"I THINK YOU'RE THE ONLY MAN I CAN STAND."
"AND I WEAR THAT LIKE A BADGE OF HONOR."
IN WHICH OLD FRIENDS
REUNITE UNDER THE
STARS OF THE TON
BRIDGERTON S1-S3
BENEDICT BRIDGERTON X OC
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THE COUNTESS'S RETURN
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THE SALISBURY HOUSE in Grovesnor Square was unbearably lonely. All the life had been sucked out of it when her mother had passed and when her father had followed the Countess into the afterlife, there was no reason to go anywhere else.
All the pressure had fallen onto Lizzie, who spent most of her time in her room dealing with the books and writing when all else had failed. She'd become a recluse, some saying she was mad. That she talked to herself.
No one wanted to associate with the Mad Countess of Salisbury, let alone try and court her. No title was worth that much to the ton. Lizzie had given them no reason to doubt it, leaning into that perception of her.
It was her way of coping she supposed. Talking to Death and writing down the conversations they had. Sometimes she would ask about her mother, other times her father.
But she always asked the same question regardless of how much time she and Death spent together.
"When are you coming for me?"
And always Death replied, "Not for a long time."
Her heart sank at his reply and she went back to writing and wasting her days away, giving the servants something to talk about. She could afford to keep them all on obviously, considering their books were quite well-kept. So she let them have their freedoms while she wasted away in her white cotton dress and dark curled locks, her ink-stained hands the only company she'd had for a long time.
She vaguely recalled a time when there had been others. Renee Baldwin with her long blonde hair and soft kisses, pressing themselves against her neck, and then her collarbone, and finally between her thighs, right where Lizzie wanted it. There will still times when her stomach flopped at the thought of the young woman, now Baroness Everton and happily married.
They'd grown up together, been brought into society together. Their mothers practically sisters.
But those innocent moments in the garden turned into hidden kisses in the library which turned into their bodies pressed against each other in a moment in unholy fervor. But there was little Lizzie could do to stop herself from feeling the way she did.
If Mrs. Baldwin wouldn't have caught them a month ago, Lizzie was certain Renee would have run away with her.
Escaping to the Salisbury countryside to live out the rest of their days as fallen angels.
And Renee was so much like an angel. Blonde waves framing her naked face, bright emerald eyes peeking through long lashes that begged to be kissed. The two of them had always been the talk of the ton whenever they'd appeared in London. Their last two seasons causing quite a stir.
