Unexpected romance / Benedict&Anthony

Such a generous request

I do not do much for the next day until I am to attend dinner at the Bridgerton home. Simon has made it plainly clear that he does not wish to go, but refusing the invitation should be so rude that he simply does not have a choice. We sit in silence for most of the carriage ride there, until he finally decides he shall break it. "Do you know why we find ourselves attending this dinner tonight?"

"I do not. I believe Lady Danbury and Lady Bridgerton developed the idea last night at the opera that you were not unfortunate enough to have to attend." I run my hands along my dress to straighten out the crease in it that has come from me sitting with my legs crossed. "I am not sure why we have been invited and I am not entirely sure of the purpose but I am sure we shall when we arrive. They are plotting old ladies who shall always have ulterior motives."

"Perhaps they wish to marry you to one of the sons." He suggests, sitting with his face staring out of the window and he does not even look at me whilst he speaks to me. "I did hear that you were at the Bridgerton house yesterday and are a stranger to none of the brothers."

"That is strictly untrue. I have not even met the fourth." I am a little irritated that he does not even bother to meet my eye. It makes me feel inferior, or at least it makes me feel that is what he wants me to think. "If that were the case then why should they invite the both of us? Perhaps they wish to marry you to Daphne!"

This causes him to look at me, with narrowed eyes and a severe scowl. "That should be rather pointless since I shall not marry. I refuse to marry and you should do so too."

We arrive at the house and I step out of the carriage and into their home where I am greeted by Lady Bridgerton. "Oh, Lady Delilah, your grace. I am so glad you decided to join us."

"We could not possibly deny such a generous request." I greet her back, looking to Daphne, Benedict, Colin and Eloise who all seem to be appealing for my attention. I do not know which of them to attend to first and so I do not, instead waiting for Lady Bridgerton to direct us into the dining room. "And where shall I sit?"

"Oh, I thought that your grace could sit up here with myself." She directs Simon to a chair. "And if your lady sees fit, she can take a seat here." She points to the other end of the table. I accept this, since it is as far away from Simon as possible and this is quite what I should like. I do not argue or say another word, only moving towards the end of the table and sinking down into the chair that I was allocated.

It is the youngest daughter that sits beside me on one side, and as I glance to my other side, I am filled with dread as I realise it is the head of the table and so there is only one person who shall be likely to sit there.

"You." He gives me the same narrow eyed and pursed lip look that Simon gave me in the carriage. I wonder if that is one of the things they taught them in their days at Oxford.

"I do not believe that you is the correct way to greet a Lady." I scoff a little, glancing around the table as I look for any of the friendly familiar faces. Daphne is sat at the other end of the table, with Simon by the side of her. Benedict and Colin are sat as a duo, across the other side of the table, Eloise is gasping to talk to me from quite a way as well. It seems I have been isolated, between the Viscount and the children. "I do wonder why I must keep interacting with you, Viscount Anthony."

"I, myself, have been wondering the very same thing, my lady. I wish to have a peaceful and enjoyable dinner and so I ask that you do not ruin that by opening your mouth whatsoever." He offers me a quick smile that instantly reforms back to his trademarked scowl.

"I am afraid that keeping my mouth shut has never been something I have been so talented in. And since your mother has insisted on seating me between you and children, I shall speak to who I think I shall have the most mature conversation with." Of course, I turn from him to the little girl on the right of me, who is flicking peas at the boy across from her. She stops as soon as she sees I am looking at her. "Oh, do not stop on my account. In fact, I have found on many occasions that if you use the fork rather than the spoon, you actually get far better leverage and therefore it shall fly quicker and harder." I indicate to her cutlery, and she grins as she swaps between the spoon and the fork and finds that what I told her is true.

"You should not encourage their behaviour." Anthony is quick to chastise, I imagine anything I say or do shall be criticised tonight. "My lady." He says my title with a certain amount of aggression and spite.

"I shall not encourage children to be children? I am so sorry, I did not realise that the police now had a squadron that dealt specifically with preventing people from having any form of fun. And I did not realise that you were the leader. That is such a wondeful position for you, how do you juggle it between maintaining your sideburns and making everyone that you are around miserable?" I smile, taking my own fork and beginning to cut up my dinner.

"I see you think you are rather witty, my lady. I shall be the first one to be truthful with you and to tell you that are you not at all." He grips onto his own cutlery and hacks at the meat on his plate with an uneeded amount of force.

"Was that supposed to insult me? Oh, clearly they did not teach smart retorts and comebacks at Oxford. Although they did clearly teach a class called: how to suck the fun out of everything."

He begins to say something more when he is interrupted by Eloise shooting an insistent question at me. "Delilah, who do you think Lady Whistledown might be?"

"I am afraid I do not feel I know enough members of the ton to be able to give an educated guess on her identity." I turn my attention from Anthony as everyone watches me, eager for my opinion. "It must be someone within the ton, do you not think? For her to know the details that she does?"

"We are assuming at all that it is a woman." Benedict suggests.

"Oh, because she is possibly too great to be anyone except a man?" I ask, teasing him and he returns to me with a roll of his eyes and a big grin on his face. "It is a woman, no man has listening skills that are good enough for the gossip she seems to hear."

"Hear, hear." Eloise agrees, nodding her head wildly as though she has ever had any experiences with men that are not her brothers. "What of Lady Danbury perhaps?"

"If Lady Danbury wished to tell you something, she should do it to your face and she should revel in watching you squirm. In real life and not on paper." I input once again, and the conversations break off until everyone seems to be talking in pairs again. This leaves me in silence since Anthony does not wish to speak to me, clearly.

Or maybe he does. "May I ask as to why you are here?"

"I am here because I was invited and it should be rude to decline. Although when I accepted, I rather hoped I should be sat beside anyone other than yourself." I look at him and purse my lips to mimic him, which he realises quickly I am doing and so curls them into a snarl instead. "Oh do behave. You are not an animal. Although you are quite as unruly and unpleasant as one."

"And you are brash and garish."

"Oh, I like that. I shall have that engraved on my tombstone, perhaps. Lady Delilah Basset of Hastings, a brash and garish woman. I rather like that." I smirk at him and he drops his fork and knife onto his plate in despair. "I should think you would like that."

"Perhaps you should refrain from considering at all what I should like." He meets my eye, his eye contact unrelenting and his face unsmiling, his nostrils flaring as he breaths out. For a moment, I feel my heart beating slightly harder in my chest, and I find myself glaring back at him. I shall not take my eyes off his either, neither of us wishing to be the one who gives in, until eventually, he does. "I... I do not wish to speak to you any longer."

"That is fine with me."