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sweetmuffynsblog · 2 years

Text

Touché

Pairing: Simon Basset x OC

Warning: English is not my first language

Summary:

Everyone knows who the Duke of Hasting is, a famous rake in his own rights, notoriously known as the heartbreaker. But when everyone knows the gossips of the young Duke of Hasting, then they can not help but know who the Duchess of Iverness is!

Cassandra Alicia Brennus is a Duchess, in her own rights. It's bound to happen when you are the eldest of the daughters of the noble in Scotland, thus the title can be inherited via female rather than must to search for another male member in the family tree, that's why she is a Duchess after her father's passing.

Cia as her known as, is famously known for her outings. She never cares for any rumours about her, she is the Duchess and has every rights to sit in the damned house of Lords like those bruttish of men called themselves noble Lords. And it doesn't help when her most closest and oldest friend is a notorious rake like the famous, Simon Basset, The Duke of Hastings.

Now, Simon Basset by no means an horrible man, he is in fact, a very good man, Lady Danbury says so. Both of them had known each other since they were a child, barely eleven when Lady Danbury had bought him into her estate, it was Cia that helped him overcome his suttering by talked to him everyday, then both of them are so close that they enrolled Eton together then to Oxford and met other friend such as Viscount Anthony Bridgerton. Albeit being a woman, Cia's father, the Late Duke Of Iverness demanded that she would be enrolled in Eton, the King gave his consent at that, even if it's against the society and custom.

Dressed in a dark purple riding coats with gold embroidment a black cravats, a black trousser and a boot, she puts her weapon in the safety belt, Cia gets out from her room and to her Ladies in Waiting - they are daughters of the minor noble in Iverness that come to accompany her in order to see London - that stand outside and look at her choice of dress in horror,

"Your Grace, what kind of clothes you are wearing?!" she gasps at her making Cia smirks,

"rest assured, Emma, i will go and come back later." She goes outside and smile at a pageboy that brings her horse, "already eat?" the Pageboy nods, she nods to him, "call Joseph and Victor, we're leaving."

She waits for her two personal guards to coming, when she hears the voice of someone she loathes the most, her Governess, Mrs. Hermann,

"what in the world you are wearing, Your Grace?!" the old lady shrieks making Cia's smirks widen, she rotates her body and winks at her,

"well, I'm going to meet my friends from Eton. It's a gentlemen party." she briefly explains making the Governess shaking in anger,

"you can not go outside with that clothes, Your Grace! It's against the society!"

Cia rolls her eyes, "society be damned, i will do whatever i want." she will not doubt that her Lady Mother and Lady Grandmother will know about her behaviour today by the end of this day, and she will bound to listens to their scolding when she comes back to Iverness, but their scolding can be wait, she will not back to Iverness in the time comes, not when Queen Charlotte demands her presence as one of the Ladies in Waiting in her court, her positions as a part of the House of Lords already giving her the power she needs, and when Queen Charlotte wants her to be the Lady in Waiting for her and was a playmate to the late Princess Amelia, she is easily by far the most powerful noble woman in the whole Great Britain.

She controls her reins easily, and they arrive in the most famous gentleman club in London. She gets up from her horse and lets the stabble boy tends to it, she enters and welcomed by a lot of noise, usually the noises of noblemen who gamble or throwinh punches in the middle, and they say it's a fun thing, Cia begs to differ, when does this savage thing being a fun again?!

She spots the exact same people she went to Eton with, then comes closer to them, they drink and chatter and laugh, she wrinkles her nose in distate,

"and here i thought after Eton, all of you can doing something great." she says and their noise dies down, she smirks to herself at that, when they see her, they get up from their seat and bow,

"Duchess of Iverness!"

She laughs, "no need to formalities, all of us are friends." she says, she sits in the middle of her dearest friends, Anthony Bridgerton and Simon Basset. "Bridgerton, nice to see you again, how are you?" she politely asks, it's a custom to never refer to a noble with their given name unless you're so close and in private, thus they will call each others with their titles, or when they are already close, they will refer each other with their states - for those who have it - and surname.

"splendid, Your Grace, you by far the most beautiful now."

She laughs, "aye, sweet as ever, Bridgerton."

"only for you, Your Grace, only for you."

Cia will be damned if she ever falls for those words so easily, she knows them, she studies with them, she practically lives with them for years in Eton, and after known them so long, only fools fall for their sweet words. She looks at Simon who watches her like a hawk,

"aye, Hastings, decided to come back to England, are we?" she asks, taking sip of the water in her bottle of water,

"His Grace has been asking for you the whole time, Your Grace," the man, who Cia knows as the heir Grosvenor pipes in, and raises his cup to her, Cia winks at him,

"really?" she then gets closer to Simon, for better looking, of course, "tell me, Hastings, i hear that you missed me a lot?"

