A/N: I cannot resist a prompt challenge so here is another story for the Sanditon Creative's Valentine's week event, prompt 'Forced marriage'. One of the tropiest tropes and totally irresistible - lol.

This story is set in the Regency era, with my favourites Sidney and Charlotte, but slightly AU and it will be a multi-chapter story. Not sure how many.

And remember that even if Sidney's birthday present seems horrible to us nowadays, it would have been quite normal back then.

Happy Valentines All!

Chapter 1

"You got married? Tell me it is a joke?"

Sidney Parker's head snapped up when his friend Lord Babington barged into the parlour where he quite peacefully had been reading the newspaper. Appearances were deceiving though. Only his outside was calm, his insides were in a turmoil already before Babington startled him.

"It is true", he answered flatly and threw the newspaper aside with an eye-roll.

"What? What made the most elusive eligible bachelor in London elope to Gretna Green and marry a woman I never even heard you mention before? When I last saw you, you were on your way to the arms of some courtesan."

"I thought you aspired on that title Babbers, or at least you did until Esther tamed you. Anyway, you are actually to blame for this."

"Me? How?"

Sidney got to his feet.

"Wine first?"

"Oh yes, I need that to take in this news."

Sidney poured two glasses of wine, handed one to his friend and both sat down.

"Now tell me, how am I to blame for you getting married on a whim?"

-o-

A week earlier Sidney, Babington and a third friend, Crowe, had been playing cards and drinking when Sidney happened to spill that it was his twenty-eighth birthday. This instantly made the other two insist that to celebrate properly, ladies had to be involved. They dragged the reluctant birthday child with them through the streets of London to the city's most exclusive brothel, where they told him to sit down and wait while they arranged something for him.

"We cannot allow you be alone on your birthday night!"

"I'm not alone, I'm with you", he protested.

"Yes, but we don't intend to kiss you, dear friend. There are others who can do that so well. Now just sit here and wait."

Sidney had been in this establishment before but less so in the last year, as the appeal of paid female company had faded to him. He was set on never marrying, yet it seemed to him like if one could not have a companion like the one his brother Tom had found in his dear wife Mary, then what was the point of female company at all? He had always been a loner but now more than ever and it did not bother him. It seemed to concern others though. Tom and Mary wanted to see him married, and now even Babington and Crowe wanted to interfere to provide him a more temporary kind of 'love'. He sighed heavily.

"We have arranged you a special." Babington returned, looking extremely pleased with himself.

"A special? Please, no, I'm not in the mood. You can keep your special and I'll stay here and nurse my drink."

"Remember an I'm an engaged man now, so I don't need it. I think you will be in the mood birthday boy, we asked Madame to give you the best she has. It's on me."

"How very generous of you", he said emotionless, but his lack of enthusiasm flew over Babington's head.

"Only the best for you, my friend."

Sometimes Babington could look like a happy, expectant puppy and Sidney did not have it in him to tell him to sod off and leave him alone. Instead he accepted the "gift".

Reluctantly, he let Madame, the infamous hostess of the establishment, show him to a room on the second floor but was determined that once the girl showed up he would either send her away or let her sleep in the bed alone.

Before Madame left, she turned to him.

"She will be with you in a few minutes. You are one very lucky man Mr. Parker, your lady for the night is a virgin."

He snorted in response. Virgins in a brothel were rarer than diamonds. Fake virgins to an overprice were on the other hand very common and he suspected that was what she had fooled Babbers to pay for.

Sidney had always found it hard to understand why many men were so obsessed with being a random woman's first whilst barely caring about their wives. He had never been completely comfortable around courtesans and the idea of paying to be with someone who truly was a virgin irked him. Or rather, the thought of a virgin having to put up with a stranger in bed irked him, especially as he knew that not all men bothered to be gentle and caring when taking their pleasure.

"Just send her in", he muttered.

He slumped down in an armchair after pouring himself another brandy and had not been waiting long when the door opened. He looked up, prepared to brush her off before she started clinging to him, but the words got stuck on his tongue when he saw her.

