Aspire - Kanthony's continuation story

Chapter 9 - The Persuasion of a Prince

Later that night Anthony rolled around restlessly in their bed, trying with aggravating despair to catch some much needed sleep, but the images flashing in front of his eyes prevented any blissful sleepiness from rolling in. He saw Siena laughing at him mockingly, Kate sobbing hopelessly, Edwina throwing herself into the river Thames when she would find out about her husband's adultery, the prince grinning at him viciously while ripping up Siena's corset. He saw his mother kissing the Duke of Stanton passionately, while his father was watching helplessly, his throat and face swollen up and horribly purple from the bee sting. Anthony fought hard to concentrate on happier things, tried to think about his unborn child and how exciting it would be to meet him. Or her. But most likely him, Anthony decided. Kate was fast asleep next to him, breathing calmly and deeply while she was curled up against his warm body like a little hedgehog. He tried to focus on her breathing instead of his own nervous one and finally he started to slowly sink into a restless slumber. But the same thoughts seemed to torture him still, as he suddenly realised he was standing in the forrest outside Aubrey Hall with his father.

"There, Anthony, can you see that mighty beast?" Edmund Bridgerton squatted down behind a large bush and whispered excitedly to his son, pointing at a huge stag emerging behind some trees a bit further away.

"Father..." Anthony gasped, as the dream was so vivid and his long gone father so life-like. He reached out his hand but did not dare to touch him, fearing it would make him disappear.

"What is it? You look like you have seen a ghost." Edmund laughed in his usual warm way. Anthony felt like a little boy once again, standing there looking at his handsome and awe-inspiring father. "Look son, this is how it is done." Edmund smirked, aimed concentratedly at the stag and shot it down with a single swift bullet. The forest echoed from the deer's last bellow and the thud from when it hit the ground. "Haha, there is our dinner sorted out for tonight!" Edmund rejoiced. "Come Anthony, I still want to pick your mother some flowers from the garden before we get back home." He smiled and began to walk away.

"No...!" Anthony cried out and Edmund turned around to look at him wonderingly. "I – I do not want to go home yet." He blurted out, when he realised what day this was. "I... I want to stay out here in the forest, just a while longer... With you." He stuttered. "I do not want to go home, not yet." Anthony wheezed out and Edmund's face melted into a smile.

"Oh, but you are already at home, Anthony. In your own bed." Edmund said with a strange look on his face, just as Anthony was torn away from the forest and his body jerked up from his bed all sweaty and out of breath. He had a bizarre feeling that he was not entirely awake yet, even though Kate was peacefully sleeping next to him as she was supposed to. He glanced around the dark room and noticed to his great surprise that his father was sitting on an armchair in the corner, studying him calmly with his familiar brown eyes. Anthony thought that he should be terrified, but instead he felt that same wonderful feeling of safety he had always had around his father, like he was wrapped into a warm blanket. A certain kind of childish security, which he had not felt in years.

"This is still a dream, is it not..." He said silently.

"Of course it is." Edmund smiled back at him from the corner. "Nice wife." He commented in his usual jestful way, with the same smirk Benedict nowadays carried on in the family. Anthony glanced fondly at Kate, before looking back at his father, who had not aged a day since he had passed at his mere 38 years. "You have done so well, Anthony. Better than I ever could have imagined, even though I always knew you would be a brilliant viscount." Edmund said with a proud smile on his lips. "But I am so sorry that you had to carry that burden from such a young age, I am sure you know that I never would have wanted to leave you all like that..." He continued, his voice weighed down by sorrow.