When Kate returned home from the palace she found all the Bridgertons – apart from Anthony – in the drawing room. Francesca was playing the piano forte and Siena sat next to her on the wide piano stool, singing beautifully to the Mozart song the young girl was performing. Francesca's face was lit up with utter delight, because although the rest of the Bridgertons surely appreciated music, none of them shared her burning passion for it. And now here she was, playing together with an actual opera songstress – it might just be the best day of her life. Colin, Benedict, Hyacinth and Gregory sat in the sofas admiring the show, while Eloise was seated a bit further away from them in an armchair with her usual notebook and quill in hand, but even she seemed to be listening carefully. Kate tiptoed silently into the room, so as not to disturb, and joined the others on the sofas. She flashed a wide grin at Siena and a hopeful smile spread across her face, but she finished her song like a professional.
"Wonderful, wonderful!" Colin exclaimed and started to applaud furiously when the song died out. The rest of the Bridgertons joined in on the excited applause.
"Where is he?" Kate hissed into Benedict's ear.
"He has barricaded himself into his workroom, has not come down all day." Benedict replied in a hushed voice and rolled his eyes. Kate took a deep sigh and stood up.
"I want to be an opera singer when I grow up!" Hyacinth declared happily.
"Good heavens..." Benedict laughed and Colin smirked a bit awkwardly.
"Please excuse me, I will be right back." Kate smiled as she left the room and hurried up the stairs. She jerked at Anthony's workroom door, only to find it locked. "Gods... Anthony, open up, it's me!" She yelled and banged on the door. After a brief moment the door creaked open and Anthony's head peeked out from behind it. "You are being ridiculous, she is just a woman and not some wild animal let loose in this house!" Kate immediately scolded him. Anthony pulled a grumpy face and marched back to sit by his desk. Kate sighed again and closed the door behind her. Then she determinedly walked up to Anthony's desk, swiped away the papers that were lying on it and jumped up to sit on it with her legs crossed, facing her husband.
"Hey...! Damn you woman, I... Was reading those." Anthony complained, but got soon more interested in smuggling his warm hands under her skirts and running them up the outsides of her thighs. "Do you want to do it on my desk again?" He smiled at her seductively, stood up from his chair and gave her a kiss. He grabbed her uppermost leg and separated it from the other, yanked her skirts up over her knees and placed himself between them. "I have been craving for you like a madman all day..." He sighed and leaned in for a second kiss.
"No." Kate snapped, looked him in the eyes and grabbed his jaw between her forefinger and thumb so that his mouth popped slightly open. "I want you to come downstairs and stop acting like a moping little boy." She smirked at him, but gave him another kiss as well. Anthony grabbed a hold of her thighs and pulled her closer to his body and the edge of the desk with a swift move, making Kate give out a gasp as she suddenly found herself against his muscular body. She could already sense his evident arousal and felt a sudden urge to rip off his trousers. "Anthony, we are needed downstairs..." She breathed out, fighting that urge, but it came out more as a plea to do the exact opposite. He lifted the hem of her skirt even higher, revealing the skin of her bare thighs over her stockings.
"And I need to have you right now on this desk..." He murmured back at her, kissed and sucked at the sensitive skin on her neck and fumbled with her hair to free it from its ornamental braid.
"Anthony..." Kate tried to whisper again, but this time it sounded even more like a prayer to continue than a command to stop. She still felt smug and victorious after having beaten the prince so thoroughly and she could see no better way to celebrate it than to enjoy the eager body of her husband... Meanwhile Anthony had already expertly unbuttoned her knickers and yanked them off. "We should..." She made one last effort to battle her own cravings, more than his because she knew he would immediately stop if she asked him to, but she was quite certain that she did not want him to stop.
"We should... Stay right here, apparently they seem entirely capable of entertaining themselves." Anthony stated, as the sound of Francesca's playing and Siena's singing echoed through the house again. Now he was tracing the insides of her thighs with his fingertips. "Besides, I do not think you actually want to go anywhere at all..." He smirked when his fingers had reached their destination. Kate inhaled sharply, kissed him like he was the only air she could breathe and finally gave in to the wanton urge to rapidly remove his clothes.
