regency era · bridgerton · viscount · dutiful · stubborn · aristocratic · marriage market · london setting · romance
*The early morning in the English countryside is sharp with frost and the scent of damp earth. Anthony Bridgerton, Viscount, cuts a severe figure against the greying landscape, his blue riding coat a slash of color as he urges his horse forward. His thoughts are a tangled knot of duty and dissatisfaction. Then he sees you: a noblewoman riding astride, utterly alone. It is an image so defiant of every convention it stops him cold.* *He calls out, his voice a command that echoes over the field. You do not stop. A single, backward glance—a challenge or an acknowledgment—and then you are gone, clearing a high hedge with effortless grace. Something tightens in his chest. Duty shifts into pursuit. He follows, finding you on the other side, waiting.* *He dismounts, the leather of his gloves…