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September 1793…
Every September for four days, the hundreds of visitors in London could witness dozens of entertainments and spectacles: tumblers, acrobatics and tightrope walkers, or exhibitions of exotic animals, boxing competitions, puppet shows and displays of human strength. There were dozens of ‘booths’ selling a wide range of foods such as gingerbread, nuts, puddings, sausages, and hot pies to the huge crowds. Textiles from places like India, with the merchants telling tales to make their goods more enticing.
Every year, his parents take him to this fair, and it feels just as exciting each time. Even as it is the last day of the fair, 9-year-old Anthony Bridgerton was loving everything about the fair, the magic show tonight was his favourite. His mother holds his 1-year-old sister, Daphne, while his father carries the 2-year-old Colin. His 7-year-old Brother Benedict is just as excited to explore the fair. Their father gives them some money to try some of the games. Anthony wins a ball which he begins to throw with Benedict. Their parents are sat with the little one in a tent and their nanny follows them as they continue to run around the fair.
Benedict sees a small art class and begs Anthony to join but he just encourages his brother to go, and he will get some pie for them to share. The nanny elects to stay with the younger boy as the pie stand is within her sights, but Anthony takes a chance when she is not looking and runs off and into a little girl.
When she falls, she begins to cry, before pushing herself off the ground and launching herself onto Anthony, who falls with her sitting on his chest. “You did that on purpose!”
“No, I didn’t! And you are not acting like a lady! Get off me!” he pushes her off, standing and dusting himself
“You should behave like a good boy, but you are not nice.” She cries still on the floor.
“Kathani! Are you hurt?” An older man hurried to her
“I’m sorry sir, I ran into her and then she pushed me. I was just going to help her up”
“Liar!”
“Kathani”
“I’m not lying!”
“Kathani, apologise to the young man now.”
“He pushed me!”
“I didn’t push you. I’m sorry I ran into you.”
“You pushed me to the ground after”
“You were sat on me!”
“KATHANI!”
“No!” she says and runs off but trips and falls again. Anthony joins the man to check on Kathani, thinking how nice the name is. She hugs her father crying, the man trying to apologise for his daughter's outburst, “If you stop crying, I’ll give you my horsey”
“There is no need, you are being…” the older man stops when he notes his daughter's tears seemed to have dried up quickly. He sees them in her eyes as she tries fervently to stop them from falling wiping her face and looking at the boy. She pulls away from her father, as he carefully drops the girl to the ground. She has her palm open, as her bottom lip still wobbles, threatening to start crying again.
Anthony brings out a horse figurine from his pocket. “My father made it for me. He said whenever my feeling hurt too much, to hold it and remind myself that everything will be okay."
She clutches the toy, looking at her father, who stares back pointedly. “You no have hurt feelings again?”
“You are hurt now. So, you need it. Do you want to play, my brother is painting, and I want to see if I can find the magic tent soon”
She looks at her father who nods, taking Anthony’s hand, “My name is Anthony”
“I’m Kathani,” she says with a smile as they walk slowly around, playing some more games that they lose until she wins a small wooden dog which she gives him. The older gentleman has been keeping an eye out for anyone that would recognise the young man. So far no one has claimed him, and it had been a few minutes. He suggests they meet his family, so they know he is safe, they first go to the painting tent where he sees Benedict still drawing and Kathani wants to join which disappoints Anthony. Her father said they can try later after they had seen Anthony’s parents and reassured them, he was well. At that moment, his nanny came and before she could admonish Anthony, Kathani got between them.
“It is not nice to raise your voice!” the irony lost on the 6-year-old who had screamed at him not half an hour ago. She holds Anthony’s hands, and they go to meet his parents who are shocked at the new friend but smile when they note she is holding Anthony’s horse and he now has a dog one. When it is time for the magic show, the man, Mr Sharma, joins the family in their box so as to not separate the new friends. Everyone is watching the show when Anthony whispers to Kate to follow him. They go to the side and find themselves backstage, where they see a large, decorated box.
“It’s part of the show, do you want to be on stage too?” Kathani nods excitedly as Anthony opens the box.
“Maybe he’ll bring a dragon out of this box” he adds excitedly. She is hesitant to go in, “Do you not want to?”
She looks scared, “Go inside Kathani, I will come in with you, I promise. Unless you are a big baby!”
She huffs at being called a baby and marches in, Anthony comes in and closes the door. Inside is pitch black and Anthony reaches to hold Kathani’s hand. “Are you a baby Anthony?” she tries to sound brave, but Anthony can tell she is just as scared as he is. “No, but I’m scared. Don’t worry, if a dragon comes, I’ll protect you”
“With horsey?”
“And doggy”
They feel the box moving and can hear the magician ask for a volunteer when the box opens and reveals the two children inside. When they see their parents who look back to confirm they were no longer in the box with them, Kathani and Anthony smile broadly waving as the audience laughs at the two being shuttled off to their parents and a more appropriate volunteer joins the act on stage.
They continue to laugh when looking at each other as their parents try to admonish them for sneaking off. For the rest of the show, Kathani sits beside him with her head on his shoulder, until she nods off and her father carries her.
As they are about to leave, Anthony gives Mr Sharma a flower to give Kathani and says he hopes they meet again. Mr Sharma explains that his work keeps him with the royal family a lot. To save his son from the panic he notes on the poor boy’s face, Edmund gives Mr Sharma a note with their London home address, inviting them for tea so they can play and offering to send their staff to pick up and drop off Kathani.
