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PROLOGUE
On the sixth of April, in the year 1812—precisely two days before her sixteenth birthday—Penelope Featherington fell in love
It was, in a word, thrilling The world shook Her heart leaped TheAnd, she was able to tell herself with soerton—felt precisely the same way
Oh, not the love part He certainly didn't fall in love with her in 1812 (and not in 1813, 1814, 1815, or—oh, blast, not in all the years 1816-1822, either, and certainly not in 1823, when he was out of the country the whole time, anyway) But his earth shook, his heart leaped, and Penelope kneithout a shadow of a doubt that his breath was taken away as well For a good ten seconds
Falling off a horse tended to do that to a man
It happened thus:
She'd been out for a walk in Hyde Park with her mother and two older sisters when she felt a thunderous ru under her feet (see above: the bit about the earth shaking) Hermuch attention to her (her mother rarely did), so Penelope slipped away for a tons were in rapt conversation with Viscountess Bridgerton and her daughter Daphne, who had just begun her second season in London, so they were pretending to ignore the ruertons were an important fanored
As Penelope skirted around the edge of a particularly fat-trunked tree, she sao riders co hell-for-leather or whatever expression people liked to use for fools on horseback who care not for their safety and well-being Penelope felt her heart quicken (it would have been difficult to maintain a sedate pulse as a witness to such excitement, and besides, this allowed her to say that her heart leaped when she fell in love)
Then, in one of those inexplicable quirks of fate, the wind picked up quite suddenly and lifted her bonnet (which, rin, she had not tied properly since the ribbon chafed under her chin) straight into the air and, splat! right onto the face of one of the riders
Penelope gasped (taking her breath away!), and then the antly in a nearby mud puddle
She rushed forward, quite without thinking, squealing so that was meant to inquire after his welfare, but that she suspected caled shriek He would, of course, be furious with her, since she'd effectively knocked hiuaranteed to put any gentleman in the foulest ofoff whatever , he didn't lash out at her He didn't give her a stinging set-down, he didn't yell, he didn't even glare
He laughed
He laughed
Penelope hadn't hter of men, and what little she had known had not been kind But this reen—were filled with ly placed spot of mud off his cheek and said, "Well, that wasn't very well done of me, was it?"
And in that moment, Penelope fell in love
When she found her voice (which, she was pained to note, was a good three seconds after a person of any intelligence would have replied), she said, "Oh, no, it is I who should apologize! My bonnet caht off my head, and "
She stopped talking when she realized he hadn't actually apologized, so there was little point in contradicting him
"It was no trouble," he said, giving her a soood day, Daphne! Didn't know you were in the park"
Penelope whirled around to find herself facing Daphne Bridgerton, standing next to her mother, who proton?" and Penelope couldn't even ansith her stock, Nothing, because in truth, the accident was completely her fault, and she'd justfroible bachelor indeed
Not that her ht that she had a chance with hih irls Besides, Penelope wasn't even "out" in society yet
But if Mrs Featherington intended to scold her any further, she was unable to do so, because that would have required that she reertons, whose ranks, Penelope was quickly figuring out, included the man presently covered in mud
"I hope your son isn't injured," Mrs Featherington said to Lady Bridgerton
"Right as rain," Colin interjected, erton could maul him with motherly concern
Introductions were made, but the rest of the conversation was unimportant, mostly because Colin quickly and accurately sized up Mrs Featherington as amama Penelope was not at all surprised when he beat a hasty retreat
But the dae had already been done Penelope had discovered a reason to dream
Later that night, as she replayed the encounter for about the thousandth time in her mind, it occurred to her that it would have been nice if she could have said that she'd fallen in love with hireen eyes twinkling devilishly while his fingers held hers just a little htly than was proper Or maybe it could have happened as he rode boldly across a ept moor, the (aforealloped ever closer, his (Colin's, not the horse's) only intention to reach her side
But no, she had to go and fall in love with Colin Bridgerton when he fell off a horse and landed on his bottohly unromantic, but there was a certain poetic justice in that, since nothing was ever going to come of it
Why waste romance on a love that would never be returned? Better to save the ept-ht actually have a future together
And if there was one thing Penelope knew, even then, at the age of sixteen years minus two days, it was t
hat her future did not feature Colin Bridgerton in the role of husband
She siirl who attracted a man like him, and she feared that she never would be
On the tenth of April, in the year 1813—precisely two days after her seventeenth birthday—Penelope Featherington made her debut into London society She hadn't wanted to do it She begged her mother to let her wait a year She was at least two stone heavier than she ought to be, and her face still had an awful tendency to develop spots whenever she was nervous, whichin the world could make her as nervous as a London ball
She tried to remind herself that beauty was only skin deep, but that didn't offer any helpful excuses when she was berating herself for never knohat to say to people There was nothing irl with no personality And in that first year on the irl with no—oh, very well, she had to give herself some credit—with very little personality
Deep inside, she kneho she was, and that person was smart and kind and often even funny, but soot lost somewhere between her heart and heror,at all
To make matters even less attractive, Penelope's , and when she wasn't in the requisite white thatladies wore (and which of course didn't flatter her complexion one bit), she was forced to wear yellow and red and orange, all of which made her look perfectly wretched The one titon had planted her hands on her reen was too melancholy
Yellow, Mrs Featherington declared, was a happy color and a happy girl would snare a husband
Penelope decided then and there that it was best not to try to understand the workings of her mother's mind
So Penelope found herself outfitted in yellow and orange and the occasional red, even though such colors hastly with her brown eyes and red-tinged hair There was nothing she could do about it, though, so she decided to grin and bear it, and if she couldn't rin, at least she wouldn't cry in public