They had dolled her up with too much rouge and eye makeup and a cleavage too generous for any respectable lady, but even so he could see that she was very young and quite pretty. When she closed the door behind herself and hesitantly turned to him, he also noticed that her lower lip was trembling, and her big brown eyes were glazed with tears. He instinctively knew it had not been a lie when Madame claimed she was a virgin. She was and she was terrified. If he had been a reluctant customer before, he now knew for sure that there was no way in hell he would bed her this night.

He rose to his feet but regretted it when she flinched, scared by his imposing figure and the move. When he stood up she only reached to his shoulder and frightened looked up in his face to see who would own her for the night.

"Don't be afraid." He felt the need to reassure her, to make her trust he would not hurt her or do anything against her will. "I won't touch you."

"Is that not what you have paid for? A night of 'love'?"

She almost whispered but he heard the defiant disdain in her voice and felt an urgent and unexpected need to defend himself.

"Look, my friends did because it is my birthday, but I don't want that. I can clearly see that you don't want it either. I won't force you, I'm not a brute."

He started pulling off his coat as he spoke but realised from her scared expression that his actions may seem to contradict his words. He held it out to show his intentions.

"Put this on to cover yourself up. You don't seem quite comfortable in that dress."

Truth was that he also found her perfectly rounded bosom slightly distracting and he preferred to stay level-headed.

Her eyes widened with surprise, shifting into gratitude and she accepted it with a nod. He put it over her shoulders, careful not to touch her. The black coat dwarfed her and made her look even tinier and more fragile than before. If he had not thought it would scare her, he would have given her a hug.

"Please, sit down."

He gestured to the bed and sat down in the armchair again, so she would understand he did not intend to join her on the bed. Apprehensively she sat down, and he took a closer look at her in the soft candle light. Her eyes was her most noticeable feature. They were like huge, troubled orbs framed by long dark eyelashes. Behind the makeup, the shape of her face appeared delicate, with a straight little nose, plush lips and a small dimple in her chin. He wondered what she would be like when she was not so completely out of her comfort zone as she was now.

"What is your name?"

"What do you want it to be?" she asked with hollow voice.

"I realise that is what Madame has instructed you to say, but the only name I'm interested in is your own."

She looked down on her own hands, which she kept twisting in her lap, seemingly embarrassed. It was painful to see how far away from a sophisticated courtesan she was.

"I'm Charlotte Heywood."

"And my name is Sidney Parker. Miss Heywood, may I ask how you ended up in this establishment? You seem... and I mean this in the best possible way, out of place."

This made her burst into tears and he was feeling a bit lost when she buried her face in her hands and cried uncontrollably. He was inexperienced in consoling young ladies in general, and girls weeping in a brothel in particular. He awkwardly handed her his handkerchief and just waited for her to calm down a bit.

"I'm so sorry", she finally managed to say between sobs. "Please don't tell Madame."

"I won't. Just take your time."

His kind words had the intended effect. Soon she stopped crying and gathered herself enough to speak.

"I'm a gentleman's daughter, believe it or not." Strangely, he did not doubt it at all and just nodded encouragingly to make her continue. "My father owns an estate on the countryside in Willingden. We are a large family and have never been wealthy but lived comfortably. However, recently our fortune changed. During the past years the crops have been poor, so when my eldest brother secretly started gambling and indebted himself heavily, there were no funds to pay off his debts with. We needed to come up with a way to raise money. My brother is needed at home to help take care of the estate and I'm the oldest after him. My other brothers are still very young. There was no other solution than trying to find an employment for me."

She told the story very matter-of-factly, struggling to keep her emotions in check and he admired her for trying to be stoic.

"And how old are you?"

"Twenty-two."

She was older than he had thought her to be. Her bosom was definitely a woman's but her face so innocent despite the heavy makeup.

"You could have married?" he suggested.

"There weren't exactly suitors standing in line in Willingden and besides, I wanted to marry for love or not at all. I thought working as a governess would be a better alternative to help my family."

She started crying again, her thin shoulders shaking from it and this time he had to lean over and pat her back and take her hand. He thought he must seem very awkward to her, but she did not flinch from the friendly touch and once again he managed to still her tears.