She can see his face hardens, but she doesn't understand, why. She knows Hastings was a weird man, he always has this hardened face everytime they are in a public outtings with their other friends from Eton, Cia thoughts that it will be dismissed after he went to travel the world and come back again, but apparently not.

"let's go outside." she whispers, she then looks at the other gentlemen, "it's nice to meet all of you, gentlemen, but me and the Duke of Hastings must go now, thank you for your time." she bids them farewell, then looks at Viscount Bridgerton, "see you around, Bridgerton."

She practically drags Simon outside, when they can conversed privately, then she looks at him,

"what's wrong with you?" she asks him, rather annoyed by his antics,

"what's wrong with me?" he retorts making her wants to smack him in the head,

"don't play fool around me, Hastings."

Hastings's eyes darkened, he looks at her, then huffs, "i can not do this. We cannot have this conversation."

"what?!"

"i tell you, Iverness, we will not have this conversation. Not here and not now."

"Hastings, you act so strangely... What happened?"

"nothing happened, Iverness. If you cannot see things clearly then don't."

And then he stormed, gets into his horse and go with a fuming anger without looking back, making the Duchess frustrated at his anger,

"what's wrong with him?!" she asks herself, then shakes her head, before she and her guards go back to their house in the Mayfair.

***

It's a debut season in London, apart from her duties as the member of the House of Lords, she also has a duty in the palace as a part of the Queen's Ladies in Waiting. Her jobs by far the most easily, she doesn't need to do anything than offers a companionship to Her Majesty, Her Majesty saw her growing up and taking her under her gracious wing, she is her favorite.

"is everything ready?" The Queen asks, and she nods, The Queen pats the place, and she sits there, she huffs at the feathers in her hair and how unconfortable she is in the gowns even when her gown is easily the second most stunning gowns in the whole room, only the Queen can upstate her.

"i'm bored." she tells the Queen honestly, The Queen looks at her with amused looks,

"you will not if you decided to participate in this, Cassandra." she says making Cia winced, Cia hates being called Cassandra, it's very long name, she opted to be called as Cia or Her Grace or Iverness, not Cassandra, especially that's practically her mother's name.

"no, i'm good Your Majesty. I'm young and beautiful and powerful. I deserve only the great things." she answers making the Queen smiles, it's really a rare thing to make Her Majesty smiles these days and Cia can do it without need to work hard.

Then, one by one, Young Ladies are presented to the Queen and her court, Cia sits there and looking bored, and occasionally winced when a young lady fainted, or at how horrible Featherington's curtsy are, and then her attention got to the Bridgerton girl, in a glance she knows that she is Anthony's sister, then she gives an elegant curtsy to them, everyone is waiting and gasping when the Queen stands up, she also stands up and comes to the Queen's side, both of them looking at the Bridgerton girl,

"pretty little thing, isn't it, Cassandra?"

Cia nods, "yes, she is, Your Majesty."

After that, to everyone's surprises minus Cia who already bored, The Queen declared Daphne Bridgerton as "The Diamond of the first Water."

***

Cia never likes to attend any parties in the society, she is rather sleep than go to those. But it's different when your Godmother is the one one who hosts it and The Queen practically dragging you to attends, that's why she is here, waiting for the man to announce their titles,

"Her Majesty The Queen! The Prince Friendrich of Prussia! And The Duchess Of Iverness!"

The door opens, everyone curtsy and bow, she walks in the Queen's left side while Prince Friedrich one of her dearest friend and the Queen's nephew from Prussia in his rights, they are following by the Queen's court Ladies.

Lady Danburry comes and gives the Queen curtsy, she smiles and both engaged in a conversation,

"i will go and fetch the drinks." Friedrich announces, bows to them,

"wait, i'm going!" she says and gives the Queen curtsy and a nod to Lady Danburry, then she walks with Prince Friendrich, "what?" she asks Friedrich who stiffles his laugh,

"no, nothing."

Both of them arrive in a small stall of lemonades and small cakes, "i'm hungry." she tells him, he fetches both of them lemonades and then Cia begins to take the small cakes and puts them in her mouth, eat it with gusto, "ugh, Lady Danburry's cakes always the best."

After Friedrich lets her eat until her heart content, they hear the music start, Friedrich asks for her hand in dancing, they go to the center and begin their waltz.

"not going to be creep but someone has been watching us like a hawk since you and me go to the refresment."

She wrinkles her eyebrows but her steps don't falter, "decribe him, will you?"

"tall, mysterious, dark, handsome, typicall the young lady's criteria."

"Simon Basset, you mean?"

"maybe him."

Their dance comes to end and Friedrich bows while she curtsies to him. After that both of them come to their place near the Queen.

"you two look dashing, dears." the Queen says, Cia smiles in thanks, her attention caught to the only male that stand in Lady Danburry's side,

"Hastings."