"Where on earth did you toss them..." Kate muttered as she crawled around under his desk on all fours, trying to find her lost knickers. Anthony watched her with an amused smile while he was buttoning his waistcoat.
"Do not ask me, dear wife, I was occupied elsewhere." He smirked. "But here is your other stocking." He noticed and picked it up from behind his chair. Kate gave out a happy little sound when she finally found what she was looking for, behind the wastepaper basket under the desk. She almost hit her head as she tried to stand up and decided to sit down in his chair instead. Quickly she hitched up her satin unmentionables and straightened the hem of her dress before Anthony could get any ideas about a second round into his head.
"Allow me." He smiled mischievously and kneeled down in front of her with her lost stocking. The other one had apparently managed to stay on. Kate smirked back at him and placed her bare foot neatly in his hands. He gave her soft long leg one more kiss before slowly rolling up the white stocking. Then he finished his task by picking up her slippers from the floor and carefully placing them on her feet. "There you go, now you are a most representable viscountess again." Anthony grinned and got up from the floor.
"Not yet." Kate sighed and quickly tied up her freely flowing hair into a loose bun. "Now I am ready." She stated and stood up. Anthony marched to his drink table and grabbed a decanter full of brightly amber-coloured scotch with him. Kate gave him a scolding look.
"What? I am not going into battle without a weapon." He declared and opened the door with his free hand. "After you, my lady." He smirked at her and waved his arm towards the hallway. Kate grabbed the skirts of her long dress and quickly descended the stairs to the drawing room on the first floor.
"You said you would be right back!" Benedict teased as she entered the room, followed by the viscount. Kate slumped down on the sofa next to Hyacinth and Gregory, Anthony sat down close to her and placed his arm on her shoulders.
"I am so sorry, my dear husband needed some persuasion to come downstairs." Kate replied, with a diligent effort to keep a straight face. Anthony gave her thick dark hair a soft kiss.
"I see..." Benedict smirked, glancing at her loosely tied hair and Anthony's for once content face in a perceptive manner. "Luckily Fran and Miss Rosso have kept us entertained."
"Yes, and in a most wonderful way indeed!" Colin commented and started applauding again when the song ended. Francesca and Siena curtsied to their audience while Gregory and Hyacinth were clapping their hands together so heartily that they almost fell down from their seats.
"Indeed, how beautiful! Thank you both!" Kate smiled and quickly reached out her arm to stop the two youngest Bridgerton children from leaning too far out and dropping on the floor from the sofa. "Fran and El, would you be so kind as to go upstairs and help Hyacinth and Gregory with their homework?" She asked the girl politely and Francesca nodded with a smile.
"But I still need to ask Miss Rosso how a woman can open her own bank account!" Eloise protested, waving her notebook in the air. "What kind of paperwork does one need?"
"Eloise, I am sure you have already harassed Miss Rosso with enough questions for one day. Please, take your little brother and sister with you and go upstairs." Kate commanded her in a soft tone and gave the children a light push so they would get up from the sofa.
"Fine..." Eloise growled and grabbed Gregory's arm.
"Thank you so much for singing with me, Miss Rosso." Francesca curtsied and Siena smiled at her warmly. Then Francesca took Hyacinth's hand and left the room, making Siena sit down in the armchair Eloise had vacated. Suddenly everyone's eyes were sharply directed towards Kate.
"Well, how did it go?" Benedict was the first one to impatiently voice out the question on everyone's minds.
"I... I believe it went really well." Kate grinned and tucked behind her ear a strand of hair that had got loose from her fudged up hairdo. "I asked Edwina to fetch me one of my old fairytale books for our child and thus managed to get some time alone with the prince. I told him that I knew everything about his arrangement with Siena and that he had sent out a man to kill her... He tried to protest, claiming I did not have any evidence and nobody would believe Siena's word, so I enlightened him with the fact that I already had the written testimony of Mr Wilson and myself as to having seen the specific man lurking outside our house. So, I... Well, I downright threatened him to stay away from both my family, Siena and similar arrangements with any woman in the future, and urged him to be a most devoted husband and father instead." She explained with a wide, but slightly embarrassed smile on her lips. "And... I might have called him an arschloch." She admitted, in conclusion.
"Oh good God..." Anthony sighed deeply, popped up his decanter and had a big gulp of scotch straight from the bottle. Benedict burst into uncontrollable laughter.
