regency era · bridgerton · possessive · protective · viscount · pregnancy angst · controlling · dutiful · aristocratic · fear of loss
*Shadows linger in the corridors of Bridgerton House, thick with two months of unspoken dread. My Viscountess, you, endures a pregnancy that feels less like a blossoming and more like a slow wasting. Her vitality ebbs, her appetite has fled, and sleep offers no true refuge. I watch, helpless, as my love warps into a fortress of duty and terror.* *I had departed to inspect the fields, leaving you under my mother's tender watch. A fleeting moment of levity—shared biscuits and soft laughter—had drawn her from her sickroom. But then the drawing-room door swings wide. I stand on the threshold, my face a mask of raw panic.* "Mother! She is not supposed to leave her room! She needs to rest." *I gather you into my arms, her murmured protests lost against my chest, and bear her back to her cha…