,wallflower' • BRIDGERTON

chapter 26

"To, well... the sister." Benedict said which made Hope's eyes snap towards Anthony instantaneously. She shifted her feet nervously. "The sister?" Anthony said with a questioning expression.

"The gatekeeper." Benedict said. Colin rose his glass. "To besting her!" He said with a cheesing grin.

"Here, here. You do love gloating about your victories, do you not, Brother?" Benedict said, before Anthony stood up with his glass. "Cheers." He said with an irritated look.

Hope smiled nervously before gulping down the brown liquid. She had hoped that he ended off whatever scandal that was brewing between him and Kate Sharma, before the whole ton knew of it.

✑

hope's pov

It was now the day of the wedding and the entire ton was invited to the luxurious event the Queen had planned for Edwina and Anthony. The ceremony was happening in the same church where Daphne and Simon had their wedding.

The decorations were different, however. They were were white and yellow roses adorned everywhere and the outside of the church was brimming with the ton.

I walked down a hall, going straight towards Anthony's room, where he would be stationed until the ceremony started. I walked into the room to see Anthony staring at himself in the mirror in thought as Benedict lazily dusted his suit jacket while drinking whiskey out of his glass.

Benedict looked over at me before smiling softly. "Hope." He said, his words linger in the air. "You're late," Anthony said. I rolled my eyes at his words.

"Well, in truth, I was delayed by doubts about whether the festivities of this day might or might not take place," I said, looking at him with a stern expression. Benedict gasped. "Does my dearest not care for your bride, Brother?" He asked. Anthony glanced over at his little brother.

"Enough with the dearest." He whispered at him sternly. Benedict looked at him with furrowed eyebrows. "I find Miss Edwina to be quite lovely and deserving of the truth, which we must not deny her," I said, as Anthony fussed with his collar like he barely heard me. Benedict glanced between us both with a confused expression.

"I'm confused. Who is denying what to whom?" He asked.

"Benedict, you must excuse us. It seems your dearest has opinions." Anthony said. Benedict groans internally, getting ready to leave the room. He approaches me first, glancing back at his brother. "I am sure you will tell me all the details later?" He said before he smiled softly and left. Me and my brother were now alone in the quiet air.

Anthony breathed deeply. "I've gone too far down this road to turn back now, Hope. Miss Edwina will be ruined if we do not marry, and our family will suffer equal scandal. This was always the plan." He said like he was for sure of what he was saying. He was not.

"And what of the sister, Anthony?" I said, taking a step forward.

"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." He said before I shook my head and walked up to him as he continued to face the standing mirror. I turned his body around so his melancholic face could look upon mine.

I straightened his crooked collar. "I wondered long and hard on if my father ever wanted me to find love. But... when he came back... I knew he only wanted me to marry so he could inherit my finances. He never truly wanted anything good for me... he just wanted to send me away."

"You have the opportunity I have yet not been granted and you are choosing to waste it away."

Anthony pushed himself away from me and walked past. "Your misfortune of life will not stir me to change my decision." He said, turning around to look at her. "You are consumed by the expectations of others!" I yelled.

"We are not alike with our wants in a marriage, sister! I have never wished to succumb to the blind delight of being in love. I have a duty." He said, making me roll my eyes. A duty. He has given this duty to himself and he hasn't even realized it.

"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 shouted at him.

"I fight... for the family that I have. And you will never understand because you were born to marry into another family while I was born to carry on the Bridgerton name. That is what outweighs anything else." He said.

"It is rather easy to be selfish when you have no else to whom you must answer." He finished before walking past me once more and returning to the mirror, his face now flushed and his jaw clenched. I looked down at my slippered feet. "I mourn for you, brother. All of these decisions that you seem to make and then resent us for. Though they do not make you worthy of your family's respect. They simply make us pity you. Nothing more." I said, before walking towards the open doors of the room and leaving.