Chapter Text
Three years later
When Edwina and Anthony broke up, Kate assumed that this would mean she would never have to speak to him again. She was smart enough to presume that she would see him again at some point. After all, they moved in overlapping social circles and worked in the same industry. However, she reasonably assumed he could be easily avoided or at least politely ignored.
What she didn’t count on, was Eloise Bridgerton, the force of nature younger sister, who burrowed her way into her work life, and then her and Edwina’s social life, before Kate even knew it was happening.
Kate had known Eloise was joining her law firm but hadn’t been too concerned. For one, it was a big firm and Eloise had been hired for a different division to the one Kate was currently working in and two, she had only met Eloise twice and both times had been given the distinct impression that while she loved her eldest brother, she didn’t necessarily always like him. Kate could easily handle being a colleague to Eloise, but she didn’t need to be anything more. Eloise, however, had other ideas. It took a matter of days for Eloise to seek Kate out for a coffee and by the end of the first week she was being dragged to Friday drinks- a Bridgerton family tradition. The following week Edwina joined them and from there it became a weekly tradition for the Sharma sister as well. Most weeks the group included a smattering of Bridgerton siblings, Eloise’s friend Penelope and occasionally other assorted hangers-on. Anthony made only rare, brief appearances, and for this Kate was glad- at least in the beginning. Her last run in with Anthony had been fraught and tense and she was not in a hurry to relive it.
The first time Anthony had made an appearance at drinks, he had been polite and distant. She’d been up at the bar ordering a second bottle of wine when he had appeared at her side.
“Hello Kate. Nice to see you again” he’d said stiffly without a single part of him indicating there was any truth to his words.
“You too Anthony. Are you well?” God, she sounded a hundred years old.
If he thought her phrasing strange, he didn’t let on.
“Well enough. And yourself?”
Ah, so he was an old man too. She needed to escape, to get away from this forced politeness. “I’m good, thanks.” She grabbed the bottle from the bar, thanked the bar tender for the wine and her lucky stars that she didn’t need to stay here any longer with this rigid, tense man at her side. “I’ll see you back there” she muttered before scuttling away.
She’d managed to avoid him after that. They would say hi and bye but very little in between, he didn’t speak directly to her, nor she to him and they were always surrounded by enough noisy Bridgertons that no one seemed to notice or care. But despite their seemingly mutually agreed silence, she found her eyes drawn to him and often when they were she would see him already looking back at him.
When he wasn’t looking, she allowed her gaze to linger, curious about the way he held himself back, quietly sipping his drink (always some brown liquid that she suspected was an expensive as one could get in a run-down Irish pub). He would keep a watchful eye on his siblings, occasionally interrupting with a pointed question about work or money or in Benedict’s case, whether he was taking appropriate measures as he slept his way through London. “I’m busy enough already Benedict. I don’t need to add ‘dealing with an illegitimate love child’ to the list”. This comment in particular earned a balled up napkin to the face from Benedict and a lecture on female agency from Eloise.
Kate wondered whether he truly enjoyed coming to the pub and spending time with his siblings or whether it was mostly to keep an eye on them. The Bridgertons were from old, old, old money. The kind of money that just makes more money simply because there is so much of it. Anthony himself had a title, Viscount Bridgerton, although it seems to mostly function as an easy way for his siblings to tease him rather than anything actually useful or important these days. Daphne’s husband Simon was a Duke and many of their friends and acquaintances were titled or from titled families. Being titled, old money and (as they all were) beautiful and vibrant people, they were also known. Society stalwarts, social media darlings, tabloid fodder, occasional topic of gossip columns and once, to Anthony’s dismay, a brief but memorable appearance on a reality TV show that Colin could still not live down. Kate knew from Edwina that Anthony had taken on the burden of family protector, and there was a lot of family to protect. As she watched him watch his siblings, she felt a pang of empathy for his situation. The Bridgerton’s were wild, rowdy and free spirited and just the thought of trying to manage them made her feel overwhelmed. No wonder Anthony clutched his drink so tightly she could see the whites of his knuckles.
