Meet Me In The Afterglow | Benedict Bridgerton

A Bee in Your Bonnet

Colin and Benedict are quiet as Elizabeth sits with them both. The other children are in bed, Violet has not moved from her room and Anthony is busy being the new Viscount. The three just sit in silence.

"They tried to make me go inside." Benedict says quietly." They...treat me like a child. You—Colin— and the younger ones, I understand but...I'm nearly seventeen. I'm old enough to know what's happening."

"He was protecting you." Elizabeth says and Benedict scoffs out a," I don't need to be protected, he was my father, I'd rather be faced with the reality."

Colin begins to cry, and almost immediately Benedict is back into protective older brother mode. He wraps his arms around him and shushes him, trying desperately to calm him. Elizabeth sits quietly and watches, tears lining her own eyes as she watches Benedict fight back tears of his own. He was trying to be brave. He didn't have to be brave, he was allowed to grieve. And so was Anthony, who was also clearly making himself busy as to not allow himself to think about anything.

Elizabeth laughs as she watches Edward with his son, lifting him up and spinning him around; the baby laughing loudly. He was a good father, he truly was, and Elizabeth was incredibly proud of him. They're waiting for their parents so they can head to the carriages and go back to their childhood home in Kent; which now belongs to Edward and Annabella.

"Don't spin him too much, he'll be sick." Annabella tells her husband, who just smiles and holds his son close to him, looking very content. Annabella smiles, too, but it fades when Henry walks into the room and asks," Elizabeth, what is this?"

He's stood in the doorway, holding her engagement ring and she stands; frozen in silence. She glances to her brother, who looks slightly confused, and then to her mother; who walks over to her husband and goes to take the ring from out of his hand. Henry snatches it away from her and demands an answer from his daughter.

"It's an engagement ring, father." Elizabeth responds and Edward gasps.

"From whom?" Henry asks.

"Who else? Benedict, of course." Edward responds and then he says," I was present, of course, when the engagement happened I am...just shocked she is telling you now. They had a plan"

"When did this happen?" Emma asks with a smile.

"A few weeks ago, at an event, the poetry reading one; I think that's what it was-

"You were not in attendance of that. I was not going to bring it up but many of my friends have told me you have not been attending many events this season." Henry states and Elizabeth says," fine...I was with Benedict and Edward at a new gentlemen's club of which I was invited to the opening of. It was better than that event could have ever been!"

"You snuck off to go to a place of which women aren't allowed and your brother encouraged it to happen?!" Henry asks, outraged." Let me guess, you've been unchaperoned with him, as well?"

Elizabeth doesn't answer, and Henry scoffs as he says," why can't either of you ever follow the rules? It's just disrespect upon disrespect upon disrespect!"

"Being chaperoned is ridiculous why should someone else sit in on the moment of me falling in love?" Elizabeth states." The whole thing is stupid! I fell in love with him long ago, before any of this stupid debutante business was on your radar for me. I was a child, I thought it was childish love but last season I discovered it wasn't. That is how long we have been courting. We made it this season so that he will be my only option because we love one another and...in the eyes of the rest of the ton, we have been scandal free."