Chapter Text
Prologue
Aubrey Hall, June 1823
"Papa, papa! Look what we raided from the orangery!" Eddie shrieked as he came rushing towards his father as fast as a seven-year-old possibly could, his little fists full of strawberries. He was dressed up as a pirate – eyepatch and all – while Augie Basset, who came running after him, had a large feathery hat and the baker's son Jack had just a scarf wrapped around his head. Both Eddie and Augie were obsessed with pirates at the moment, forcing their fathers to read everything that had been written about the Caribbean menace wreaking havoc upon honourable merchant vessels.
"Oh, how delicious!" Anthony grinned as he had picked one from Eddie's hand and put it in his mouth. As soon as either one of his sons came to him Anthony always forgot about everything else he was doing. At the moment he was standing with the baker next to a big cart filled with bread and pastries for the upcoming ball, going through a list of what else they still needed.
"Haha, it was only a trap!" Eddie guffawed in an evil manner, threw the strawberries at his father and began to whack at him with his wooden sword. Soon Augie joined in as well, accompanied by a terrifying roar, while poor Jack was too polite to attack the viscount.
"Oh no, I am being slaughtered by vicious pirates...!" Anthony laughed and collapsed on the ground. Eddie and Augie crawled all around him, still whacking at him relentlessly.
"Die, you English exploiter lord!" Eddie screamed.
"Exploiter...?" Anthony wheezed out. "Where do you learn such words!"
"From our governess!" Eddie replied happily, when both him and Augie were satisfied that the English lord they had attacked was already dead and beaten to the ground. Anthony took a deep sigh and stood up, as he did not entirely approve of Kate's quite radical choice of governess, even though the old woman had so far done a good job at teaching their sons.
"Uncle Anthony, can we go and play in the woods over there?" Augie asked and pointed far over the fields, further away than Eddie and Miles were allowed to go on their own. Anthony pondered upon the question for a moment, but thought that Simon's son was as clever and trustworthy as his father and already two years older than Eddie, so he nodded with a smile.
"But you have to be back when the sun is on top of the sky, then it is time for lunch! If you do not, I will come and find you." Anthony replied solemnly. "I hope it is alright, Mr Davies? I can send Jack back to you in our carriage, if you need to leave before they are back."
"Of course, my lord." Mr Davies murmured, looking a bit awkward, since he was not used to seeing the viscount covered in strawberries and rolling around in the grass. The three young boys gave out excited screams and set off running through the fields towards the forest, whacking at grain stalks and trees with their wooden swords as they went. They followed a creek deeper and deeper into the woods, until they reached a wildly growing meadow where a large old barn lay mouldering in the sunshine.
"What is that...?" Eddie breathed out, having not been in this part of the forest before.
"It looks like an old byre." Jack replied, making both Eddie and Augie gawk at him in confusion.
"An old what?" Augie wondered.
"You know, where cows live..." Jack sighed at his lordly friends. Eddie and Augie gave out an understanding 'aah' in unison.
"Surely us pirates should go and explore it. Don't you think so, First Officer Bridgerton?" Augie asked with a mischievous grin.
"Of course we should, Captain Hastings." Eddie replied with a similar smirk. "Come along, Boatswain Davies!" He hooted over his shoulder as they set off dashing through the meadow.
"Why do I always have to be the boatswain..." Jack complained. He had not the heart to point out to his friends that 'Captain Hastings' and 'First Officer Bridgerton' sounded more like members of the East India Trading Company than fearsome pirates. "I don't think we should go in there, it might be dangerous!" He added in a timid voice.
"Because you are the best of us at climbing trees, which are like masts!" Eddie bellowed when he was already at the door to the barn with Augie. "And don't be silly Jack, come on now!"
"Fine..." Jack exhaled and obeyed his friend like he always did, even if Eddie was two years younger than him. It was not simply because he was the future viscount, Jack also liked the sweet and adventurous little Eddie immensely and always wanted to do anything that would make him happy. He followed Eddie and Augie into the dim old barn through the broken mossy door, which looked like it had shattered already several years ago.