One Friday evening in mid-May, Kate and Eloise slid into their usual booth at Gleeson’s, the ancient Irish pub around the corner from their office. Gleeson’s was not fancy, nor was it considered a cool place to see or be seen, but the Bridgertons went every week because it met their main requirements; it was within walking distance for at least half of them, it served cold beer and drinkable wine, and they would never have to fight for a table. Tim, the Australian backpacker who had been manning the bar on Friday nights for the last month, was ready with their usual; a bottle of Pinot Grigio and four glasses. Kate had just finished pouring the final glass when Edwina arrived. She flopped down into the booth and took a long sip without saying a word “Oooh, I needed that. Today was a nightmare”. She pushed up her sleeve to reveal a perfectly drawn pair of boobs. “Gavin?” Kate and Eloise asked in unison. “Gavin” Edwina nodded gravely “and it’s permanent marker”. Edwina had been teaching at a school in Bethnal Green for the past four years. She loved her job and had nothing but wonderful things to say about her Year 4 class, except for Gavin, who had been terrorising her class since the year started last September.
“How did he manage that?” Eloise was examining Gavin’s artwork, clearly impressed by the nine-year old’s skill.
“I was helping another kid. He’s fast. I didn’t even feel the marker until it was too late” Edwina took another long drink. “Thank God half term is next week. I need to just not see that kid for a bit”.
They were distracted by arguing voices coming from the door, Penelope, Colin and Benedict had arrived. The three of them offered a wave to the table before heading to the bar to order drinks, and given Colin was with them, likely more food than was necessary. Kate noticed immediately that Anthony was not with them. If he ever came, it was because Benedict had dragged him out of his office and into the pub, so Benedict arriving alone usually meant no Anthony.
Penelope sat down across from Edwina with a huff, dragging the fourth wine glass towards her. “El!” she whined, “I need you to weigh in on this”. Kate barely listened as Penelope began to relay the details of some domestic disagreement she was having with Colin which apparently Benedict had decided to weigh in on. Kate assumed it was more for his own amusement that through any particular need to defend his brother.
She felt her eyes drawn back to the door as if maybe Anthony would still appear. Edwina reached her foot under the table and nudged Kate’s shin. “Looking for someone, Katie?” she smirked as Kate blushed. “No. Just distracted. Had a long week” Kate turned back to her drink.
“He’s not coming tonight you know. He’s got some work thing on” Edwina murmured, quietly enough that none of the siblings would hear her.
Kate’s eyes snapped up to Edwina’s. “How do you know that?”. The words slipped out of her mouth before she could stop them and she had no hope of hiding the alarm in her voice. If Edwina and Anthony had been speaking, did this mean they were back together? The thought made her stomach turn.
Edwina chuckled “Relax. There’s nothing going on. I just bumped into him earlier this week and he said he couldn’t make it tonight”.
This surprised Kate. Edwina and Anthony didn’t exactly run in the same circles or even share much of a geographic cross over. “You bumped into Anthony? Where?” Edwina blushed and looked at her drink. “At a bar in Soho”
“Ah, I see” Kate caught on immediately “And what were you doing at a bar in Soho?”
“I was on a date” Edwina mumbled.
“A date!” Kate shrieked excitedly. Silence fell over the table as four pairs of eyes snapped to the two sisters- all of them sparkling with anticipation.
Edwina groaned “thanks Kate” she said her voice dripping with sarcasm. The Bridgertons loved gossip and teasing was practically their love language. They began speaking over one another, peppering her with questions.
“When was this?” (Eloise) “What’s his name?” (Penelope) “Where did you meet him?” (Benedict) “What does he look like?” (Penelope, again) “Are they hot?” (Eloise, again) “Which bar was it?” (Colin) “Do we know him?” (Benedict) “What does he do?” (Colin, again) “Why are we assuming it was a he? (Eloise, again).
Kate watched on with glee as Edwina grew more and more flustered. She held up her hands “Ok, ok, I’ll tell you, just stop talking!”.
She took a deep breath “Tuesday night. His name is Max, yes Eloise- it’s a he. We met on Bumble. He’s very hot.”
She paused her to pull out her phone and swiped to his profile, placed it in front of Eloise and Penelope who both murmured their agreement making Colin audibly grumble. Eloise rolled her eyes at this and said “just because she’s dating you now, doesn’t mean she’s blind”. Penelope just patted Colin’s cheek affectionately before turning back to the phone.
