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"AMMAAAAAAAAAA"
"KATEEEEEEEEEE!"
Kate sighed, setting the book down on the couch, she looked over at Mary, who was startled to hear the screams and was watching her without moving. Kate gave her a smile and pulled her daughter onto her lap, and they both looked towards the source of the noise. Kate kissed her hair, gently stroked her back and waited for Charlotte and Anthony to cross the threshold of the living room door.
"KATE, there you are!", Anthony entered the drawing room like a hurricane, the crease between his eyebrows well marked and she could have sworn the vein in his forehead was worryingly swollen.
"AMMA, do not listen to him!", shrieked Charlotte behind him.
Anthony began pacing in front of the couch, his hands massaging his temples as he breathed shakily.
"My love, sit down, you are hyperventilating", commented Kate balancing Mary on her knee.
"Your daughter!", he suddenly shouted.
"You mean 'our daughter'", Kate replied with a frown.
"When she behaves that stubbornly and with a lack of common sense she is definitely yours", Anthony scoffed.
"ANTHONY"
"Tell her what you have done", Anthony shouted at Charlotte, who was looking at him with a deep frown on her face and her arms folded across her chest. Charlotte did not say a word, she continued to stare at the floor. "Come on", he insisted.
"Charlotte, sweetheart, what happened?", asked Kate sweetly in an attempt to calm the mood. Charlotte looked up and her gaze met Kate's, she nodded to encourage her to speak.
"I wanted to go out riding with Lily, but after I put her girths on, I got a splinter when I opened the door and then...", Charlotte stopped talking, looking back down at the carpet. "And then..."
"And then I found the rogue stable boy drooling on her hand", Anthony shouted turning redder and redder.
"Charlotte", cried Kate now.
" PAPA", Charlotte shrieked in horror and red as a beetroot. "He was not drooling on my hand. Amma promise you, I swear on Lily".
Anthony was sweating with anger as he muttered incoherent things as he poured himself a glass of whisky and downed it in one gulp.
"Anthony honey, sit down"
"I cannot"
"It was not a suggestion", Kate said flatly. "Sit down and hold Mary"
Anthony took a deep breath staring at Kate. Finally he gave in and reached out to pick up Mary, who gave her father a smile, who could not resist and kissed her cheek. The little girl was totally oblivious to the drama her parent was going through.
"Charlotte", said Kate, now standing with her arms folded across her chest.
"I got a splinter, okay? and Mr. Jones's son was taking it out of me", she said in a trembling voice as she tapped her heel on the floor. "Papa only got there at the end when he was giving me a kiss on the wrist" Charlotte complained.
" You are lucky I came at that time, as I still have the option of sending you to a convent", Anthony murmured.
"ANTHONY"
"PAPA"
They both shouted at once.
"Anthony, stop rocking Mary so fast you are making her dizzy", the poor child was propped up on his knee, her curls bobbing up and down, and from her father's nervous movement she was really starting to change colour.
Kate walked over to Anthony taking the baby from him, and passing him to Charlotte. "Take Mary to the nanny and go to your room, I will come and talk to you later"
"Amma...", she whined with teary eyes.
"Go. To. Your. Room", she said slowly while giving him an affectionate squeeze.
Once they were both in the living room, Kate turned around to look at Anthony. He was lying on the couch, his arm over his eyes as he tried to regulate his breathing.
"Love, I do not think you should be so dramatic", Kate said after nudging him as she sat down next to him.
"Dramatic? Our daughter is assaulted by a rake in our own stables and I am the dramatic one?!", he raised his voice at last.
"Sshhh...", hissed Kate, running a hand through his hair, scratching his scalp to help him relax.
"Kate, she is barely thirteen, I was supposed to have five precious years of peace and quiet left before I had to threaten every man who crossed her path"
"My love, it is normal for her to be interested in boys... at that age..."
"DO NOT CONTINUE", Anthony shouted. He lay back on the couch, placing his feet up on the armrest and his head in Kate's lap.
"Do not act offended, I wish I could have seen you at her age..."
"I was much more harmless, have you seen those eyes! Kate! Do not laugh!", he shrieked like an angry turkey.
"Sshhh, I do not even want to imagine what you will be like when she debuts... do I have to stock a stash of whiskey so I can sedate you?" laughed Kate.
"I do not think there is enough whisky in England to cope with that...", he whined behind the palms of his hands that were currently covering his eyes.
"What surprises me is that you are such a prude now... if during our courtship you could barely keep your hands off me... a kiss on the wrist was the most chaste thing you did in those weeks", Kate commented with a frown.
"Because I was a villain myself, I know how they think, how they act... the lustful and naughty thoughts they have, ewww," he narrowed his eyes looking up at the ceiling.
"Who?"
"Those barbarians!" he shrieked sitting up with a start, startling Kate at the same time. Anthony looked at her seriously, "Kate, I did not behave as I should have with you during our courtship and I will be damned if I am going to allow others to behave with my little girl as I did with you", he said deadly serious, a cloud of sadness clouding his vision.
Kate breathed in, turned her body and grabbed his hands to speak to him slowly. "Apart from the fact that I think you are overreacting...", Anthony scoffed, "because you are overreacting", she empathised, "it seems unbelievable that almost two decades later I have to remind you that I was a willing participant in your attentions, my lord". Anthony said nothing. "And Charlotte, no matter how much you try to hide her in the depths of a convent, I am not saying now, but in the future, she too will have desires or needs-"
"KATE, NO, I CANNOT LISTEN TO THIS"
Kate laughed. "Well, let's leave it at that, Miss Austen's novels have set certain expectations and desires in young women..."
"Which is why we are going to ban books on that subject from now on", Anthony cut her off.
Kate raised an eyebrow, "Lord Bridgerton, try doing something that stupid and you will see how I am going to use the Viscountess's room as a bedroom for the first time in twenty years", Kate threatened. Anthony simply looked down at the carpet. "Now you are going to do this", Kate instructed slowly, "you are going to take Mary and play with her for a while, while I talk to Charlotte". Anthony nodded solemnly. "And then you are going to apologise to her".
"But-"
"You will apologise to her, Anthony", Kate said in no mood to bargain.
"All right, but just know that I am going to make a pact with the devil himself to keep Mary from growing up, I am not old enough to go through this twice", he said as he headed for the door.
Once alone, Kate took a deep breath and headed for Charlotte's room.