Coal Among Diamonds │Benedict Bridgerton

Chapter Six: Rivalry

"Brother, can you give me a hand?" asked Colin Bridgerton who was trying to balance an enormous bouquet of red roses, a gift box and most importantly a plate of cookies in his hands. "Would you fill out the card for me? Your penmanship is neater and you already have a quill in your hand."

"I don't mind if I do, as long as you are out courting ladies I am free of your presence," Colin threw a barely perceptible grimace at him over the roses.

"Who is the lucky lady?"

"Write please: to Miss Granville, with undying love, Yours, Colin Bridgerton."

"Colin," Benedict queried with his typical half-scolding, half-interested intonation which he specifically reserved for his younger siblings. "Why exactly are you sending a bouquet of red roses to... Miss Granville?" he raised a curious eyebrow at him.

"Why should I not be sending a beautiful bouquet to a beautiful lady I am currently courting, Benedict? Do you need me to explain how courting works?" he teased his brother in an impudent tone.

"That will not be necessary, thank you. Though I am sure a bouquet of roses is the last thing Miss Granville would like to receive."

"Perhaps you would like to send the roses yourself, Benedict?" he suggested with a cheeky grin.

"No, and if I were to send flowers, surely they would not be roses for they are very conventional."

"Is that so?" Colin's eyebrows rose and a mischievous smile spread on his face. "I didn't know that you happened to be an expert on flowers, dearest brother. Or perhaps you are an expert on Miss Granville?"

Benedict made a face that only an older brother having enough of a younger sibling can, and threw a pillow at him, which Colin, unfortunately, managed to evade.

✦

Franny was in one of her moods; she called it artistic, Mrs. Granville called it rude, and Mr. Granville simply tried to avoid it. Standing in front of the easel, furiously splashing paint all over it as if her life depended on it, Franny was so immersed in painting (if one could call it that) that no one dared to speak a word to her. They have learnt not to as her most acerbic insults were usually given in this state. On most days, painting took her mind off things and offered relief from overthinking everything under the sun, but sometimes when thoughts were frantically running in her head, she let her body take over and poured her frustration out on the canvas.

She did wake up on the wrong side of the bed and slept very little because of having constantly replayed last night's conversation with Benedict over and over, and also because Lord Archibald Tewksbury, the most serious name Franny could come up with for a small, yellow canary, seemed to be determined not to let its owner get even a minute of sleep, maybe as a way of expressing its disagreement with its new name. Not to mention that a big bouquet of red flowers was waiting for her with a note attached to it saying With undying love. Yours, Colin Bridgerton as the latest and most wicked reification of the prank that has unfolded between Franny and Colin. On top of that, not soon after having taken breakfast and incidentally broken no less than three eggs, Everly has announced that a great number of callers were waiting on Miss Granville. This sent Franny, already furious, over the edge, and she declared, so loudly that probably even in the servant's quarters could be heard, that she was sick and tired of suitors and Everly might as well just tell them to go to hell. Mrs. Granville smiled at him and added, probably just tell them that Franny is feeling under the weather and she will gladly welcome all of them on another day. Huffing and puffing all the way up the stairs and foreshadowing her arrival, Franny came across the hall with her uncle who handed her a painting board, nudged her gently, and ordered her to go paint, immediately. As she reached her room, she yanked the window open and threw the roses out which landed on one of the suitors' heads. News, of course, travelled fast.