A deal of love || Benedict Bridgerton

Chapter 3

*please don't be a ghost reader and leave comments*

Benedict was not pleased to have been forced to accompany his mother to the Danbury ball. It was a dread to be here but he did it for his sister Eloise.

She made her debut earlier this season and the Danbury ball was the first one she would be attending as an official debutant. There wasn't a chance he would let her be alone, knowing she hated the marriage mart.

"I hate it," Eloise mumbled as they entered the Danbury estate, the ballroom filled with debutants and eager Mamas looking for a suitable gentleman for their daughter. "Why couldn't I just have stayed at home, Mama."

"It is your first season out, Eloise. Why would you be at home?" Lady Bridgerton laughed at her daughter, forcing her to walk into the crowded ballroom.

"Because I have no interest here and neither for a husband." Eloise gritted her teeth, trying to stop her Mama from pushing her further into the lion's den but no use with her.

Benedict wasn't much of a fan of society either. He didn't have the interest to marry or talk to potential debutants. In fact, he runs away from them.
"You look lovely my dear," Lady Bridgerton said to her daughter.

"I look like a princess." Eloise complained.

"A pretty pink princess, Eloise Bridgerton," Her older brother Benedict mimicked in her ear, which made Eloise roll her eyes as he continued to laugh at her.

"Benedict, please take Eloise for a turn around the room." His laughter died down and he held his arm out for his little sister to hold.

Benedict pulled Eloise with him and they ran away from their mother and the debutants swarmed Anthony and their mother.

She had said out loud that the viscount was looking for a wife and made all eager Mamas turn their heads.
Benedict was thankful he didn't have the role as the viscount. He didn't want  to marry nor was he thinking of marriage.

He liked his life as the second brother.

"This way," he pointed out, pulling Eloise with him.

"Are you using me as a shield from the debutants?"

"What else do you think I am doing?"

"Thank you," Eloise exhaled loudly. "Because having you use me as a shield means I can use you as a shield. I cannot have a gentleman ask me for a dance. I have two left feet and cannot dance."

"Everyone knows that," they stopped by the lemonade table and grabbed a drink each before they snuck away again.

Elosie nodded, agreeing with her brother.

They stood there at the corner of the ball room, observing as Anthony's personal space was filled with debutants, leaving him no air to breathe, every single one of them asking him to sign his name on their dance card.

His eyes observed the room, but stopped when he saw her.

She came into the ballroom, arm in arm with her mother while her brother walked in front of them, leading them.
She was radiating.

Benedict wasn't sure what it was he was thinking. He only just had seen the woman for the first time and all he wants to do is talk to her.

But she seemed to be married. Why else would she have the title of a Lady?

"Isn't that Penelope?" Benedict pointed out.

"Where?" Eloise asked, her gaze moved around the room and tried to find her supposed best friend.
Benedict took the chance to slip away from his sister, and made his way where the gentlemen stood, sipping on their drinks.

Benedict laughed as his sister gave him an angry look, their mother pulling her to a suitor. He lied. Penelope was never there, but their mother was and a little while lie was never harmful.

"Good evening, gentlemen," he greeted the men.

"Bridgerton," Lord Fife exclaimed. "You arrived just at the perfect time. We were just talking about someone."

"Ahh," he says, uninterested in whom they might be gossiping about. No doubt it would be a debutant.

"We were just discussing whom the queen might select as the diamond. Everyone has put a bet on a debutant. Might want to take your chance and bet with us?"

Bet? On a woman. These men were mad.

Benedict wasn't interested in participating in the ebt but he was interested why the Lady wasn't here with her husband.

"Not interested, though I have a question for you. Who is Lady ehmm?" Had he forgotten her name?
"The Lady in the flower dress."

"The lady in the flower dress?" Lord Fife laughed. "Are you having fantasies about a woman in a flower dress, Bridgerton?"

"You must have." He couldn't have imagined her and she couldn't have disappeared into thin air. "She is the daughter of Lady Livington."

"Duchess of Sussex?"

"Yes."

"Believe me, Bridgerton," Lord Fife placed a hand on his shoulder. "If I had known that the Duchess of Sussex had a daughter, I would have married her long ago. No way I would pass up the opportunity to marry a Duchess' daughter. They seem to be the most obedient."

Benedict couldn't believe his own ears, contemplating that he heard him wrong because those words couldn't have come out of his mouth.

But they did.

Considering they were Lord Fife's words, he wasn't surprised, but it still felt weird to hear him say them out loud.

"Sure, whatever," he shifted the conversation, but the words Lord Fife said were plastered at the back of his head the whole night.

The whole night Benedict seemed to walk around the ballroom like a zombie, his mind on the Lady in the flower dress whose name he could not remember.
How could he forget her name?

And she couldn't have been a figure of his imagination. She was real and he was going to prove it.
Benedict pushed himself through the crowds of people and away from debutants, trying to find his mother, Lady Bridgerton in the crowd.

"Eloise," he called out for his sister, who was hiding by the wall with Penelope Featherington. He got closer. "Eloise. I'm leaving."

"Oh please, take me with you," she pleaded with her brother. "I cannot stand Mama pushing suitors to me. I beg you, Benedict."

"Have fun with your potential suitors. I cannot take you with me." He laughed and left on his horse to a place he always went when he needed a moment to breathe to himself.

The night was almost over and the ballroom slowly was emptying. Eloise would be alright to stay a little longer.
For now, Benedict needed to clear his mind and there was only one place he truly felt ag peace and alone.

The bridge.