SYNOPSIS London's brightest debutante never meant to fall in love. The Duke who swore never to marry never meant to stay. Named the Season's Diamond and admired by the Queen, Miss Elizabeth Heartly is the center of society's gaze where admiration can turn to ruin in a whisper. The Duke of Park wants nothing to do with courtship, but a clever arrangement between them offers the perfect solution: A pretend attachment. An escape from expectation. Nothing more. But ballrooms reveal truths, and stolen glances become something far more dangerous. As gossip spreads and a royal proposal threatens everything, Elizabeth and the Duke must decide if their careful charade is worth risking their hearts and their reputations. Because in a world built on appearances, the greatest scandal of all... is falling in love for real.
GENRE Duke! martin x Debutante! reader, Fake Dating, smau
TAGLIST Open!
STATUS Ongoing...
AUTHOR'S NOTE Hi everyone! So this is actually my first time writing a story and I'm a bit nervous. I love Bridgerton and I thought this would be fun with the new season coming out! I hope you guys like this, send an ask or comment to be added to the taglist!
SYNOPSIS London's brightest debutante never meant to fall in love. The Duke who swore never to marry never meant to stay. Named the Season's Diamond and admired by the Queen, Miss Elizabeth Heartly is the center of society's gaze where admiration can turn to ruin in a whisper. The Duke of Park wants nothing to do with courtship, but a clever arrangement between them offers the perfect solution: A pretend attachment. An escape from expectation. Nothing more. But ballrooms reveal truths, and stolen glances become something far more dangerous. As gossip spreads and a royal proposal threatens everything, Elizabeth and the Duke must decide if their careful charade is worth risking their hearts and their reputations. Because in a world built on appearances, the greatest scandal of all... is falling in love for real.
GENRE Duke! martin x Debutante! reader, Fake Dating, smau
SYNOPSIS London's brightest debutante never meant to fall in love. The Duke who swore never to marry never meant to stay. Named the Season's Diamond and admired by the Queen, Miss Elizabeth Heartly is the center of society's gaze where admiration can turn to ruin in a whisper. The Duke of Park wants nothing to do with courtship, but a clever arrangement between them offers the perfect solution: A pretend attachment. An escape from expectation. Nothing more. But ballrooms reveal truths, and stolen glances become something far more dangerous. As gossip spreads and a royal proposal threatens everything, Elizabeth and the Duke must decide if their careful charade is worth risking their hearts and their reputations. Because in a world built on appearances, the greatest scandal of all... is falling in love for real.
GENRE Duke! martin x Debutante! reader, Fake Dating, smau
TAGLIST Open!
STATUS Ongoing...
AUTHOR'S NOTE So i know i've been gone for a few days because my computer wasn't working but, I'M BACK!
Elizabeth had not wished to dislike Miss Marina Thompson.
Indeed, when she finally met her—at a small afternoon musicale hosted by the Featherington’s—she found her perfectly pleasant.
Maria was warm, lively, and possessed of a laugh that seemed to invite confidence rather than competition.
Which, somehow, made everything worse.
“You must find it terribly overwhelming,” Marina said kindly, gesturing to the crowded room. “All this attention, I mean.”
Elizabeth smiled, the expression practiced now. “Yes. Overwhelming.”
Across the room, Marina was surrounded. Gentlemen leaned in. Laughter followed her movements like music. She required no champion, no guardian—she simply was.
Marley wondered, not for the first time, whether perfection had become a kind of cage.
Later that evening, returning home, she paused at the window once more.
Lights glowed warmly across the street. Another carriage arrived. Another gentleman was welcomed in.
Elizabeth turned away.
Martin Edwards, Duke of Park, had not intended to involve himself in the quiet war unfolding between two houses on the same street.
And yet.
From the window of his own town residence—conveniently positioned with an unimpeded view—he had begun to notice a pattern.
Carriages queuing at the Featherington home.
The conspicuous lack of them elsewhere.
And once, only once, he saw Miss Elizabeth Heartly standing alone at her window.
