusing himself and closing it behind him.

💗 AUTHOR'S NOTE 💗

So I guess I wanted a couple of opinions! I feel like I could finish this fic with the next few chapters I've written and I wondered what you guys thought.

Shall I end it where season one ends, or shall I continue writing about Peaches&Benedict if they have children and move to aubrey hall etc?

I'm just aware I'm on like, chapter 49 already... I don't want you to get fed up when I reach chapter 100!

Let me know what you think!

Ruby x