"What is an arschloch...?" Colin wondered.
"I believe it means 'arsehole' in German." Benedict sniggered, making Colin clap his hand on his mouth in shock.
"We are ruined, we are so ruined..." Anthony groaned and had another gulp of scotch.
"We are not, the poor bastard looked so beaten and horrified that he would never dare to continue pressing this matter." Kate declared victoriously.
"So... It is over...?" Siena breathed out in disbelief.
"It is." Kate smiled at her, reassuringly. "But please, stay for one more night if you need to, I know you have no apartment at the moment when the deal with the prince was cut off!"
"It's fine, I can go to Genevieve's tonight." Siena replied.
"I can escort her!" Benedict quickly offered. "Just to make sure that man is surely gone." He added, but both Colin and Anthony cast amused and doubtful looks at him.
"This calls for a celebration!" Colin exclaimed, stood up and grabbed the decanter from Anthony's hands. He poured them all a glass each and was kind enough to offer Kate some watered down wine as well. "To Viscountess Kate Bridgerton, probably the first lady in the history of mankind to call a prince an arsehole straight to his face." He grinned and raised a toast to her.
"Hear, hear!" Benedict and Anthony laughed, while Siena lifted up her glass with a chuckle as well.
"Thank you, you are too kind..." Kate smirked at Colin and took a little sip of her wine. Anthony placed his arm back on her shoulders and she leaned her head against his chest with a blissful smile. "And now... We simply hope that he will become affectionate towards Edwina and their child."
"Hmm, might be very little chance of that..." Siena muttered.
"Why so?" Kate questioned.
"I got the picture from the prince's drunken blabbering one night that he is still longing for a certain Duchess of Hastings..." Siena insinuated and sipped on her scotch.
"Bloody hell..." Anthony cursed between his teeth.
"Oh yes, the prince seemed rather smitten with Daphne!" Colin reminisced.
"Smitten? The man bought her a bloody diamond necklace the size of a small cat!" Benedict exclaimed loudly. "And I believe he even proposed to her."
"Really?" Colin's eyes grew as wide as saucers.
"He did propose, but Daphne was already in love with Simon." Anthony explained.
"Oh, what a three-way conundrum that must have been...!" Kate gasped with a cautious grin. "I believe this family has had its fair share of drama already before Edwina and I arrived..."
"Darling, you have no idea... This family has never been without drama. You have merely been around for a split second in the long timeline that is the action-packed life of the Bridgertons..." Anthony smirked at her.
"Now that is true." Benedict agreed. "I cannot remember a single social season without any drama. Even before any of us were out in society, there was always something... Always a broken arm or a leg, always something missing or some quarrel going on between Daphne and Eloise, or Hyacinth and Gregory..."
"Or you and Anthony, or Anthony and me, or Anthony and Daphne..." Colin laughed.
"Ha ha." Anthony grimaced at him and had some more scotch.
"Pardon me, Miss Rosso... I did not wish to bestow a false image upon you. We do quarrel in this family, but we also love each other dearly." Colin said a bit apologetically to Siena.
"I can see that." She smiled warily at all of them.
"So... If you do not mind me asking, Miss Rosso. What are your plans now that the prince is gone?" Colin asked with a curious twinkle in his green eyes.
"Well... Thanks to Kate buying the old Bridgerton box back at the opera, I'm not in a terrible hurry to find a new apartment, or a new... Provider." Siena replied somewhat hesitantly.
"Oh, great! You bought the old box back, Kate! Now we can go to the opera as well, brother!" Benedict rejoiced and slapped Colin on the back so hard that he almost spilled his drink.
"Have you yet had any... Offers?" Colin continued his daring gossip-hungry questioning after casting a murderous look at Benedict.
"Colin, that is hardly a suitable topic of conversation!" Anthony scolded him.
"I don't mind." Siena retorted and glared at him. "Actually, I had to refuse a quite keen Lord Fife when I had already made an agreement with the prince, so I wrote to him yesterday and he immediately replied that he was still interested."
"Well, that is great indeed!" Benedict smiled.
"Fife...!" Anthony spat out the name like it was a swearword. "Surely you can do better than him." He added uppishly, finishing his haughty words with a sophisticated sip of scotch.
