Page 87 (1/1)

He stopped his pacing for just long enough to shoot her an annoyed look "Were you laughing atabout how the only way I would be reenerations was in Whistledown columns?"wNo!" she exclaimed "I would hope you knowto you that I had no accoot off the bed and stood It was ied tigerwColin, you couldn't have knoStill" He let out a disgusted exhale "The irony would be beautiful, if it weren't directed at me"

Penelope parted her lips to speak, but she didn't kno to say everything that was in her heart

Colin had so in to count the you could pick up, like an edition of Lady Whistledown's Society Papers,but they were just as special

Perhaps even more so

Penelope remembered all the moments he had made people sirls at balls and asked a wallflower to dance She thought of the strong, als If those weren't achievements, she didn't knoas

But she knew that those weren't the sorts ofabout She knehat he needed:

a purpose, a calling

Soht he Publish your travel ain 'Take a chance and see if you soar"

His eyes met hers for a moment, then they slid back down to his journal, still clutched in her handswThey need editing," he hed, because she knew she had won And he had won, too He didn't know it yet, but he hadwEveryone needs editing," she said, her suess," she teased "Or"We'll never know, because I had no one to edit me"

He looked up quite suddenly "How did you do it?" did I do what?"

His lips pursed impatiently "You knohat I mean How did you do the colu You had to print and distribute So breath She'd held these secrets so long it felt strange to share the story," she told him "Perhaps we should sit"

He led her back to the bed, and they both ainst the pillows, their legs stretched out before thean "Only seventeen And it happened quite by accident"

He s like that happen by accident?"rote it as a joke I was so miserable that first season" She looked up at hihed over a stone more back then, and it's not as if I'm fashionably slender noI think you're perfect," he said loyally

Which was, Penelope thought, part of the reason she thought he was perfect as ay," she continued, "I wasn't terribly happy, and so I wrote a rather scathing report of the party I'd been to the night before And then I did another, and another I didn't sign them Lady Whistledown; I just wrote theot to hide them"

He leaned forward, utterly rapt "What happened?"wMy faone for soht she could turn Prudence into a dia trips took all day"

Colin rolled his hand through the air, signaling that she should get to the pointay," Penelope continued, "I decided to work in the drawing room because my room was damp

and musty because so a rainstorm But then I had towell, you knoNo," Colin said abruptly "I don't knoAttend to ht," he said dismissively, clearly not interested in that part of the story, either "Go on"wWhen I got back,what I wrote I was horrified!"wWhat happened?"wI couldn't even speak for the first , and it wasn't because he thought I was foolish, it was because he thought I was good"wWell, you are good"wI know that now," she said with a wry smile, "but you have to res in there"wAbout horrid people, I'm sure," he saidwWell, yes, but still" She closed her eyes as all the h her head "They were popular people Influential people People who didn't like me very much It didn't really ot out In fact, it would have been worse because they were horrid I would have been ruined, and I would have ruinedwith me"wWhat happened then? I assume it was his idea to publish"

Penelope nodded "Yes He ements with the printer, who in turn found the boys to deliver And it was his idea to give it away for free for the first teeks He said we needed to addict the ton "as out of the country when the coluan," Colin said, "but I re rumbled when the newsboys demanded payment after teeks for free," Penelope saidwBut they all paid"wA bright idea on the part of your solicitor," Colin murmuredwYes, he was quite savvy"