𝘼 𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 [Eloise Bridgerton]

•10•

A sudden sound propelled Ruby upwards, causing her to sit upright in Eloise's brown quilted bed.
The noise struck again; a fist to wood. It took Ruby a second to realise that she happened to be sitting inside of Eloise's bed.
Eloise's bed.
She was in Eloise's bed.

Ruby squirmed her way through the heavy quilt and onto the cold morning floor. The knocks began to get even more deafening as Ruby swiftly made her way towards Eloise's side of the bed, shaking her and whispering for her to awake from her deep slumber.

"Eloise! Please wake up!"

As Ruby shook her friend, she felt the warmth of sleep rise from the bed sheets and brush her gentle cheeks. She truly never wanted to leave the comfort of Eloise's hazy brown bedroom and hoped they'd spend the night together again someday. That is, if she left the room without getting caught.

Finally, Eloise woke to Ruby's deep green eyes staring into hers, panicked and urgently searching for what to do. There wasn't much time to process the loud banging against the wooden door, as Ruby had already pulled Eloise from the comfort of her mattress and bombarded her with questions of what to do and where to go and how to hide.

Eloise, in her undergarments, looked completely shocked. "Ruby, please calm down! I have so little time to process your words!"

Their loud whispers barely overpowered the noise of the knocking wood and the shouting behind the door.

Ruby took a breath, "I am very sorry Eloise, but I'm afraid I might've overstayed my welcome."

Eloise couldn't help but notice the small bouncing curls of Ruby's unbrushed morning hair; the messiness of her makeup in result of not cleaning her face the day before. Her eyes were panicked which made them look like extremely wide emerald jewels placed perfectly behind her pupils.

"Eloise?" Ruby hissed, "there is no time to stare at nothing. I have to leave, now!"

"My mother is out there waiting for me to answer her calls! I'm afraid it is impossible to escape!"

"Where else do you expect me to go? I can't exactly jump out of the window!" Ruby scoffed.

Eloise looked around desperately, searching for somewhere to hide her friend.
The only place she could see was the oversized curtains that drooped sadly over the windows, covering very little daylight. Eloise often wondered why she even had curtains in the first place. They didn't even cover up the outlines of the windows!

Ruby felt herself propel forward as Eloise dragged her towards the brown and beige drapes.
"Is this really a good idea? You can see right through them!"

"It's my only option. Just get behind them now!"

Ruby lunged towards the curtains and tucked herself behind them, feeling her back press against the fragile glass windows.

Knocks of anger and urgency were practically deafening, and shouts of "Eloise!" were almost loud enough to be inside the room.
Ruby steadied her breathing as she listened to the door lock click, and the handle creak open.

"Mother! I'm am ever so sorry. I had gotten myself tangled inside of my bed sheets and couldn't get to the door in time."

Lady Bridgerton frowned, looking flustered, almost confused at why and how her daughter could have possibly got stuck in bed sheets. "Eloise."

"Yes, Mother."

"Why didn't you just call to me and tell me that you were trapped."

Eloise froze. Ruby felt the emptiness and awkwardness of the room as Eloise thought about her answer.

"I didn't think of that?" she said, but the words came out all wrong and ended up sounding like a question more than a confident statement.

"I see," Lady Bridgerton doubted.

The room fell silent once again.
For a moment, Ruby had thought that Lady Bridgerton might've spotted her behind the translucent curtains.

Instead, Eloise's mother sighed.
"I need to talk to you about what happened at that tragic party, Eloise. But for now, get dressed and meet me in the suite."

—

Guys, I'm so sorry for not updating sooner.
I want to thank you for 4K+ reads on this. I really didn't expect this many people to read this story.
I know I promised more updates but life has been pretty hard at the moment. I've been going through a lot of mental struggles and I just haven't been motivated to write anything.
I have also recently started college which is harder than I expected. There is so much homework I have to catch up on and not enough time to write for fun.
I know a lot of you really love this story and I have gotten a few messages from people saying they love this and would like me to write more.
I really do appreciate the kind messages and it makes me happy to know that people enjoy my writing.
I will try my best to think of some more interesting tropes for this story that might make me want to put more time into it.
I am not giving up yet.
Thank you for all the support.
- Plumb <3