She did not look heartbroken.
She looked… thoughtful. Resigned. As though she had already accepted something she ought not have had to.
The image unsettled him far more than any Diamond proclamation ever could.
Martin had resolved not to court. Not to entangle himself in sentiment or expectation.
But resolve, he was learning, was a fragile thing.
SYNOPSIS London's brightest debutante never meant to fall in love. The Duke who swore never to marry never meant to stay. Named the Season's Diamond and admired by the Queen, Miss Elizabeth Heartly is the center of society's gaze where admiration can turn to ruin in a whisper. The Duke of Park wants nothing to do with courtship, but a clever arrangement between them offers the perfect solution: A pretend attachment. An escape from expectation. Nothing more. But ballrooms reveal truths, and stolen glances become something far more dangerous. As gossip spreads and a royal proposal threatens everything, Elizabeth and the Duke must decide if their careful charade is worth risking their hearts and their reputations. Because in a world built on appearances, the greatest scandal of all... is falling in love for real.
GENRE Duke! martin x Debutante! reader, Fake Dating, smau
TAGLIST Open!
STATUS Ongoing...
AUTHOR'S NOTE Hi everyone! So this is actually my first time writing a story and I'm a bit nervous. I love Bridgerton and I thought this would be fun with the new season coming out! I hope you guys like this, send an ask or comment to be added to the taglist!
I'm so invested in the diamond and the duke u don't even know!!!
OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH! You have no idea how much this means to me, I mean I was so nervous people weren't going to like this enough but I'm glad you do!
SYNOPSIS London's brightest debutante never meant to fall in love. The Duke who swore never to marry never meant to stay. Named the Season's Diamond and admired by the Queen, Miss Elizabeth Heartly is the center of society's gaze where admiration can turn to ruin in a whisper. The Duke of Park wants nothing to do with courtship, but a clever arrangement between them offers the perfect solution: A pretend attachment. An escape from expectation. Nothing more. But ballrooms reveal truths, and stolen glances become something far more dangerous. As gossip spreads and a royal proposal threatens everything, Elizabeth and the Duke must decide if their careful charade is worth risking their hearts and their reputations. Because in a world built on appearances, the greatest scandal of all... is falling in love for real.
GENRE Duke! martin x Debutante! reader, Fake Dating, smau
TAGLIST Open!
STATUS Ongoing...
If the first ball of the Season was a spectacle, the morning after was its reckoning.
Elizabeth descended to the front drawing room with cautious optimism, her nerves carefully pinned beneath a serene smile. Lady Whistledown’s praise still echoed through society, and she had been assured—by her maid, by her brother, by nearly everyone—that callers would arrive in abundance.
They did arrive.
Unfortunately, they did not stay.
The first gentleman—a baronet of respectable fortune and questionable conversation—had scarcely finished complimenting the weather before Lord Heartly, fixed him with a polite but devastating smile.
“And your intentions, sir?” Alexander asked mildly.
The baronet blinked. “My intentions?”
“Yes,” Alexander continued, folding his hands. “Toward my sister. Are they honorable, serious, and backed by a sufficient understanding of estate management, family obligation, and—should it become necessary—parliamentary alignment?”
The gentleman took his leave shortly thereafter.
The second caller fared no better.
Alexander listened attentively as the young man spoke at length about Elizabeth ’s beauty, her grace, and her promising future—before quietly interjecting, “And her mind?”
“Pardon?”
“My sister’s mind,” Alexander repeated. “You have not mentioned it. Curious.”
That caller departed in visible discomfort.
By the third, Elizabeth had ceased pretending not to notice the pattern.
“Alexander,” she murmured after the door closed once more, “you are frightening them.”
Her brother looked genuinely surprised. “I am merely ensuring you are not wasted on a fool.”
“And what if I wish to decide that for myself?”
Alexander softened then, guilt flickering briefly across his features. “Forgive me. I promised Father—”
“I know,” Y/N said gently.
Still, as the morning wore on, the truth became impossible to ignore.
By noon, no callers remained.
