Real love, harsh commitment

Chapter 69 - A Bee in Your Bonnet

Years prior, before Anthony became a man, before the fathers of Delilah and Anthony had passed, and back when adulthood was a joke. Anthony and his father sit down in the forest, a deer stalks in front of them.

"Easy now. All right, take your time." Edmund whispered.

"He's bloody huge," Anthony replied.

Edmund smiled at his son, "Yet no match for a bullet. Now, all it takes is one clean shot to the heart to fell even the greatest of beasts."

Anthony nods his head and steadies himself. The point of the gun was directed straight at the deer. He takes a breath, and shoots.

"It's impossible." Anthony sighs seeing the deer run off.

"Now now," Edmund shakes his head, "There'll be plenty of other opportunities."

Anthony sighs, "I've failed each time. I can just hear what Benedict will have to say about this. Colin too."

"All the more reason to keep trying."

"They'll be insufferable.

Edmund raises a hand to Anthony's shoulder, "Shh. Shh, shh."

Edmund brings up his gun, a buck right in front of them. He aims and shoots. Moments later, a heft fall sounds against the forest ground.

Anthony smiles, "You have to show me how to do that!"

Edmund chuckles, "Come along. It's more about confidence than anything else. You decided that stag was too large to shoot before you even touched the trigger, I'm afraid. But you'll learn. You'll learn in time."

"You make it sound so easy." Anthony sighs. "Nothing ever rattles you, does it?"

Edmund laughs, "Oh, I believe your mother would have quite a few things to say about that. You do know that you cannot show someone your best without allowing them to see your worst. Speaking of which, she would adore those."

Edmund reaches down to the flowers lined in the ground. Pulling one he takes a breath of the floral scent, "They're quite lovely, are they not?"

Anthony nods, "Daphne and Delilah will be jealous if we do not return with anything for them."

Edmund grunts, "Ugh this bloody..ah."

"Father?" Anthony asked.

"The damn thing stung me." Edmund grunts. He goes to stand, but his breath falters and he staggers forwards.

"Father? What is it? Father!" Anthony yells.

Edmund clatters to the ground his breath still struggling, his face is red, his body is shaking. Anthony panics.

"Help us, someone!" Anthony yells, "Someone, please! Help!"

"What happened?" James Silvester runs out, in gasped breaths. It was common knowledge that his health had been declining. Yet, he was still very present, even in times when he could barley walk.

"I don't know.." Anthony cried, "I don't know. I don't know!"

 "Edmund." James called to his friend, "Edmund you must breathe, my friend, breathe."

"I can't-" Edmund gasped.

James watched and Anthony stared silent. Edmund's body stopped moving, his chest stopped pounding. James began to breathe faster, his hand shaking came to Edmunds's chest, "No."

"Edmund!" Violet ran out of the Bridgertons' country estate.

Mary followed quickly coming to her husband's side as James cried tears into his wife's chest. His own breathing was beginning to fall short.

"No, Ed-Edmund! Do not leave me!" Violet cried.

"Oh god." Mary whispered, "James, breathe my dear."

Violet looked around. The children of the Bridgertons and Delilah were standing on the steps. "The children, they cannot - they cannot see him. Anthony! Go."

-----

 We all know the great lengths a young lady will go in pursuit of a proposal. And apparently, she will travel great distances too.

Lord Williamson Averey appears to be inching ever so closer to selecting his lady, and to that end has invited our diamond to join him and Miss. Delilah Silvester as they accompany the Bridgerton family for an excursion to the Bridgerton ancestral home, Aubrey Hall.

Speaking of Miss. Delilah Silvester, it is my great pleasure to announce formally the recent engagement that has taken the ton by storm. Viscount Anthony Bridgerton, after one long season and summer, has officially proposed to becoming Viscountess Delilah Silvester.

"Are you nervous, Anthony?" Delilah asked.

Anthony looked away from the window of the Silvester study. A place he had found himself sheltered in with Delilah as time drew nearer to the journey to Aubrey Hall, "Why would I be nervous?"

"You were not the only one to lose a father that day. It is natural to be nervous. I am antsy myself." Delilah said softly.

Anthony sighed, "I will be enjoying my ancestral home with my fiance, I do not have time to think about the past."

-----

 "James!" Mary screamed.

Hours after Edmund Bridgerton had been announced dead, James Silvester was awaiting on death's doorstep as he clung to what he had left of his health.

"I love you, Mary." James gasped, "I love our daughter too.."

"James." Mary sobbed, "James, no you cannot. We lost Edmund already, we cannot lose you. Please,"

Delilah had been staring at the window before she heard the cry of her mother. It had only been a few hours and now her father was leaving her as well. She turned to the open crack in the door. Her mother's shaking figure over her father's stoic, pale, dead one.

"Papa?" Delilah whispered. But it was no use, her father had died of shock on top of his health which had already been in a steady decline. If he had not passed then, he would have by that summer's end.

Delilah stumbled away, her feet carrying her blindly. A tiny window was hidden in a corner of the home that had brought her so much comfort. It was where her father and her would read together. They're spot, one no one else knew of.

She walked around the corner and bumped into a firm chest. Delilah looked up to see a bleary-eyed Anthony.

"Oh, I'm-"

"Don't be sorry Delilah, I know," Anthony whispered.

Anthony enveloped her in a hug. Both had lost the one person who made life work. And now, they were nothing more than names written in the past. Expect they weren't.

That day, in that one summer at Aubrey Hall, both Anthony Bridgerton and Delilah Silvester had lost their fathers. 

-----

"I suppose I don't want to relieve it. I have avoided it for so long." Anthony whispered.

Delilah nodded her head and brought her hand up to Anthony's arm. His eyes watched the glint of his mother's ring, now Delilah's engagement ring, shine on her finger. His breath calmed and he hugged her tight.

"I love you, Delilah Silvester."

"I love you too, Anthony Bridgerton."