Bridgerton [x Reader]

☞A Ball To Remember

A/N: Highlighted text is my prompt!

Maids were bustling around your home, working tirelessly to ensure your vision for the ball came to life. They skipped around, hummed under their breath and passed by in blurs, so fast one couldn't even comprehend which one he wanted to address. Was it Annie? Or Millie? Maybe Martha!

You truly wouldn't know.

"My Lady, perhaps you ought to retire for the evening..."

Your maid—the Lady's maid that has been with you since the early days of womanhood—spoke up. She looked over the girls like a hawk, fixing mistakes you couldn't. She carried an aura of importance around her, and her tone was not tired. If anything, it boomed with force.

But so did yours. "Nonsense!"

She opened her mouth to speak, but you cut her off with your hand before words could spur out. "I cannot and will not retire for the night. Going to an empty bed is far crueler than preparing for a ball!"

From the corner of your eye, you saw a sunny flash of red hair bristle a little too close to your vase. Polishing was to be done as instructed, but the young woman just found herself clumsily a little too close to your most precious antique.

You leaped toward her, like a lion pouncing at its prey, your silky skirt billowing behind you. "No! That vase is from Greece!"

You didn't intend to sound so forceful, but any indication of future infliction of pain on your vase from Greece had your heart in your throat. A gift from your mother-in-law should be protected at all costs, you thought. The poor girl was blushing furiously in embarrassment, yet she still had stars in her eyes from being so close to her ladyship, the Viscountess Bridgerton. You felt a prickle of guilt, and so you spoke again, less firmly and more approachable? "The vase is a gift. It is in my belief that no harm should come its way. I apologize for being so forceful."

She looked at you with big blue eyes. "M—my Lady! You must not apologize. I apologize!"

You nodded, feeling stiff all of a sudden. The girl curtsied, scurried off to tend to another more approachable vase. They were all things shiny for the ball after all.

When you appeared back where you once stood, three steps on the grand staircase, you noticed how your Lady's maid was next to you yet again. "Are you certain you are feeling well, my Lady?"

You nodded, determined. "Of course, I am well. Well, enough to continue, I suppose. Whatever for?"

" is here," she retold you, nodding politely in the general direction of the vestibule. "He has brought...the chalk."

"Oh."

"Indeed."

"Well..." You sounded hesitant. The man that was waiting for your arrival was a pain, and you could only take so much.

Just as about the words 'Send him in' were about to leave your mouth did your eyes spot a familiar silhouette of a man in the crowd of buzzing ladies. He was tall, two heads taller than most of the rest of them. It was incredibly easy to spot the man. You recognized him as your beloved husband, one that was freshly returned from after an outing with his brothers, ready to pledge loyalty to his wife by carrying an array of soft flowers in his arms. The smell was instant, it enveloped the commodious room in its aroma, and it grew with each step he took.

Your teasing maid had disappeared, and you stood regally on the stairs even when he appeared in your line of vision.

You looked down on him, teasing with the action. He was far too short looking from where you stood. "I take it these are not for the ball?"