“He took me to Swift.”
“Nice, great cocktails” Colin nodded his approval.
“I have no idea if you know him Benedict. He’s in finance- but we are trying not to hold it against him- he told me he hates the culture but he loves working with numbers. I think he’s a bit of a nerd.”
Kate could already hear affection in her sister’s voice as she talked about her new man.
“Glasses?” Penelope asked. “Check the last photo” Edwina responded with a smirk. Penelope and Eloise turned their heads back to the phone, nodding in approval before handing it over to Kate.
“Why does it matter if he wears glasses?” Colin asked.
Penelope shrugged “I can’t explain it really, there’s just something about a hot guy in glasses.”
Edwina nodded “Yeah, the hot nerd thing just does something you know?”
Eloise chimed in “works both ways, Hot girl in glasses, my clothes are already on the floor”.
“I don’t need to hear that El!” Benedict was laughing.
“Hmm, glasses, really?” Colin looked lost in thought.
“No, no, I know that look” Penelope said “Do not go out and get glasses now. You’ll ruin your eyesight. Besides, you’re already hot without them”.
“But you’re telling me I could be hotter, and” he leant in close to her “that librarian role play you like so much, now imagine me with glasses”. Kate saw Penelope’s eyes widen and flush rise high on her cheek bones.
“Alright you two, get a room” Eloise rolled her eyes at her best friend and her brother. Penelope flushed even redder as the rest of the table dissolved into laugher.
“Back to mystery Max” Kate turned to Edwina. “are you going to see him again?” Edwina looked straight down into her drink, all of a sudden fascinated by the way the wine swirled against the side of the glass.
“You already have?” Kate shrieked.
“I may have stayed at his place last night” Edwina was back to mumbling into her drink.
“And?” Eloise was leaning into the table, eyes shining expectantly.
“Good” Edwina’s face broke into a wide grin “like, oh my god, unbelievably good”.
“Yes!” “Good for you” “Get it girl!” the girls chorused. Benedict and Colin fixed their gazes into their beer glasses.
The food arrived and with it, another bottle of wine. Kate was on her third glass now and stress of her working week had been well and truly left behind. She loved these Friday evenings, and she found that she was really beginning to love this family.
“Kate” Eloise interrupted her thoughts “you still good for tomorrow, 10am?”
Kate groaned, she had forgotten that in a moment of weakness she had agreed to help Eloise move into a new flat. “Aren’t you guys all like mega rich or something? What don’t you just pay for a removalist?”
Eloise just shrugged “I don’t see the point in paying for something that I can do myself.” Eloise, despite the millions of pounds sitting in her trust fund and the ample salary she received from the law firm, considered herself firmly in the proletariat, refusing all the advantages of her upper-class upbringing as some sort of ethical rebellion. An eat the rich attitude, except that she and her family were the rich and she did not so much want to eat them as she wanted to quietly distance herself from them.
Benedict snorted, “but you can’t do this yourself. You’ve roped in every single one of us to help you”.
Eloise waved this comment away. “It’ll be fun. Besides, what else are you doing with your weekend?”
Kate bristled at this (typically) blunt but accurate comment. Eloise was right, she really didn’t have any other plans this weekend.
“Fine. But you owe me”.
Eloise grinned “maybe I’ll introduce you to the new guy who started in my team this week. He’s hotter than mystery Max!”.
Kate grinned at her friend “deal!” and she raised her wine glass to cheers with Eloise.
The next day at promptly 9am, Kate arrived at what was, for one final day, the flat Eloise had shared with Penelope for years. Colin had moved in a week earlier (and had hired a team of removalists to do so rather than relying on his siblings) and Eloise was moving out.
Fortunately, she was moving in to a fully furnished flat no more than two kilometres away. Kate wasn’t quite sure how the family fortunes operated but the Bridgertons seemed to own real estate all over London and whenever a sibling needed a place to live there was a luxury, fully furnished apartment at the ready. Unfortunately, Eloise seemed to have done no preparation for the move and was sitting on the floor assembling the first moving boxes when Kate entered the flat. From her vantage point at the door she could see Colin making breakfast in the kitchen, Penelope standing at the huge bookshelf pulling books out to place on an ever growing pile next to her, Benedict slumped on the couch one hand slung over his eyes, and Anthony Bridgerton in the middle of it all, hands on hips, lecturing Eloise about wasting everyone’s time. She heard female voices floating down the hallway which she assumed to belong to Daphne and Francesca, two more Bridgerton siblings. It was chaos, and Kate wondered how upset Eloise would be if she quietly backed away now before anyone noticed her presence.
