Chapter Text
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The dawn was freezingly cold and yet, driven more by a sense of duty than a need to take a ride, the Viscount took his everyday horse ride. Making sure the lands were taken care of well was just as much his duty as taking care of his family. If there was something Anthony knew for sure, even despite how vey doubtful towards he own choices had always been, he knew that he just cannot let his family down.
He was riding fast; the Bridgerton lands stretching down to the never ending horizon, all surrounded by a rich forest were quite a challenge, even for a horse rider as experienced as he was. His face was nearly freezing just by the wind blowing straight in his face and he would have nearly rode straight down the forest path, just as he always did, were it not that something had caught his attention. Something laying on the frozen grass; a piece of fabric he would have nearly ignored, were it not that he spotted a horse, wandering around with an evident nervousnesses.
It was a woman, he had suddenly realised, having run straight to her; a girl laying among the grass just as peacefully as though she was just sleeping.
‚Miss! Miss!’ He said, trying to wake her up, but as he wrapped her in his coat, she only whispered something half consciously, closing her eyes just as soon as she opened them. ‚Just tell me what is your name’ Anthony added though it was for no use.
Riding back home, he embraced her tightly in his arms, nuzzling his face in her hair. There were droplets of ice all over her curls, her body was just as cold as the weather recently was and the Viscount couldn’t help but to wonder what could have brought her to his lands.
‚Has she woken up?’ He asked still to shocked to even wash the blood off his hand.
‚No. Son…’ Lady Bridgerton whispered and having taken a look at him, only sighed. ‚The doctor cleared and stitched the wound on her head. But he says that judging by her condition, there is not a slightest chance that she shan’t be having a pneumonia’
‚Pneumonia?’ Anthony only repeated as his mother nodded her head. All in all, pneumonia was the most forbidden word in their house; it was the reason why lord Edmund, the previous Viscount died. It was the reason why the house never stopped mourning, not even after the passage of over six years since that.
‚Brother’ Daphne said and smiled as she started cleaning his hand. ‚I am sure she will be well. Mrs. Wilson says that the stableboy said her horse was in a quite good condition. They couldn’t have spent more than just a day in the freeze’
‚Mmm…’ Anthony answered and smiled, trying his best to hide how very scared he, in fact was. Having been practicing the skill of hiding his own fears and insecurities, the Viscount liked to think that over the past years, he had gotten quite skilled at.
‚There is something…’ his mother quietly whispered, having placed her hand on Anthony’s arm. ‚There is something you ought to know. She does have plenty bruises’
‚She fell off the horse’ he said, having swallowed hard at the very memory of how delicate the girl, in fact seemed to him.
‚Of course she did. I wouldn’t have even mentioned this to you, were it not that the bruises couldn’t be the reason of the fall. But there are bruises on her wrists… And in so many more places that I should not even mention about’
‚I shall try to find her parents on my own. But given the circumstances, we just cannot officially admit that we do not know whom she is’ the Viscount quickly decided. ‚Won’t you agree, mother?’
‚Oh…’ Lady Bridgerton whispered.
‚Tell the servants that she is our distant cousin from father’s side of the family’
‚Well then’ Violet agreed and smiled, having nodded her head. ‚Perhaps a little lie would be for the better. Perhaps that girl was simply escaping from something or someone horrible’ she whispered to what, in exchange, the Visocunt answered with only a nod.
The very presence of the unknown lady upstairs, seemed just as though what they all needed. She was in comma and even despite how little chances was the doctor giving her for recovery, Lady Bridgerton seemed to be never leaving her room, always sitting by her bed just alike Daphne and Eloise. Perhaps it was the hope that she will eventually get better that helped them all heal the wound after the loss of their dearest father. It just seemed, as though for the very first time in many years, life in Aubrey Hall started having it purpose; even Violet, so very absorbed in making sure the girl was taken care of well enough, had nearly forgotten about her dearest husband’s birthday.
The Viscount yet kept on spending at least a few hours, each and every day, doing nothing but only over and over again looking through the things he had found in her bag. He quickly put her clothes aside, instead focusing his attention on the jewellery and all the more private of her things, which he driven more by a feeling than a decision he had made, never showed, not even to his mother. There were initials on the two bangles, B and M; there was a card with an address in Kent and a few pounds hidden in her coat’s pocket. She was no noble lady, that was yet what he could decide after he had taken a longer look to her clothes. It was very modest, mostly the cheapest cotton. Though her velvet coat, in the shape of a dark plum was the reason of his constant sleeplessness. Without a slightest doubt even, the Viscount knew that the very thought of someone coming to Aubrey Hall and taking her form them, was his biggest nightmare.
‚I’ve recently started reading to her. And I have seen her quirking her eyebrow a bit. I really did!’ Eloise said by the breakfast. ‚Why is no-one eager to believe me?’ She added as Lady Bridgerton only sighed.
‚Pneumonia is a hard disease. Let’s pray that the girl shall survive it’ their mother only said.
‚Mmm…’ the Viscount only answered.
‚Have you found out anything about her family, brother?’ Daphne asked.
‚No. No-one has been even searching for her’ he said and sighed, thinking of how very scared she must have been, riding alone at night.
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