you’d known benedict for a long while, even growing close to being friends, maybe even more.

this was only possible — with his rakish behavior making him an unlikely man that you would ever choose to be so close to — because of the fact that you were one of the house maids.

his favorite one, actually.

and no, it didn’t start out intentionally, but alas, feelings changed and here you are now, needing to get to your room and far away from this party that the bridgertons are throwing tonight.

you needed a break, and you really couldn’t be around benedict anymore with all of this longing and miserable pining going on in the inside when it’s already hard enough trying to resist it and remember your place.

he’s a noble man, and you are a maid. remember your place.

it was already questioned constantly why he didn’t really treat you like the maid, treating you like you were much more important, as if you weren’t just a maid to him and his family.

and if anyone even suspected that you’d been defiled by benedict or even broke any rules by entertaining it, a known noble man with a certain reckless reputation with women, that would only ruin both your reputations.

his family would be royally fucked if anything like that came out, which is why you’re both trying to ignore that thing between you, like it doesn’t mean anything.

yet, a break is not what you get.

that’s obvious now when you hear benedict following you upstairs with hurried footsteps, asking you to tell him what’s wrong. as if he doesn’t know.

maybe he’s just clueless.

and a break is definitely not what you get when it leads to the two of you facing this tension in your room.

it’s when he confesses that he fell in love with you, a maid, who he simply cannot provide for or love without ruining you both and your families reputations, that really surprises you.

those words ring in your ears once again: “you deserve the very world. but, how else am i to be with a women society has made it impossible to be with? the woman i was foolish enough to fall in love with!”