It was Anthony who turned and noticed her first as if having sensed her presence. He said nothing and turned back to Eloise.
“You’ve got Kate helping as well! Honestly Eloise, I’ll pay for the removalists, they’ll even come in and pack all your things up. Everyone has better things to do today than help you move”.
“Not me” Penelope chimed in from the bookcase.
“Or me” came Colin’s voice from the kitchen, “Pen’s here so I’m here” he grinned at her.
“Colin, stay out of it, you are not even helping, in fact you’re making more of a mess for us to work around”.
“Chill out Ant. There’ll be enough pancakes for you too”.
At that moment Daphne emerged from the bedroom wheeling a large suitcase. “Wardrobe is done. The rest of it is in boxes in the bedroom” she looked pointedly at Colin as she said this who held up a spatula apologetically.
“How on earth Daph. You’ve been here ten minutes” Anthony grumbled.
“I work fast. And the if the rest of you would actually do something rather than just stand there, we might get this done quicker”
Daphne wheeled the suitcase to the door. “Hi Kate” she reached up to kiss Kate on the cheek.
“Kate!” Eloise had finally noticed her and raised her hand in greeting, “You’re a lifesaver. There’s so much to do” Eloise pointedly ignored the way Anthony threw up his hands in exasperation at this comment. “Come help me with these boxes.”
“Morning everyone!” Kate said as she plopped down next to Eloise and began to fold the boxes together, running tape along on side to reinforce them.
Behind her, Ben groaned “too loud Sharma”.
Kate giggled, “big night Benedict?”
Benedict only groaned in response.
Despite Anthony’s grumbling and Eloise’s complete failure to plan, the Bridgertons made quick work of packing Eloise’s things into various boxes and bags and loading them into Violet’s borrowed Range Rover to be driven around the corner to the new flat.
Kate found herself hanging back with Penelope to do a final clean of Eloise’s old room which was being turned into a spare bedroom/ study. As they shifted the bed to vacuum underneath it, Kate picked up a photo that had fallen down behind it. From the remnants of blutack on the back and the similar marks on the wall it had once formed part of a photo collage on the wall above Eloise’s bed. She handed it to Penelope who let out a soft gasp and a little chuckle, sitting down on the bed next to Kate to examine the picture more closely.
“She was the cutest little kid, don’t you think?” Penelope’s finger gently touched Eloise’s face in the photo.
Kate had to admit she hadn’t really noticed Eloise in the photo, she had been distracted by the two men sitting either side of her. It had been taken at a beach. Eloise, who looked to be all of five years old, was sitting between two men, perched on the outstretched leg of one of them, her hand resting on the leg of the other. She was wearing a red bathing suit and clutching a bucket under her right arm. Her blue eyes were squeezed tight under a blunt fringe as she smiled as widely as she could. She recognised the man on Eloise’s left to be Anthony. On closer inspection he was not a man, but in fact a teenage boy, gangly and awkward but with a smile on his face that she had never seen before. He wore sunglasses perched on the top of his head and gazed into the camera with a relaxed, broad grin.
She looked to the other man. He was leaning back on his hands, Eloise perched on his leg, Anthony leaning into his side. His eyes were crinkled with joy and his smile was exuberant and familiar. She saw a version of it every Friday night on each of the children that bore his name.
“Is that…?” she trailed off.
“Yeah” Penelope said softly, “that’s their Dad.”
“They never really talk about him, do they?”
Penelope sighed, “not really. Violet does- a lot. You’ll see when you meet her” she gave a little chuckle. “But the kids don’t. At least not with each other. I’ve never been able to figure out why, but I think it’s a protective thing. They are so close and love each other so much, it’s like no one wants to be the one to make the rest of them sad.”
