“Benedict Bridgerton?” Lady Danbury said, as she set down the latest copy of Lady Whistledown.
Karlach, who had been in the middle of sipping her tea, nearly choked on the beverage. She seemed to be the only person in town who was not instantly interested in hearing whatever this mysterious lady said, but, she thought ruefully, that maybe she should be if she was going to be involved in it. After a small coughing fit, she said “he invited me to dance! I thought you wanted me to dance with the men of the ton!”
“Oh, I have no objection to it,” Lady Danbury said, with a slight raise of her eyebrow. “In fact, Violet Bridgerton frequently comes for tea, although I fear she’s most likely had her hands full with young Miss Bridgerton’s debut this year.” She folded the paper and set it down on the table, picking up her own tea. “I do hope you do your best to avoid scandal with the Bridgerton boy, however. That family has enough to deal with, especially after the Thompson debacle last year.”
“All we did was dance, I swear,” Karlach said. “He saw that I was rubbish at it, and he was kind enough to show me how the dance went.”
“If my brother did not teach you how to dance before sending you to presentment, I relish my chance to have a word or two with him the next time he stops by. Now the rebellious streak,” she said, lightly tapping her cane against Karlach’s shoe, “you might have inherited from myself.”
Karlach smiled. Even in her short time here, she had heard tales of so many people being afraid to even talk to her aunt, but she’d never seen anything other than abject pleasantness. Well, at least not anything else aimed at her. “So you’re not particularly concerned about my ruining the family image?” she asked, a small smile on her face.
Lady Danbury chuckled. “My dear, if you think running off to dance with a man will ruin our family image, clearly you have not spent enough time with me. I dare say, plenty of members of the ton have found me to be scandalous a time or two, yet I’ve not had a word said to my face.”
“Except by Miss Bridgerton,” Karlach said. Hyacinth, the youngest of the Bridgerton children, had already started the habit of coming over once a week to read to Lady Danbury, who claimed that her eyes were too old to read. Never mind that she had plenty of ability to read Lady Whistledown, Karlach thought. She suspected the old bat had just wanted a friend before she had arrived, and Karlach couldn’t think of a better match for Lady Danbruy than Hyacinth. Both were such spitfires that she was nearly in trouble.
Lady Danbury lightly tipped her cup in Karlach’s direction in acknowledgment, and Karlach watched as it very nearly spilled over the side. “One might argue whether the young Miss Bridgerton has any sense of fear in her bones.”
“And why should she, with such a mentor,” Karlach smiled.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Lady Danbury took a long sip of tea, which made her uncharacteristically quiet for a moment too long. Karlach hadn’t been here very long - hells, it had only been about a week since they had come through the portal, hadn’t it? - but even she knew the old lady enough to tell that she was formulating a plan. Not that that meant much, as she had formulated no less than four plans since they’d met. From what she’d gathered, making plans (particularly matchmaking plans) and working to enact them was what she spent 99% of her life doing. Part of Karlach missed certain aspects of hard labor and the feeling of a job well done. Other parts were grateful for a rest, and if Lady D wanted to scheme her into a match with someone, that was fine with her. She wasn’t planning on being stuck here forever, in this weak body that wasn’t even allowed to express much in terms of emotion, much less rage. If she could find someone to sleep with before then, she might as well enjoy herself.
And, well, if Benedict was anywhere near as good of a lay as he was a dancer, she would happily welcome that.
“In fact,” Lady Danbury said, abruptly thumping her cane on the ground and pushing herself up. Karlach immediately jumped up to help her, but she had already righted herself with far more grace than Karlach would have expected, just before once again leaning heavily on her cane for support. She would never say it to Lady D, but with some of her movements, Karlach severely doubted that she needed her cane as much as she claimed to. “I believe I was supposed to call on my dear Violet this morning.”
Karlach narrowed her eyes. “You just so happened to be calling on Mrs. Bridgerton this morning? And you just remembered after reading Lady Whistledown?”
“Strange how memories work some days, is it not? Now, come, child - the good Lord knows I can’t escort myself.”
Karlach rolled her eyes, but followed Lady Danbury as she walked out to her carriage, her cane thumps accompanying her monologue. Karlach nodded along and tried to pretend she was paying attention, but in reality, she was thinking about how quickly the marriage market moved in this place and, even though she was excited about the prospect of sleeping with someone again, she had no idea how long it would take for them to be able to get back through the portal. She hadn’t really had a chance to meet with the rest of them save for small chat at the ball, but she couldn’t really ask them if they’d had a chance to search for the portal then, could she? Gods know that she hadn’t been able to go out and look for it herself. Despite their ridiculous expectation that a lady be monitored at all times (to protect her reputation, she knew, but still, did they honestly not think that any of the women of the ton could protect themselves?), Lady Danbury asked her where she was going nearly every time she stood up from her chair. While Lady D was ultimately pretty unconcerned with her family’s reputation for a while, she was still nosy as all get out, and Karlach was pretty sure “I’m searching for a magical portal to take me back to my home world,” would do nothing other than concern and confusion. And Karlach definitely didn’t want to spend her time in this world locked in a mental institution unable to get out.
“Don’t you agree?” Lady D suddenly interrupted, suddenly pulling Karlach’s mind back to reality. Or as close to reality as she could get at the time being.
“I’m afraid my mind drifted off,” she answered truthfully, “but I want to say yes?”
“Always a good plan when one is talking to someone like myself,” Lady Danbury agreed. “I was saying that fall is a lovely time for a wedding, is it not?”
Karlach stopped, putting the reluctant Lady Danbury with her. “I’ve had one night dancing with him!” she protested.
“In which you danced more times than is generally considered proper,” Lady Danbury said, lightly whacking the side of Karlach’s leg with her cane. “I said I didn’t mind. I didn’t say it would get you out of the wedding.”
“We are not about to force Benedict to propose to me!” Karlach nearly yelled. She could feel the panic welling up in her body - that sudden flush of heat in her chest that reminded her too much of her old infernal heart, which just made her current heart beat faster.
“Of course,” Lady Danbury said. “We’re not forcing anyone to do anything. But still,” she said, pulling Karlach forward again, “when it happens, my personal vote is for a fall wedding. We’ll see what he says when we arrive.”