Elizabeth sat by the window afterward, hands folded neatly in her lap, watching carriages roll past—most of them slowing, turning, and stopping not at Heartly House… but across the street.
At the Featherington residence.
Where Miss Marina Thompson had taken up temporary residence.
SYNOPSIS London's brightest debutante never meant to fall in love. The Duke who swore never to marry never meant to stay. Named the Season's Diamond and admired by the Queen, Miss Elizabeth Heartly is the center of society's gaze where admiration can turn to ruin in a whisper. The Duke of Park wants nothing to do with courtship, but a clever arrangement between them offers the perfect solution: A pretend attachment. An escape from expectation. Nothing more. But ballrooms reveal truths, and stolen glances become something far more dangerous. As gossip spreads and a royal proposal threatens everything, Elizabeth and the Duke must decide if their careful charade is worth risking their hearts and their reputations. Because in a world built on appearances, the greatest scandal of all... is falling in love for real.
GENRE Duke! martin x Debutante! reader, Fake Dating, smau
TAGLIST Open!
STATUS Ongoing...
AUTHOR'S NOTE Hiii, so I won't do a Whistledown after every chapter, but there will be a decent amount of them. Send an ask or comment to be added to the taglist!
SYNOPSIS London's brightest debutante never meant to fall in love. The Duke who swore never to marry never meant to stay. Named the Season's Diamond and admired by the Queen, Miss Elizabeth Heartly is the center of society's gaze where admiration can turn to ruin in a whisper. The Duke of Park wants nothing to do with courtship, but a clever arrangement between them offers the perfect solution: A pretend attachment. An escape from expectation. Nothing more. But ballrooms reveal truths, and stolen glances become something far more dangerous. As gossip spreads and a royal proposal threatens everything, Elizabeth and the Duke must decide if their careful charade is worth risking their hearts and their reputations. Because in a world built on appearances, the greatest scandal of all... is falling in love for real.
GENRE Duke! martin x Debutante! reader, Fake Dating, smau
STATUS Ongoing...
TAGLIST Open!
AUTHOR'S NOTE I'm so excited to continue working on this for you guys! Send and ask or comment to be added to the taglist!
Miss Elizabeth had never considered herself remarkable.
Before this Season, she had been a daughter—beloved, gently guided, and content in the quieter corners of society. Her father’s death the previous year had changed everything with cruel efficiency. Grief had settled into the household like a permanent guest, and with it came responsibility.
Her elder brother, now Lord Heartly, had stepped into his title with determination and tenderness in equal measure. It was he who insisted Elizabeth must come out properly. It was he who arranged the gowns, the dancing master, the introductions.
“It is what Father would have wanted,” he said.
Elizabeth believed him.
Thus, at seventeen, she found herself standing before the Queen at the presenting ceremony, heart thundering beneath silk and lace. Her gown was pale—ivory touched with silver embroidery—and her gloves trembled faintly as she curtsied.
The Queen regarded her for a long moment.
Then, with a satisfied nod:
“Flawless.”
The word rippled through the court like a dropped stone into still water.
By nightfall, it had grown.
At the first ball of the Season, Elizabeth entered the ballroom to a thousand curious glances and a dozen whispered speculations. She felt them before she heard them, the weight of attention settling on her shoulders.
And then came the true pronouncement, delivered not aloud—but in print.
The next morning’s scandal sheet would proclaim her “The Diamond of the First Water”, a title bestowed by none other than the anonymous and all-seeing Lady Whistledown herself.
But that night, Elizabeth knew only the ball.
The chandeliers dazzled her. The music lifted her nerves and steadied them in the same breath. She danced—once, twice, many times—smiling until her cheeks ached, answering questions she scarcely remembered afterward.
At one point, breathless and overwhelmed, she turned toward the edge of the room in search of familiarity.
And there—across the ballroom—she saw him.
Blonde-haired, composed, unmistakably noble. He stood apart from the crowd, watchful rather than eager, his expression thoughtful in a way that made her pause. His gaze met hers—not lingering improperly, not bold—but intent.
