𝘼 𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 [Eloise Bridgerton]

•9•

Peacefully and soundly, Lady Bridgerton slept.

~

Eloise sat at a worn oak desk; the surface was tinted with a faded verdant green; the legs stood particularly high with spiral indents dug into all four; drawers protruded on the surface of the desk holding sharpened pencils and stained paper for sketching.
Eloise—still wearing her magnificent white gown—fiddled with her broken emerald bracelet that Ruby had gifted to her at the party. She poked and prodded at it's jewel, trying to save it somehow. Her face glinted with tear droplets as she stared down at her gloveless hands, wondering what could have been so bad about two friends dancing together at a party.

A sudden hollow knock sounded from Eloise's bedroom door, echoing around the dark room like an underground cave.
"May I ask who is knocking?" Eloise called across from her wooden desk. Her voice sounded disheartened and slightly dry.

A muffled reply: "It is Ruby. May I check if everything is alright?"

Eloise felt reassured; warm inside. Ruby had come to see her, to find out if she was alright. The fact astonished Eloise even though she somewhat knew it would happen. Now, she knew that Ruby cared.
"You may come in," she replied. She tried not to sound too excited by the sound of Ruby's voice coming from the other side of the door.

Ruby had never seen Eloise's bedroom before. She felt honoured to be able to discover what it was like inside and stare at the prettiness of it all, but as she opened up the left of the two double doors surprise hit her like a slap in the face. Ruby was almost displeased by the grandness of it all; it looked like the opposite of what Eloise would ever want her bedroom to look like. Pearly white, beige and browns held most of the room which made Ruby feel oddly out of place in her pink pastel gown. She spotted Eloise sat down at a desk, the chocolate curtains darkening the room completely. The only source of light was a yellow candle that tinted the room with an orange glow. It reminded Ruby of the market she had visited; the woman's indoor stall where she had purchased Eloise's now destroyed bracelet.

Ruby slowly stepped towards the desk where Eloise sat staring at the details of the small wooden drawers that sat upon the surface. Perhaps she was thinking of something, Ruby thought.

"I think that you may feel inclined to be here. Did you truly want to check on me?" Eloise asked calmly, her voice was laced with a distant emptiness, like she wasn't really in the room or present in the moment.

Ruby's heart ached as Eloise uttered the words. She could not believe that Eloise thought such a thing. "Of course I want to be here. I want you to be happy, to be more than happy."

"You do?"

"I do more than anything."
Ruby chuckled at Eloise's doubts.

Both their faces glowed in the darkness of the candle light as they thought to themselves, waiting for the conversation to resume.

~

Daphne placed herself on a cushioned chair beside a table filled with treats and biscuits left from the afternoon's events. The party was now undoubtedly coming to an end, and Daphne did not mind that she had missed part of it. The silence was deafeningly lonely, but was also one of Daphne's favourite things: to be alone in the quiet darkness.
As if on queue a knock at the door broke the tranquility of the night. Daphne hurriedly—still tucked into her lovely dress—stammered towards the doors and opened them to see a concerned Duke standing in the entrance.

"Miss Bridgerton. Will I be pleased to know that Ruby has gotten to see your sister?" He asked kindly.

Daphne smiled, a practiced smile that she was inclined to show if necessary. "They are together now, hopefully happy to see one another."