The Prince's Private Symphony

8. The Viscount Who Loved Me

~

Well, as it so happens I am keeping up a trend this season, sneaking away to go visit Alex, this time with my violin as we need to practice for his audition and for the Featherington ball. It just so happens that Penelope found a way to get her mama to agree to us performing. I knocked on the door and their footman led me inside. I walked into the music room where Alex was waiting.

"Hello," I smiled at him as he ran to give me a hug.

"It has been far too long," he said, grinning.

"It has been but a week," I countered.

"Yes, but too much has been going on," he sighed. "And because of that... I have decided to push my audition to this winter. Go to school in the spring in Italy."

I smiled sadly, "that would be lovely."

"I'm sensing a but?" He asked.

"I just hate to be away from you for so long," I told him as I glanced at the floor.

He laughed, "We do this every year."

"Yes, but now we're engaged, and you're going to be too busy to write to me," I reasoned. I just don't want him to feel obligated to write to me if he doesn't have time.

"I will never be too busy for you, my love," he said, kissing me slowly. "Now, I believe we have a ball coming up we need to rehearse for."

~

We practiced for hours, getting tuning just right, and perfecting some of the harder songs we had been struggling on. It was getting dark and we had taken a break. We were sitting on the couch and kissing.

"Alex, may I remind you we're already in a scandal?" I asked him.

"Yes, but that's already happened," he muttered against my lips. We heard a knock at the door and jumped apart. I went and opened the door after fixing my hair.

"Alonzo! Have you heard anything about Kate?" I asked him and he broke out into a grin.

"She's awake!"

"That's amazing!" Alex and I shouted, hugging him.

"Has my brother been to see her yet?" I asked him.

"Yes, he arrived just as I was leaving," he informed us. "I'm pretty sure I saw him carrying your mother's engagement ring."

I gasped then squealed, "Oh, I have to get home! I will see you both later, love you!"

"Love you too!"

~

Well, it turns out they were not engaged. Miss Sharma is intent on heading back to India. Eloise went and visited Theo again, trying to figure out the mystery of Lady Whistledown, but ended things because she didn't want him to end up getting hurt.

I comforted her as she returned home upset and we sat on the swings like we used to do. Before the craziness of this season. When I used to think we knew each other like the back of our hands, but we seemed to have just drifted further and further apart.

We sat facing each other and I watched as Benedict made his way over to us. "You seem to have the melancholy of heartbreak about you," he told Eloise as he sat down.

"What would you know about heartbreak?" Eloise asked him.

"I would not, really. But I have felt it in paintings. In a Gainsborough portrait or a Turner sky," he described.

"And what does one feel in a Bridgerton?" I asked him.

"Disappointment. Lack of inspiration," he listed. I know he's an amazing artist and could do amazing selling his works.