Kate considers this for a moment. She understands this, more than most people will. She and Edwina talk about their Dad a lot with each other, but not with Mary. Mention of their Dad just seems to make Mary sad, and Kate would do anything to keep her family from feeling that again.
“Did you know him?” Kate asks gently. She knows that Penelope and Eloise have been friends since they were kids but she’s not sure how far back it goes.
Penelope shook her head sadly, “No. I wish I had. But they lived in the country when he was alive. Violet moved them back to the city after he died. El says there were too many memories at that old house and Violet needed more support than she could get there. I met El when they moved to London. We lived across the road”.
Kate murmured a quiet “mmm” in understanding and turned back to the picture.
“Eloise was six when he died. She can’t be much younger than that here” Penelope’s voice was soft and filled with sadness. Kate could tell she felt Edmund’s loss deeply, even if she’d never met him. Penelope was family to the Bridgertons and had been for years. They had a way of doing that. Kate could feel it already, the pull towards them, the way they captured you, dragged you in, and made you one of them. If she could feel this after three months of Friday night drinks, she could only imagine how years of growing up alongside them would be.
Kate gave Penelope’s leg a gentle squeeze and took the picture from her hands. “I’ll put this out in the kitchen with the other stuff. She’ll want to take this with her”. They had been slowly collecting Eloise’s forgotten and missed items in a washing basket on the kitchen bench. As she gently placed the picture inside a book for protection, and made a mental note to let Eloise know where it was hidden, she took a final look at teenage Anthony. She knew he had been 18 when his father died- far too young to assume responsibility for his family. She looked at his teenage face, enjoying a day on the beach with his Dad and his little sister, blissfully unaware that pretty soon his world would be turned upside down and his future would no longer be his own. The sorrow she felt for that young man felt overwhelming, as if it lived deep within her too. She wondered if she’d been too quick to judge Anthony those years back when he was dating Edwina. She knew how a loss like the one he had experienced could change a person, and shape every part of their life until they couldn’t remember who they were without it. Deep grief settles into the bones, it reshapes veins and muscles and arteries, it seeps into every pore and crevice until it becomes so much a part of you that it can never leave. She feels her own grief within all parts of herself every day. She carries it with her, and she knows he must do that same.
She’s yanked out of her thoughts by Benedict and Colin, balancing a heavy mattress between them, stumbling back through the flat to the bedroom, grumbling about how Eloise wants to take her mattress with her. She hears the brothers whining to Penelope, something about the perfect Eloise shaped indentation that she’d spent years perfecting. “A mattress indentation? That’s not even a real thing!” she heard Benedict exclaim as Penelope giggles. A few minutes later, they’re back, dragging Eloise’s old mattress back out the door and down the stairs having swapped it for what she assumed was a brand new, very expensive mattress from the new place.
She smiles at the antics, drops the book back into the laundry basket and heads back to the bedroom.
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Anthony had been grumbling all day. He knew this because Francesca, who never says anything mean unless the other person really needs to hear it, told him that he’d been grumbling all day.
He sighed and ran his hands through his hair. He was waiting in the driver’s seat of his mother’s car for Benedict and Colin to reappear with Eloise’s old mattress. Why she’d insisted on swapping the brand new one for this old one he did not understand. There was so much about Eloise that he did not understand. Like why she refused to pay for, or even let him pay for, a team of people to get this done. When he’d said this exact thing to Francesca after she scolded him, she’d looked at him thoughtfully and said “maybe she just wants us to do it. We are her family after all”. The simplicity of this explanation had floored him. His little sister was moving out into her own flat for the first time and he’d never considered that she might just want her family around to do so. Eloise was so headstrong and determined that he sometimes forgot she had vulnerabilities as well. He sighed and added “check in with Eloise” on his ever growing to-do list.
Colin and Benedict reappeared with the mattress and he jumped from the car to help them tie it to the roof racks. The brothers were unusually silent on the short drive to Eloise’s new flat. Benedict was sprawled in the back, sunglasses on, continuing his battle with the epic hangover that had been with him all day. Colin was sitting up front staring through the windscreen at the London traffic that was making this short drive far longer than it should be.
“Kate was still there. In case you were wondering” Colin hadn’t taken his eyes off the cars in front and his tone was casual, but Anthony knew him well enough to sense that there was something beneath it.
