Anthony, Viscount Bridgerton and Miss Kate Sharma in Now I know your name, but not who you are
Anthony tried not to clench the fist at his side as he held his hand out to help his mother down from the carriage. Already the music floating out of the ballroom behind them was making his spine prickle. He clenched his teeth and squeezed his eyes closed for a moment, holding himself against the wave of memories one of these parties always brought on. The wind almost carried her voice back to him for a moment. He could have sworn he heard her derisive laugh before she cut his ego down to size, carried back to him on the wind.
“At least try to look as though this isn’t extremely painful, Darling.”
Anthony gave his mother a smile that was half a grimace as he tucked her hand into the crook of his arm. “I’ll try for you, Mama.”
She sighed, patting his cheek. “You’re a sweet boy.”
Anthony laughed, most of it genuine, almost none of it filled with bitterness. “I don’t think you would have said that in years gone by.”
Every year, as they stood here waiting to be announced he felt as though he was going to itch out of his skin with he urge to run away, back to the country with all of the other ghosts. It had dulled since that first year when it felt as though everyone’s eyes were on him as he’d moved quietly to the corner to stand by his mother, daring the other Mamas to come near him and introduce their daughters. Eventually the pointed suggestions that he might make his way to the dance floor had dwindled until only the bravest attempted it at all anymore. A bachelor confirmed now. Far too set in his ways. Once a rake, now a recluse.
He hardly noticed they’d moved to the corner, his eyes fixed on a spot on the ceiling while he waited for Benedict and Sophie to arrive, the small moment of joy they would bring with them and the news of his nephew. He’d go tomorrow to visit Charlie, bring him a new toy, Anthony decidedly absently.
“Darling,” His mother’s voice said urgently in his ear.
Anthony let his eyes wander around the room, in no hurry to meet his mother’s. He let them slide over the faces, realising how much had changed in the landscape of the Ton.
“I know you didn’t want to hear this before but I really think you-“
His heart stuttered in his chest and the world seemed to dull around him, matching the echo of himself that he truly was now.
It couldn’t be her. He was imagining it surely. It was someone else and his traitorous mind was filling in the gaps, trying to set him at ease.
He noticed the flicker of shock in the eyes that met his across the room and it felt as though the wind had been knocked out of him as he stared back at her. After all this time.
“Mrs Bagwell’s sister is in London for the season.”
Anthony barely had time to let his mother’s words sink in. Barely had time to hear them at all before Kate Sharma turned her head and broke their gaze.
Five years later, Anthony and Kate meet again
A Canon Divergence story, now on Ao3
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