"Whoa...!" Eddie breathed out as their eyes got accustomed to the darkness after the bright sunshine. All the windows were boarded shut and there was not much light inside, but still they could see all the old stalls, chicken coops and even old dried up leather cow halters hanging on the wall in rusty hooks. The floor was covered with old papers, seemingly advertisements of agricultural markets, cow auctions and bills of sale for cattle.
"Come on, let's go deeper in!" Augie said excitedly and adjusted his hat on his head. Eddie picked up one of the papers and looked at the date. He gasped loudly as he calculated that the paper was so old that it had to be from when his father had been just a baby.
"These things might be worth something, they are really old!" He yelped to his friends.
"I doubt that. They are just old papers, Eddie... Oh look, there is a stairway to a second floor!" Augie exclaimed, pointing deeper into the barn where the other boys followed him. Carefully they crawled up the wooden staircase, jumped over one part of it that was already broken and finally climbed up to a dusty old hayloft, still inhabiting a few piles of hay and smelling of cows.
"Let's examine those, there might be a treasure hidden underneath!" Eddie whooped and hurried towards one of the old hay stacks.
"Eddie, wait...!" Jack tried to shout, but it was already too late, Eddie had fallen through the rotten floor with a frightened shriek.
"Eddie, no...!!" Augie screamed, but luckily his cousin had got stuck in the hole with his arms spread out and not fallen completely through.
"Help...!" Eddie pleaded with horrified eyes. Jack began to rush around the edges of the loft, trying to find a rope, while Augie quickly figured out that this was the same scenario as when someone might have fallen through ice. His father had taught him that in that case you had to lie down in order to distribute your weight more evenly, so Augie sprawled out on his stomach on the rotten floor and began to slowly crawl towards his young cousin.
"Hold on Eddie, I'm coming!" He hooted, sounding much braver than what he actually felt.
"Hurry, my arms hurt already...!" Eddie cried out in agony. Augie creeped closer and closer, until he finally got a hold of Eddie and wrapped his arms around his chest.
"Alright, Eddie. I'm gonna pull you up now, but you have to lie down immediately when you get up here, otherwise we will both fall through." Augie explained seriously.
"Understood, I will..." Eddie sobbed and Augie began to pull him up with all the strength he could muster to his skinny nine-year-old body. The floor of the hayloft creaked ominously, but Augie did not even think about his own fate if he would fall down several metres to the stone floor down below, all he could think about was saving Eddie. Finally, after a struggle that had felt like forever, Eddie was safely back up, lying there on his back next to Augie while both were breathing heavily. Then, they slowly creeped back towards the staircase, following the track in the dust from where Augie had already once successfully crawled over. Jack cried loudly and hugged them both tightly once they were back on solid ground next to the staircase. Very quietly and carefully the three boys climbed down the stairs, left the barn without taking with them any of the old treasures they had seen and also without noticing that Augie's fine hat had been left behind at the perilous hayloft.
"Oh great, your father is going to kill us..." Augie sighed once they were out on the meadow again and he saw Eddie's ripped up trousers and bloody knees. "Can you walk?" He asked in a worried tone.
"Yes, but it hurts..." Eddie complained and limped a little. They continued their trudge back home through the woods in silence, since this had been a bit too much of an adventure even for the fiercest pirates. "I need a break..." Eddie finally exhaled and sat down on a large rock.
"Boatswain Davies, can you climb a tree and see how far it still is?" Augie enquired, or more like commanded.
"Are we still playing? Eddie is hurt." Jack pointed out with a huff and crossed his arms over his chest.
"I know, just go and see how far it is!" Augie retorted a bit annoyedly. "One of us might need to stay here with Eddie while the other one runs home and gets help."
"No, my father will be mad at us...!" Eddie breathed out. "I can walk, we can sneak in through the back of the house and mama will take care of me. She does not go bonkers like papa if I have a little bruise or cut somewhere..." He muttered angrily. Augie simply gave Jack a meaningful look, so the boy began to climb up in a nearby tall tree to scout how far away from Aubrey Hall they still were.
"I can see the house, it is not that far!" Jack hooted happily once he was high up. "Oh, crap..." He swore when he realised there was a large beehive on the branch he sat on.
"What is it?" Augie shouted from down below.
