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“You didn’t tell her?”

Penelope Bridgerton would have said more, and in fact would have liked to sayslack Her husband had just returned froland with his three brothers, in pursuit of his sister Eloise, who had, by all accounts, run off to elope with—

Oh, dear God

“Is she married?” Penelope asked frantically

Colin tossed his hat on a chair with a clever little twist of his wrist, one corner of his h the air on a perfect horizontal axis “Not yet,” he replied

So she hadn’t eloped But she had run away And she’d done it in secret Eloise, as Penelope’s closest friend Eloise, who told Penelope everything Eloise, who apparently didn’t tell Penelope everything, had run off to the ho her family that all would be well and not to worry

Not to worry????

Good heavens, one would think Eloise Bridgerton knew her family better than that They had been frantic, every last one of them Penelope had stayed with her newfor Eloise Violet Bridgerton had put up a good front, but her skin was positively ashen, and Penelope could not help but notice the way her hands shook with every movement

And now Colin was back, acting as if nothing were a none of her questions to her satisfaction, and beyond all that—

“How could you not have told her?” she said again, dogging his heels

He sprawled into a chair and shrugged “There really wasn’t an appropriate time”

“You were gone five days!”

“Yes, well, not all of them ith Eloise A day’s travel on either end, after all”

“But—but—”

Colin sulance about the room “Don’t suppose you ordered tea?”

“Yes, of course,” Penelope said reflexively, since it had not taken e to learn that when it came to her new husband, it was always best to have food at the ready “But Colin—”

“I did hurry back, you know”

“I can see that,” she said, taking in his dampened, windblown hair “Did you ride?”

He nodded

“From Gloucestershire?”

“Wiltshire, actually We retired to Benedict’s”

“But—”

He sly “I missed you”

And Penelope was not so accustomed to his affection that she did not blush “I missed you, too, but—”

“Come sit with me”

Where? Penelope almost demanded Because the only flat surface was his lap

His srew ht now,” he murmured

Much to her extreaze moved instantly to the front of his breeches Colin let out a bark of laughter, and Penelope crossed her arms “Don’t, Colin,” she warned

“Don’t what?” he asked, all innocence

“Even if eren’t in the sitting room, and even if the draperies weren’t open—”

“An easily relance to the s

“And even, ” she ground out, her voice growing in depth, if not quite in volu aunder the weight of your tea tray, the fact of the matter is—”

Colin let out a sigh

“—you have not answered my question!”

He blinked “I’ve quite forgotten what it was”

A full ten seconds elapsed before she spoke And then: “I’ to kill you”

“Of that, I’m certain,” he said offhandedly “Truly, the only question is when”

“Colin!”

“Might be sooner rather than later,” he o in an apoplexy, brought on by bad behavior”

She stared at him

“Your bad behavior,” he clarified

“I didn’t have bad behavior before I met you,” she retorted

“Oh, ho, ho,” he chortled “Now that is rich”

And Penelope was forced to shut her ht And that hat all of this was about, as it happened Her husband, after entering the hall, shrugging off his coat, and kissing her rather soundly on the lips (in front of the butler!), had blithely informed her, “Oh, and by the by, I never did tell her you were Whistledown”

And if there was anything that ht count as bad behavior, it had to be ten years as the author of the now infamous Lady Whistledown’s Society Papers Over the past decade, Penelope had, in her pseudonyed to insult just about everyone in society, even herself (Surely, the ton would have grown suspicious if she had never poked fun at herself, and besides, she really did look like an overripe citrus fruit in the dreadful yellows and oranges her mother had always forced her to wear)

Penelope had “retired” just before her e, but a blackmail attempt had convinced Colin that the best course of action was to reveal her secret in a grand gesture, and so he had announced her identity at his sister Daphne’s ball It had all been very roht it had become apparent that Eloise had disappeared

Eloise had been Penelope’s closest friend for years, but even she had not known Penelope’s big secret And now she still didn’t She’d left the party before Colin had announced it, and he apparently had not seen fit to say anything once he’d found her

“Frankly,” Colin said, his voice holding an uncharacteristic strain of irritability, “it’s less than she deserved after what she put us through”

“Well, yes,” Peneloperather disloyal even as she said it But the entire Bridgerton clan had been mad orry Eloise had left a note, it was true, but it had soot mixed into her mother’s correspondence, and an entire day had passed before the family was reassured that Eloise had not been abducted And even then, no one’s ht have left of her own accord, but it had taken another day of tearing her bedchamber to bits before they found a letter froht have run off to

Considering all that, Colin did have so of a point

“We have to go back in a few days for the wedding,” he said “We’ll tell her then”

“Oh, but we can’t!”

He paused Then he s on her with great appreciation

“It will be her wedding day,” Penelope explained, aware that he’d been hoping for a far more diabolical reason “She must be the center of all attention I cannot tell her so such as this ”

“A bit more altruistic than I’d like,” he mused, “but the end result is the same, so you have my approval—”

“I don’t need your approval,” Penelope cut in

“But nonetheless, you have it,” he said smoothly “We shall keep Eloise in the dark” He tapped his fingertips together and sighed with audible pleasure “It will be a ”

Thea heavily laden tea tray Penelope tried not to notice that she let out a little grunt w

hen she was finally able to set it down

“You may close the door behind you,” Colin said, once the htened

Penelope’s eyes darted to the door, then to her husband, who had risen and was shutting the draperies

“Colin!” she yelped, because his arms had stolen around her, and his lips were on her neck, and she could feel herself going quite liquid in his easped

“I do,” heon the bodice of her dress “But I want you more”