Slining Doors

Schedule Change

Colin actually didn't think that these were prisons at all.  Had been a night in jail in Agra India and definitely this looked like a gloomy room but clean and comfortable bed.  He had taken the opportunity to finish the book, and with a very clear mind he had managed to recompose the passages he was missing and was very satisfied.  When the queen entered she was shocked, a queen visiting a prisoner, but where was she to be seen!
"My queen shouldn't be here...that is"
"It's about time you also tell me what I have to do Lord Bridgerton? I think you are spreading yourself too much, don't you think?"
"I'm sorry, I just thought I don't deserve a visit from you, much less here."
"I have come to tell her that I have warned my distant cousin that you have voluntarily come forward to accept your sentence and he foolishly let slip the reason why he had been attacked. Which neither you nor Miss Featherington had the goodness of communicating to your Queen. Lord Freser harassed Miss Featherington heavily and you attacked him afterwards, because you implied that he attacked him because you were a jealous drunk?"
"Because I was a jealous drunk, but I didn't want them to think that Penelope, that is Miss Featherington, had been dishonored and she Miss Featherington didn't think she could believe her"
"You both thought for me! You're two blockheads! You wasted all this time just because you didn't trust your queen, I should punish you for that alone, if it wasn't punished enough already. Get out of my sight!"
Colin didn't have to say it twice, he collected all the things about him.
"And what is that?"  looking at the notes Colin was collecting.
"It's my last book, I finished it thanks to the time I spent here, my queen"
"And when will I be able to read it?"
"She'll be the first to get a copy."  Colin said bowing and smiling at the queen.

Penelope was waiting for Charlie and she was once again supposed to tell him that she hadn't written anything.  It wasn't true, she had written so secretly, but she would never have responded to the queen's blackmail for her own gain.  If she had published anything it would have been for her alone, not as a Queen's envoy.
Charlie walked in announced by the butler looking very tense.
"Charlie, did something happen?"  he said walking towards him.
"I've been rebuked by the Queen, for you haven't written anything yet and I haven't published anything yet. And that stupid Colin Bridgerton has got himself imprisoned to take your burden off the Queen. At this point I'm of no use no longer. But I'm of no use to you either."  Charlie said regretfully, he was really getting attached to Penelope and even if Penelope didn't know it, he also liked women, in fact he really liked her.
"Are you... Are you leaving me? What will they think of me? I'll be dishonored! You don't want me either..." Penelope said sitting down on the sofa.
"Oh no Penelope you are very wrong I was willing to make our marriage a real marriage I like you so much I respect you and you are really beautiful I got attached to you but you don't love me and you will never be happy with me Instead that Bridgerton " Penelope jumped up walking away "no listen to me" she said stopping her.
"Colin loves you so much, who would have denounced himself for an act committed more than a year ago, if not a man in love. And you love him too, you wouldn't have suffered the harassment of your bizarre queen, if you didn't love Colin Bridgerton. I see it ."
"How do we get out of this? I don't want you to suffer any harm because of me!"
"I'm going away for a while, to settle some business in another city and we'll decide not to marry by mutual consent, we've never put on a show so they won't think of anything inconvenient"
"Are we talking about the same gossip-loving Brits I know?"
"Maybe you could brush up on Lady Whistledown with an article by her, I know you'd love her" Charlie smiled "but you'll have to wait a pleasant time to get married to Bridgerton"
"Who says I'm going to marry him? I may have decided that marriage isn't for me... I could remain a spinster so I'd have some peace."
"You could…but you won't. I know the Queen released Colin and I'm sure he'll be here shortly."
"I won't want to see it!"
"Don't be a Penelope girl, you love him, you will marry him, you will have 3 or 4 beautiful children and you will write 2 or 3 books..... I feel it" Charlie said hugging her.