Chapter Text
The first incursion;
Penelope had known the Bridgertons for a few years now. She was best friends with the second eldest daughter, Eloise. She was very friendly with the rest, except for the third son. Unfortunately, she fell in love with him the first day she met him when her bonnet smacked him in the face and he fell from his horse face first into a mud puddle.
Eloise has always been a constant, whilst Colin drifted in and out, since it was improper for boys and girls to be friends, even when they are children. As they all grew older, she and Colin blurred the rules of propriety. They would get occasional odd looks from the ton or even from their own families, but no one told them off for it. They got comfortable. In Penelope’s naive mind, she translated this lack of propriety for interest on his part. When she was thirteen, she was proven wrong.
It happened while they were promenading in Hyde Park. Eloise was on her arm and they bowed their heads chatting about something interesting, surely, and Colin was a ways ahead walking with Benedict and some other gentleman their age. He was older than her, definitely.
The wind had once intercepted and flung her bonnet off of her head and into Colin, letting them meet. It seemed fate that the wind would intervene in the relationship once again. Her conversation with Eloise hit a lull and both girls strolled along behind the boys in silence, simply observing their surroundings. She could hear words here and there from their conversation up ahead. The wind stole most of the words away, but when Colin opened his mouth to answer the unfamiliar boy’s unknown inquiry, nature made sure her ears picked it up.
“She is Eloise’s friend, not mine.” Her foot caught a bump in the pavement and she staggered a bit, gripping onto Eloise to gain her balance. Her face turned unbearably hot with embarrassment. She was not his friend, apparently. He certainly hadn't told her. They had played together and talked and confided in one another. Apparently doing something like that with someone like her did not count as friendship to him. She felt the familiar sting of tears about to fall but she forced them back. She would not cry in public. Eloise seemed to have noticed her turmoil as she squeezed her arm. Had she heard her brother? So it was common knowledge, and Penelope was the delusional one.
She told her mother that she had a headache and went home.