"I believe Lord Fife is not at all bad-looking, if he only would change that unflattering hairdo of his." Kate commented and cast a sharp glance at her impertinent husband.
"Thank you, Kate." Siena smirked. "I honestly think that I like Lord Fife much more than the prince."
"Lord Fife is an unwed firstborn son... You will not have him for long." Anthony pointed out.
"He has brothers." Siena snapped back.
"So did I, and soon I will have an heir." Anthony flashed a mean smile at her and placed his hand on Kate's belly. Kate whisked his hand away, vexed by his unkind manners.
"Or a daughter..." She muttered resentfully, mostly to herself.
"Well, there is always Nigel Berbrooke!" Benedict intervened. They all broke into disgusted sounds. "Or Cressida Cowper, if you are into the ladies as well." He added with a smirk.
"Lord Berbrooke and Miss Cowper would surely make a fitting couple..." Colin pondered. Anthony and Kate chuckled, while Siena gulped down the rest of her scotch.
"I am afraid it is getting quite late in the afternoon, I believe I should be getting on my way to the modiste." She stated and rose from the armchair.
"Of course! Just let me go and quickly change into something... More stylish, as one is supposed to dress, when meeting a modiste." Benedict declared and rushed upstairs.
"I will walk you out." Kate smiled and stood up.
"Goodbye, Lord Bridgerton. Mr. Bridgerton." Siena nodded briefly towards Anthony and Colin.
"Hope to see you again soon, Miss Rosso!" Colin smiled at her excitedly, while Anthony just gave her a sour look and the tiniest hint of a nod.
"Thank you Kate, truly, for everything..." Siena said softly and took her hands in hers when they were alone outside in the hall. "I don't know where I would be... Or if I would be anywhere at all any longer, if you had not helped me..."
"Like I already said, it was my fault that you ended up in this peril, so it was only fair that I also sorted it out for you." Kate said solemnly and gave her hands a squeeze.
"Well, that is true..." Siena grinned. "I guess I shall see you at the opera."
"You will." Kate smiled back at her. Suddenly, a heated argument between Anthony and Colin could be heard coming from the drawing room. "I believe my mediator skills are required, yet again..." She sighed deeply. "Benedict will probably come down any minute. Take care of yourself, Siena." She added and gave her a quick hug.
"Take care of yourself too, and of your child." Siena smiled, just as Anthony's loud frustrated voice echoed from the other room. "And that manchild as well..."
"I shall do that." Kate smirked and left Siena in the hall to wait for Benedict.
"... And that is the case, so why on earth do you treat her like garbage?" Colin argued, just as Kate entered the room.
"Because she dumped me on her doorstep like a piece of garbage!" Anthony snarled, but fell silent as he saw Kate coming.
"That is a good question indeed, Colin." Kate uttered as she sat back down on the sofa.
"I need more scotch, you lot drank up my entire bottle..." Anthony grunted, grabbed his empty decanter and marched out into the hall. He was just about to turn back around on his heels or flee to the stairs when he noticed that Siena was standing alone by the door, but she had already spotted him.
"Anthony." She called for him sharply.
"Lord Bridger–" He began as he turned towards her, but she interrupted him.
"Why are you so mean to me, what on earth have I done to you to deserve such cruel treatment?" She asked him with both sorrow and anger in her voice, while she stepped closer to him.
"Well, like I just told my brother, you dumped me on your doorstep like some old garbage sack." He defended himself aggressively and waved his finger at her.
"Because you treated me like shit!" Siena spat out where she had stopped a good three metres away from him. "You gave me empty promise after empty promise, swearing one day to always protect me and the next day you cast me out on the street. You vowed to come and fetch me after some stupid duel, and then you didn't. I truly cared for you, Anthony, I wasn't in it just for the money... I could see that you were totally lost between your duties as a viscount and your own private wishes, you were an utter mess. And there is one thing people like you, born into fancy enormous houses such as this one, never understand...!" She raged on, waving her arms towards the elaborate ceiling. "Even Kate understands, because she was not born to this! She understands that a woman must always look out for herself, because when the walls start crumbling down, there is no-one else who will do that...! So that is why I let you go, not because I wanted to be catty. And now you are being catty to me, just because you want to." She finished and a sudden silence fell over the large hall. Only Kate's and Colin's serious voices could be heard from the drawing room.
