Upper Orders//Benedict Bridgerton

⚘twenty four⚘

"Is everything alright?" Benedict asks.

I nod my head. "Yes. I just... Anthony gave me some advice before our wedding and I wish to do the same for him."

"Benedict, you must excuse us," Anthony tells him.

"But I wish to know..." Benedict starts to protest.

"The best man listens to the groom. Go," Anthony tells him.

Benedict gives me a look before listening to his brother and leaving.

"What is it, Diana?" Anthony asks.

"I find Miss Edwina to be quite lovely and deserving of the truth, which we must not deny her," I state.

"I've gone too far down this road to turn back now," Anthony tells me. "Miss Edwina will be ruined if we do not marry, and our family will suffer equal scandal. This was always the plan."

"And what of her sister?" I ask.

"She has made her own plans for the future. Plans which do not include me. We have decided there is nothing more between us. There cannot be," Anthony says.

"Do you love Miss Edwina?" I question.

"I have never wished to succumb to the blind delight of being in love. I cannot so indulge myself," Anthony says.

"You can choose to be happy. To follow the desires of your heart instead of pushing away any feeling that comes to the surface. It should not be a luxury, but a right to choose, to fight for the family that you want," I tell him.

"I fight..." Anthony takes a deep breath. "...for the family that I have. You'll never understand. You were born to marry into a family other than your own and you married into this one. I was born to carry on the Bridgerton name. That is what outweighs anything else. It is rather easy to be selfish when you have no one else to whom you must answer."

"I am just looking out for you, Anthony," I tell him. "Like you have looked out for me. I do not wish to see you make a mistake you will regret."

Anthony says nothing else as I walk out of the room. Benedict is waiting for me in the hallway.

"What was that about?" Benedict asks.

"It was nothing," I assure him.

Benedict looks at me suspiciously. "Diana..."

"It was nothing, Benedict," I tell him. "You must trust me on it."

Benedict nods. "Alright. You should hurry back to the chapel."

I sit in a pew next to Daphne. I know no matter what I say Anthony is going to go through with this wedding. Benedict is the first to walk down the aisle followed by Anthony. Miss Sharma walks down the aisle by herself and Miss Edwina walks down after, escorted by Lady Mary.

"Please be seated. Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God, and in the face of this congregation, to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony. And therefore, it is not by any to be enterprised, nor taken in hand, unadvisedly, lightly, and wantonly, to satisfy men's carnal lusts and appetites, like brute beasts that have no understanding but reverently, discreetly, advisedly..."

The archbishop continues to speak but it is as if Anthony has tuned him out.

"My lord. My lord."

"The archbishop would like you to repeat, my lord, after him," Miss Edwina tells him.

Anthony snaps out of the haze he was in. "Yes, of course."

"I, Lord Anthony Bridgerton..."

Suddenly Miss Sharma drops a bracelet she was wearing. Anthony moves to pick it up for her.