Bridgerton Collection, Volume 2 - Julia Quinn Page 0,26

mind. I’m perfectly comfortable as an old maid.” She gave Colin a rather superior look. “I’d much rather be a spinster than be married to a bore. As,” she added with a flourish, “would Penelope!”

Startled by Eloise’s hand waving rather suddenly in her direction, Penelope straightened her spine and said, “Er, yes. Of course.”

But Penelope had a feeling she wasn’t quite as firm in her convictions as her friend. Unlike Eloise, she hadn’t refused six offers of marriage. She hadn’t refused any; she hadn’t received even a one.

She’d told herself that she wouldn’t have accepted in any case, since her heart belonged to Colin. But was that really the truth, or was she just trying to make herself feel better for having been such a resounding failure on the marriage mart?

If someone asked her to marry him tomorrow—someone perfectly kind and acceptable, whom she might never love but would in all probability like very well—would she say yes?

Probably.

And this made her melancholy, because admitting this to herself meant she’d really, truly given up hope on Colin. It meant she wasn’t as true to her principles as she’d hoped she was. It meant she was willing to settle on a less-than-perfect husband in order to have a home and family of her own.

It wasn’t anything that hundreds of women didn’t do every year, but it was something that she’d never thought she’d do herself.

“You look very serious all of a sudden,” Colin said to her. Penelope jerked out of her musings. “Me? Oh. No, no. I just lost myself in my thoughts, that’s all.”

Colin acknowledged her statement with a brief nod before reaching for another biscuit. “Have we anything more substantial?” he asked, wrinkling his nose.

“If I’d known you were coming,” his mother said in a dry voice, “I would have doubled the food.”

He stood and walked to the bellpull. “I’ll ring for more.” After giving it a yank, he turned back and asked, “Did you hear about Penelope’s Lady Whistledown theory?”

“No, I haven’t,” Lady Bridgerton replied.

“It’s very clever, actually,” Colin said, stopping to ask a maid for sandwiches before finishing with, “She thinks it’s Lady Danbury.”

“Ooooh.” Hyacinth was visibly impressed. “That’s very cunning, Penelope.”

Penelope nodded her head to the side in thanks.

“And just the sort of thing Lady Danbury would do,” Hyacinth added.

“The column or the challenge?” Kate asked, catching hold of the sash on Charlotte’s frock before the little girl could scramble out of reach.

“Both,” Hyacinth said.

“And,” Eloise put in, “Penelope told her so. Right to her face.”

Hyacinth’s mouth dropped open, and it was obvious to Penelope that she’d just gone up—way up—in Hyacinth’s estimation.

“I should have liked to have seen that!” Lady Bridgerton said with a wide, proud smile. “Frankly, I’m surprised that didn’t show up in this morning’s Whistledown.”

“I hardly think Lady Whistledown would comment upon individual people’s theories as to her identity,” Penelope said.

“Why not?” Hyacinth asked. “It would be an excellent way for her to set out a few red herrings. For example”—she held her hand out toward her sister in a most dramatic pose—“say I thought it was Eloise.”

“It is not Eloise!” Lady Bridgerton protested.

“It’s not me,” Eloise said with a grin.

“But say I thought it was,” Hyacinth said in an extremely beleaguered voice. “And that I said so publicly.”

“Which you would never do,” her mother said sternly.

“Which I would never do,” Hyacinth parroted. “But just to be academic, let us pretend that I did. And say that Eloise really was Lady Whistledown. Which she’s not,” she hastened to add before her mother could interrupt again.

Lady Bridgerton held up her hands in silent defeat.

“What better way to fool the masses,” Hyacinth continued, “than to make fun of me in her column?”

“Of course, if Lady Whistledown really were Eloise . . .” Penelope mused.

“She’s not!” Lady Bridgerton burst out.

Penelope couldn’t help but laugh. “But if she were . . .”

“You know,” Eloise said, “now I really wish I were.”

“What a joke you’d be having on us all,” Penelope continued. “Of course, then on Wednesday you couldn’t run a column making fun of Hyacinth for thinking you are Lady Whistledown, because then we’d all know it had to be you.”

“Unless it was you.” Kate laughed, looking at Penelope. “That would be a devious trick.”

“Let me see if I have it straight,” Eloise said with a laugh. “Penelope is Lady Whistledown, and she is going to run a column on Wednesday making fun of Hyacinth’s theory that I’m Lady Whistledown just to trick you into thinking that