A deal of love || Benedict Bridgerton

𝐀 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐨𝐯e

They say when two lost souls meet, and get lost, they yearn to find each other again.
𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐛𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐲 𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐝.

𝐀 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 is the love story between a widowed countess who decides to look for a secure match after losing her husband and a guy who yearns for the feeling to be full filed and finally find love.

This story may contain explicit scenes in detail, abusive sibling, mention of still born, miscarriage, and mention of death that may be sensitive to some readers. Your mental health matters!




STORY UPDATE: If you have watched my tiktoks, then you would know that my MC name is Bridget. That is changing since Bridget doesn't mesh well with the last name Bridgerton. 

Meet Lady Colette Abernathy. 

***

Prologue

They said home was where the heart laid.

Lady Colette Abernathy could be proof of the saying because for the last two years she had been far away in Scotland with her husband, feeling more at home there than anywhere else.

Enjoying the company of one another and the silence Scotland had offered to them.

They fell in love during their childhood, but only when Colette stepped into society did Lord Abernathy have the courage to ask her for a dance and as historians say, the rest may be history.

Their love started with a friendship and a love like that never dies.

George had given her the freedom she had wished for all her life and gave her the chance to be far away from her brother.

He could be difficult when he wasn't in a good mood.

Colette put the book down on her lap, wondering where her husband would be on this fine morning.

He could be sleeping but that thought would rather concern Colette since her husband wasn't the one to sleep long because he cares about his duties.

"Annabell?" She called out for her maid. "Is George still in bed?"

Annabell nodded. "His grace seems to catch up on the sleep he recently has missed. Shall I fetch someone to wake him?" The maid was ready to leave out the door to get someone but Briget put her hand up in the air, stopping her.

"Don't disturb anyone. I shall rouse him myself. He has an important meeting with Lord Darkwater." She pointed out. "I must remind him of that." Colette got up from her seat, her back slightly hurting as the baby growed in her belly.

After almost two years, she had been with child.
She had never struggled to conceive a pregnancy, but rather to keep them.

It was odd but such a wonderful feeling of finally getting to have a child of her own after watching everyone around her have them. She had a daughter but she was not breathing.

Still born.

That day was Colette's greatest loss and one she hoped she would never have to feel again.

This time the child will be okay. She would have a love of her own. A different kind of love that differs from the one she had with her husband.

And a child she had wished for so long.

The lady shut the book she had been occupied with and got up from the lounge chair in the drawing room, making her way to their bedchamber.

She knocked on the door once before she opened it, hoping not to have caught him in a private business. "My love," she called out for George who had been still lying in bed. His body was facing the wall opposite the door.

A small smile spread across Colette's face and she picked up her skirts, making her way up the bed. The bed shifted as she sat down on her side of it and gently moved her husband to his back.

She watched her husband with much adoration as she moved a piece of his front strand away from his face, which was peaceful as ever.

"George, time to wake up." She said in a gentle voice, hoping not to scare him out of his sleep. She slightly rolled her eyes at her husband as he had been clearly ignoring her and acting as if he was sleeping.

"George?" She called out for him one last time before a blood curdling scream filled the room and Annabell came rushing through the door.

"George!" She shouted at him, shaking him by his cravat and trying everything to wake him up but he wasn't. He laid there as Colette kept shaking him by his cravat and shouted from him to wake up. Hot tears slid down her face in fiery lines as she kept screaming for her husband to wake up.

"Wake up! Annabell help me!" She cried. "Do it! Wake him up!"

Annabell's tongue was twisted shut but somehow she knew. She knew it was weird he didn't wake for his usual morning tee.

He was gone.

"My lady," she whispered as she moved towards Colette.

"Wake him up, Annabell! Please!" She screamed, her hands gripping onto the shirt of her husbands while she looked at her maid with teary falling from her eyes in fiery strikes.

"Please..." she sobbed harder, her voice hoarse from shouting. "Annabell, he cannot be gone. Please, wake him." Colette pleaded with her maid to wake him up but all Anna bell could do was sit down on the bed next to Colette and hug her.

She collapsed in her arms, her cries haunted the room. Her tears continued to fall and soaked the maids skirt. "He is gone..." She whimpered. "He is gone."

"I know, I am so sorry." Annabell said and tightened her arms around Colette, hoping to comfort her.

And suddenly, the room went quiet. Colette pulled away from Annabell's embrace and looked at her, her eyes searching her face for answers Colette knew she didn't have. "Oh Annabell, what am I to do?"

"Everything will be figured out." She reassured the now widowed countess as she ran a hand through the fallen strands in front of her face.

Colette's eyes were bloodshot red and the tears stained her pale skin, her cheeks red as well.

"And the child?"

"I don't know," She said, because she didn't. She didn't know what would happen now with the earl dead and the countess with his child. One thought passed by Annabell's mind but she pushed the thought away. They can't do that.

"But we will figure it out." She reassured her.

All her life, nothing has prepared her for a moment like this.

Losing her husband before they had their child.

Losing her husband early into their marriage without much security.

If Lady Colette were to bring a boy, he would be the next earl and her title would be secure.

But if it was a girl, there might be some trouble.

Colette knew that.

Annabell knew that.

But a baby swap if she were to have a girl would be crazy, right?

It had been done before.

But Colette couldn't bring it to herself to do that to her child.

It was George's child too and if it were to be a girl, it would be George's girl. 

—-

A/N: Her backstory will always hunt me because it is such a sensitive subject for me. 

But no worries. She will have a happy ending. 

Kisses.
Astra 🩷