"Faulty Friends."
[26]
✑
Dear gentle-readers,
Duty. More than laws or faith, I have often thought it the bond that holds our fragile society together. Duty to rank and title. Fidelity to one's family name. It demands both utter obedience and total sacrifice. But what happens when such duty is in conflict with the heart's true desire? Why, then there is the potential for a considerable scandal, indeed. The only question is will the parties in question heed my warning? Or is it already too late to turn back to duty and away from desire?
✑
It was the next morning and Anthony Bridgerton was nowhere to be found, most likely pondering on how to fix his very sticky situation with Miss Kate Sharma. While the Viscount had been ensuring the engagement of him and Edwina Sharma, there has been a certain carnal desire for her sister. Which made him hasten along the wedding arrangements.
Now, onto the rest of the Bridgertons.
They sat in the dining room, and everyone sat around at the table, enjoying their English breakfast, the only person absent from this gathering was Hope Buckingham. Benedict ate a bit of the scrambled eggs on his plate and glanced at the empty chair next to him. Violet ordered Hyacinth and Gregory to stop bickering across the table before she looked over at her second son. "Benedict, dear, you've been eating your eggs so slowly. It will go cold before you're finished. Have you decided that you will court Miss Buckingham? It has already been 2 weeks." She said.
Benedict snapped his head up and towards his mother. "Pardon?" He said, Violet rolled her eyes. "Katherine Buckingham. The two of you have been hip to hip for two weeks now, I am due another grandchild soon." She said, making Benedict's face turn sour. "Mother have some manners at the table." He said before looking down his plate in thought. He had nearly forgotten he was courting Hope's sister. Oh dear.
He breathed in slowly before watching Anthony come into the dining room, his skin pale as if he had seen a ghost. "Anthony, thank you for joining us." His mother said passive-aggressively. Anthony took his seat at the front of the table, immediately taking off his suit jacket and laying on the back of the chair. "As always, mother." He said before eating the food before him. Colin glanced around the table, noticing the melancholic expressions, "Is everyone to be in a sour mood this morning? Benedict pouted and Anthony was threatening as usual. There is to be a wedding in two days. I expect my eldest brother to be in a proper mood." He asked before taking a sip of wine from his cup.
"That is right, no gloomy expressions... until the wedding," Eloise said, making her mother shoot a glare. "Eloise Bridgerton now is not the time." She said, Gregory chuckled at his sister's sly comment. Suddenly, in came a very drowsy Hope, her hair was all the way down and she wore a white night gown that was untied at the top so it showed the top of her bosoms which glowed ever so nicely in the sun.
"Hope, my dear, restless night?" Violet said Hope hummed before reaching over the table to grab a cup to pour her tea in. Benedict looked up at her and watched as the sun bled into her brown curls. And how the bright ball of fire in the sky made the cloth on her body turn nearly sheer.
Benedict could see the shape of her body through the nightgown. He saw the curve of her stomach and the way her nipples had gotten sen-.
"Brother. How was your morning?" Anthony asked, making Benedict shoot his gaze to his brother. "It was... ideal." He said with a quick nod, Anthony glanced over at Hope with a puzzled expression before looking back at Benedict.
"Right." He said. Mrs Bridgerton looked over at her eldest son. "I can only imagine how nervous Ms. Edwina must feel now that she is to be a married woman of the ton. Especially now that she is to be the head of this household." She said.
"Are you assuming she is to suffer?" Colin asked with furrowed eyebrows.
"Taking care of the lot of you... yes." Hope said, biting into her toast. Eloise snickered in her chair. Anthony chuckled heartily before humming. "Sister, Miss Sharma and the Queen has asked me to invite you and your sisters to be her bridesmaids for the wedding. She knows that you and I are close and would like to honor that." He said, making his mother smile and Hope nodded her head with a soft smile.
"Of course. It is not every day you're asked to be a bridesmaid." She said. Mrs. Bridgerton clapped her hands together once. "Well isn't this wonderful!" She said excitedly.
✑
Dear gentle reader,
A march down the aisle may very well be the longest walk any young lady ever takes. It does not simply cover the length of the church, but rather, countless floors for dancing, and meandering paths for every afternoon promenade too.
It is a wonder, then, that feet do not tire or, heaven forbid, trip under the scrutiny of all those attentive eyes keeping close watch, indeed.
✑
The Bridgerton brothers were having a pre-wedding rendezvous with a bottle of aged whiskey in the viscount's study room. Anthony sat sluggishly in his chair, thinking about his current predicament with the Sharma sisters, while Benedict and Colin were playing a game of pool.
Anthony gulped down the whiskey in his cup that kicked back in his throat.
"It is meant to be a sipping spirit," Colin said.
"Have you not heard? The viscount believes in hurrying things along these days. First the wedding, now his drink. Let us hope, for Edwina's sake, the tendency stops before the honeymoon." Benedict teases, Anthony shoots a glare his direction. Suddenly the doors of the study opened revealing Hope in a baby blue dress, her hair pinned half up and down. Benedict's eyes trailed over to her and lingered.
"Have you always been so vulgar, or has staring at naked models all day turned your brain to charcoal?" Anthony said, making Colin whistle at his question. "Must he choose just one?" He asked with a giggle. Hope walked over to the bottle of whiskey and poured herself a small glass.
"That has always been the privilege of not being the firstborn. You both get to choose your passions and adventures, while I, on the other hand, must fulfill my—." Hope cut the eldest brother off.
"Tell me, dear brother, once you are married off, will your duty finally fulfilled so you can stop reminding everyone of it?" She said before rolling her eyes. "I believe the reminders are also my duty, so no." Anthony said, making everyone groan in annoyance.
"No need to worry. Much will remain the same, apart from the fact that I shall finally have my viscountess, as is required."
Required? Hope thought with a look of confusion. Benedict sighed. "Indeed. Not much shall change at all. Though, soon enough, we will have a tiny Anthony to contend with, running around, declaring all of his tiny duties too, no doubt." Benedict said, causing Hope to chuckle and point towards Anthony.
"If the gods are good the child won't be born a tyrant." She said before the two brothers laughed once more before Benedict raised his glass. "A toast!" He declared. Anthony clenched his jaw. "What is it we are drinking to if not the future?" He asked.
"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.