"I... Believe I have been unnecessarily cruel towards you, yes." Anthony admitted with a sigh. "And you are right, I was a mess back then and for a long time after it, as well. But not because of you, but because of –"
"Kate." Siena filled in for him. "I know, she told me everything about how you met and accidentally fell in love. But... You are not a mess anymore and believe it or not, I am happy to see it."
"Well... Thank you." Anthony blurted out. "And... I wish for you to find happiness with some new provider as well. Even Fife, if you truly cannot find any better fellow..." He smirked slightly. "But... This thing, this odd friendship, or whatever it is that you have got going with Kate... It has to stop." He suddenly said, looking more serious and even somewhat threatening again.
"I don't know what you are – " Siena started.
"It has to stop. Not because of me, but because of her. I know she likes you, for some reason I do not understand, but Kate is a kind soul and she is already struggling with fitting into English society. Surely you can understand how scandalous it would be for her if she were to associate with someone like you? Someone, who nonetheless has a well-known history with her husband... She might not find it disturbing, but the rest of the ton undoubtedly will." Anthony spoke in a hushed, demanding voice. "And even if Kate does not care about what people might talk about her, we still have a house filled with unmarried young ladies to think about. I cannot let the reputation of my younger sisters be tarnished by some weird camaraderie between you and my wife... Poor Francesca would remain a piano-playing spinster forevermore."
"I... I understand..." Siena stuttered.
"So... Yes, she can come to the opera and yes you may briefly talk to her there, but you will never come to this house again and you will never approach her anywhere else. Is that clear?" Anthony snarled at her, just as Benedict came rushing down the stairs.
"Yes..." She whispered almost inaudibly.
"Ah, here you are! Ready to go? Sorry it took some time." Benedict smirked, looking rather dashing and having even combed his hair. He took Siena's arm and escorted her outside while prattling on happily about the opera and other art forms. Anthony remained standing silently in the entry hall, looking at the backs of his brother and former mistress until the door closed behind them with a heavy thud.
***
The next morning all the Bridgertons had once again gathered in the drawing room, except for Benedict who had apparently decided to stay in his bachelor apartment after having taken Siena to Genevive Delacroix. It was a misty Saturday morning, so even the youngest siblings were free from their classes. The viscount and viscountess, Gregory and Hyacinth were lazing in the seating group, Colin and Eloise were reading in their own armchairs a bit further away from the others and Francesca was accompanying their undertakings with her beautiful background music, as usual. Kate was drawing a horse for an excited Hyacinth, while Gregory sat on Anthony's lap and they were leafing through the old fairytale book Kate had received from Edwina yesterday.
"Eww!" Gregory suddenly exclaimed and pointed at the book. "Your baby cannot look at this book, it is so scary!"
"What is the matter?" Kate wondered.
"This witch looks utterly terrifying, surely he will get nightmares if he has to look at such a horrible old crone!" Anthony agreed with his youngest brother and showed the picture to Kate and Hyacinth. The girl made a disgusted face and turned back to the sketched horse instead.
"She will just have to get used to the fact that not everyone looks like a perfectly beautiful or handsome Bridgerton!" Kate snorted, but it seemed like she did not really want to look at the witch either. Anthony burst into laughter when he saw the tiniest hint of repulsion on her face, which she was so clearly trying to hide, but miserably failing.
"Just admit it, you were scared of this witch when you were a child!" He teased and poked her in the side. Kate fought hard to keep a straight face.
"No, I most certainly was not." She stated with admirable sass.
"Admit it! Admit it, admit it!" Anthony grinned and shoved the open book into her face.
"Fine...! Fine, I admit it, I hated that witch, I was scared bloody senseless by her...!" Kate finally gave in and burst into laughter as well.
"Haha, I knew it!" Anthony guffawed triumphantly.
"My father had to glue those two pages together so I would not see her, but apparently the glue is already so old that it has dried out..." Kate smirked at him. Anthony had not been certain whether or not Kate still was annoyed at him for having behaved badly towards Siena last night, although she was blissfully unaware of how cruelly he in fact had behaved, ordering Siena never to set foot in his house again or seeing his wife outside of the opera. But, much to his delight, Kate seemed to be in a good mood, so he put Gregory down on the floor and scooched closer to her on the sofa. He wrapped his arms around her waist and gave her a couple of soft kisses.
