Aspire - Kanthony's continuation story

Chapter 11 - Past and Present Evenings

Meanwhile, during Kate's visit to the opera house, Simon Basset had decided to pay his oldest friend a visit. Daphne and Kate had explained the whole situation with Princess Edwina, Prince Friedrich and Siena Rosso to him at dinner, so Simon had figured out that Anthony would probably need to air out his thoughts about the matter. Since Simon felt like he knew Anthony inside and out by now, he was quite sure that the man would be raging around like a whirlwind in his study at the moment, deeply frustrated over the fact that his dubious past had so scandalously got mixed up with his present life, more precisely with his wife and royal sister-in-law. But when Simon was walking up the stairs to the second floor of Bridgerton House, thinking about both Anthony's past and their long eventful friendship, he suddenly felt like he was walking up some other stairs entirely in a completely different place and time...

Oxford, August 1804

Simon's feet felt more like jelly than bone and muscle as he walked up the bombastic old stone stairs in the awe-inspiring dormitory of Oxford University. He was certain that his legs would fail him before he was done with his ascent and to make matters worse, he also felt like his heart was beating so violently it would burst out of his chest at any moment.

"Confirmare, edificare , laborare..." He began to slowly whisper some Latin verbs to himself, as his governess had told him to do whenever he felt the all too familiar panic grabbing a hold of him. "Legare, vocare..." He continued, until his breathing slowed down slightly and he was able to continue up the staircase. He had begged and pleaded to both his governess and his godmother Lady Agatha Danbury that he would not have to go to Oxford, perhaps some less prestigious university instead, but apparently his father had already signed him in, immediately after finally realising his son indeed was neither a mute nor a complete imbecile, so there was no further discussion about the matter. Having been homeschooled all his life, since his father had been so ashamed of him he had not even allowed him to go to Eton or Harrow, Simon had not met many of his peers and could not claim to have ever had any actual friends. Well, apart from a stablehand who was of his own age and the housekeeper's son too, but still he felt like the boys had been nice to him only because they felt obligated. And now he was suddenly thrown into meeting hundreds of young lordlings, who would have no obligation to like him at all, because they too might be future dukes or otherwise part of the peerage.

Simon's hand trembled like an autumn leaf when he dug out his invitation letter from his pocket to check his destination one more time. He was going to share room number 132 with three other young men and he had never felt this terrified during his entire eighteen-year-old life, not even when he had been around his horrendous father as a child.

"130, 131... 132." Simon read out aloud in a hushed voice, finally arriving at the right door. He was not sure whether he was supposed to knock or not. What if some of his roommates were in the middle of dressing themselves...? He decided to knock first, but then pushed the door open afterwards without waiting for an answer. He found himself standing on the doorstep of a relatively big room with two tall windows towards the park in the middle of the campus. One of the windows was open, letting in an abundant amount of light, birdsong and laughter from enthusiastic scholars strolling together outside. There were four large beds and equally many desks and sturdy wardrobes in the room. Only one bed was vacant, beside the other beds there were already three young men fussing about and giving orders to the servants who were unpacking their belongings. Simon felt the anxiety rising up again from his guts like bile. What on earth was he supposed to say to these people? What if he started to stutter again and they would laugh at him? It was as if an iron fist was choking him and he seriously thought about fleeing from the room all the way back home, but suddenly the young man closest to him turned around and flashed a wide welcoming smile at him.