tired but stubborn little heart.

i will love you with no regard to the outrage of certain parents or the boredom of certain friends.

i will love you if you cut your hair and i will love you if you cut the hair of others.

i will love you as the doctor loves his sickest patient and a lake loves its thirstiest swimmer.

i will love you as a cufflink loves to drop from its shirt and explore the party for itself and as a pair of white gloves loves to slip delicately into the punchbowl.

i will love you as misfortune loves orphans, as fire loves innocence, and as justice loves to sit and watch while everything goes wrong.

i will love you as a drawer loves a secret compartment, and as a secret compartment loves a secret, and as a secret loves to make a person gasp, and as a gasping person loves a glass of brandy to calm their nerves, and as a glass of brandy loves to shatter on the floor, and as the noise of glass shattering loves to make someone else gasp, and as someone else gasping loves a nearby desk to lean against, even if leaning against it presses a lever that loves to open a drawer and reveal a secret compartment. i will love you until all such compartments are discovered and opened, and until all the secrets have gone gasping into the world.

i will love you no matter where you go and who you see, no matter where you avoid and who you don’t see, and no matter who sees you avoiding where you go. i will love you no matter what happens to you, and no matter how i discover what happens to you, and no matter what happens to me as i discover this, and no matter how i am discovered after what happens to me as i am discovering this.

that, beatrice, is how i will love you even as the world goes on its wicked way.

SOPHIE & BENEDICT BRIDGERTON 🤍

"There’s no understating the importance of Taylor Swift’s “Enchanted” to Benedict and Sophie fans. Before Yerin Ha was cast, before it was announced that Season 4 would be centered on Benedict, Benophie fans had “Enchanted” and a dream. This Speak Now track captures the magic of a one-time, love-at-first-sight meeting tinged with fairytale romance. The lyrics perfectly line up with Benedict and Sophie’s meeting at the masquerade ball. Benedict’s “walls of insincerity, shifting eyes and vacancy” vanished when he saw Sophie’s face. “The playful conversation starts” as Sophie “countered all Benedict’s quick remarks.” The longing found in the bridge is echoed in their respective yearning while being apart from one another. “Enchanted” isn’t just a song — it’s the song, the anthem of this couple. It wasn’t a question of whether this song would be included in the season. It was a matter of which scene it would show up in."

Benedict has all the time in the world and it's never occurred to him to look up because opulence and the time in which to enjoy it is a given in his life. For Sophie, time is a resource that is both finite and comes with strings attached. She works for a living and does not have permission to linger.