Oceans Apart ||Bridgerton|| (♡ Simon Basset)

ii.

WE are currently in Daphne's room talking about the presentation and changing out of our dresses. "You absolutely sparkled, sister." Hyacinth says to Daphne as she gets out of her dress. They giggle. "Come, now. I merely simpered and minced in a pretty dress like everyone else." Daphne says. "Not exactly like everyone else." Francesca says. "Oh, I shall need to go and visit with Penelope. Her presentation was anything but...What was it the queen called you again?" Eloise says. "Flawless..." Daphne says as she with a big smile as she puts on a blue dress. "Or some such thing. Trust I was astonished Her Majesty offered me, out of 200 young ladies present, a most gracious remark." Daphne says as she gets zipped up. "Ow, come on Daph. You were the shining star." I say. She looks at me and smiles. "And now 200 young ladies have a common adversary. I wish you luck, sister." Eloise says. "Eloise!" Francesca says. "What? It is true." she says. "Our success on the marriage mart influences all of your prospects." Daphne says as she motions to me. "We will all need to find love one day." she says. I snort. "Right." I say and roll my eyes.

She turns towards me but before she can say anything a maid comes walking towards me with a dress. I raise an eyebrow. "Did my mother put you up to this Alicia?" I ask. She laughs and puts the dress aside on a chair, revealing the trousers and blouse she grabbed for me. I smile and grab them from her. "Delia, you know that you need to dress the part now right?" Daphne asks as I walk towards the folding screen in the room. Alicia follows me and unzips the dress and takes it off, then she helps me out of the corset. "I don't see why I must dear sister." I say as I take off the underdress. "Now that you have been presented you are expected to find a husband." Daphne says while Alice helps me wrap a bandage around my chest to keep them in place. The bandage is so much better than a corset, especially because it doesn't have to be so tight. It has to be tight enough to give me some support and that's it, it doesn't have to suck in my waist. "Thank you." I say to her and she nods and walks back towards the rest of my sisters to give me some privacy.

"Daphne-" I start. "Mother just wants what is best for you." she interrupts me while I am putting on the blouse. "I don't want to marry Daphne, you know that." I say as I finish closing the buttons on the blouse. "I know you said that, but you can't keep that act up forever." Daphne says while I put on the pants. I stop and let out a small sigh. "It is not an act" I whisper. I put the blouse in the pants and walk out from behind the folding screen. "Look, I will wear dresses to all the balls and events the following season, but when I am here, I just want to be myself." I say. "But-" Daphne starts. "No buts." I say. Alice hands me a pair of black shoes and I sit down on a small couch.

"Your dresses have arrived." mother says as she enters the room. "Oh!" the girls exclaim as they run into the bedroom, except for Eloise who slowly gets out of the chair she was sitting in. I finish putting on the shoes and walk with her toward the bedroom. "Please stay who you are." Eloise says. "No worries." I say as I start to take all of the pins out of the bun that keep my hair in place. "Mary Edgecombe wore a similar shade last season." mother says. Eloise and I stand at the entrance to the bedroom from the dressing room. Francesca, Hyacinth, and Daphne are standing around a dress that our mother is holding, touching, and admiring. "And secured three offers the very next day, one from an earl." Daphne says as she looks at our mother. "Mary Edgecombe, now the Countess of Fulton, apparently pent the last year living in a cottage hundreds of miles away from her earl. She is miserable. It says it all here." Eloise says.

I take out the last pin and my hair falls down. My hair is quite different from the rest of the families. Daphne has light orange hair, courtesy of our grandmother from our father's side. She had bright orange hair. The rest of my siblings have brown hair, like our mother and father. I however got the full package of my grandmother and have the same orange hair as her. As if that wasn't enough, it is very wavy and stubborn, which makes it a little hard to handle sometimes. I start to braid my hair.