Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn Page A

you think?” Lady Danbury asked Penelope.
    Penelope nodded. “Last year was a bit tedious as well.”
    â€œBut not as bad as this year,” Lady D persisted.
    â€œDon’t ask me,” Colin said affably. “I’ve been out of the country.”
    â€œHmmph. I suppose you’re going to say that your absence is the reason we’ve all been so bored.”
    â€œI would never dream of it,” Colin said with a disarming smile. “But clearly, if the thought has crossed your mind, it must have some merit.”
    â€œHmmph. Whatever the case, I’m bored.”
    Colin looked over at Penelope, who appeared to be holding herself very, very still—presumably to stave off laughter.
    â€œHaywood!” Lady Danbury suddenly called out, waving over a middle-aged gentleman. “Wouldn’t you agree with me?”
    A vaguely panicked expression drifted across Lord Haywood’s face, and then, when it became clear that he could notescape, he said, “I try to make a policy of always agreeing with you.”
    Lady Danbury turned to Penelope and said, “Is it my imagination, or are men getting more sensible?”
    Penelope’s only answer was a noncommittal shrug. Colin decided she was a wise girl, indeed.
    Haywood cleared his throat, his blue eyes blinking fast and furious in his rather fleshy face. “Er, what, precisely, am I agreeing to?”
    â€œThat the season is boring,” Penelope supplied helpfully.
    â€œAh, Miss Featherington,” Haywood said in a blustery sort of voice. “Didn’t see you there.”
    Colin stole just enough of a glance at Penelope to see her lips straighten into a small, frustrated smile. “Right here next to you,” she muttered.
    â€œSo you are,” Haywood said jovially, “and yes, the season is dreadfully boring.”
    â€œDid someone say the season is dull?”
    Colin glanced to his right. Another man and two ladies had just joined the group and were avidly expressing their agreement.
    â€œTedious,” one of them murmured. “Appallingly tedious.”
    â€œI have never attended a more banal round of parties,” one of the ladies announced with an affected sigh.
    â€œI shall have to inform my mother,” Colin said tightly. He was among the most easygoing of men, but really, there were some insults he could not let pass.
    â€œOh, not this gathering,” the woman hastened to add. “This ball is truly the only shining light in an otherwise dark and dismal string of gatherings. Why, I was just saying to—”
    â€œStop now,” Lady Danbury ordered, “before you choke on your foot.”
    The lady quickly silenced herself.
    â€œIt’s odd,” Penelope murmured.
    â€œOh, Miss Featherington,” said the lady who’d previouslybeen going on about dark and dismal gatherings. “Didn’t see you there.”
    â€œWhat’s odd?” Colin asked, before anyone else could tell Penelope how unremarkable they found her.
    She gave him a small, grateful smile before explaining herself. “It’s odd how the ton seems to entertain themselves by pointing out how unentertained they are.”
    â€œI beg your pardon?” Haywood said, looking confused.
    Penelope shrugged. “I think the lot of you are having a jolly good time talking about how bored you are, that’s all.”
    Her comment was met with silence. Lord Haywood continued to look confused, and one of the two ladies must have had a speck of dust in her eye, because she couldn’t seem to do anything but blink.
    Colin couldn’t help but smile. He hadn’t thought Penelope’s statement was such a terribly complicated concept.
    â€œThe only interesting thing to do is read Whistledown, ” said the nonblinking lady, as if Penelope had never even spoken.
    The gentleman next to her murmured his assent.
    And then Lady Danbury began to smile.
    Colin grew alarmed.