"Poor you, we will have to glue the pages back again before you get nightmares..." He murmured. Hyacinth cast an annoyed look at Anthony from where she sat on the floor.
"Brother, do not disturb her! She was not done with my horse!" Hyacinth complained. "Can you for once do something else than kiss her all the time..." She exhaled loudly, making Anthony gawk at her with a mix of amusement and surprise.
"And the revolution of strong women keeps on spreading..." Eloise chuckled from her chair, not lifting her eyes from her book. Colin smirked at her and gave Anthony a meaningful look.
"You heard her, brother, enough with the kissing." He grinned broadly. Anthony took a deep sigh and let go of Kate's waist just as Lady Violet suddenly popped into the room.
"Mother!" All her children cried out in unison and the two youngest ones rushed to hug her.
"My babies..." She beamed, kneeled down and embraced Hyacinth and Gregory tightly. "I missed you already, how have you been?" She asked with a wide smile. Francesca had immediately stopped her playing and hurried to join in on the hugging.
"Oh mother, we have had such a wonderful time! Yesterday we had a real opera songstress staying here! Can you believe it, Miss Rosso from the Royal Opera!" Francesca shrieked.
"What...?!" Violet croaked out and stared at Anthony in both anger and disbelief.
"I... I can explain –" He stuttered, mortified with shame.
"Yes, she is Kate's old friend!" Francesca declared happily, apparently not giving any thought to the matter that Kate probably could not actually have any old friends in London.
"Kate's friend...?" Violet looked even more confused and let go of her children.
"This is your mess, you will explain it to her..." Anthony hissed at Kate between his teeth, so Kate took a deep sigh and stood up from the sofa.
"Violet, may I help you unpack your bags?" She smiled at her mother-in-law.
"Most certainly." Violet stated with a weird look and left for the staircase. Kate followed Violet into her new bedchambers and closed the door securely after her. Meanwhile Violet sat down in one of her elegant – obviously teal – chairs and stared questioningly at Kate. A bit hesitantly, she took the chair opposite to Violet's and begun telling the entire story, starting with the night she and Daphne went to the opera and ending with yesterday, but left out the part about her and Siena actually taking a liking towards each other and – needless to say – also the part where she had called the Prince of Prussia an arsehole in German. Violet listened to her long story carefully and without interrupting.
"Well, bloody hell... That was..." She breathed out when Kate was finally done. The corner of Kate's lip twitched slightly, she could not remember having ever heard Lady Violet curse before. "The way you handled that awful prince, I am truly impressed...! And also, I must say, Kate... You are a better woman than I am. If some old mistress of Edmund's had come calling in the middle of the night, I would have gladly thrown her back out to that murderous thug..." Violet said with an awkward laughter. "And he surely had a few of those, that dashing man..." She muttered, looking at the portrait of him and a younger version of herself hanging on the wall.
"So, Lord Edmund was a bit of a rake as well...?" Kate grinned.
"Oh, you bet." Violet laughed. "Anthony and Benedict might be good at that mischievous smirking, but it was him who invented that smirk... I was just an eighteen-year-old debutante when I first laid my eyes upon him, at my very first ball actually. He was amidst a dance with some other young miss, I think it might have been the future Lady Cowper, when he suddenly saw me standing there with a lemonade glass in hand, like I had just been hit by lightning. Then he gave me that smirk, quite rudely left his dance partner standing on the middle of the floor and walked straight to me through the crowd. His first words to me were 'I believe you are the one I should be dancing with', then he introduced himself and I cannot remember if I was able to answer him anything at all, or if I simply gave him my hand and let him take me to the dance floor, but I do remember I knew that very moment I had met my future husband." Violet sighed, glancing back at the painting again. Kate smiled in a dreamy way at her, it all sounded so heartwarmingly sweet. She also found herself thinking about how much easier everything would have been if Anthony had pulled that same trick on her at the conservatory ball... But, then again, she did passionately love every moment that had led up to their marriage, no matter how painful or unnecessarily complicated some of them were. Kate also wondered if she would someday be telling their story to her own daughter-in-law and what that poor girl's reaction to the quite long story would be...
