| NOBELS | BRIDGERTON

26 | MORE SCANDAL & SCANDALOUS TOUCHES

     HYACINTH GRABBED ONTO Antony's hand and twirled as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Come." Lady Danbury smiled. "Show this dowager the benefit of all these lessons I hear you've been taking, Mr Bridgerton."

Gregory stood beside Lady Danbury and smiled happily.

Eloise smiled. "He is much better than me, I will say."

"Something lively. A country dance, perhaps?" Antony suggested.

Everyone joined hands in a circle. Ophelia was in between Benedict and Edwina.

"I believe the theme you have chosen tonight it harmony, mother."

Everyone bowed to each other before the dancing started. It was the most fun Ophelia ever had at a ball. She spun around happily with Benedict as he swung her around again and again. They eventually swapped partners and Ophelia found herself dancing with Eloise, this had been the only time Ophelia had seen Eloise happy at a ball. Partners swapped again and now Ophelia was dancing with Antony, by complete accident but she did not care, she was too happy in that moment to care. The dance came to an end and Ophelia stepped back from the Viscount, having noticed the frown on Edwina's face.

"Perhaps a quadrille?" Hyacinth suggested, ready for more dancing.

Colin chuckled. "Perhaps we should start eating some of that food."

Everyone wandered over to the food, Ophelia picked at the grapes so eat just the best ones. But she turned when she overheard about something being delivered, perhaps the latest addition of Lady Whistledown.

"Is that Lady Whistledown?" Eloise asked. "Has she published, mama?"

Violet nodded. "Indeed she has and now we may know why we are the only ones here."

Should our lives be distilled down to the sum total of our choices, then Miss Eloise Bridgerton has certainly made a dangerous, perhaps ruinous one. For she's apparently been associating, unchaperoned, with improper company. Political radicals, in fact. It might be that the young miss spent a great deal of time considering her decisions. Or, perhaps, they were made in haste.

Eloise ran past her mother after reading Lady Whistledown. Of course, everyone was confused by her actions but that didn't stop them from feeling worried about her. It seemed scandal was staying by the Bridgerton's much longer than they hoped.

Whatever the case may be, we all must remember, as one makes one's bed, so one must lie in it.

Ophelia had asked Edwina if she was ready to go, but she only responded with hate. That has caused the girl to head into the Bridgerton garden to get fresh air and calm herself down so she didn't hit Edwina. She sat on a bench and huffed. Edwina has recently been getting on her nerves, she could not even think of Antony without her getting mad.

"What are you doing out here?" Antony asked out of the blue, appearing from nowhere.

"My apologies." Ophelia spoke, getting up to leave.

"No, no. Please, stay."

"You were here first."

"I was just leaving."

"It is your house, my lord."

"It does not signify-"

"Perhaps it should." She cut him off.

He sighed. "Must you always?"

"You were the one insisting."

"And this is you compromising?"

The girl scoffed. "Good night, my lord.

"Can you ever just agree? You have been like this from the moment we met each other again in those woods. Obstinate, inflexible, unyielding to good, plain common sense." He spoke angrily.

Ophelia rolled her eyes. "Well, I can certainly understand why that would be so troubling for a man like you. A man used to always getting his way. A man used to giving orders-"

"I do not give orders."

"You give me orders and you expect me to listen to them. I do not listen-"

"Perhaps you should!"

"I'll never listen to you! Or to anyone I wholeheartedly disagree with!" She interrupted. "The fact is's taken you this long to come to terms with that, to accept that fact-"

"You wish to know why?"

"I am uncertain you even know why."

"I know why."

"Enthrall me with your self-knowledge and awareness."

"It is because I have never met anyone like you." He admitted softly. "And it is maddening, how much you consume my very being. My family, is on the brink of ruin. I am nearly certain every last one of my brothers and sisters secretly despise me. My own mother, at that. Despite the fact I have lived the better part of my life, for them. And yet still, all I find myself thinking about, all I find myself being able to breathe for...is you. Do you think I want to be in this position? Contending with these thoughts of wanting to be nowhere except with you. Wanting to run away with you. Of acting on the most impure, forbidden desires, no matter...how much I must remind myself that I am a gentleman and you are a lady. Of that..." He paused to smell her perfume. "...of that scent."

Ophelia finally spoke. "You are no more of a gentleman than I am a lady, Antony. I started that kiss."

"You have had that scent imprinted on my mind since the moment we met. Lilies." He pulled away. "You have to stop."

"I have to stop?"

"There is no other course of action to be concluded. You must stop."

She scoffed and stepped away from him. "It has been you. It has been you this entire time. Spinning my world off its axis, making me reconsider all my father has told me. I hoped to find someone this season, but I was not expecting it to be you. You are the one who must stop. You are the one who must stop. Before-"

"Before what?" He questioned. "Before we both finally do something for ourselves? Please go inside. Go...in...side."

Ophelia stood her ground, she would not take orders from him. "What did I tell you about you and your orders?"

The two stared at each other, their breathing heavy and before either of them realised, they raced towards each other, their lips attaching in seconds. Antony pulled up her dress, his fingers gently holding onto her thigh which made her let out a small moan at just the touch, the one she had been hoping to feel.

He pulled away, his hands fat from her body. "I will stop."

She walked towards him, grabbing his hand. "I did not tell you to stop."