The Second Born Bridgerton // Benedict Bridgerton

Purple and yellow

Anthony falls silent for a moment, before he shakes his head. At this point, he turns to look at me, and so I pull the covers over myself. "I am unsure which of you has been the worse influence on the other. It... it does not matter that you have married. I am elated that you find yourself in love, brother, I am. But I do not feel that excuses your rash and rather selfish actions. Mother is in bits, as is your mama Peaches, and I do not believe you properly considered the impact of what you have done. If you had done this, okay. I would have understood. But you have made the ton believe she is already with child and that, plus what lady whistledown has said? Well, it does not prove well for our families. And then you encouraged Penelope and Colin to accompany you, who will now be under scrutiny as to whether they are having a relationship of the same nature, which only fuels the flames of this catastrophe involving Miss Thompson. Not to mention that Penelope appears to be extremely drunk. You thought of nothing but yourselves, and you must now return to London to set things right. You must address the ton and you must explain yourself, and you must hope lady whistledown shall be on your side."

I look to Benedict so I may see his reaction, but he seems as though he may not react. And I shall not be the silent wife, it does not matter to me that I am talking with a viscount. Now he is my brother in law, what is the worst he may do? "You are right, Anthony. I do not think either of us considered anything other than how desperate we were to be married. Perhaps we should not have allowed Colin and Pen to join us, we should have come alone, but we did not encourage them whatsoever. They asked and we were reluctant to allow. I am not with child, my courses finished only yesterday. We... we are the second and fourth born of two rich families, I do not believe lady whistledown shall write any more of us, and I am sure she shall be kind. Far more scandalous things have been done by far more important people... I do believe we have done what she has wanted, we have fixed this by marrying, have we not? What were our other options?

"You cannot truly believe that. Perhaps. Lady whistledown is clearly  a woman who enjoys gossip and I do not believe she shall say a single nice word of you. I... I understand why you have done this. But we could have gog a licence or... well, anything other than Gretna green. Mother is devastated she has missed her son's wedding." Anthony moves from the door frame, indicating to the bottles of alcohol that lie on the table. "Which of these is whiskey?" Benedict points, and this is the one that Anthony picks up and takes a sip from. "We must be preemptive with this. We must explain it to the ton before they ask for an explanation, before that wench with a pen writes any more."

"I do not care. If anything, the ton shall consider I did the appropriate and honourable thing by marrying the girl. We shall not be returning home tonight, I am insistent on that. You shall stay if you must and we shall return home together in the morning, but we shall be spending tonight here." Benedict's hand grasps around the neck of the bottle of wine and he returns to the bed by the side of me, taking a sip before he places it in my hands. "Join the celebration, dear brother. We only drink and talk, there is no harm to it."

"I..." His older brother hesitates, pursing his lips tightly as though it pains him to say the next thing. "I shall stay. For the night. I... I shall stay. I shall have to go and enquire as to whether they have another room-"

"They do not." I smile and gulp down the wine.

"Do not drink all of that, you must save some for me. You rotten girl." My husband takes it from my hands before I consume any more of it, laughing a little. "There is no more rooms available, hence why we were all sharing this one to begin with. If there were, I most definitely and undeniably would not have been sharing."

"There is not even enough bed space, how must you expect me to sleep?"

"You, Pen, and Colin shall share one bed and I shall share the other with my new wife."

"No, that is certainly not how it shall happen." I roll my eyes and laugh a little, shaking my head. "Me and Pen shall have to share, and you shall have to decide between the three of you as to who sleeps where, it does not matter to me."

"You are so desperate to escape me already?" Benedict has relaxed from his moment of anger towards Anthony, wrapping his arms around my waist in order to pull me towards him. "We have been married less than a day, you cannot surely be so bored of me already."

"Not desperate to escape you, but those wandering hands!" I squeak as a I giggle, since he tickles my ribs gently. I notice as Anthony seems to shake his head and move to leave. "Oh, you do not need to leave, Anthony. We were done, we are done. Yes, we are, Benedict. We are!" I bat his hands away from me, which he is reluctant to move, and I am reluctant to move from as well, but we must wait now. "Right on time."

Colin and Penelope enter once again, Colin standing up straighter once he sees Anthony, and removing his grip on Penelope. She wobbles slightly but catches herself thankfully, wandering over, lost, as she collapses onto the bed. "Anthony, what are you doing here? Did mother send you?"

"No. No one sent me, I came of my own accord, and I asked whether anyone had seen a gaggle of four rather immature looking lords and ladies, dressed in purple and yellow. It did not prove difficult to track you down from that point."