“Ok” He refused to get drawn into whatever this thing it that Colin is trying to do.
“She’s cool, Kate. I like her”.
Anthony just hummed in indifference, hoping Colin would be distracted by something else. But Colin was persistent.
“Maybe you’d like her too if you got to know her. You know, talk to her like normal human beings talk to each other?”
Anthony frowned “I talk to her”
Colin laughed, “I think I could count on two hands the number of words you have said to her since she started coming to drinks with us. Which is especially funny, considering how many words you two shared back when you were dating her sister”.
Anthony grunted in response. “She’s El’s friend not mine. And to be fair, I don’t talk to Edwina much either. It’s nothing personal, I just don’t feel the need to be all chummy with her.” He chose to ignore the second part of Colin’s statement, whatever weird and combatative dynamic he and Kate had back when he was dating Edwina is very much in the past.
“You and Edwina broke up years ago. It shouldn’t still be weird, especially not with Kate, you didn’t date her”
“It’s not weird, but it’s been three years and I hadn’t seen either of them since, until El decided Kate was a good replacement for Penelope”. He sees Colin flinch at this, which gives him some minor satisfaction. “Just because the rest of you have decided the Sharma sisters are the second coming, doesn’t mean I have to as well”.
“Ok old man, but you might at least want to start practicing acting friendly with her. She’s coming to Aubrey Hall for El’s birthday weekend”.
Anthony looks over at Colin who is now looking back at him, a small smirk on his face. Colin must have known Anthony didn’t know this and is relishing in the surprise on Anthony’s face. Shit eating bastard. He adds “get revenge on Colin” to his to-do list, wondering if it would be too cruel to tell Penelope that Colin had asked for a family heirloom ring.
They’ve pulled into the car park of Eloise’s new building. Anthony swings the car into a park and pulls on the handbrake. “It’s El’s weekend. She can invite whoever she wants. Now, get that mattress inside, I’ve got to get the car back to Mum.”
Colin reached back to lightly slap Benedict across the cheeks. “Wake up sleepy head, we gotta move a mattress”.
Benedict groaned and sat up, “she fucking owes us for this, big time”
“Yeah she does” Colin said, “come on, we’ll see if she’s got anymore handsome co-workers to set you up with, Kate shouldn’t be the only one getting in on that deal”.
Anthony saw Colin glance a look at him while he says this. He did his best to keep his expression neutral but from the smug grin on his brother’s face he could tell he had not succeeded.
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It’s not exactly true that they haven’t seen each other since he broke up with Edwina. About six months after the breakup, they had run into each other, quite literally, in Hyde Park. He had known she was a runner. He remembered Edwina telling him she ran the same route nearly every morning. He did the same which was why he was surprised this was the first time he had seen here in Hyde Park. This was his turf after all.
He’d been distracted, trying to change the podcast on his phone and she’d come around a sharp corner and they’d both had to jump aside to avoid each other.
Their eyes snapped together in recognition.
“Anthony! I’m sorry I didn’t see you”
“My fault- I wasn’t looking where I was going. Good to see you Kate”
Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. He pushed on.
“Do you often run this track? I’ve never seen you here before”
“First time” she said “usually I run along the canal but my boyfriend just moved to Knightsbridge. This was closer this morning.” she waved her hand in its general direction. His stomach gave a strange lurch at the world boyfriend. He pushed down thoughts of Kate wrapped up in some tall, beefy man.
“Ah, ok.” The silence between them grew.
“Well, ok then” he sensed her getting ready to leave. He found himself wanting to keep her here with him so he said the first thing he could think of.
“How is Edwina?” Shit. He winced internally. He didn’t really want to know how Edwina was. Their breakup has been surprisingly easy and he’d no desire to go back there.
Her eyes darkened and narrowed even further. “She’s fine.”
She paused, he could see the thoughts building behind her eyes and wondered if she was going to let him have it.
“You’ll never find anyone like her again you know. She’s far too good for you”
Oh, there it was. The protective sister whose influence had made its way into every aspect of his relationship with Edwina.
