Penelope could only look at her in shock. She’d spent the last ten years of her life never quite saying what she wanted to say. With people she knew well she was open and honest and even sometimes a little funny, but among strangers her tongue was quite firmly tied.
She remembered a masquerade ball she’d once attended. She’d attended many masquerade balls, actually, but this one had been unique because she’d actually found a costume—nothing special, just a gown styled as if from the 1600s—in which she’d truly felt her identity was hidden. It had probably been the mask. It was overly large and covered almost all of her face.
She had felt transformed. Suddenly free of the burden of being Penelope Featherington, she felt a new personality coming to the fore. It wasn’t as if she had been putting on false airs; rather, it was more like her true self—the one she didn’t know how to show to anyone she didn’t know well—had finally broken loose.
She’d laughed; she’d joked. She’d even flirted.
And she’d sworn that the following night, when the costumes were all put away and she was once again attired in her finest evening dress, she’d remember how to be herself.
But it hadn’t happened. She’d arrived at the ball and she’d nodded and smiled politely and once again found herself standing near the perimeter of the room, quite literally a wallflower.
It seemed that being Penelope Featherington meant something. Her lot had been cast years ago, during that first awful season when her mother had insisted she make her debut even though Penelope had begged otherwise. The pudgy girl. The awkward girl. The one always dressed in colors that didn’t suit her. It didn’t matter that she’d slimmed and grown graceful and finally thrown out all of her yellow dresses. In this world—the world of London society and the ton—she would always be the same old Penelope Featherington.
It was her own fault just as much as anyone else’s. A vicious circle, really. Every time Penelope stepped into a ballroom, and she saw all those people who had known her for so long, she felt herself folding up inside, turning into the shy, awkward girl of years gone past, rather than the self-assured woman she liked to think she’d become—at least in her heart.
“Miss Featherington?” came Lady Danbury’s soft—and surprisingly gentle—voice. “Is something wrong?”
Penelope knew she took longer than she should have to reply, but somehow she needed a few seconds to find her voice. “I don’t think I know how to speak my mind,” she finally said, turning to look at Lady Danbury only as she uttered the final words of the sentence. “I never know what to say to people.”
“You know what to say to me.”
“You’re different.”
Lady Danbury threw her head back and laughed. “If ever there was an understatement . . . Oh, Penelope—I hope you don’t mind if I call you by your given name—if you can speak your mind to me, you can speak it to anyone. Half the grown men in this room run cowering into corners the minute they see me coming.”
“They just don’t know you,” Penelope said, patting her on the hand.
“And they don’t know you, either,” Lady Danbury quite pointedly replied.
“No,” Penelope said, a touch of resignation in her voice, “they don’t.”
“I’d say that it was their loss, but that would be rather cavalier of me,” Lady Danbury said. “Not to them, but to you, because as often as I call them all fools—and I do call them fools often, as I’m sure you know—some of them are actually rather decent people, and it’s a crime they haven’t gotten to know you. I—Hmmm . . . I wonder what is going on.”
Penelope found herself unaccountably sitting up a little straighter. She asked Lady Danbury, “What do you mean?” but it was clear that something was afoot. People were whispering and motioning to the small dais where the musicians were seated.
“You there!” Lady Danbury said, poking her cane into the hip of a nearby gentleman. “What is going on?”
“Cressida Twombley wants to make some sort of announcement,” he said, then quickly stepped away, presumably to avoid any further conversation with Lady Danbury or her cane.
“I hate Cressida Twombley,” Penelope muttered.
Lady Danbury choked on a bit of laughter. “And you say you don’t know how to speak your mind. Don’t keep me in suspense. Why do you detest her so?”
Penelope shrugged. “She’s always behaved quite badly toward me.”
Lady Danbury nodded knowingly. “All bullies have a favorite victim.”
“It’s not so bad now,” Penelope said. “But back when we were both out—when she was still Cressida Cowper—she never could resist the chance to torment me. And people . . . well . . .” She shook her head. “Never mind.”
“No, please,” Lady Danbury said, “do go on.”
Penelope sighed. “It’s nothing, really. Just that I’ve noticed that people don’t often rush to another’s defense. Cressida was popular—at least with a certain set—and she was rather frightening to the other girls our age. No one dared go against her. Well, almost no one.”
That got Lady Danbury’s attention, and she smiled. “Who was your champion, Penelope?”
“Champions, actually,” Penelope replied. “The Bridgertons always came to my aid. Anthony Bridgerton once gave her the cut direct and took me in to dinner, and”—her voice rose with remembered excitement—“he really shouldn’t have done so. It was a formal dinner party, and he was supposed to escort in some marchioness, I think.” She sighed, treasuring the memory. “It was lovely.”
“He’s a good man, that Anthony Bridgerton.”