"That is so beautiful..." Kate smiled and took Violet's hand.
"Well, one can surely say that Anthony was born out of the purest love..." Violet exhaled, staring somewhere into the distance. "Just like his own child." She added happily, turning back to Kate and squeezing her hand.
"How long are you going to stay with us?" Kate wondered with a fond smile.
"Well... At least until your wedding anniversary celebrations next month, in November. But I did promise Mi – , the duke, that I would join him at Stanton Manor after that and spend Christmas with him and Daphne's family, since her child is due so soon after the holidays and I want to be with her then... I hope you do not mind...? I have not told Anthony yet..." Violet muttered somewhat ashamedly.
"Of course you should spend Christmans with both of the dukes, little Augie and Daphne!" Kate smiled encouragingly. "I had already figured out that Daph will not be able to travel to Aubrey Hall for Christmas and that you wish to be there when her child arrives. I invited my mother and Lady Danbury to spend Christmas with us."
"Oh, how wonderful! But I do hope Anthony will not be disappointed when I spend the holidays elsewhere..." Violet sighed.
"Well, I guess he just has to get used to the fact that you might be spending some more time at Stanton's in the future..." Kate smirked and Violet blushed. "Violet, I hope you know you can always talk to me, if... There is something that upsets you, with the duke, or anything. I believe it can feel rather strange to form an attachment with someone new... After Lord Edmund's passing." Kate spoke softly and took Violet's hand in her own again. "Or if you do not wish to speak with me, perhaps you can speak with my mother, I am sure she would understand better than anyone how – "
"Kate, darling." Violet interrupted her. "I am truly honoured that you offer me such kind support, but you should not be troubled by some old woman's heartaches when you are about to embark on such an exciting time of your life... And yes, I actually already spoke about these matters with Lady Mary at Danbury's. As you said, she could understand my situation perfectly. The three of us had a splendid time together over there."
"I can imagine." Kate grinned, as she thought about her mother, Violet and Lady Danbury sharing a wine bottle or three while gossiping about their old and new adventures.
"Perhaps we should get back downstairs to our family." Violet smiled and stood up. Kate agreed with a happy nod and followed her back to the drawing room, where now even Benedict had apparently arrived.
"Mother!" He rejoiced and strode up to hug her. "You should not leave us for this long, you have no idea what has been going on here..."
"Oh, I do have some idea..." Violet grinned and cast a meaningful at towards Kate. "Eloise and Colin Bridgerton, are you not going to hug your mother at all?" She wondered, so Colin and Eloise both stopped their reading and shuffled theatrically arduously up to embrace her. Anthony stepped closer as well and wrapped his arm around Kate.
"I hope you did not tell her what you called the prince..." He whispered.
"Obviously not." Kate replied with a twitch in the corner of her lips. Meanwhile Hyacinth, Gregory and Francesca had run up to Violet for a second round of hugging.
"Good." Anthony smirked and planted a kiss on Kate's cheek.
"Anthony and Kate, you as well!" Violet laughed and waved invitingly towards the enormous group-hug the rest of the Bridgertons had piled up into. Anthony and Kate squeezed in between Violet and Colin, next to Benedict who was pressed in between Eloise and Francesca, while Hyacinth and Gregory had been caught in the middle of it all. "Oh my darling boy and dearest Kate, you run this household so well..." Violet sighed, kissed both Kate and Anthony on the forehead and ruffled up her oldest son's hair. "Even during more surprising incidents." She added, before squeezing all eight of them into an even tighter heap of arms and legs. "It is so good to be back home with you all..." She smiled blissfully.
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Note: Some minor canon divergence again. I had yet not read "Violet in Bloom: A Novella" when I wrote this chapter and after I did, I did not feel like changing the story about how Violet and Edmund met. But I do recommend you to read Quinn's version about their meet cute, in case you have not, it's so sweet and wonderful! It is featured in "The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After", which is also a nice read in general.
And another note... I am back at work as a teacher (nay, governess) after a long summer holiday and therefore I unfortunately have to slow down my publishing interval to once a week. But I will be posting a new chapter every Thursday, so that's when you can always expect one to hit your screens! Once again my most heartfelt thanks to everyone who has left some love behind after reading, you are the best community ever!!