olin couldn’t remember the last time he’d entered a ballroom with quite so much apprehension.

The last few days had not been among his best. He’d been in a bad mood, which had only been worsened by the fact that he was rather renowned for his good humor, which meant that everyone had felt compelled to comment on his foul disposition.

There was nothing worse for a bad mood than being subjected to constant queries of, “Why are you in such a bad mood?”

His family had stopped asking after he’d actually snarled—snarled!—at Hyacinth when she’d asked him to accompany her to the theater the following week.

Colin hadn’t even been aware that he knew how to snarl.

He was going to have to apologize to Hyacinth, which was going to be a chore, since Hyacinth never accepted apologies gracefully—at least not those that came from fellow Bridgertons.

But Hyacinth was the least of his problems. Colin groaned. His sister wasn’t the only person who deserved his apology.

And that was why his heart was beating with this strange, nervous, and completely unprecedented rapidity as he entered the Macclesfield ballroom. Penelope would be here. He knew she’d be here because she always attended the major balls, even if she was now most often doing so as her sister’s chaperone.

There was something quite humbling in feeling nervous about seeing Penelope. Penelope was…Penelope. It was almost as if she’d always been there, smiling politely at the perimeter of a ballroom. And he’d taken her for granted, in a way. Some things didn’t change, and Penelope was one of them.

Except she had changed.

Colin didn’t know when it had happened, or even if anyone other than himself had noticed it, but Penelope Featherington was not the same woman he used to know.

Or maybe she was, and he had changed.

Which made him feel even worse, because if that was the case, then Penelope had been interesting and lovely and kissable years ago, and he hadn’t the maturity to notice.

No, better to think that Penelope had changed. Colin had never been a great fan of self-flagellation.

Whatever the case, he needed to make his apology, and he needed to do it soon. He had to apologize for the kiss, because she was a lady and he was (most of the time, at least) a gentleman. And he had to apologize for behaving like a raving idiot afterward, because it was simply the right thing to do.

God only knew what Penelope thought he thought of her now.

It wasn’t difficult to find her once he entered the ballroom. He didn’t bother to look among the dancing couples (which angered him—why didn’t the other men think to ask her to dance?). Rather, he focused his attention along the walls, and sure enough, there she was, seated on a long bench next to—oh, God—Lady Danbury.

Well, there was nothing else to do but walk right up. The way Penelope and the old busybody were clutching each other’s hands, he couldn’t expect Lady Danbury to disappear anytime soon.

When he reached the pair of ladies, he turned first to Lady Danbury and swept into an elegant bow. “Lady Danbury,” he said, before turning his attention to Penelope. “Miss Featherington.”

“Mr. Bridgerton,” Lady Danbury said, with a surprising lack of sharpness in her voice, “how nice to see you.”

He nodded, then looked to Penelope, wondering what she was thinking, and whether he’d be able to see it in her eyes.

But whatever she was thinking—or feeling—it was hidden under a rather thick layer of nervousness. Or maybe the nervousness was all she was feeling. He couldn’t really blame her. The way he’d stormed out of her drawing room without an explanation…she had to feel confused. And it was his experience that confusion invariably led to apprehension.

“Mr. Bridgerton,” she finally murmured, her entire bearing scrupulously polite.

He cleared his throat. How to extract her from Lady Danbury’s clutches? He’d really rather not humble himself in front of the nosy old countess.

“I’d hoped…” he began, intending to say that he’d hoped to have a private word with Penelope. Lady Danbury would be ferociously curious, but there was really no other course of action, and it would probably do her good to be left in the dark for once.

But just as his lips were forming his query, he realized that something strange was afoot in the Macclesfield ballroom. People were whispering and pointing toward the small orchestra, whose members had recently laid their instruments down. Furthermore, neither Penelope nor Lady Danbury were paying him the least attention.

“What is everyone looking at?” Colin asked.

Lady Danbury didn’t even bother looking back at him as she replied, “Cressida Twombley has some sort of announcement.”

How annoying. He’d never liked Cressida. She’d been mean and petty when she was Cressida Cowper, and she was meaner and pettier as Cressida Twombley. But she was beautiful, and she was intelligent, in a rather cruel sort of way, and so she was still considered a leader in certain society circles.

“Can’t imagine what she has to say that I’d want to listen to,” Colin muttered.

He spied Penelope trying to stifle a smile and flashed her an I-caught-you sort of look. But it was the sort of I-caught-you look that also said And-I-agree-completely.

“Good evening!” came the loud voice of the Earl of Macclesfield.

“Good evening to you!” replied some drunken fool in the back. Colin twisted to see who it was, but the crowd had grown too thick.

