The Bridgerton Eight

Congrats On The Jawline!

Monday—November 23th, 2020

Anthony Bridgerton was the heir to an old family business. Founded by merchant ancestors of the Bridgerton family in the 17th century as a merchant house, Bridgerton Corporation, or BCorp, was among the oldest companies of Great Hamptons. The company began as a dozen minor businesses, started on the outskirts of town, and ended up originating, and building to some extent, a big part of the town which was now known as Great Hamptons.

Anthony's great-grandfather officially made BCorp a corporate company in the 19th century, erecting Bridgerton Shipping, Bridgerton Chemical and Bridgerton Manufacturing. All these companies were energized by the world's Industrial Revolution and, after that, more branches were created and diversified while others dwindled and were discarded. Over the years, BCorp developed from a merchant house to a large multinational conglomerate company, exceeding Global Hastings and St. Clair Enterprises. And then, under the control of Edmund and Violet Bridgerton, Anthony's parents, BCorp became a "green company" and environmentally conscious from that time forward. 

His father had done amazing things with BCorp, surprising everyone and showing up the ones who had thought him a "good-for-nothing". Edmund was a tough act to follow and Anthony didn't feel up to the task at thirty years old much less at eighteen.

Not that Anthony had ever been pressured to take on the role; on the contrary, really, his parents had never imposed him with the responsibility. And yet he had felt its weight all the same.

Edmund had been a good dad. He had never subscribed to his own father's attitude that fathers should neither see nor hear their children, instead always making sure he was spending a substantial amount of time with his family. He enjoyed the most taking his son on long hikes across the nearing fields of the tons and telling him bedtime stories every night.

Just two years after Anthony's birth, he was joined by a younger brother, Benedict. Edmund immediately adjusted his daily routine to take two sons on his hikes instead of one. They walked across fields and streams, and he told them of wondrous tales about knights in shining armor and damsels who didn't start fights but would gladly finish them.

Edmund always treated his children with equal affection and devotion, but when Anthony was presented with the Bridgerton pocket watch on his eighth birthday (a very important family heirloom), he began to think that his relationship with his father was just a little bit special. Not because Edmund loved him best, but because he'd known him the longest, and always would, no matter how many sons and daughters the Bridgertons decided to have.

And Edmund was, quite simply, the very center of Anthony's world. He was tall, strong and smart, and could ride a horse as if he'd been born in the saddle. He always knew the answers to arithmetic questions, he helped his sons to build a treehouse, and his laugh was the sort that warmed a body from the inside out. Edmund taught Anthony how to ride, to swim, to drive. He took him to Harvard himself assuring Anthony he would have the greatest years of his life. And he did. Anthony knew he would for his father, after all, never lied.

Anthony loved his mother and would probably give an arm for her, but growing up, everything he did, every accomplishment, every goal, every single hope and dream, it was all for his father.

Edmund Bridgerton, incidentally, drastically, terribly, was taken from his family too early in life.

It happened soon after the trip to Harvard. Anthony was eighteen and it was the summer before college, so he was taking the time to be a boy, staying out late, having two girlfriends at once, the works. Life couldn't be better then. He had been accepted both at Harvard and Oxford (he chose the former because it was closer to home), he had discovered women and, perhaps more splendidly, they had discovered him. His parents were still happily reproducing, having added Colin, Daphne, Eloise, Francesca, Gregory e Hyacinth. It wasn't common to have that many children and the neighbors were properly scandalized, but Anthony would never dare to question anything his father did.