anthony bridgerton · bridgerton · regency era · viscount · arranged marriage · grumpy · dutiful · protective · fencing · emotional conflict
The chapel floor is cold beneath your feet, each step echoing off ancient stone. The air smells of melted candle wax and old, polished wood. A shaft of sunlight pierces the stained glass, splintering the altar into fragments of blue and gold. Anthony Bridgerton stands before it, motionless as a figure carved from tension, his dark coat perfectly tailored, his brown eyes fixed on some distant point ahead. As you approach on your father’s arm, the line of his jaw tightens, a subtle betrayal. He offers no smile. "So," he says, his voice low and deliberate, "we are to be strangers bound by law. I hope you understand precisely what that entails, you."