Bridgerton - A Girl To Remember

Chapter Seven

My heart is racing while reading what Lady Whistledown wrote. Reality starts to sink in, I really am looked at now, there is no way I can hide anymore. The entire family seems delighted at dinner, I get some compliments and Violet smiles at me proudly. I try not to feel bad, since Eloise now has a lesser chance of finding a fitting husband, I could not be more relieved when she told me she would gladly stay in the shadows.

The day after, I start to grow normal to being known by other people than the Bridgerton's. Other citizens greet me when I walk down the streets and I have yet to figure out whether I appreciate it or not. Sure, it shall be out of politeness, but no one said a word when I was simply a girl from the streets. Lady Featherington spots me and Colin out for a walk and, followed by her three daughters, she nearly runs up to us and we cannot escape,

"Mister Bridgerton! Miss Bridgerton!"

"Lady Featherington" Colin and I both bow,

"how lovely to finally meet you, miss Bridgerton" she gives me an obvious fake smile,

"the pleasure is mine, Lady Featherington"

"please, meet my daughters, Phillipa and Prudence. And.. Penelope..." the last name comes out with a tone of disgust, and I look at the girl now bonding with the pavement. Besides the awful yellow dress, she is wonderful; her hair is all I could ever wish for and when she looks up at me, her passionate eyes and caring smile show themselves,

"how wonderful to meet all of you" I reply, while giving Penelope a smile. She glances at Colin, who does not look her way, and by the nervousness I can already tell, she is falling for him. I cannot suppress but feeling slightly excited, they would fit marvellous together,

"we will see you at lady Danbury's opening ball I suppose?" Lady Featherington takes back my attention,

"yes, we will attend the ball, Lady Featherington" Colin answers on my behalf. We bow and watch the family of four walk past,

"it is quite the tragedy, the Featheringtons, is it not?" I ask,

"yes, Pen is always overlooked, and she has a mother even I would not dare to decline.."

"Indeed. Yet, I was more talking about the incident with their father..."

"It was very sad, to see her... them.. in such a horrible state. Eloise was a big support for Penelope those days, their father was never there but now they are all alone, with her..."

"luckily, Penelope has you and Eloise.. you all know what it feels like" I smile, purposefully not using "we", hopelessly trying not to shift the attention to myself,

"we grew up together, it is heart-breaking to see her fall apart"

"she deserves better, doesn't she?"

He nods, "we must return home, mama expects me"

"you shall go, I am walking a little further. If you do not mind?"

"surely not. Just make sure to get yourself home safely, please"

"I will, Colin, I shall see you back home" He glances at me once more before turning around and I walk on to the place I have been wanting to see since the moment I arrived here in London. It is unimaginable, so close to the city; the woods. I enjoy being on my own, letting my mind do whatever it wants, letting it all out. The forest has always been the perfect place.

As I enter the woods, I arrive to the conclusion it may not have been the cleverest idea to go in here all alone. Back home, it was not an issue, but here in London it is all slightly different. I look over my shoulder but there is no one to be seen, yet I feel like I'm being followed. All I hear are the leaves falling, the branches cracking under my shoes, the wind razing and my own heartbeat over-voicing it all, because I believe someone is watching me.

It is when I hear an actual noise, and see something white pass by, the edges of my mouth make its way up. Idiotic as I am, I was worrying myself about nothing but a horse, a beautiful one I must say, but no creepy man following me. The horse has seen me, and our eyes meet, taking me back to the times I would like to re-visit.

At the age of eight, about a year after my mother's death, my father gave all his money to buy me a horse. I had never been happier and from that moment on, I had a new best friend by my side, for ever, I thought. After training her and myself to become the best riders in town, we had to sell her. We had so little money, we could barely buy food, and so there was no other choice.

I cried about her for weeks, there had been more tears than at my father's funeral last week. She meant a lot to me, but I learned to live without her. I miss riding, it was the one thing I was good at, the one thing people remembered me off. I competed even, hoping to make some money, which turned out to be quite a hard task when being a woman. For a few months I pretended to be a boy and it worked quite well, no one noticed, and I made some money, but once they found out who I really was, the game ended.

I carefully get closer to the horse, and I am happy when it lets me brush its hair with my hand. Her coat is soft and not too dirty for a white horse. I step even closer and pet her, I see now. she starts to neigh and out of nowhere, from behind me, I hear an unknown voice,

"May I ask what you are doing here?"

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NOTE: Hi :) sorry for the cliffhanger and the odd chapter, I will sincerely try to make the next one a little better <3