Dearest reader. It has been said that competition is an opportunity for us to rise and stand ready before our greatest of challenges. Well, if what this author hears this morning is true, then a great challenge concerning this season's diamond has been set forth, indeed. Any suitor wishing to gain an audience with Miss Edwina Sharma must first tame the rather prickly spinster of a beast otherwise known as her sister. Of course, the only competition that compels my attention is the game of courtship. So best of luck to this year's players. Do try not to stumble on the starting line.
Pen and I are visiting with Eloise in the Bridgerton drawing room. Lydia insists I get out of the house. That I visit with my friends. She thinks it will make me happy.
"Is that a copy of Lady Whistledown?" Penelope asks.
"It is," Eloise tells her.
"I thought we were done with her," Penelope says.
"Do not discourage her, Penelope," Lady Bridgerton says. "If she has taken an interest in Lady Whistledown again, perhaps she's interested in what she has to say about the season's available gentlemen too."
"I cannot think of any cleverer way to say this, but no," Eloise tells her mama. She turns back to Pen and I. "Her latest is not exactly the philosophical treatise on the rights of the fairer sеx I was hoping for, but..."
Pen interrupts her, "I do not think Lady Whistledown has changed her style of writing since her last issue."
"Perhaps not," Eloise admits. "But perhaps she still can."
"Perhaps she does not want to," Pen offers. "Perhaps she is quite content. And if she's even sparked your renewed interest, El, then perhaps whatever she is doing is working."
"Yes, but she could do so much more. I know I could convince her of it. If I were to find her this time," Eloise says.
"What you must find, my dear, is happiness," Lady Bridgerton states. "Penelope, assist me here."
"Eloise could find that with someone else, could she not?" Penelope offers.
"I believe she could," Lady Bridgerton agrees.
"And not Lady Whistledown, but someone more like... Colin," Penelope says.
"My brother?" Eloise asks.
"No, not Coli... Colin!" Penelope says.
I turn and see Colin standing in the room.
"Glad to see things have not changed," Colin says.
"Brother!" Eloise says.
I rush out of the room without looking back. I do not wish to see Colin Bridgerton. Not now. Not ever if I have a say in it.
The event the whole ton is attending today is a horse race. It did not take more than a lie about my leg hurting for Lydia to agree I did not have to attend. That however does not stop Eloise from showing up waving around some pamphlet on dog grooming.
"I believe I have made a discovery. Whistledown's new printer," Eloise tells me. I nod my head. "I am beginning to sense my true power now. Do you notice the way this pamphlet feels?"
I grab the pamphlet Eloise thrusts at me. "It feels like paper."
"Precisely," Eloise tells me. "The paper stock is the same texture as that of Whistledown."
"It is paper," I state.
"Texture, weight, grain, the way the light seeps through when you hold it to the sky," Eloise says. "Look. Yes, I must seem mad."