He snapped. “Is anyone good enough for her?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You never approved of me. I don’t know what I did exactly but you never liked me. And she cares so much about your opinion. I didn’t stand a chance”
“You don’t deserve a chance”
“Yeah, according to you. But Edwina thought I did. But it was never going to work- not with you constantly in her ear”
“She’s my sister. Of course we talk”
“There’s talking and then there’s manipulating”
She glared at him, pure fury in her eyes. He’d gone too far. He knew this. There was no need for this. He and Edwina were done. He had no desire to go back. He didn’t even hold any ill feelings against her. But for some reason, coming up against her force of a sister, he’d felt something burn inside him and he hadn’t been able to resist breathing some fire.
She squared her shoulders as if readying for battle.
“Tell me I was wrong. Tell me that you loved her and would have made her happy. Forget about all that material crap, the diamonds, the yacht, the parties. She doesn’t want that, she wants to be loved. That’s what would have made her happy. So tell me, Lord Bridgerton” she practically spat his name “tell me that you really, truly loved her”.
He faltered. She had him. Edwina was beautiful and kind- but Kate was right. He didn’t love her, he would never love her. They would have been content and comfortable together but it wouldn’t have been love. She didn’t make his heart race, his stomach flip, he didn’t crave her when she wasn’t there.
He said nothing, just continued to glare at this maddening, sexy, infuriating, intelligent, aggravating, beautiful woman in front of him. He couldn’t let her win.
“I could have made her happy” he said unconvincingly. He knew she didn’t believe him, he didn’t believe himself.
She levelled him with an intense stare. “You didn’t say it was love.”
She positioned her AirPods back into her ears. “Goodbye, Anthony. Enjoy your run”. The disdain was dripping from her words.
He watched her disappear around the corner and out of his life. He vaguely wondered what she would tell Edwina about this encounter. He wondered how pathetic he would come off in the retelling.
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Kate had nearly made it through another Bridgerton event without having to talk to Anthony. She and Penelope had finished cleaning and done a final sweep of the old flat for any of Eloise’s remaining belongings. They picked up the laundry basket and two bags of books and head out the front door to walk the ten minutes to Eloise’s new apartment. She may have not wanted to shell out money for removalists, but she’s more than happy to shout pizza and beer for the helpers. It’s nearing 5pm and they’ve been at this all day. She’s almost positive Anthony would have reached his limit hours ago and bailed which means she’ll be free for the rest of the evening to relax without the constant tension that’s been hanging between them.
“Pen!” As soon as they step foot outside the she spots them, Colin is upon them. Taking the washing basket out of Kate’s hand and one of the bags from Penelope.
At the curb, Anthony stood by the car, checking his watch and searching the street for an inspector who might be ready to swoop with a hefty fine.
They approached the car Penelope and Colin climbed into the back, leaving the passenger seat for Kate.
“You didn’t have to come and pick us up, we could have walked” Kate tried to keep her tone neutral but it came out with more contempt that she wanted it to.
He let out a sigh “Firstly, I did have to. If I didn’t, Colin would have just taken the keys and come to get you two himself and I don’t trust him to drive in Central London”
“Fair. I drive about three times max per year, and only ever in the country” Colin pipes up from the back.
Anthony clenched his jaw in exasperation for his younger brother’s incompetence.
“And second, you can just say thank you, you know”.
She opened her mouth to argue before closing it again.
“Thank you” she muttered.
He gasped and turned around to Colin and Penelope in the back. “I just got a thank you from Kate Sharma”.
Penelope giggled and Colin grinned.
Kate fought a smile but he noticed, of course he did. “You can smile too you know”. She did and immediately noticed him puffing his chest slightly as he focused his attention back on the road. Smug bastard.
She took a deep breath and looked out through the front window. In the backseat, Colin has started prattling on about Eloise’s choice of pizza place and how it’s decidedly inferior to the place they usually order from and how he couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t she just pay the extra delivery fee. She heard Penelope chime in occasionally with a “mmm hmmm” and a “yeah, I agree”.
Anthony noticed it too. He murmured in her direction; “he’ll wear himself out eventually. He’s like a puppy”.
Despite of herself, she let out a loud laugh and earned another one of those chest puffs. As he did she got a whiff of his lingering cologne mixed with a deep musky scent earned from a day’s labour moving furniture and boxes. She fought against herself not to inhale deeply.
