𝐈 𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐀 𝐁𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒, 𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐨𝐧

chapter six!

Today was the day of the Danbury ball, an extremely special event, as it was the first ball of the season. For suitors, it will be their time to snatch up those eligible females to serve as their wives, and for those vulgar mamas, it will be their first chance to push their innocent and pure daughters onto any man deemed worthy, and for those daughters, it shall be their chance to show off their dancing, conversing and any other social skills they can use to impress.

Charlotte stood bored in her room, awaiting her lady's maid, Lillian, to be finished with her corset. Charlotte detested corsets, much like many other ladies, she constantly felt like one day her breasts might be squished to the point they may burst, and her organs would be crushed until they were no more.

"Tighter Miss?" Lillian asked as she pulled the strings of the corset as hard as she could, Charlotte's eyes widened,

"No!" she shouted, Lillian looked quite taken aback "Please no tighter, Lillian" Lillian released her grip of the strings a bit and Charlotte relaxed a bit,

"Is that to your liking, miss?" Lillian asked while tying up the strings, Charlotte smiled "Yes, that is perfect thank, you Lillian,"

Lillian's hands brushed across the bare of Charlotte's back and she winced, under her corset she had multiple bruises, scratches and scars from multiple occurrences, the corset being one of them,

"Would you like me to go and fetch my homemade remedy cream for wounds such as these? I only made a new batch yesterday, miss," Lillian looked at Charlotte with concern in her eyes as she just stared out into nothing "...miss?" Lillian once again pushed and this made Charlotte snap out of the daze.

"That would be wonderful Lillian, thank you" Lillian curtly nodded and walked away, Charlotte began to apply powder to her nose while she awaited Lillian's return,

"Hello mama- Good god!" without warning, Anthony burst through the door, Charlotte whipped her head round to face Anthony and covered her chest, he froze, unable to move,

"Anthony! Why did you not knock you fool?" Charlotte exclaimed, Anthony looked at her with a smirk, she glared at him, "Anthony do not look at me like that," Charlotte's heart began to beat faster, Anthony raised an eyebrow,

"I had reason to believe my mama was here," he told her cooly "she is not is she?" Anthony quickly checked around the room, Charlotte rolled her eyes,

"No, you oaf, she is not, but you are and I would like you gone! I am half naked and I wish for you to leave," she exclaimed with a huff, she realised mere seconds after she spoke how unladylike that was but she did not care, Anthony looked at her speechless, he opened his mouth as if he were to speak yet no sound left his mouth. The woman he was supposed to despise had now managed to make him feel something other than exasperated for once, something compelling, something corrupting-

"Anthony-" 

-why did he feel this, why was his heart racing, why was he all hot and sweaty! "Anthony!" The Bridgerton was finally brought back to reality with a bang of realization "shoo," Anthony raised an eyebrow and finally left the room, or so she thought, suddenly she felt a hot breath on her neck,

"Half-naked doesn't look so bad on you, My Lady." shivers were sent down Charlotte's spine, she was certainly confused by his actions, but she wasn't complaining. Before she could say another word, Anthony left her for real this time, Charlotte was starstruck she had no idea of what to do after that so she just stood there. Almost immediately after him, Lillian entered the room.

"Miss?" Lillian asked with a smirk, Charlotte sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose,

"Oh go away" she snapped, yet there was a small grin playing on her lips.

⭑･ﾟﾟ･*:༅｡.｡༅:*ﾟ:*:✼✿･⭑✯･⭑✿✼:*ﾟ:༅｡.｡༅:*･ﾟﾟ･⭑

Charlotte finally arrived at Danbury house, It was beautiful, she stared in awe.

"Come on then My Lady," Benedict told Charlotte as he extended his arm to her, having come in a separate carriage to Anthony she did not have to face him, yet, she was glad of that though, after the events that had occurred earlier on in the day she avoided the man as much as possible.

Charlotte took Benedict's hand and stepped out of the carriage, she smiled at him and took both his and Colins arms as they made their way into the ball. Danbury house truly was breathtaking, it was not however as grand as Bridgerton house but it was gorgeous. As they entered the room, suitors had their eyes glued to Charlotte,

"They are staring, Colin," Benedict whispered, "why are they staring?" Colin chuckled at his brother and rolled his eyes,

"Well, they most definitely are not staring at you, Benedict!" Colin sighed "They are clearly feasting their hungry eyes upon me," Charlotte raised an eyebrow, as did Benedict, Colin just smiled smugly, Benedict went to speak but Charlotte cut him off,

"Right boys, I am going to leave the pair of you to continue your lovers quarrel without me, I am off to fetch a drink," just as Charlotte tried to free herself of the brothers, another one joined her,

"Charlotte," Anthony spoke, he looked rather handsome this evening Charlotte thought "would you do me the pleasure of dancing?" Charlotte's eyes widened and she chuckled,

"Why of course, My Lord, but I did not believe you to be a big dancer, am I correct?" Charlotte teased him, he scowled at her, taking her hand and leading her through to the dance floor.

The music began and the pair began dancing, they kept silent yet a strong lock was held within their eye contact, they refused to let go. They carried on with the dance until the end, their unbreakable eye bondage did not falter once, the pair were still silent, Charlotte considered saying something but she wouldn't dare, Anthony kept opening his mouth to speak and then let it fall shut, they just sat there, silent.

Charlotte watched Anthony intently occasionally dipping her head away whenever he turned to look at her until he finally perked up, he looked across the room and suddenly his face lit up,

"Basset! Basset!" he shouted running over to a man, she could not see properly, she followed Anthony in need of knowing who this man was, she recognised the name,

"Bridgerton!" he replied, this made Charlotte more curious, she carried on searching for Anthony and the man until she was stopped. A hand grasped her wrist tightly, she turned her head slowly to face the brute that had just grabbed her,

"Let go of me, I beg of you-" Charlotte stood in shock staring at the picture in front of her, the three men smiled at her,

"Hello, sister" 

author's note!

Dear readers,

thank you all so much for 1.5k! I am over the moon with how well this story is doing and I cannot thank you all enough. I hope you enjoyed today's chapter, Anthony and Charlotte are now my weird little ship thingy, I love them even though they probs don't love me bvhufbvh but yeah they are both so confusing and I hope you all can keep up cause its about to get a lot more complex,

Ella