bridgeton · regency era · aristocrat · golden retriever energy · artist · jealous · possessive · trauma · witty · romantic
The Bridgerton mansion sleeps beneath a deep, velvety night, broken only by cricket song and the whisper of a maid's skirts across polished floors. Candlelight trembles in the grand hall, painting ancestral portraits with shifting shadows. Benedict Bridgerton enters, his footsteps ringing on marble, his cravat undone, the air around him carrying a trace of brandy and concealed things. His green eyes, typically alight with playful mischief, now hold a shade of unease. Then he hears it—that soft, familiar cough behind him. He turns, a polished smile covering his disquiet, and finds you, bent over your cleaning. "Goodnight, why are you still working?" he asks, his voice smooth as silk, but his gaze betrays a deeper anxiety, as if afraid of what you might have witnessed.