"Uh, just so I am clear. What is your reasoning exactly?" Colin felt his heart fall into his stomach. "Is it because of what happened between us?" He watches as her beautiful blue eyes widen.
She stutters out, "No! N-no! Umm, but I assure you nothing of the kind will happen again." Another blow. But God, why? Why when every fiber of his being wants to do nothing but kiss her plump pink lips.
"Of course. And I apologize for the…" Colin begins but she quickly cuts him off.
"No. I apologize for asking." She is really testing his patience. Does she really think he kissed her out of pity?
He huffed, "Please do not apologize."
She countered, "You apologized."
He fought the urge to roll his eyes at her. Yes, but I…Yes. The lessons?" He started to reach for her hand as he subtly stepped closer. "You said they cannot continue."
Penelope sighed, "They cannot. Whistledown has written about us. I have embarrassed myself and my family, and if we're to continue, I'd embarrass yours as well." She explained, slightly frantic.
"Yes. That is very… sensible." He winced at his own appeasing words.
"In fact, it may be best if we keep our distance for now." Colin felt as if he'd been punched in the gut. Distance? No, anything but that!
"No." He said emphatically shaking his head.
She cocked her head to the side, "No? What do you mean, no?" She asked incredulously. Colin stepped closer and took her hand in his.
"I mean this. Distance is not an option. Months I was away. Months. I wrote you every week. I waited for a response, even just one letter. Week after week, month after month, Pen, and not one letter from you. You, you're the one person I wanted to hear from. The one person I needed and desperately longed to hear from." She attempted to withdraw from his grasp, but he tugged her closer instead.
"Colin, I don't understand." She bit her lip, nervously pulling away from him. He stood firm though, not allowing her to leave his grasp.
"Pen, when I said I missed you at Lady Danbury's Ball in the beginning of the season, it was not in jest. Not hearing from you then feeling your indifference was almost too much to bear." He couldn't stop himself. He brought his hand up and caressed her cheek with the back of his hand, and by God her skin was just as soft as he'd imagined.
Penelope whimpered which brought him to his next monumental action. He needed her to know just how much he cared for her. He swallowed thickly and tilted her head back. "Penelope," he whispered her name as if it were a prayer, "I think, no, I-I know that I am in love with you, Pen." It felt good to finally say it.
When she said nothing but stared at him in shocking silence, he pulled her into his strong arms causing her to gasp. "C-colin? Are, um," she look around the canopy of the willow hiding them from view of the Ton, just barely making out Rae, her ladies maid standing as a sentinel outside of their little hideaway, "are you in jest?" He stared at her, blinking before his lips curved into a soft smile.
"I love you, Pen. I think I always have. From the moment your bonnet hit me in the face, knocking me into the mud and I saw the most angelic face I had ever seen, I have loved you. I was just too blind to realize that was what being in love actually felt like." He watched as a range of emotions hit her before it finally softened and she smiled brilliantly up at him.
"That is when it started for me as well. When you showed joy instead of anger. When you showed kindness and compassion, I fell in love with you instantly." Then, with no thought of where they were, not caring who saw, Colin Bridgerton kissed Penelope Featherington under the willow tree, and it was glorious.
"Will you allow me to court you, Pen?" He whispered as their kiss ended.
"I would like that. Very much." The smile they shared was sweet, and Colin couldn't help but give her one last kiss to seal their fate.
A week into their courtship, Penelope sat in the Bridgerton's drawing room with Colin and Eloise. "Are you two finally going to tell me what happened between you last season?" The look of fear on his betrothed's face had Colin take her hand in his. His sister cleared her throat and began to speak.
"Col, last season, as you know, I was seeking out the identity of Lady Whistledown." He nodded curtly and she continued, "What you don't know is that the Queen, herself, wanted me to help her unmask the author of the gossip sheet." Colin looked shocked then smirked.
"You're joking? Queen Charlotte asked you? And then what? You found out it was someone in the Featherington household?" He chuckled but stop when he saw the worrying look on Penelope's face and tears building up in her eyes. "Pen? You? Surely not." She nodded. "What, why?"
"I was invisible. Nobody paid attention to me. I was being thrust into society a year earlier than I should have. I was lonely and people treated me like I was as insignificant as I felt." Colin squeezed her hand encouragingly. "At first I was just writing musings down as a sort of way to get my feelings out. Then one day, I left a sheet about Lady Hawkins garden party in our drawing room, and my father's solicitor Mister Andrews found it. I heard him chuckling as I came back to retrieve it."
Eloise sat down listening as well. She had yet to hear the full story. She had only just read one of the letters Penelope sent during the offseason.
"He told me how witty and thought provoking he had found it. Then he told me of a friend of his that owned a Printer Shop, Mister Davis. He asked if I could write a more thorough report and that he'd pay for the first two publications himself. I accepted. The first column was so well received that we began to charge for the sheet after. Our second column gave us a good profit which we split. We continued for a few weeks, but Mister Andrews passed away from a heart attack soon after we began. The printer renegotiated with me and it grew from there."
Colin stared in both shock and awe. "And the way you wrote of our family?"
"If I did not write of each family of the Ton, people would have suspected it was someone in your household, I could not risk that." Penelope sniffled and looked imploringly into his eyes. "I love you and your entire family. You have all always treated me like your own."
"And your cousin? Lady Crane? Why did you ruin her, Pen?" Eloise asked. Colin looked at his sister and back at Penelope.
"I begged her, Marina, begged her to choose anyone else. Marina refused. She called him young, eager." She looked like she was going to get sick, so Colin pulled her closer. "She saw you, Colin, as an easy target. She only did this after she received a letter allegedly from George Crane stating he wanted nothing to do with her or their child. I later found it to be a forgery by my mother and our housekeeper, Mrs. Varley."
