Day 7: Aubrey Hall

Day 7: Aubrey Hall

Seeing Aubrey Hall brings into sharp relief what a lady author meant in her descriptions of another great estate.

Day 4: "People are staring at us." (Damsel in Distress)

Kate and Anthony decide to run into each other on purpose. It goes well until it doesn't.

TW: mild head injury

Day 3: Don't Leave

It was so, so late. Anthony should have been home hours earlier, but he just... couldn't. Kate was already in bed, curled away from his side. His limbs felt clumsy as he tried to quietly undress.

"It's okay, you know." Her voice cut like a knife through the oppressive silence in the room. "You never made me any promises. You don't owe me anything."

It felt like there was a vice in his chest squeezing impossibly tight.

"This is your home," she continued, clearly oblivious to his misery, "I never want you to feel like you can't be here. I can always stay with Ed or Mary--"

"No," it sounded as strangled as he felt. "You don't have to leave."

Kate let out a quiet huff. "I know that I don't have to, but I--"

Anthony cut her off again. "Please don't. I… I want you to stay."

The silence stretched out between them for an impossibly long time.

"Okay," she said finally but something was off in her tone. "Now come to bed. It's late and we both have early mornings."

Anthony did as he was told but the vice refused to loosen. Sleep was elusive that night.

Day 1: Kate being Kate (Menace)

Anthony Bridgerton was not hiding. He was the Lord of Aubrey Hall and if he so happened to choose to spend his afternoon seated in his office rather than greeting the arriving guests, that was his prerogative. And he really did have work to get done, which was probably why his mother had only put up token protests at his planned absence.

Of course, he was not actually working, but he was not hiding, either, and that seemed the most important point. It honestly wouldn't have mattered if he'd tried. Where could a man hide from his own dreams? There was no escaping his unconscious-- no settling his mind or body because Kate Sheffield was…

Walking in the gardens right outside his window. Of course she was; an apparition made real before his very eyes.

Kate was facing away from him, walking-- marching, really-- toward his mother's flower garden like it was her job. She never glided or moved at a sedate pace like other women of his acquaintance. Kate strode with purpose. Even without her signature dark, thick curly hair and the soft curve of her waist meeting her bottom (the memory of squeezing said bottom being a favorite to torture himself with), Anthony knew he would have recognized her from her gait alone. 

Did he know Edwina's walk? 

The thought came unbidden to his mind and Anthony frowned momentarily. He had walked with her on several occasions and yet he could not say for certain how she moved. Gracefully, he supposed, as the incomparable must. Probably at a benignly moderate pace befitting a genteel woman of her height. Which was about a half of a head shorter than Kate.

Like clockwork his mind was back on Kate again. He couldn't even see her any longer, she'd made it into the no garden near the tulips. Kate was very fond of tulip style sleeves; he wondered absently if she was also partial to the flowers.

Another unbidden thought came into his mind (did Edwina have a preferred style of sleeve?) but he squashed it ruthlessly. That way led to madness. There would be time aplenty to learn all the intricacies and minutiae of his future bride once they were married.

Anthony stood, suddenly restless. It was no good being cooped up indoors when the weather was so fine. A walk through the gardens would be just the thing. And if he happened to run into Kate, the more the better as it would provide him another opportunity to press his suit. 

His mind flashed to the memory of Kate pressed against him and he shook his head emphatically in an attempt to clear it from his mind. Anthony was pursuing Edwina Sheffield not her stubborn, belligerent, appealing menace of an older sister. (The irony that he had decided to quite literally pursue Kate out of doors was not lost on him.)

Still, it was with supreme confidence that Anthony exited Aubrey Hall and stepped into the sunshine-- the kind of confidence peers of the realm always seemed to be in possession of. He would conquer whatever hold Kate Sheffield had over him and marry her perfectly nice, perfectly bland sister simply because that was what he had decided to do.

He just had to find her first...

Day 3: "You have no idea how much I want you." (Barista AU)

Anthony and Kate keep running into each other. One of them is more unhappy about it than the other.

Day 1: "You have no idea who I am, do you?" (Enemies to Lovers)

When famous actor Anthony Bridgerton makes a terrible impression on human rights lawyer Kate Sharma at a party celebrating her model sister it shouldn't matter. It doesn't matter. Until he expresses an interest in her barely legal model sister, that is.

or

Anthony Bridgerton and Kate Sharma definitely aren't George and Amal Clooney.