Holding Back {Anthony Bridgerton}

The Ruse

Dear Reader, this author seems compelled to share the most curious of news. It seems to appear that King's proclamation may be proven wrong. A new addition to the Featherington household seems to have taken the underground by storm. Not everyone knows her name yet, but soon will for Miss Marina Thompson is even more of a well-hidden beauty than Miss Katherine Gibbs.

Then again it seems as though the Gibbs House appears just as empty as the Bridgerton Home. Perhaps Katherine may want to reconsider her strategy in helping Miss Bridgerton from her brother so that she may find someone for herself. Then again, she is quite close with Mr. Simon Basset who has finally decided to make his appearance after returning from his and Miss Gibbs' travels.

With the arrival of Miss Thompson, this author does believe that Portia Featherington is to receive what she has always desired: the season's true Incomparable living under her roof. She must be overjoyed.

~ LW

Katherine rolled her eyes after reading the latest gossip sent out by this LW but the frantic 'HELP ME' text she received from Daphne had her chuckling. This LW wasn't wrong. She hadn't received many callers but that was alright by her. She had several but none of them intrigued her enough to let them stick around for too long. So instead of heading to her parents, she made her way to the Bridgertons.

She nodded in greeting to one of the last callers Daphne had received. Seeing how frightened he looked; she couldn't possibly imagine what Anthony had done. Their butler tried to stop her from entering but she pushed through anyway.

"Miss Gibbs for the family." They announced hurrying behind her which caused everyone to look towards her in shock, except for Daphne, who looked relieved.

"Kitty, what are you doing here?" Anthony spoke first.

She fixed him with an exasperated look. "You know I could ask you the same thing."

He then turned to Daphne who looked the picture of innocence and merely shrugged. He focused back on Katherine, raising his eyebrow. "Don't you have your own callers?"

"None of them have been worth my time. Do you think you and I could talk?"

Sighing, Anthony nodded and walked towards her, leading her out of the room with a hand at the small of her back. The moment he closed the door to the home office, Katherine spun around, arms crossed over her chest and eyes a thinly contained storm. "Do you not trust me?"

"What?" That was certainly not what he thought she was going to say.

"Do you not trust me?" She asked again. "Because if not then we have a lot more to discuss than how I can't keep my promise if there aren't any suitors for me to vet for you. So, what's going on?"

Anthony rolled his eyes, sighing. "I wasn't aware that you and my sister are in cahoots together."

Katherine snorted. "We have been since this whole bloody thing started. Why are you driving every person away? I'm sure there are some very fine gentlemen that have passed through your door who will not only take good care of her but also make her very happy."

"I'm trying to protect her." He said, leaning against his desk, looking towards Katherine, arms loosely crossed in front of his chest.

"Try again." She gave him a pointed look, not buying that excuse.

"Honest. I don't want her to be more involved with the darker sides of our business than she has to be."

Katherine sighed. "Have you ever thought to maybe let her decide that?"