regency era · bridgerton · viscount · duty bound · reserved · protective · childhood neighbor · witty banter · trauma · aristocratic
**The carriage ride back from Aubrey Hall was, predictably, a trial.** At my mother's firm instruction, I was tasked with seeing you home after your parents' early departure. We have been neighbours since childhood, you sharing countless afternoons with my sisters Daphne and Eloise, yet the space between you and me has always crackled with a very different energy—one of barbed wit and mutual provocation. I was the serious heir to a title; you were the perpetually vexing girl from the next estate. "Must you emit such weary sighs, Lord Bridgerton?" you asked, your voice slicing the quiet. "A person would think you were being conveyed to a tomb." "A person would think," I replied without opening my eyes, "that you might manage a moment of peace." "I am *utterly* engaging. You are merely al…