Eloise and Colin both shared twin gasps of horror. How conniving of Portia!
"And I tried telling you Colin, don't you remember? At your engagement dinner? I told you she loved another and you brushed it off as if it was nothing. I was going to tell you about Marina's pregnancy, but then she came out and stole you away." He remembered.
"Pen, I am such a fool." She shook her head.
"I told you before, you only believed yourself in love." He hugged her closely and went to kiss her but Eloise made herself known.
"Brother, you forget yourself." Colin looked up at her with narrowed eyes.
"El, you are like an annoying bug that just won't go away, do you know that?" Penelope giggled and it made his chest bloom with joy.
"As I was saying, I had almost given up until I found out you were going to sneak off to Gretna Green. I quickly wrote the sheet, snuck off to the printers and urged an early delivery the next morning. I could not stand by and watch you throw your future away. And yes, maybe part of it was me not wanting to lose you as well, but it all came out and the engagement ended."
Eloise gasped, "Oh my! Pen! That was the night you were completely despondent in our gardens! You were sobbing into my arms and the whole time, it was because you were in love with my idiot brother." Colin looked at his sister before turning his attention to Penelope.
"My God. How could you still love me after all of that?" Penelope grasped his lapels of his jacket and looked into his beautiful eyes.
"Colin, I could never stop loving you. I have tried. It's just not possible." Colin dipped down and kissed her, not stopping until he felt something hard hit his back.
"Ow! Eloise! Did you just throw a book at me?"
"Stop kissing my best friend!"
"She's to be my wife! I will never stop kissing her. Get over yourself." Colin embraced a giggling Penelope. "My sweet, beautiful, enchanting wife, Penelope." Eloise scoffed and sat back down.
"Colin Bridgerton, behave. I've not finished my explanation." Penelope reminded him.
"Enough. I'm proud of you. You're a published writer, Pen. A woman with her own business. An inspiration. And I love you."
Before proposing, Colin had a family meeting to inform everyone of Penelope being Lady Whistledown. For the most part, everyone took it well. Only Anthony seemed to be somewhat concerned about the fallout if her identity should be revealed. Penelope stepped up and let everyone that would not be a concern for longer.
"I have decided to request a meeting with the Queen." Colin took her in his arms.
"Pen, no. You mustn't." He pleaded.
"I must. I will reveal myself to her and only her. She will decide what to do with the information." She turned to Violet. "Lady Bridgerton, do you think Lady Danbury would help set everything up? I trust her implicitly." Violet nodded and left the room.
"Colin, for proprieties sake, please keep your hands to yourself." Anthony whined as he watched his younger brother holding Miss Featherington closely as he rubbed her back.
"Now now, dearest," Kate said sweetly, "He's in love. They're in love." Anthony huffed and rolled his eyes before storming from the room. "Congratulations you two." She winked and left the drawing room, leaving Eloise and Benedict behind.
"Well, I for one am very proud to know that my future sister is the most celebrated author in all of London." Benedict said as he winked at Penelope. He bent down a kissed her forehead. Hearing his younger brother growl, he smirked.
"Watch it, Ben. Don't want our dear Colin performing fratricide." Eloise chuckled as Penelope blushed. Colin pulled her to his side by her waist. Benedict backed away with his hands up in surrender.
"Keep your slimy lips away from my wife, brother." His eyes narrowed at him in annoyance. "My lips will be the only ones touching her. My Penelope." His eyes softened as he looked into her beautiful, clear, blue eyes. She felt like swooning whenever he looked at her like that. They got lost in each other's gaze as the world around them blurred.
Three weeks into their courtship, Colin arrived at the Featherington home to ask for Penelope's hand in marriage. Portia was overjoyed and pleased that her daughter landed a Bridgerton. Not just that, but that it was a love match! She watched from a distance as Colin Bridgestone sat with Penelope in the garden. Mrs. Varley held her employer/friend's hand as he went down on one knee.
"Pen, you are my dearest friend. I am so grateful for the day we met and every day after; the good and the bad. Thank you for being my guiding light and my greatest achievement. I love you. I hope that I can be everything you ever wanted and need. Please make me even happier by becoming my wife." The smile that lit up her face caused his heart to burst.
"This is a dream come true. You are already everything that I ever wanted. I love you, Colin. You're the only one that has ever made me feel seen. And I cannot wait to become your wife." Colin pulled a wooden box from his inner pocket and opened it to a beautiful ring. "Oh! It's perfect! Colin!" He placed it on her finger then looked to see Lady Featherington and the housekeeper look away to give them privacy. That's when he leaned up and kissed his fiancée in what started as a chaste kiss but quickly built into a soul stirring kiss that caused them both to forget themselves until they heard her mother gasp.
"My apologies Lady Featherington. I got a little carried away." He sat back next to Penelope on the bench and kissed her hand. Penelope giggled as she snuggled closer to him. They heard Portia ask Rae, Penelope's ladies maid, to take over chaperone duties. "Do you think you could join me at Bridgerton house tonight for dinner. I'd like to announce our happy news to the family. Mother knows but I had her promise not to tell anyone else."
"I think we should go over for tea in twenty minutes because there is no way that half the Ton won't know once my mother leaves for tea at Phillips and Alb's this afternoon." Colin chuckled then agreed as he helped her stand. He looked at Rae and smiled as she turned to walk away to give them a moment of privacy.
Colin turned her to back her against the garden wall and kissed her passionately. "I love you so bloody much, Pen. I cannot wait to marry you. Shall we run off to Gretna Green tonight?" He was only half joking.