Penelope nodded. “His wife told me that that was the day she fell in love with him. When she saw him being my hero.”
Lady Danbury smiled. “And has the younger Mr. Bridgerton ever rushed to your aid?”
“Colin, you mean?” Penelope didn’t even wait for Lady Danbury’s nod before adding, “Of course, although never with quite so much drama. But I must say, as nice as it is that the Bridgertons are so supportive. . . .”
“What is it, Penelope?” Lady Danbury asked.
Penelope sighed again. It seemed a night for sighs. “I just wish they didn’t have to defend me so often. You’d think I could defend myself. Or at least comport myself in such a manner so that no defending was necessary.”
Lady Danbury patted her hand. “I think you get on a great deal better than you think you do. And as for that Cressida Twombley . . .” Lady Danbury’s face soured with distaste. “Well, she got her just desserts, if you ask me. Although,” she added sharply, “people don’t ask me as often as they should.”
Penelope could not quite suppress a little snort of laughter.
“Look where she is now,” Lady Danbury said sharply. “Widowed and without even a fortune to show for it. She married that old lecher Horace Twombley and it turned out he’d managed to fool everyone into thinking he had money. Now she has nothing but fading good looks.”
Honesty compelled Penelope to say, “She is still quite attractive.”
“Hmmph. If you like flashy women.” Lady Danbury’s eyes narrowed. “There is something far too obvious about that woman.”
Penelope looked toward the dais, where Cressida was waiting, standing there with a surprising amount of patience while the ballroom quieted down. “I wonder what she is going to say.”
“Nothing that could possibly interest me,” Lady Danbury retorted. “I—Oh.” She stopped, and her lips curved into the oddest of expressions, a little bit frown, a little bit smile.
“What is it?” Penelope asked. She craned her neck to try to see Lady Danbury’s line of vision, but a rather portly gentleman was blocking her way.
“Your Mr. Bridgerton is approaching,” Lady Danbury said, the smile edging out the frown. “And he looks quite determined.”
Penelope immediately twisted her head around.
“For the love of God, girl, don’t look!” Lady Danbury exclaimed, jamming her elbow into Penelope’s upper arm. “He’ll know you’re interested.”
“I don’t think there’s much of a chance he hasn’t figured that out already,” Penelope mumbled.
And then there he was, standing splendidly in front of her, looking like some handsome god, deigning to grace earth with his presence. “Lady Danbury,” he said, executing a smooth and graceful bow. “Miss Featherington.”
“Mr. Bridgerton,” Lady Danbury said, “how nice to see you.”
Colin looked to Penelope.
“Mr. Bridgerton,” she murmured, not knowing what else to say. What did one say to a man one had recently kissed? Penelope certainly had no experience in that area. Not to mention the added complication of his storming out of the house once they were through.
“I’d hoped . . .” Colin began, then stopped and frowned, looking up toward the dais. “What is everyone looking at?”
“Cressida Twombley has some sort of announcement,” Lady Danbury said.
Colin’s face slid into a vaguely annoyed frown. “Can’t imagine what she has to say that I’d want to listen to,” he muttered.
Penelope couldn’t help but grin. Cressida Twombley was considered a leader in society, or at least she had been when she’d been young and unmarried, but the Bridgertons had never liked her, and somehow that had always made Penelope feel a little better.
Just then a trumpet blared, and the room fell silent as everyone turned their attention to the Earl of Macclesfield, who was standing on the dais next to Cressida, looking vaguely uncomfortable with all the attention.
Penelope smiled. She’d been told the earl had once been a terrible rake, but now he was a rather scholarly sort, devoted to his family. He was still handsome enough to be a rake, though. Almost as handsome as Colin.
But only almost. Penelope knew she was biased, but it was difficult to imagine any creature quite as magnetically good-looking as Colin when he was smiling.
“Good evening,” the earl said loudly.
“Good evening to you!” came a drunken shout from the back of the room.
The earl gave a good-natured nod, a tolerant half-smile playing along his lips. “My, er, esteemed guest here”—he motioned to Cressida—“would like to make an announcement. So if you would all give your attention to the lady beside me, I give you Lady Twombley.”
A low ripple of whispers spread across the room as Cressida stepped forward, nodding regally at the crowd. She waited for the room to fall into stark silence, and then she said, “Ladies and gentleman, thank you so much for taking time out of your festivities to lend me your attention.”
“Hurry up with it!” someone shouted, probably the same person who had yelled good evening to the earl.
Cressida ignored the interruption. “I have come to the conclusion that I can no longer continue the deception that has ruled my life for the last eleven years.”
The ballroom was rocked with the low buzz of whispers. Everyone knew what she was going to say, and yet no one could believe it was actually true.
“Therefore,” Cressida continued, her voice growing in volume, “I have decided to reveal my secret.
“Ladies and gentleman, I am Lady Whistledown.”