Behind her, Colin grunts “I heard that Ant”.
Penelope pats him on the knee “like an adorable Golden Retriever” she smiles sweetly at him.
Colin is huffs and goes silent.
Kate tried to fill the silence “How is the new flat looking? Everything sorted?”
Anthony huffed at this. “Less so than you’d think. Eloise and Daphne have spent most of the day arguing about colours and cushions or what not. Daphne wanted to redecorate the place herself and Eloise took personal offence at the idea that she needed Daphne’s help to decorate. It’s like they’ve never met each other before”
Kate gaped at this. This might be the most words she’s heard him string together in nearly three years and it was directed at her. He seems to remember himself and clears his through, turning back to the road again.
She decided to meet him halfway. “Well” she says “at least all the heavy work is done now. Surely she can sort the rest out for herself?”
“Not likely” he sighed, already weary of the coming battle between two of his most headstrong siblings. “Daphne won’t let an opportunity pass her by that easily. Especially when it’s Eloise”.
“It’s true” Penelope piped up from the backseat “El and I went away for the weekend last year and came back to an entirely new couch and two new lounge chairs. Cushions and throw blankets and everything”.
“What?” Kate was stunned “she just bought you new furniture when you were gone. Without asking”.
“To be fair” Penelope says “we did say we were looking to replace the couch, and when she offered to help us, we agreed. We just thought she was going to take us shopping or send us options, not completely redo our loungeroom while we were away” she’s laughing now at the memory “it’s a bloody comfortable couch though, so we let it slide”.
Kate is laughing too “that’s unbelievable!”.
She turns to Anthony “what about your place, has that had the Daphne treatment too?”
He smiles “of course. I knew better than to fight against it, I gave her carte blanche and my credit card. She says it was the best day of her life”.
She laughs again, “bet Simon loved that!”
He grins, but keeps his eyes focused on the road. “She did a great job with my place though. I’ll show you one day”. His eyes go wide as he realises what he has said.
She feels her cheeks burn and senses Colin and Penelope nudging each other in the back. She sneaks a look at Anthony whose cheeks look equally red and sees his tight grip on the steering wheel. The silence in the car is painful.
“Oh, Ant! Did Col tell you? We went to that new wine bar just down from your place. It’s lovely!” Penelope blurts this out in a hurry. Kate silently thanks her for the abrupt but much needed change of subject.
“Perfect for a first date” Colin chimes in with audible glee in his voice. Kate hears a soft thud and an “ow!” from Colin and assumes Penelope has elbowed him in the ribs.
Anthony’s knuckles grip the wheel even tighter.
At this point she’s really wishing he’d have just let them walk, or even better have let Colin borrow the car. However bad Colin’s driving is, it can’t be more excruciating than her current situation. Anthony has barely put the handbrake on the car before she’s out the door and hauling Penelope from the back seat, shooting daggers at Colin who tried feebly to protest.
“I guess we’ll see you up there” Penelope calls over her shoulder as Kate drags her towards the lifts.
As they wait for the lift, Kate sneaks a look back to see Colin give Anthony a pat on the back saying “so many words! Well done brother” as Anthony shake him off with a scowl. Kate breathes a sigh of relief as the lift doors closing leaving her alone with Penelope, Anthony and Colin still lifting the bags out of the car boot.
She chanced a glance at Penelope expecting the third degree, but all she could see is an amused smile dancing on the red head’s face. Penelope said nothing the whole ride up to Eloise’s floor. As the doors opened, she reached out to give Kate’s hand a little squeeze before placing her arm across the door to let Kate out. Kate gave her a quizzical look. Penelope smiled and held up the security swipe card in her hand. “We left them stranded down there”. Kate stared at her for a minute before bursting into laughter.
She managed to avoid Anthony for the rest of the night. He joined them in the flat for one slice of pizza and half a beer before claiming that he had work to do and making a quick exit. If the siblings were surprised that he’d be spending his Saturday night working, they don’t let on. She saw his eyes search for her as he headed for the door and she offered a small smile as he went. Whatever happened in the car earlier can be forgotten and they can get back to their restrained politeness that had been serving them both well for the past few months.