"He's here? Again? This guy doesn't learn, does he?" Prue ranted at the intern that let her know that the detective was back, trying to talk to her patient. The poor guy had been beaten to a pulp and barely regained consciousness, he was in no condition to give any sort of statement. He barely remembered his own name, was confused and hurt. She had explained all of this before to the detective.
Storming into the room, she started ranting before realizing they had sent another detective. "I told you already, he is in no condition to give a statement yet, I'm going to ask you to leave or I will call sec-" and then she saw the guy as he turned and it wasn't the same as before. This one was definetely not the same guy. This one was cute. Fuck.
"Sorry, I thought you were the other--Nevermind, you still can't be here. We'll call you when he can give a statement. He needs to rest."
As she hesded back home with Phillip in the carriage, even her most self-absorbed of brothers noticed something was off with Prudence. He didn't ask what was it about and merely held her hand. Sweet boy that liked philosophy and had been in love since before he knew what that was. Hopefully he'd get his happy ending. Hopefully she'd manage to damage control this mess before they were once again in Lady whistledown's pages, destroying the little reputation they had left.
Once home she briefly spoke with Mr. Hampshire to let Teddy 'sneak out' under their noses and asked where her mother was, reassuring the tall man that she was fine. Of course she was. She had not just blackmailed the heir of the portuguese crown with jail for sodomy. She had not just found out that she had a baby sister or a brother.
Or a sister and a brother. Marie's children were born while she was in Paris with Padme. Violet used her family's money to support their home when the father died two winters ago. Marie's children were Violet's godchildren. Suzie and Gregory. Suzie.
Once her mother let her into her room, Prue made it straight to the scotch, pouring two drinks. She had never done that before. Setting one glass a little forcefully in front of her mother and meeting her eyes, she took a sip of her own. "The prince will not bother Theodore anymore," violet nodded and took a sip of her drink. Prue plopped down on a chair. "How?"
"I threatened him with exposing his sodomy. He did not appreciate it. He had very interesting things to say about you. Some I knew. I've known for a while mama."
Violet tried to speak but Prue raised her hand to shut her up. "Is it both of Marie's children or just Suzie?"
Violet downed the rest of her drink and brought the decanter to the desk, refilling the drinks. "Only Susan. How--" "It was going to be Teddy's name. Honestly mother, naming your love child with a name your dead husband picked that's--ballsy." Was she pissed? Absolutely. Did she get the whole thing? Yes. Was this going to be a breaking point between them? For the whole family? No, the family couldn't know.
Prue got up then and downed the rest of her drink. "The moment Adam and Ben are gone for their honeymoon we are going back to Aubrey Hall. You're getting those kids and Marie home. She won't survive another winter and we can't let the princess of Portugal go destitute. You're their godmother, no one would suspect she's yours. You need to tell Caspian though, when things are more settled. He deserves to know his daughter lived."
"No."
"I'm not asking you mama, you will tell Caspian. If not for him or Suzie do it for Teddy, so Caspian stops torturing all of us for your mistakes."
"Prince Caspian." "Miss Bridgerton." Polite as ever.
"-No Mrs. Lorente tonight?" "-No, she is indisposed at the moment." Prue nodded, still standing beside him, and nodding politely at one of the vipers mamas that circled them for gossip. "Would it be safe to assume that my brother would attempt to sneak to your home later then? Since your newest plaything is indisposed?" She was not one for subtlety in her spinster era, and it caught Caspian off guard, though he quickly gave her a half smile. "Perhaps."
Prue nodded, "I see. Well then I certainly hope he does not end up at the hospital as Lord Fife did two days ago," she mentioned it casually, corking a playful eyebrow and taking a zip of her spirit as if she were discussing the weather. It was easy to notice the clenched jaw in the man. It was her turn for a half smile. "You see, I'm a spinster now thank God and I get to do what I want--within reason," she shrugged. "So I've been working--volunteering there and I was early and there he was, pissed off drunk and high on opiods, quite injured in his neathern region." Caspian took a sip of his drink and kept watching her. "Thankfully the attendant wasn't in yet to call the police on him, so I fixed him up best I could and sent for his people to take him away. I filled him up with laudanum so he'd shut up about his evening. You're welcome."
Caspian took in a deep breath. "What do you want Prudence?" Scandalous, calling her like that in public but there was nothing proper about the conversation anyway.
"You will let my brother down gently tonight. Say goodbye in whatever fashion you wish and be done. Tell him the truth, tell him you need someone with a womb and children. He has this foolish notion that you will be together forever and ride off into the sunset. He's a dreamer like father was. But we are practical, aren't we?"