"Nothing...! I just..." Jack gasped and backed away towards the stem of the tree, but then suddenly slipped, tried to grasp a hold of the tree and accidentally kicked the beehive with his foot, making it drop on the ground with a splat. "NO, look out...!!" He screamed, but the countless angry bees had already swarmed out from their destroyed home and attacked viciously both Augie and Eddie. The boys shrieked out in horror and tried to run away from the bees, but they had already got several stings. "Oh no, no, no, no..." Jack panted as he was quickly climbing down the tree, not even noticing that he was being stung as well. Bees were precisely the one thing the viscount had always urged his son and his friends to stay away from... When Jack was finally down on the ground he saw that Eddie and Augie had fled to the nearby creek and dived into one of its deeper parts to get away from the little beasts. It had worked, the bees were gone and now a completely soaked pair of cousins splashed up from the water, gasping for air.
"Eddie no, oh God, no...!" Augie panicked and pulled his friend onto the bank of the creek. "Are you alright, can you breathe...?!" He shrieked, grabbing Eddie by his collars and shaking him quite violently. His mother, Duchess Daphne, had never been as phobic about bees as his uncle Anthony, therefore Augie did not even remember at the moment that he himself was as much related to the first tragic Lord Edmund as his namesake Eddie was. Also, Augie had already been stung by bees several times in his life.
"Stop it, I am fine...!" Eddie protested. Augie did not listen, but plucked away the few dead bees that were still attached with their stingers to his cousin's thin arms.
"Are you sure, are you sure that you can breathe?!" Augie almost screamed, his face turning pale from fear. Eddie stood up with a deep sigh to demonstrate that he was alright.
"See, I am fine!" He huffed, ripped off his eyepatch and began limping towards Aubrey Hall, now both scratched, wet and bee-stung. Augie followed just behind him, ready to jump in and save him if he would collapse, but Eddie keeped on shambling homewards with his two friends scurrying along in silence.
Eddie's great plan to sneak in through the back of the house soon backfired catastrophically as the first thing they saw when they came out of the woods was his father, Augie's father and uncle Benedict sitting in an old gazebo, laughingly smoking cigars and drinking something Eddie suspected to be unsuitable for children. "Dash it..." He breathed out and tried to run back into the forest, but his father had already spotted him and jumped up from his chair with a terrified look on his face.
"Eddie...! You are soaking wet, what on earth happened?!" Anthony exclaimed as he rushed to grab a hold of his grumpy son. "And look at your knees...!" He gasped as he examined the boy's bloody legs and destroyed trousers, which were ripped up all the way to his thighs.
"I got into an accident, but I am fine..." Eddie muttered, while Augie ran into the safety of his father's arms and Jack stood a bit further away with an ashamed look on his face.
"Are these... Are these bee stings...?!!" Anthony shrieked in a more high pitched voice than Eddie had ever before heard coming from his mouth, when he saw the red markings.
"Yes..." Eddie admitted almost inaudibly. All the blood had left from Anthony's face and he suddenly looked like he would faint at any moment.
"Do you have any idea... Any idea what could have happened...?!!" He screeched in that strangely high voice again, shaking Eddie as violently as Augie had earlier. "You could have died, Eddie...!! Died!!" Anthony screamed, now almost hyperventilating.
"Well, he did not. At least we know now that he is not allergic to bees..." Benedict tried to chime in. Anthony ignored him and turned his horrified eyes towards Augie instead.
"You...!" He croaked. "How could you let this happen, I trusted that you would keep Eddie safe...!!" Anthony wheezed out at the boy, who was now curled up crying in his father's lap.
"Anthony, enough. I am sure Augie did everything he could to protect Eddie." Simon said sternly and wrapped his arms protectively around his son.
"Calm down, Anth... Eddie seems fine." Benedict tried again in a comforting tone. Anthony glared at both him and Simon with harsh unempathetic eyes, before grabbing Eddie's arm and beginning to drag him towards the house.
"Brother!" He turned back towards Benedict, apparently having forgotten about something. "Make sure that boy gets returned to his father." Anthony growled and pointed angrily at Jack, before spinning back towards Eddie, who was now crying as well.
"Why do you always have to be like this if I do something bad...?!" Eddie sobbed loudly.
"There is a difference between 'something bad' and something unbelievably dangerous...!" Anthony retorted, while tugging his son along with him. "Thank God you will be off to Eton in a few years and then to Oxford... Then you will be someone else's heartache than mine."
