Only Hope | Anthony Bridgeton

Intrigue

"Listen. I know you miss mama. I do too. But I have a job to do, and I've accepted the fact that I will need to do it alone but you aren't making this any easier. Please just get through tonight without embarrassing our name." 

"You're so capable. Just like her." He muttered as he reached for his coat jacket and took her arm, then off they went to the ball.

Titled, chaste, and innocent, this is what they have been raised and
trained for since birth. Tonight we shall discover which young ladies might succeed at securing a match, thereby avoiding the dreadful, dismal condition known as "the spinster".

Abigail and her father departed almost immediately after their entrance into the party. Abby didn't mind, if he was to go distract himself somewhere else that would only make her job easier. Looking around her eyes immediately found Lady Bridgerton and Daphne. Deciding that the best course of action was to start with friends, she headed their way. 

"Mother, he is being impossible." She heard Daphne utter as she entered the conversation. 

"Who is being impossible?" Abby questioned as a way of announcing her arrival. 

"Oh Abigail!" Violet Bridgerton said noticing her, and pulled her in for a quick hug. 

"There she is, my fellow diamond." Daphne said, pulling Abby in for a quick kiss on the cheek. 

"Hm?" Questioned Abby as she smiled back. 

"Haven't you heard, darling?" Violet said in way of explaining. "You and Daphne are being called the diamonds of the season. The Queen singled out only you two. Look around, everyone's noticed your presence." 

Abby took a scan of the ballroom and sure enough, almost every gentlemen's eye was making what they clearly thought were inconspicuous glances towards the two debutantes. 

"Do they truly think they're being sly about it?" Abby commented and tore her eyes from the crowd back towards Daphne, who laughed. 

"Who knows what men think. My brother certainly being the example of unexplainable actions." 

"Oh?" 

"Dearest." Violet said in a slight warning tone. 

"Oh please, mother. 'Tis only Abby." Daphne said in response to her mother then turned back towards her friend. 

"My dearest brother has decided to be particularly impossible this evening. He refuses to let me dance with anyone." Daphne vented. 

"Well, it must be because he's a man. No one not of the female sex could understand what we are required to do." Abigail said, causing Violet and Daphne to both chuckle. "Although clearly he's left you alone for this long, where is he?" 

"Headed our way actually." Daphne muttered as she looked in the direction of what Abby could only assume was her brother. 

Following her gaze, she spotted a man headed directly towards them. Abby's breath caught. She'd known Anthony before, of course. Before her mother's passing, and before her world became taken up by running a household and raising her brothers. He's looked roughly the same physically, but there was something in the way that he held himself now, or maybe it was just the fact that courting and marriage was on her mind that made him look so undeniably attractive. 

Little did she know, thoughts of a similar nature were running through his head as he approached the group of three. He knew her already, of course, but suddenly she looked older, more of a woman and less of a girl. He could not explain it, but she held herself differently. Of course, he'd never show these thoughts, or even admit them to himself. For he remembered Sienna and how he had separated from her with the promise that he would pay attention to no one. No, he was here for his sister.