"What happened then? Why are you here?"

This brothel could for sure not be a place any gentleman would send his daughter to and it sounded as if she was fond of her father, so he was likely no scoundrel. The fact that she only intended to marry for love made the likelihood that she was here of her own free will non-existent.

"Through an advertisement in the newspaper, papa found what seemed to be a very respectable couple with two children in need of a governess. The man and woman came all the way to Willingden to introduce themselves. They told stories of their home, the children and everything seemed to be very proper. My parents felt reassured they were good people and I was so excited to leave home. I thought it would be an adventure, how foolish of me! We left Willingden a few days ago, but the carriage never drove to a house with any children. It took me here, where they locked me up and said I will be forced to entertain..."

"It was a scam," he said grimly.

"Yes. I'm a prisoner here. They won't let me go out on my own. I cannot escape. I'm made to dress up like this and..." Her voice broke again.

He was absolutely appalled but he understood why they would do such a thing. Men would pay more for a polished beauty with educated language, than someone who looked and talked like she came from the gutter. A country gentleman's daughter who knew nobody in London would be the perfect target. It would take weeks, maybe months before her family realised she was lost. He had never heard of kidnappings like this before, but it did not mean they did not happen. There was a dark side to London's beau monde.

"And this is your first night?"

He swallowed and clenched his jaw, hoping she would say yes. Not because he wished to be her first, he had no intention to be, but he hoped no one had yet ravished her.

"My first night of many, I should expect." Her voice was filled with despair and her bottom lip was trembling again.

"You see, even if I were able to sneak away a letter to my family, and I have not so far because they are always watching me, it would be too late. I will be ruined, and my family's financial situation is as bad as before so they cannot afford to have me at home even if they would welcome a fallen woman back."

"I'm so sorry Miss Heywood."

Actually, words were not enough to express what he felt. When her story unfolded, he felt a rage grow inside him on her behalf. No one spent much time thinking about how girls ended up in establishments like this, assuming it must be down to their own bad choices and sinful ways. Like most other men of wealth, Sidney had sampled those pleasures at times in the past but now he felt contempt for himself over that. Even more so when she spoke again.

"I shouldn't have told you. You must think this a horrible night. I know I am to please you, or they will give me a hard time tomorrow."

She took a deep breath as if to brace herself and made a move to push his coat off her shoulders and get on with the task that had to be done, but he stopped her.

"No, not that. What will please me is if you just lie down and try to sleep. I will not touch you tonight, I promise you. I don't know how to help you beyond that, but for this night, rest assured you are safe."

"But if Madame asks?"

"I will say that I'm very pleased with your efforts in bed."

Her shoulders relaxed.

"And you, will you sleep in it too?"

Her voice was still heartbreakingly anxious.

"I will stay in this armchair."

She met his eyes searchingly but without averting her gaze, something which oddly made his breath catch in his throat. She seemed to conclude that he was to be trusted and smiled at him for the first time, a weak little smile but still like a ray of light in this dimly lit room.

"Thank you, Mr. Parker."

She lay down on the bed and he tucked her in as if she were one of his brother's children. His heart twisted at the thought of what if this had happened to his nieces. Charlotte Heywood was obviously a lady and victim of bad circumstances she could not influence. It seemed very unfair.

The poor girl must have been exhausted because she fell asleep almost immediately. There was something so touching about her sleeping form, curled up in foetal position. Sidney remained awake for long, watching her slow breathing and fluttering dark eyelashes. Inside him a resolution formed that he could not leave her to her fate, not walk away from this situation and let evil people have their way with her.

He was not married and had thought he never would be either. A broken engagement in his youth had left him distant and distrusting when it came to women and he had no need to marry for money, so he had been determined to escape wedlock. With a wry smile he realised that they had that in common, that neither of them wanted to marry for any other reason than love. However, when he continued watching the sleeping Miss Heywood, he thought that if he anyway never was to marry for that reason, he could just as well offer himself to this girl to save her from ruin.

When morning came and Miss Heywood still was asleep, he went to make the Madame and the owners of this establishment an offer they could not refuse.