***
Bridgerton House, May 1839
Viscountess Kathani Bridgerton gave out a happy little sigh as she held in her hands her oldest son's graduation certificate from Oxford, while she stood in the grand entry hall of the family's London residence. Surely she had done something right when the young man had graduated with such exemplary grades from both languages and literature. Kate had ordered a large gilded frame for the pompous piece of paper and it looked just as magnificent as she had imagined. Proudly she strutted into the drawing room in her festive heels, her long golden gown sweeping the floor behind her, but her solemn mood was soon spoiled when she was met by a hilarious sight, which was far from as representative as the evening would have required. Her husband and their two sons were slouching in the seating group in equally ridiculous positions that definitely resembled more lying down than sitting at all. Anthony was writing something, Eddie was leafing through the newspaper and Miles was reading one of the many present-day gossip papers that desperately tried to fill the void left by the retired Lady Whistledown.
"Charlotte, come and look at this!" Kate hooted over her shoulder as she heard her daughter coming down the stairs behind her in the hall. "Come and look at the honourable gentlemen of this household." She grinned broadly. All three of the Bridgerton men cast a questioning look at her, Anthony and Eddie with their brown eyes and Miles with his blue-green ones, but neither did they interrupt their tasks nor sit up straighter in a more normal position.
"You three look absolutely ludicrous!" Charlotte laughed as she had appeared next to her mother in the doorway to the drawing room. "Get up, for God's sake! You'll wrinkle your fine suits and we have to go now, or otherwise we will be terribly late!" She chuckled, pinning her arms against her hips. Anthony was the only one who jumped up from his seat, Eddie and Miles just groaned something inaudible in answer. They both seemed to be terribly hungover from having celebrated the graduation at Mondrich's club last night.
"And you look magnificent, dearest!" Anthony smiled proudly as he looked at his daughter, who was dressed up in a light peach coloured debutante gown with matching feathers neatly placed in her dark chestnut hair. Her brown eyes were heavily lined with kohl, making them look even bigger than usual, while her long locks were delicately tied up in an elegant hairdo. Kate admired their oldest daughter with a smile as well, tucking one escaped ringlet behind her ear. Then, she turned around and tried to find a perfect place for the framed graduation certificate on the wall.
"No, what are you doing...!" Eddie cried out and jerked up from the sofa.
"See, that finally got you moving..." Kate muttered and tried out if the frame would look good next to an old portrait of Anthony's great-great-grandfather, the fifth viscount Bridgerton.
"Give me that..." Eddie snarled and snatched the certificate from his mother's hands.
"But I am so proud of you – my first child to graduate from college!" Kate protested, as if that had not become quite clear yesterday when she had sobbed like a waterfall during Eddie's graduation festivities at Oxford. Even Anthony had been quite teary-eyed all day.
"And last, after Miles..." Charlotte sighed, making Kate wrap an arm around her.
"I know darling, I know..." She hummed with a comforting smile. "I am quite sure you would get even better grades than these two twerps, if you were allowed into one."
"Hey!" Eddie and Miles exclaimed offendedly in unison.
"I bet I could get into Cambridge, if I would dress up as a man. I've heard they take in almost anyone who is wealthy enough." Charlotte sneered at Miles, who was on summer break after his third year at that particular university. He tossed away the gossip paper he had been reading and glared at her sourly.
"I will not be insulted by someone who looks like a puffed up peacock." Miles announced, finishing with a cackling noise that made Eddie burst out in laughter. Kate managed to stop her daughter just in time before she would have launched towards Miles with her satin-gloved fists raised up as a proper boxer.
"Enough, all of you!" Anthony growled. "Miles, get up! We are leaving. You three cannot behave like wild animals at the conservatory ball. It is the first ball of the season and you all will be judged, not just Charlotte." He stated in a demanding voice. "Here, sweetheart. I made you a list of acceptable young men you are allowed to dance with." He continued in a softer tone and handed his daughter the piece of paper he had been writing on. The Queen – now a woman in her eighties, but still as sharp-witted as ever – had given up the tradition of picking a season's diamond already years ago, but the papers had still proclaimed Miss Charlotte Bridgerton as the unofficial diamond of the social season 1839, undoubtedly providing her with an exceedingly long line of eager suitors at tonight's ball.