The earl spoke some more, then Cressida opened her mouth, at which point Colin ceased paying attention. Whatever Cressida had to say, it wasn’t going to help him solve his main problem: figuring out exactly how he was going to apologize to Penelope. He’d tried rehearsing the words in his mind, but they never sounded quite right, and so he was hoping his famously glib tongue would lead him in the right direction when the time came. Surely she’d understand—

“Whistledown!”

Colin only caught the last word of Cressida’s monologue, but there was no way he could have missed the massive collective indrawn breath that swept the ballroom.

Followed by the flurry of harsh, urgent whispers one generally only hears after someone is caught in a very embarrassing, very public compromising position.

“What?” he blurted out, turning to Penelope, who’d gone white as a sheet. “What did she say?”

But Penelope was speechless.

He looked to Lady Danbury, but the old lady had her hand over her mouth and looked as if she might possibly swoon.

Which was somewhat alarming, as Colin would have bet large sums of money that Lady Danbury had never once swooned in all of her seventy-odd years.

“What?” he demanded again, hoping one of them would break free of her stupor.

“It can’t be true,” Lady Danbury finally whispered, her mouth slack even as she spoke the words. “I don’t believe it.”

“What?”

She pointed toward Cressida, her extended index finger quivering in the flickering candlelight. “That lady is not Lady Whistledown.”

Colin’s head snapped back and forth. To Cressida. To Lady Danbury. To Cressida. To Penelope. “She’s Lady Whistledown?” he finally blurted out.

“So she says,” Lady Danbury replied, doubt written all over her face.

Colin tended to agree with her. Cressida Twombley was the last person he’d have pegged as Lady Whistledown. She was smart; there was no denying that. But she wasn’t clever, and she wasn’t terribly witty unless she was poking fun at others. Lady Whistledown had a rather cutting sense of humor, but with the exception of her infamous comments on fashion, she never seemed to pick on the less popular members of society.

When all was said and done, Colin had to say that Lady Whistledown had rather good taste in people.

“I can’t believe this,” Lady Danbury said with a loud snort of disgust. “If I’d dreamed this would happen, I would never have made that beastly challenge.”

“This is horrible,” Penelope whispered.

Her voice was quavering, and it made Colin uneasy. “Are you all right?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No, I don’t think I am. I feel rather ill, actually.”

“Do you want to leave?”

Penelope shook her head again. “But I’ll sit right here, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course,” he said, keeping a concerned eye on her. She was still terribly pale.

“Oh, for the love of…” Lady Danbury blasphemed, which took Colin by surprise, but then she actually swore, which he thought might very well have tilted the planet on its axis.

“Lady Danbury?” he asked, gaping.

“She’s coming this way,” she muttered, jerking her head to the right. “I should have known I’d not escape.”

Colin looked to his left. Cressida was trying to make her way through the crowd, presumably to confront Lady Danbury and collect her prize. She was, naturally, being accosted at every turn by fellow partygoers. She seemed to be reveling in the attention—no big surprise there; Cressida had always reveled in attention—but she also seemed rather determined to reach Lady Danbury’s side.

“There’s no way to avoid her, I’m afraid,” Colin said to Lady Danbury.

“I know,” she grumbled. “I’ve been trying to avoid her for years, and I’ve never succeeded. I thought I was so clever.” She looked to Colin, shaking her head with disgust. “I thought it would be such fun to rout out Lady Whistledown.”

“Er, well, it was fun,” Colin said, not really meaning it.

Lady Danbury jabbed him in the leg with her cane. “It’s not the least bit fun, you foolish boy. Now look what I have to do!” She waved the cane toward Cressida, who was drawing ever closer. “I never dreamed I’d have to deal with the likes of her.”

“Lady Danbury,” Cressida said, swishing to a stop in front of her. “How nice to see you.”

Lady Danbury had never been known for her pleasantries, but even she outdid herself by skipping any pretense of a greeting before snapping, “I suppose you’re here to try to collect your money.”

Cressida cocked her head to the side in a very pretty, very practiced manner. “You did say you would give a thousand pounds to whomever unmasked Lady Whistledown.” She shrugged, lifting her hands in the air and then twisting them gracefully until her palms were up in a gesture of false humility. “You never stipulated that I couldn’t unmask myself.”

Lady Danbury rose to her feet, narrowed her eyes, and said, “I don’t believe it’s you.”

Colin liked to think that he was rather suave and unflappable, but even he gasped at that.

Cressida’s blue eyes blazed with fury, but she quickly regained control of her emotions and said, “I would be shocked if you did not behave with a degree of skepticism, Lady Danbury. After all, it is not your way to be trusting and gentle.”

Lady Danbury smiled. Well, perhaps not a smile, but her lips did move. “I shall take that as a compliment,” she said, “and allow you to tell me that you meant it as such.”

Colin watched the stalemate with interest—and with a growing sense of alarm—until Lady Danbury turned quite suddenly to Penelope, who had risen to her feet mere seconds after she had.

