Madeleine awoke to an empty bed the next morning, narrowing her eyebrows. She was usually the first one up, Benedict was in fact quite difficult to drag out of bed in the morning.

She stood and smoothed out her nightgown, wandering down the hallway. The light was on in his studio, and she gently knocked before entering when he called to come in.

"Good morning, lovely." He smiled warmly, walking over and kissing her forehead. She smiled up at him.

"What are you doing up so early?" She murmured and glanced at his pocket watch, seeing that it was only six.

"Look." He ushered her over to his painting, which was of a vibrant sunset overlooking the lake, a single canoe floating in the middle. She smiled warmly as she recalled the setting as where they had had their picnic on the boat.

"Benedict, this is incredible. It does not seem like a painting at all, it feels like I am actually at the lake." She exclaimed, in awe of how realistic the piece was. He grinned, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind her and kissing her cheek.

"I had a dream about our picnic, it was a rather strange dream actually so I will spare you the details, but I woke up with the inspiration to paint the scene." He chuckled, nuzzling his head in the crook of her neck and placing gentle kisses on her shoulder. She giggled softly and placed her hands over his, leaning into his touch.

"Can you teach me how to paint?" She quipped, turning her head to look at him. His eyebrows furrowed and he spun her around to face him.

"Really? You wish to learn how to paint?" He narrowed his eyebrows skeptically at her. "You know that painting requires patience.. and sitting still for long periods of time.." He teased, a smirk on his face.

"Ben!" She laughed, swatting at his chest. "I am quite capable of both, when I want to be." She giggled, shaking her head at him.

"I'll believe that when I see it." He grinned, brushing a piece of hair behind her ears.

"Come on, I want a chance to learn from the one and only Benedict Bridgerton. Please?" She gave him her best puppy eyes, her hands flat on his chest. He laughed and pecked her lips, running his hands up and down her waist.

"Oh now, you know I can not say no when you are looking at me like that." He grinned and she smirked triumphantly, nodding.

"All right, all right, sit down then." He gestured to the stool, changing out the canvas for a blank one. "What would you like to paint?"

"Something that is not too difficult." Madeleine giggled slightly and Benedict chuckled, thinking of what she could paint. He told her to hang on a moment and went to the kitchen, retrieving the bowl of fruit that sat on their island.

"Here, try this." He set it down on a table a few feet away from her and grabbed the appropriate brushes and colors.

"So," He pulled up a stool beside her, handing her a pencil. "You want to start with a vague outline of each object, just so that you can get the proper size and proportion." He helped her to sketch out the bowl, followed by the various types of fruit inside.

"Now you can go ahead and get the basic color palette down. Start with the simple base color of each fruit, you can mix colors if you would like too. So for the pear, you might mix yellow and green, and a bit of brown too." She nodded and bit her lip in concentration, following his guidance.

Nearly an hour later, Madeleine stared at the bowl of fruit on her canvas, which looked a bit more like a 2D animated image of fruit than a 3D still picture.

"You might want to stick to reading, my love." Benedict smirked, earning a scoff from her as she swatted at his arm.

"I am only kidding, this is actually very good for a first try." He winked, examining her work. She groaned in frustration and shook her head, setting down the brush.

"I do not know how you do this, it is merely impossible to portray the depth and shadows and all of that!" She sighed, resting her head on his shoulder. He chuckled and kissed her forehead.

"How about I fix it up for you, hm? It will be like a shared piece." She gasped at this, looking up at him with wide eyes.

"And then, one day, when your art is in a famous gallery somewhere, my name will be on this one?" She smirked, a playful glint in her eyes. He laughed loudly and nodded, moving the easel to stand in front of him.

"People will think you are some famous, mysterious artist who only ever composed one piece." He mused, bringing his brush up and making a few changes to the painting. She giggled and watched as he worked, nuzzling her head into the crook of his neck.

She asked him many questions about what he was doing, how he knew how to do it, why he put a shadow where he did, pretty much questioning every move he made. He only chuckled before answering her, never growing impatient with her relentless curiosity. When he finally finished, it looked like an entirely new piece.

"How in the world did you manage to do that?" She laughed, unable to believe he had converted her sad drawing into a realistic painting of fruit, despite having watched him do so. He chuckled and kissed her head, placing his hand on her thigh.

"Lots and lots of practice, my love." He whispered, gently squeezing her thigh. She giggled and nodded, admiring the piece in front of her.

"What do you say we go into town today, hm? I could use some new supplies and we could pick up a few new books too." He looked down at her, eyebrows raised. She smiled softly and nodded.

"That sounds like a lovely idea. I'll go get ready." She kissed his cheek, standing and leaving the room. He smiled and cleaned up the paints and brushes, before packing them up and resting the painting by the window to finish drying.