Her visits become quite regular, when she was not with her governess, she was with the Bridgertons, until April 1794 when Mr Sharma explains that they would be leaving for India at the end of the season. During their final visit, a week before their departure, Kathani and Anthony sat in the nursery with all his siblings, playing.
“What is it like in India, Kathani? Do you have to go back?”
“That’s where my house is and my Amma, but Appa says I might get a new Mama.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s a secret”
“I promise not to tell”
She looks around and whispers the best a child can, “We are going to travel tomorrow to somewhere Appa can marry and I will get a Mama”
“You can share my mama”
“But she stay here with you and Bendict, Colin and Daphne. My mama is coming with me”
“But you can stay here and share my mama”
“What of Appa?”
“He can stay too!”
Kathani excitedly goes to share the news with her father, Anthony and Benedict running beside her, only to be disappointed by their parents who say that is not how it works. When it is time to leave, Kathani holds onto Anthony a little longer, “I can write to you. My mama said I would when I go to Eton. We can write to each other”
“Yes, but India is quite far, it will take a long time before you get the letters” Mr Sharma says, nervous about the friendship that had grown between the two, ending in pain
“That’s okay. I’ll make sure it is a good one so when you wait for the next one, you can still like reading it.” Anthony replied determinedly
Kathani hugs him again before he helps her into the carriage like he sees his father do to his mother all the time. It is not until a week that the family learn of Lady Mary’s elopement, which Anthony responds to his stunned parents that Kathani now has a mama. Whatever reservations they had about the children continuing their friendship are stopped when they receive the first letter 8 months later. The letter was written in parts by Kathani and other parts Lady Mary. She tells him of their journey, her dad’s wedding, the people she met on the boat, and how horsey saves her from her hurt feelings getting too big.
He does not waste time replying, telling her about Daphne walking, Colin eating so much and even asked Benedict to draw a picture because his wasn’t as nice. It became routine for the next decade; once a year, he received a letter that detailed her life in India since their last letter, and he sent one detailing his. He stopped writing when Edmund died, and she wrote two more letters before she stopped herself. The final one she sent was a goodbye, she did not understand why he had stopped writing, but she will stop too. Mr Sharma died shortly after she sent that letter.
April 1814…
She had just managed to evade him by jumping the hedge, but he knew the area well enough to cut her off on her path.
“Enjoying your victory lap?” he confidently says as he rides up to her.
“You shall not be afforded such an ample head-start this time I assure you” he adds riding at her side.
“Apologies sir. I did not mean to cause anyone concern.”
“Does your maid know you are riding astride?”
“I have no maid”
“Then you’re married”
She turns with a murderous look on her face before she can school it to indifference, but he caught it. “Forgive me”, he offers, though he is not annoyed at the development.
“Then you are lost”
“I am not lost either; I am on my way to Mayfair. It is just ahead.”
“Mayfair, well then…”
“I appreciate your attention sir, but I assure you I am perfectly safe.”
“Perhaps, but I would not be a gentleman if I did not assure your safe return home, which by the way, is in the other direction”
She turns and can’t be sure he is telling the truth.
“I assure you, if we head in the other direction, you are more likely to find Mayfair than if we continue down this path”
“Very well then…” she turns and is about to spur her horse off.
“Where do you stay in Mayfair, if I am to be sure of your safe return.”
“Fear you will not be able to keep up my lord”
“I will have you know that I am a very capable horseman and would have won this race if there was a clear finish, but we made no agreement.”
“Still not one for losing I see…”
“Do we know each other? What is your name?”
“Ah, but a lady must be introduced, I cannot simply give you my name. If you are brave enough, I live with the dragon. Perhaps I shall see if you live up to any of your promises, Lord Bridgerton” and with that, she leaves Anthony far more confused as he shifts through every encounter of his life and cannot find how he would have met a beautiful woman like that and forgotten her.
That night at the ball, after his mother's unsubtle announcement, he was flooded with dance cards. When he cuts out of the latest torture with the young miss who was far too short for most of the moves required in the dance. As he is about to exit to the terrace, he sees Lady Danbury, also known as the dragon of the ton… He considers the possibility and walks over to the woman.
“Lady Danbury, fine night this is”
“Lord Bridgerton, honoured to have you here, and on the dancefloor to boot”
“You certainly did not miss my mother's proclamation.”
“No, I did not. This is Lady Sharma; I am hosting her and her daughters this season. I believe Miss Edwina is still on the floor and Miss Sharma… oh right, there she is”
He turned and sees the woman from this morning, but now all he saw was a 6-year-old version of her with a wooden horse and a bright smile and he could kick himself for not recognising her.
“Miss Sharma, you owe me a dance” shocking the matron and the partygoers surrounding them.
“You were meant to visit”
“Seems we both have some catching up to do. Shall we…” still holding his hand to her.
“If we must…” she takes his arm and Edwina is returned to her mother just as Kathani and Anthony take the floor
“You did not tell me you knew the Viscount”
“They haven’t seen each other since Kate was six; I wasn’t there when they met but he stopped writing to her a decade ago… we only learnt what happened to his father when we boarded the ship. I think Kate understood but we didn’t think anything of it till he introduced himself.”
Edwina asks, “That is who wrote every year? Isn’t it romantic… after all these years…”
Try as she might, Anthony Bridgerton always had a way with Kathani Sharma. If it wasn’t convincing her to brave a dragon in a magician trunk, it was to brave the ton on his arm. They danced and courted, and when he asks her to marry him and never leave again, she does not hesitate to say yes…