"Iverness." he greets back, the tension between them is tick, you can cut it with a knife, Cia wants him to talk first and maybe apologise, his behavior causing her pain, Simon always doing this, and Cia is the one who should mends their relationship again, she is always be the one who forgets and forgive him, it all be so easily. She finds it exhausting, not because of their friendship, no, she treasured it a lot, but because of his immature behavior, one supposed to become very mature when they inherited their parent's title, especially if their father is a Duke, Cia understands his feelings about inherits the title, she is one too!

She ignores him, doesn't want to uttered a single word to him other than the greeting, Lady Danburry glancing at two of them with worry, they're usually two peas in a pod, always having excitement conversation when they meet or be at each other's presence. Lady Danburry only notices that although they don't talk, Simon always look at Cia and her companion that dance with a glare.

"if you love her, you should act quickly." says Lady Danburry with a knowing look, Simon wants to protest but she held out her hand, "woman like her, Simon, especially powerful always going to catch anyone's attention. If you don't act quickly, she will be gone."

Realisation hits Simon like a bitch, he knows how much the society's eyes look at Cassandra Brennus, The Duchess of Iverness. She comes from a long line powerful family, even if she doesn't have the title of 'Duchess (regnant) of Iverness' many Dukes, Marquess, Earls, Viscounts and Lords want her to become their wife, she is as smart as she is beautiful, she is talented, she is exquisite. He has been in love for a very long time, maybe when she played polo in Eton or maybe when she debated gentlemen in poet and won? He loves her in a light that only he can understand, he loves her for her, for Cia, for her long time best friend, he doesn't love her for Cassandra Brennus, Duchess of Iverness, he loves her for Cia, only Cia. He got the determination, with that strong determination, he enters the dancing room for the first time in forever, he can hear the murmur sounds, and he is in time for the dance to stop.

Cia's dance comes to finish, she gives Anthony Bridgerton a quick curtsy, while he bows to her, she is shocked when she sees Simon stands there in all his glory,

"Simon?" she asks him, he breathes when he hears her call his name,

"dance with me, Your Grace." he bows to her while she gives him a curtsy, this time longer than what she gave Viscount Bridgerton, their foot in sync, it's like when they were still a pair of children whose being yelled at by Governess for their bad behavior, he is her original dance partner as she is his, she can remembers the dance even when she closes her eyes, and so do him.

After it feels so quickly, the dance is stop. Simon offers her his hand and she puts her hand in the crooks of it, they walk outside to get a fresh air. Silence surrounds them, it is a comfortable one,

"i want to say that i'm sorry for my rude behavior, Cia." he blurts, making her smile, they're in a private gardens, which provides them with a privacy they need,

"apologies accepted." she says "just please talking to me again. I feel so lonely without you. I miss you so much, Simon."

Simon hugs her, she sighs and let her boy relax to him, "i miss you too."

After that, they talk to each other, Simon tells her the story of his travelling, while she tells him hers, how it's not bad being a Duchess and attended her duties in Iverness.

"Marry me." he blurts out, making her halts,

"what?"

"marry me, Cia."

"why?"

"i feel like everything is so much brighter when i'm with you. When you are not there, it's like someone turned out the lights. I desired to be with you. I miss you. I feel lonely when i can't see you. I am obsessed with you, fascinated by you, infatuated with you. I hunger for your taste, your smell, the feel of your body touching mine. I want you beyond all reason. It's like you're in my blood, in the air i breathe. I can't get you out of my head, and i don't think i'll ever get tired of seeing you right here next to me."

Simon can see Cia's tears, her red cheeks and her shaking body,

"i have love you since we were children. Long before all of this. If i am lucky, i want you to be my wife."

Cia smiles at him, she wipes her tears,

" i am dreaming, am i?"

"no, you don't." he whispers and hold her cheeks,

"then i have a few conditions," she says, looking at him with a determined eyes,

"i will make sure to follow them." he promises, she smiles again,

"first, i want us to have more than one child. I know how you feel about family and children and all, but i want to have children, one to inherit your title as the Duke of Hastings the other will inherits my title." Simon nods, at this point, even if she wants him to bring the star, he will, "then i want you to be known as the Duke of Hastings and Iverness, and me as The Duchess of Iverness and Hastings."

Simon breaks into smile, "of course. It can be arranged."

"i want you to love me, hug me, kiss me, every single day in our marriage. I want you to whisper sweet nothings to me everyday, and to not get tired of me, i want you to be honest with me, can you do it?"

"of course."

" i want you to make a call in the palace. Ask my hand infront of the Queen and The Prince Regent."

"i will do that."

"and last but not least, please kiss me, now."

And he does, he kisses her fiercely, and the news about their scandal is in Lady Whistledown's newspaper the very next morning.

The end❤