"Father, no..." Charlotte sighed loudly, but took the list and eyed through it quickly. Kate read it over her shoulder and gave out a few disapproving grunts.
"Half of these men are much too old! And besides, Charlotte is free to dance with anyone she wants to. I am sure there are no 'unacceptable' men at a prestigious ball like this." Kate pointed out sharply, mostly to her husband. "Oh, this is so exciting!" She then gave out a little squeal. "Remember, that none of you is in no hurry to find a spouse, but this is such a thrilling time and you never know when you are going to meet the love of your life!"
"Ah, that reminds me... I have a list for you as well, dear son." Anthony smirked and gave Eddie another piece of paper that seemed to be ripped out from the viscount's notebook.
"I don't want it, mother just said that we are in no hurry to find these amazing love matches of ours..." Eddie replied tiredly, but Anthony stuffed the piece of paper into his fist anyway.
"That does not consider you. You are the future viscount and you need to find a viscountess, sooner rather than later. We can never know what life brings ahead! One day I will be gone and you have to take over." Anthony explained solemnly, like a priest giving a sermon.
"Anthony, do not be so grim..." Kate sighed deeply as she was tying Charlotte's dance card on her wrist, around her long and elegant white gloves.
"You seem healthy enough, though I might strangle you one day..." Eddie growled at his father. "And besides, I am twenty-three years old and just out of college! Were you not thirty or something when you married our dear mother?"
"I was not...!" Anthony huffed offendedly. "I was... Nine and twenty. He added, looking a bit ashamed. Kate grinned at them both and Eddie gave his father a meaningful look, before folding up the piece of paper and reading the names on it.
"Miss Priscilla Finch, Miss Cornelia Berbrooke, Miss Emily Dorset – Christ...!" Eddie exhaled loudly. "I already know all of these young ladies and they are boring as hell. All they talk about is needlework, flower arrangements and which dress to order at the modiste...!"
"Miss Emily Dorset seems pleasant enough..." Miles muttered, but nobody seemed to pay him any attention, so he dug out his pocket flask and had a sip instead.
"And where would I even live with this fantasy wife of mine? My bachelor apartment has only one guestroom!" Eddie continued his lament.
"Well, surely you would want to share your bedroom with your wife." Anthony pointed out.
"Absolutely not, if it is one of these morons!" Eddie exclaimed and threw the piece of paper into the fireplace. Anthony sighed loudly and rubbed his temples like he was getting a headache. "I will not dance with anyone tonight." Eddie declared defiantly.
"Fine, you can help me keep unwanted suitors away from your sister, then." Anthony muttered. "Now we must truly leave. It is good to be fashionably late, but soon we will miss the ball entirely!" He yelped and ushered his family out of the drawing room and into the entry hall, where a very grumpy-looking Lily Bridgerton stood lurking with her best friend and cousin Jane, Colin's and Penelope's youngest daughter.
"Why, why can't I come with you...?!" Lily tried one more time in her most pleading voice.
"Because you are just fifteen, my dear." Kate smiled fondly at her daughter and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "You have got Jane here as your company, so you will have a fun night as well."
"Can we pop some corn again, those treats you had shipped over from the Americas?" Jane asked excitedly. Young Jane with her reddish curls resembled her parents and siblings a lot too and Lily did not pale in comparison to her older sister's beauty either. She had the same blue-green eyes as Miles, Daphne and Violet, as well as the almost black hair the second son and their mother possessed. Everyone seemed to think that out of the four siblings Eddie and Charlotte contra Miles and Lily made a lookalike pair, while there was absolutely no doubt that all four of the gorgeous young Bridgertons had been born out of the same wedlock, since all of them shared the same exterior qualities as their parents. The viscount's family was deservedly deemed as one of the ton's most striking ones.
"Of course you can pop some corn, but please let the cook do it this time... Last time you two almost burned down our kitchen." Kate laughed and left the two girls in the capable hands of their housekeeper, who had replaced the late Mrs Wilson. "Come now, the ball awaits!" She hooted to the rest of her family, leading them outside to the awaiting carriages.