I DO NOT OWN BRIDGERTON. SHOUTOUT TO O4JETTA FOR BETAING THIS STORY.
Bridgerton House. London, United Kingdom. Later that night.
After the Featheringtons returned home, I immediately began packing my bags for the trip to Gretna Green. Everything inside me was calling on me to abandon this plan, but the idea of Marina drowning in a lake was still playing in my mind based on what Melanie had told me her fate to be. I knew that I had to do the right thing and the right thing to do was to forget about Penelope and marry Marina and raise her children as best I could.
Once I was all packed, I immediately sat down and began to write a letter for the dowager Viscountess. I didn't want to be like canon Colin and just leave her with no explanation. I told her that Marina was afraid that Anthony was going to force me to throw her out on the streets at the risk of losing my inheritance. Therefore, I felt that eloping was the only way to convince the Viscount that I was serious about Marina. I told her that I loved her and all of my siblings and that we would be back in a few days. It wasn't as much as she deserved, but it was better than nothing.
I took the letter to Eloise's room to give to her. My plan was for her to give it to Violet after breakfast so that she would understand why i wasn't there. She deserved better than for her son to just show up a few days later with a new wife in his arm that was a few weeks from sporting a baby bump. However, when I knocked on Eloise's bedroom door, no one answered. I knocked a few more times, but dead silence greeted me. Without any options, I picked up a quill and wrote "Eloise, give this letter to mother after breakfast".
I spent the next couple of hours trying to force myself to pick up my bags, go downstairs, and get one of the servants to ready the carriage. Even though i felt that marrying Marina and claiming her kids was the right thing to do, i still felt like shit for breaking Pen's heart. If i married Marina and she lived, I was potentially stuck with her for the rest of my life. Penelope would either have to be a spinster or find some man who'd be willing get hitched to her.
The fucking problem was that because Pen wasn't blond or skinny, men thought she was an uggo. It's such bullshit. Penelope Featherington is a beautiful woman inside and out and if the men of the Ton can't see it, then they're dumb asses if ever i saw them. I wanted to court her, but I wasn't willing to let a decent woman commit suicide because she didn't find any happiness.
I used what little determination I still possessed and grabbed my bags. As the light of dawn seeped through the windows, I knew that I had to get moving if Marina and I were going to be on the road to Scotland before the Ton awoke. My heart sank like a rock as i made my way to the foyer and saw Violet standing in the doorway; holding a piece of paper in her hand. I knew exactly what it was: the edition of Lady Whistledown that I failed to prevent.
"What is it?" I asked as if I didn't already know. Violet said nothing as she just handed me the sheet.
All is fair in love and war, but some battles leave no victor, only a trail of broken hearts that makes us wonder if the price we pay is ever worth the fight.
The ones we love have the power to inflict the greatest scars. For what thing is more fragile than the human heart?
The bond between man and bride is private, sacred...but I must tell you, I have learned that a grave fraud is afoot:
As if the Featheringtons did not have enough to be dealing with, Miss Marina Thompson is with child; and she has been from the very first day she arrived in our fair city.
Desperate times may call for desperate measures, but I would wager many will think her actions beyond the pale.
Perhaps she thought it her only option, or perhaps she knows no shame.
But I ask you, can the ends ever justify such wretched means?
As I finished reading, I felt a mixture of anger at Pen, but at the same time...a great sense of relief. Although Pen had single handed ruined Marina's reputation by basically calling her child a bastard and she a slut, I was free from having to marry her. There was no way that Anthony or Violet would allow me to wed Marina after this. Even if they had, my sole purpose for pursuing Marina Thompson was to save her life by offering her security and a husband who would see her as a good woman; as opposed to a breeding mare. I knew that I could offer her none of that now. I could marry Marina this day and nothing would change. The opinion of Lady Whistledown was held in higher regard than mine or any of the Bridgertons or Featheringtons. No one would truly believe that her child was mine and I would stain the Bridgerton name by pretending differently. Anthony would fight tooth and nail to stop me and to be honest, I no longer had it in me to fight him on this; not when I myself didn't even want to spend a life with Marina.
"That's that." I said quietly as I crumpled up the paper and let it fall to the ground before walking back upstairs.
"Colin!" Violet called after me, but I ignored her as I went back to my room so that I could get a couple more hours of sleep to face the trying day that was surely ahead of me.
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