Caspian took another drink. "I like your brother," Prue nodded. "I know, you've been together for years now. It wouldn't have lasted that long if you were merely trying to upset mama." Another unexpected metaphorical slap to his face. "You know then. Has she-?" Prue's unceremonious chuckle was answer enough. "Lord no. I saw you leaving her room that winter when all you boys were at Aubrey Hall. left quite an impression in me. I know she broke your heart and for that I am truly sorry but--but we are not to blame for my mother's mistakes. Stop punishing him. Stop giving him false hope."
Caspian didn't like threats and he had seen a spark in Prue that most of his siblings lacked. A splash of Ben's insanity mixed with Violet's brain and capacity for manipulation. "And if I don't?"
Prue shook her head, quite disappointed. "Do I have to threaten you? I know you're not a bad man. You were sweet and kind and funny before my mother broke you. Please do the right thing. You are not good for him Caspian, and you know it."
"Aren't you afraid of the mamas thinking you're looking for trouble with me?" A diversion if there ever was one. "I'm a spinster, no one cares what we do. Please let him down gently tonight."
"No." It was simple, straightforward, final.
Prue sighed and finished her drink that only then Caspian realized it wasn't lemonade but a spirit. "You men," another exhale through her nose. "If you don't let him down gently but firmly tonight then on Thursday your name will be front and center at Lady Whistledown, with a detailed description of Lord Fife's injuries and proclivities. I seriously doubt your auntie will be able to save your pretty arse from the indecency charges."
Cas tried to laugh it off but she saw the fear in his eyes, just like she liked it. "Say goodbye tonight and give me your answer by Wednesday. If I dont hear from you then good luck at court." She stared at him with a firm expression, the same fiery eyes Violet had. "You are L-?" "Oh no, I wish I could write that well but I know a spinster who knows a spinster who knows Lady Whistledown," at least she was sure that she knew who to reach out to get something published there, but Caspian didn't need to know that. "Told you, us spinsters are everywhere and no one pays attention to what we do."
She took a careful step closer to him. "I do feel sorry for what mama did, but--" "You have no idea what your mother is capable of."
"I know you asked her to marry you and she said no. I was in the house that day." Cas shook his head then and grabbed her arm a little forcefully to lead her to another part of the room. He was lucky Brett had taken Teddy and Mrs. Bridgerton home and Prue had stayed behind with Phil only. "Your mother destroyed my dreams. Your mother--I asked her to marry me because I loved her, she was-- she meant the world to me and when she told me she was pregnant I could see our lives together but she refused and, and she told me she wouldn't have the baby, that she couldnt and couldnt be my wife. That Adam and your and your brothers would never forgive her, that you were too young and needed her. But I needed her. Our baby needed her and she just--" he breathed out blinking away tears and finally, for once, managed to leave Prue speechless.
"That's what your mother did to me and whatever modicum of pain I can inflict on her is nothing compared to what she's done." Prue nodded and wet her lower lip trying to find the right words while her mind was spinning.
Her mother had been pregnant. Her mother had--her mother had had a child, she didn't get rid off it. That's why Violet send her away to Paris and Madrid with Padme for months before her first season. With the boys at Eton and Adam at the Ton, Violet Bridgerton had managed to hide having had a child. A child that couldn't be too far from her. A child that was at Aubrey Hall somehow.
"I feel for you," she breathed out. "Im sorry she took all your dreams away but dont you see? Youre doing the same to Teddy. And he's not as strong as you. He is fragile, he is too kind and soft for this world. I fear for him if you break his heart Caspian and you will. And as much as that would hurt my mother, it will hurt you more because youre not a bad man, no matter how much you try. If you were, you wouldnt be crying now over a child you've lost."
She sighed and held his hand. "Please do as I ask, for everyone's sake. You have Nicolette now, and you care for her. She can give you what neither mama nor teddy ever could. Please Caspian, im begging you. Do the right thing because it's the right thing and not because I'm threatening you with losing everything you have left." Caspian gave her one, single nod and stormed awqy and out of the party and she stood behind by the beverage table, brushing her arm since he had grabbed her hard enough to bruise; she had to get home and try to make sense of it all, find a way to sort out the mess her mother had made.
prue stands over her own lifeless body and turns toward the reaper with a thick swallow. "he got me, huh?" she glances up at the grandfather clock with a lost and forlorn glance, pronounced dead only moments ago by their family's whitelighter and realizing her fate. "this is how it ends."
a sinking realization, deep and depressing as it hits her all at once. "there's nothing they can do." she says softly, nose crinkling with wry emotion. "otherwise you wouldn't be here, right?"
"you know — you're really not supposed to combine those two ingredients," prue inserts herself without a second thought as she sees the other woman picking up a bulb of mandrake, breathing in through her nose to keep her head level before she gets ahead of herself. "it's just that mandrake can be, like, super volatile, so you have to be really careful when you're cooking with it or you could end up missing an eyebrow."
