Have you noticed how [Lady Whistledown] describes me?'
'Er, it's almost always favorable, isn't it?'
His hand began to wave again - rather dismissively, in her opinion. 'Yes, yes, that's not the point,' he said in a distracted voice.
'You might think it more the point,' Penelope replied testily, 'if you'd ever been likened to an overripe citrus fruit.'
He winced, and he opened and closed his mouth twice before finally saying, 'If it makes you feel better, I didn't remember that she'd called you that until just now.' He stopped, thought for a moment, then added, 'In fact, I still don't remember it.
It's too hard to explain,' he said in a petulant mutter.
'If you want a new direction for your life,' she said, 'then for heaven's sake, just pick something out and do it. The world is your oyster, Colin. You're young, wealthy, and you're a *man*.' Penelope's voice turned bitter, resentful. 'You can do anything you want.'
He scowled, which didn't surprise her. When people were convinced they had problems, the last thing they wanted to hear was a simple, straightforward solution.
'It's not that simple,' he said.
'It's exactly that simple.' ...
She stood, smoothing out her skirts in an awkward, defensive gesture. 'Next time you want to complain about the trials and tribulations of universal adoration, try being an on-the-shelf spinster for a day. See how that feels and then let me know what you want to complain about.'
And then, while Colin was still sprawled on the sofa, gaping at her as if she were some bizarre creature with three heads, twelve fingers, and a tail, she swept out of the room.
It was, she thought as she descended the outer steps to Bruton Street, quite the most splendid exit of her existence.
I believe we were discussing your dissatisfaction with life as the most popular man in London.'
Her voice rose on the last four words, and Colin realized he'd been scolded. Soundly.
Which he found extraordinarily irritating. 'I don't know why I thought you'd understand,' he bit off, hating the childish tinge in his voice but completely unable to edit it out.
'I'm sorry,' she said, 'but it's a little difficult for me to sit here and listen to you complain that your life is nothing.'
'I didn't say that.'
'You most certainly did!'
'I said I *have* nothing,' he corrected, trying not to wince as he realized how stupid that sounded.
'You have more than anyone I know,' she said, jabbing him in the shoulder. 'But if you don't realize that, then maybe you are correct - your life is nothing.
There are moments in a woman's life when her heart flips in her chest, when the world suddenly seems uncommonly pink and perfect, when a symphony can be heard in the tinkle of a doorbell.
Julia QuinnThey just don't know you,' Penelope said, patting her on the hand.
'And they don't know *you*, either,' Lady Danbury quite pointedly replied ... 'I'd say it was their loss ... Not [a loss] to them, but to you, because as often as I call them fools ... some of them are actually rather decent people, and it's a crime they haven't gotten to know you.
Tag: wallflower
Even Colin - the golden boy, the man with the easy smile and devilish humor - had raw spots of his own. He was haunted by unfulfilled dreams and secret insecurities. How unfair she had been when she'd pondered his life, not to allow him his weaknesses.
Julia QuinnNo will will believe it at first,' Cressida continued. 'You were right about that. But then they'll start to think, and slowly but surely, the pieces of the puzzle will fall into place. Someone will remember that they said something to you that ended up in a column. Or that you were at a particular house party. Or that they'd seen Eloise Bridgerton snooping about, and doesn't everyone know that the two of you tell each other everything?'
'What do you want?' Penelope asked, her voice low and haunted as she finally lifted her head to face her enemy.
'Ah, now, there's the question I've been waiting for.
Tag: gossip-columns
I don't want to destroy your dreams.'
'They were never my dreams until I met you ... a dream you gave me.'
'That doesn't mean I can take it away.
It wasn't the same sort of defiant attitude she saw so often among young men of the ton. She'd met so many men of that kind - the ones who made such a point of defying convention, and then spoiled the effect by going out of their way to make sure that everyone knew how daring and scandalous they were.
Julia Quinnwhen he found her, upstairs in the hall outside her bedchamber, her hair had gone white.
As, it seemed, had the rest of her.
Bloody hell. 'Oliver!' he bellowed. 'Amanda!'
'Oh, they're long gone,' Eloisa bit off. She looked up at him with fuming eyes. Fuming eyes which, he couldn't help but note, were the only part of her not covered with a remarkably thick coating of flour.
Well, good for her for closing them in time. He'd always admired quick reflexes in a woman.
'Miss Bridgerton,' he said, his hand moving forward to help her, then retracting as he realized there *was* no helping her. 'I cannot begin to express-'
'*Don't* apologize for them,' she snapped ...
He took a self-preservational step back. 'I gather the twins paid you a visit,' he said.
'Oh, yes,' she replied, with no small measure of sarcasm. 'And then scampered away. The little cowards themselves are nowhere to be found.'
'Well, they wouldn't be far,' he mused ... 'They'd want to see the results, of course ... I don't suppose you heard any laughter when the flour came down? Cackling, perhaps?' ...
'It was difficult,' she said, so tightly he wondered if her jaw might snap, 'to hear anything but the sound of the bucket hitting my head.
Tag: pranks
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