“What do you think, Miss Featherington?” Lady Danbury asked.

Penelope visibly started, her entire body jerking slightly as she stammered, “What…I…I beg your pardon?”

“What do you think?” Lady Danbury persisted. “Is Lady Twombley Lady Whistledown?”

“I—I’m sure I don’t know.”

“Oh, come, now, Miss Featherington.” Lady Danbury planted her hands on her hips and looked at Penelope with an expression that bordered on exasperation. “Surely you have an opinion on the matter.”

Colin felt himself stepping forward. Lady Danbury had no right to speak to Penelope in such a manner. And furthermore, he didn’t like the expression on Penelope’s face. She looked trapped, like a fox in a hunt, her eyes darting to him with a panic he’d never seen there before.

He’d seen Penelope uncomfortable, and he’d seen her pained, but he’d never seen her truly panicked. And then it occurred to him—she hated being the center of attention. She might poke fun at her status as a wallflower and a spinster, and she’d probably have liked a little more attention from society, but this kind of attention…with everyone staring at her and awaiting the merest word from her lips…

She was miserable.

“Miss Featherington,” Colin said smoothly, moving to her side, “you look unwell. Would you like to leave?”

“Yes,” she said, but then something strange happened.

She changed. He didn’t know how else to describe it. She simply changed. Right there, in the Macclesfield ballroom, by his side, Penelope Featherington became someone else.

Her spine stiffened, and he could swear the heat from her body increased, and she said, “No. No, I have something to say.”

Lady Danbury smiled.

Penelope looked straight at the old countess and said, “I don’t think she’s Lady Whistledown. I think she’s lying.”

Colin instinctively pulled Penelope a little closer to his side. Cressida looked as if she might go for her throat.

“I’ve always liked Lady Whistledown,” Penelope said, her chin rising until her bearing was almost regal. She looked to Cressida, and their eyes caught as she added, “And it would break my heart if she turned out to be someone like Lady Twombley.”

Colin took her hand and squeezed it. He couldn’t help himself.

“Well said, Miss Featherington!” Lady Danbury exclaimed, clapping her hands together in delight. “That is exactly what I was thinking, but I couldn’t find the words.” She turned to Colin with a smile. “She’s very clever, you know.”

“I know,” he replied, a strange, new pride brimming within him.

“Most people don’t notice it,” Lady Danbury said, twisting so that her words were directed to—and probably only heard by—Colin.

“I know,” he murmured, “but I do.” He had to smile at Lady Danbury’s behavior, which he was certain was chosen in part to annoy the devil out of Cressida, who did not like to be ignored.

“I will not be insulted by that…by that nothing!” Cressida fumed. She turned to Penelope with a seething glare and hissed, “I demand an apology.”

Penelope just nodded slowly and said, “That is your prerogative.”

And then she said nothing more.

Colin had to physically wipe the smile from his face.

Cressida clearly wanted to say more (and perhaps commit an act of violence while she was at it), but she held back, presumably because it was obvious that Penelope was among friends. She had always been renowned for her poise, however, and thus Colin was not surprised when she composed herself, turned to Lady Danbury, and said, “What do you plan to do about the thousand pounds?”

Lady Danbury looked at her for the longest second Colin had ever endured, then she turned to him—dear God, the last thing he wanted to do was get involved in this disaster—and asked, “And what do you think, Mr. Bridgerton? Is our Lady Twombley telling the truth?”

Colin gave her a practiced smile. “You must be mad if you think I’m going to offer an opinion.”

“You’re a surprisingly wise man, Mr. Bridgerton,” Lady Danbury said approvingly.

He nodded modestly, then ruined the effect by saying, “I pride myself on it.” But what the hell—it wasn’t every day a man was called wise by Lady Danbury.

Most of her adjectives, after all, were of the decidedly negative variety.

Cressida didn’t even bother to bat her eyelashes at him; as Colin had already reflected, she wasn’t stupid, just mean, and after a dozen years out in society, she had to know that he didn’t much like her and certainly wasn’t about to fall prey to her charms. Instead, she looked squarely at Lady Danbury and kept her voice evenly modulated as she asked, “What shall we do now, my lady?”

Lady Danbury’s lips pursed together until she almost appeared mouthless, then she said, “I need proof.”

Cressida blinked. “I beg your pardon?”

“Proof!” Lady Danbury’s cane slammed against the floor with remarkable force. “Which letter of the word did you not understand? I’m not handing over a king’s ransom without proof.”

“One thousand pounds is hardly a king’s ransom,” Cressida said, her expression growing petulant.

Lady Danbury’s eyes narrowed. “Then why are you so keen to get it?”

Cressida was silent for a moment, but there was a tightness in everything about her—her stance, her posture, the line of her jaw. Everyone knew that her husband had left her in bad financial straits, but this was the first time anyone had hinted as such to her face.

