Bridgerton Collection, Volume 2 - Julia Quinn Page 0,57

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