For a moment, the noise faded.
Elizabeth felt something flutter low in her chest, equal parts thrill and uncertainty. She did not know who he was. Only that he looked at her as though she were not a spectacle, not a prize—but a person.
The moment broke. Someone spoke to her. The music swelled.
Yet long after the ball ended, after the carriage ride home and the careful unpinning of her hair, Elizabeth lay awake beneath embroidered covers, one thought echoing gently through her mind:
Being a Diamond might invite the world’s attention—but it was one quiet look across a crowded ballroom that had truly changed everything.
SYNOPSIS London's brightest debutante never meant to fall in love. The Duke who swore never to marry never meant to stay. Named the Season's Diamond and admired by the Queen, Miss Elizabeth Heartly is the center of society's gaze where admiration can turn to ruin in a whisper. The Duke of Park wants nothing to do with courtship, but a clever arrangement between them offers the perfect solution: A pretend attachment. An escape from expectation. Nothing more. But ballrooms reveal truths, and stolen glances become something far more dangerous. As gossip spreads and a royal proposal threatens everything, Elizabeth and the Duke must decide if their careful charade is worth risking their hearts and their reputations. Because in a world built on appearances, the greatest scandal of all... is falling in love for real.
GENRE Duke! martin x Debutante! reader, Fake Dating, smau
TAGLIST Open!
STATUS Ongoing...
AUTHOR'S NOTE Hi everyone! So this is actually my first time writing a story and I'm a bit nervous. I love Bridgerton and I thought this would be fun with the new season coming out! I hope you guys like this, send an ask or comment to be added to the taglist!
At seventeen years of age, Martin Edwards, Duke of Park, had already learned the singular truth of society: expectations were far heavier than crowns.
London delighted in reminding him of this.
Newly come into his title scarcely a year past, Martin had exchanged the quiet authority of tutors and ledgers for the relentless scrutiny of the ton. His late father’s death—swift, unkind, and altogether inconvenient—had thrust him into a world of bowing heads, whispered judgments, and an unspoken but ever-present question:
When will the Duke marry?
The answer, Martin had long decided, was not now—and perhaps not ever, if he could help it.
Marriage, in his estimation, was a loud distraction from the matters that truly interested him: Parliament, policy, the careful stewardship of Park’s vast estates, and—though he would sooner perish than admit it aloud—music. The pianoforte hidden in his town house saw more of him than any drawing room belle ever had.
Thus, when the first ball of the Season arrived, Martin attended out of duty alone.
The ballroom glittered as though London itself had been dipped in gold. Chandeliers blazed overhead, silk skirts whispered across the floor, and laughter floated like perfume through the air. Mothers appraised him with thinly veiled hunger. Daughters fluttered. Gentlemen assessed him as one might assess a particularly valuable horse.
Martin endured it all with composed politeness, standing tall in a dark evening coat and cravat tied with precise severity. He danced when required, spoke when addressed, and counted the minutes until a respectable departure could be made.
And then—across the ballroom—he saw her.
She stood momentarily still amid the movement, as though the crowd had parted unconsciously to make room for her presence. Golden-blonde hair, arranged simply yet elegantly, caught the candlelight. Her eyes—blue, unmistakably blue—lifted just then, and for the briefest heartbeat, met his.
The effect was… inconvenient.
Martin felt something tighten in his chest, sharp and unfamiliar. Not infatuation—he was not a fool—but curiosity, immediate and piercing. She smiled at something her companion said, and the expression softened her entirely, transforming her from beautiful to unforgettable.
He did not know her name. He did not ask for an introduction.
He merely watched.
When the orchestra struck up again and the crowd shifted, she vanished from view as suddenly as she had appeared. Martin exhaled, steadying himself.
Ridiculous, he told himself.
And yet, as the night drew to a close and he made his way home beneath the gaslit streets of London, one certainty remained:
The Duke of Park had arrived at his first ball of the Season entirely resolved not to fall in love—and had left knowing the Season would not be so easily ignored.