“Get me proof,” Lady Danbury said, “and I’ll give you the money.”

“Are you saying,” Cressida said (and even as he despised her, Colin was forced to admire her ability to keep her voice even), “that my word is not good enough?”

“That’s precisely what I’m saying,” Lady Danbury barked. “Good God, girl, you don’t get to be my age without being allowed to insult anyone you please.”

Colin thought he heard Penelope choking, but when he stole a glance at her, there she was at his side, avidly watching the exchange. Her brown eyes were huge and luminous in her face, and she’d regained most of the color she’d lost when Cressida had made her unexpected announcement. In fact, now Penelope looked positively intrigued by the goings-on.

“Fine,” Cressida said, her voice low and deadly. “I will bring you proof in a fortnight’s time.”

“What sort of proof?” Colin asked, then mentally kicked himself. The last thing he wanted to do was embroil himself in this mess, but his curiosity had gotten the better of him.

Cressida turned to him, her face remarkably placid considering the insult she’d just been dealt by Lady Danbury—before countless witnesses. “You shall know it when I deliver it,” she told him archly. And then she held out her arm, waiting for one of her minions to take it and lead her away.

Which was really quite amazing, because a young man (a besotted fool, from all appearances) materialized at her side as if she’d conjured him by the mere tilt of her arm. A moment later they were gone.

“Well,” Lady Danbury said, after everyone had stood in reflective—or maybe stunned—silence for nearly a minute. “That was unpleasant.”

“I’ve never liked her,” Colin said, to no one in particular. A small crowd had gathered around them, so his words were heard by more than Penelope and Lady Danbury, but he didn’t much care.

“Colin!”

He turned to see Hyacinth skidding through the crowd, dragging along Felicity Featherington as she barreled to his side.

“What did she say?” Hyacinth asked breathlessly. “We tried to get here sooner, but it’s been such a crush.”

“She said exactly what you would have expected her to say,” he replied.

Hyacinth pulled a face. “Men are never good for gossip. I want exact words.”

“It’s very interesting,” Penelope said suddenly.

Something about the thoughtful tone of her voice demanded attention, and in seconds the entire crowd had quieted.

“Speak up,” Lady Danbury instructed. “We’re all listening.”

Colin expected such a demand to make Penelope uncomfortable, but whatever silent infusion of confidence she’d experienced a few minutes earlier was still with her, because she stood straight and proud as she said, “Why would someone reveal herself as Lady Whistledown?”

“For the money, of course,” Hyacinth said.

Penelope shook her head. “Yes, but you’d think that Lady Whistledown would be quite wealthy by now. We’ve all been paying for her paper for years.”

“By God, she’s right!” Lady Danbury exclaimed.

“Perhaps Cressida merely sought attention,” Colin suggested. It wasn’t such an unbelievable hypothesis; Cressida had spent the bulk of her adult life trying to place herself at the center of attention.

“I’d thought of that,” Penelope allowed, “but does she really want this sort of attention? Lady Whistledown has insulted quite a few people over the years.”

“No one who means anything to me,” Colin joked. Then, when it became obvious that his companions required an explanation, he added, “Haven’t you all noticed that Lady Whistledown only insults the people who need insulting?”

Penelope cleared her throat delicately. “I have been referred to as an overripe citrus fruit.”

He waved off her concern. “Except for the bits about fashion, of course.”

Penelope must have decided not to pursue the matter any further, because all she did was give Colin a long, assessing stare before turning back to Lady Danbury and saying, “Lady Whistledown has no motive to reveal herself. Cressida obviously does.”

Lady Danbury beamed, then all at once her face scrunched into a frown. “I suppose I’ll have to give her the fortnight to come up with her ‘proof.’ Fair play and all that.”

“I, for one, will be very interested to see what she comes up with,” Hyacinth put in. She turned to Penelope and added, “I say, you’re very clever, did you know that?”

Penelope blushed modestly, then she turned to her sister and said, “We must be going, Felicity.”

“So soon?” Felicity asked, and to his horror, Colin realized that he’d mouthed the very same words.

“Mother wanted us home early,” Penelope said.

Felicity looked truly perplexed. “She did?”

“She did,” Penelope said emphatically. “And besides that, I am not feeling well.”

Felicity nodded glumly. “I shall instruct a footman to see that our carriage is brought around.”

“No, you stay,” Penelope said, placing a hand on her sister’s arm. “I will see to it.”

“I will see to it,” Colin announced. Really, what was the use of being a gentleman when ladies insisted upon doing things for themselves?

And then, before he even realized what he was doing, he’d facilitated Penelope’s departure, and she left the scene without his ever having apologized to her.

He supposed he should have deemed the evening a failure for that reason alone, but in all truth, he couldn’t quite bring himself to do so.

After all, he’d spent the better part of five minutes holding her hand.