∗
When you were supposed to tell someone a bad news? Until it happened? Or with time? Either way, Elia wanted to wait until happened because one thing she didn't have was enough time. As she watched herself in the mirror she noticed more empty spaces where her freckles used to be, with a deep sight she moved towards her desk, opening the left drawer were five letter were sealed and ready to deliver whenever she gave them away, five names in the front of the envelopments. One letter missing, she was finding the right words to express to that specific letter but her mind was blank, she decided to recapitulate the last weeks when her emotions were flooding around. She took the ink and the feather and started writing every word that appeared on her mind as she wrote her heart started to ache, a tear falling down her face, staining the papear with more tears.
On the other side of the square was Benedict Bridgerton, he was trying so hard to get the sketch of his hand correctly but it didn't went as planned, ripping another pice a paper from his sketch book only for him to scrunch the papear into a paper ball, throwing it towards the trashcan that was near him. He took a deep breath and exited the room.
A big black carriage was entering Grosvenor squared, stopping just in front the Sage green Home with white and pink flowers. Slowly and cautiously, she made her way towards the front door of the Veuilleton household a smile adorning her lips. And with a soft knock on the door she was welcome home.
"Honeybee!" Samson said from the hallway, approaching his oldest daughter room, knocking and coming in.
"Father!" She gulped, unaware that her father had just enter.
With curious eyes he watched her for a few seconds and continued, a smile plastered on his face. "There is someone waiting for you in the Drawing room."
∗
In the afternoon Miss Aelianna Veuilleton was walking besides Mister Benedict Bridgerton at the park, many suitors and ladies were also there, just like Daphne and the Duke. But Elia and Benedict took another turn, making them go towards the bridge.
"My mother told Daphne something the other day." Benedict started. "That one should marry
one's dearest friend." Elia remained quiet, encouraging him to keep going. "But I do wonder, is that truly what marriage is all about, then?Friendship?"
"Well, I imagine it a good start. Though most marriages are more like battlefields." Elia shrugged, while thinking about friends of the family that weren't happy about their marriage.
"Even if it is a battlefield, there must be other things that hold the troop together."
"My word! I might have thought you were trying to organize a militia." She joked, stopping at the middle of the bridge to admire the view. "I do wonder if there are other things like physical or perhaps intangible that bring a couple together."
"Well, yes, of course there's more to a marriage, physical and intangible." Benedict answer, while cutting a beautiful daisy next to him and giving it to her, a smile growing on her lips. "Both." He continued.
"Both?" She asked confused and turning to look at him completely. "But how can something be both physical and intangible when they are quite the opposite?" He laughed. "You are beastly! Never mind." She laughed and started to walk away from him, only to him to follow her.
"No. I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing at the absurdity of how little mothers tell their daughters."
"They tell us nothing."
"Well, I certainly cannot tell you." He stated truthful.
"Why not?"
"Because it is not my place." Aelianna decided not to push the topic and changed the subject, telling him about the mysterious visitor she had earlier.
∗
"Benedict" Violet told her second oldest son once they were in the carriage. Is all this time you are spending with Miss Veuilleton leading anywhere?"
"Could it not merely be time well spent?" He breathed.
"A prolonged courtship is one thing, but now it is very clear to anyone with eyes that Aelianna Veuilleton has caught the attention of many other suitors. If you have designs upon the girl and wish to marry her, then others can disappear,
for all I care, and become a delicious dinner party anecdote. But if you are merely dallying with her, and if she loses her chance of such an extraordinary match, simply because she is too wrapped up in your charms well, then... she would be a fool, and I would never forgive you your carelessness."
"Is not like that mother." He stated, a worry look on his face.
"Then you are just being cruel, and we both know I taught you better than that." Violet commented.
"I just wish for her father's and brother's blessing before I choose to make a decision as big as that one! Besides I would not make a move on Miss Veuilleton until Anthony is well aware of the situation. After all he is my older brother."
A small smile appeared on Daphne's lips, she was happy that her brother was waiting to talk to Anthony before he could approach Viscount Samson and his son Dione, to ask for Aelianna's hand in marriage.
At night Eloise Bridgerton was sighed in her spot at the swing on the Bridgerton's backyard, a cigarette in hand. Benedict approached his Younger sister and placed himself next to her. A small smile on his lips.
As he sighed, Eloise extended her cigarette towards him. Approaching the cigarette to his lips.
"I found bits of your sketchbook in the library." She started.
"Are you spying on me now?" He asked with an raised eyebrow.
"You'd actually have to be interesting for me to bother spying on you." She chuckled.
"The drawings in that sketchbook were abominable. I could not stand to look at them."
"I believe that is why they call it a sketchbook. I write in my diary, which is not the same as writing in my novel. It must be very difficult to want something and not be able to get it..."
"Eloise..." Benedict started but being interrupted by his sister.
"If you enjoy drawing but need practice, then practice. Hire a drawing master. You already found a young lady to act impressed. If you desire the sun and the moon, all you have to do is go out
and shoot at the sky. Some of us cannot. Look no further than Lady Whistledown. She possesses a huge talent for writing, and yet she must hide away and publish under a false name."
"Yes, because if anyone knew who Whistledown truly was, she'd be strung up for what she said." Benedict told Eloise.
"That is not my point. Whistledown is a woman, therefore she has nothing, and still she writes. You're a man, therefore you have everything. You are able to do whatever you want. So do it. Be bold. Ask Aelianna to marry you. You can't fool us brother, just look at the way you both look at each other. At least that way I can live vicariously through you."
"Eloise... are you Lady Whistledown?" Benedict asked her with a smirk and decided to ignore her request to marry Lia. "You're an accomplished writer, always scribbling in that diary of yours. You certainly know everyone else's business. You have more opinions than anyone else I know in London. You would have my full support and admiration either way, Sister. So... is it you?"
"No. Though if it were do you honestly think that I'd admit it?" She finished with a smirk, and leaving Benedict alone in the swing.