𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐘𝐀𝐋 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐎𝐍

"𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒆."

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐈𝐒𝐄 𝐅𝐄𝐄𝐋 𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐘 since that the last and final horrible visit with Maria. Her heart had been completely and utterly shattered and she feared there was no way to fix it.

The eyes that were staring her down in disapproval from the recent and apparently last Lady Whistledown newsletter did not make her feel any better. Her mother had practically forced her into coming to the Featherington's ball that evening, though after a small talk with Benedict, she was feeling a little hopeful about it.

Though her hope started to fade when she met the judging eyes of those in attendance. "I-- I cannot do this tonight."

Violet tried to put her hand on her daughter's shoulder, but Eloise shrugged her hand off. She just didn't feel herself since that dreadful conversation had occurred between her and Maria, where she had finally admitted her love out loud, but the girl had not heard.

"I am sorry, Mama," Eloise apologised, trying to turn around again. "I fear I must disappoint you yet again."

"The only thing that'd disappoint me is seeing you starting to care what anyone else thinks," Violet spoke quickly, stopping her daughter. "That would not be you. I do not want you to keep things from me ever again. Now, you have come thus far this season. It would be a shame for you to turn back now."

Eloise thought about her words and she was right. She had cared what other people thought when it came to Maria and now she was not herself in many ways.

Snapping her out of her thoughts, Benedict appeared beside her, nudging her in the waist with his arm outstretched. "Steady."

Eloise smiled and then looked to her mother with a knowing look. "And ready."

Violet smiled brightly and Benedict led his sister off to the dance floor, both of them sharing a dance, smiling and laughing, before the boy walked away to get them both some drinks.

Eloise sighed, catching sight of Penelope in the corner of the ballroom, sipping from a wine glass.

"Pen," Eloise breathed out, quite nervous from their last interaction.

"Ooh," Penelope sounded, surprised. "El. Enjoying your evening?"

Eloise made a sound of disagreement and Penelope chuckled in return. "Me neither."

They found themselves sinking into an awkward silence, both girls turning to the ballroom, unsure what to talk about. Both of them were not used to being so at a loss for words around each other.

"You were correct... about Maria," Eloise said, her voice cracking slightly at even just the girl's name. "It was a mistake, ever getting involved with her. I took your advice, and I extricated myself."

Penelope felt herself swallow down the guilt because it was her fault that Eloise looked so obviously heart broken and Maria would be undoubtedly angry at her.

"She did not take it well," Eloise said, skipping around the fact that neither did she. "But I think it was the necessary choice."

"Eloise--" Penelope wanted to apologise, but Eloise stopped her.

"Thank you... for protecting me," the Bridgerton smiled, not knowing that it just made the other girl feel worse. "You are a true friend."

"So your Lady Whistledown search--" Penelope tried, finally pushing away the guilt.

"... Is over," Eloise chuckled, almost sadly. "She is gone for good." She cleared her throat. "I suppose now we can finally speak of other things."

The awkward silence snuck itself in again, but Penelope did not wish to let it take over so she took matters into her own hands. She looped her arm in Eloise's, and smiled up at her.

"Perhaps we might speak of Lord Fife," the girl said excitedly, merely repeating what she had heard from the waiter's a moment ago. "I hear he recently spent a good deal of time with Miss Goring in a closet. For what, I cannot imagine."

"Wherever did you hear that?" Eloise asked, shocked.

"Miss Goring is over there, alongside the lemonade table," Penelope continued, not explaining herself. "Secretly fixing tissue paper in her bosom. Now we know who for. Look."

The Featherington took another sip of her drink, smiling mischieviously, but Eloise felt a weird feeling of suspicion swirling in her stomach. She stared down at her friend with a look of surprise, and things started to come together in her mind.

"What a keen observation, Pen."

"Mmm," Penelope agreed with a soft chuckle and a squeeze of Eloise's arm.

But all the Bridgerton could feel was betrayal in the middle of her chest that only started to break what little of her heart was left.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

Penelope felt light on her feet and she felt as if nothing could bring her down from that, not after Colin had asked her to dance in such a way. Her smile couldn't be wiped off her face, she even chuckled to herself when she got to her bedroom door.

Opening it, Penelope skipped in, her smile fading immediately as if everything before had infact just been a dream. Her bed was in ruins, pillow and sheets everywhere, tables turned over along with chairs.

Feeling heart beat quicken in her chest and breath started to halt in her throat, she turned around, finding Eloise crouched down in the exact place she had kept hidden for so long. The broken floorboard where her Lady Whistledown resources were kept.

"Eloise," she let out in a breath, her world crashing down around her as Eloise stood upright.

"Where did you get all of this money?" was the girl's first question, knowing the truth now. Well, nearly all of it.

"Eloise, what are you doing going through my things--"

"Answer... me," Eloise demanded, her voice hard and not how Penelope had ever heard it before.

"It's none of your business," Pen answered.

The brown-haired girl scoffed, glaring at her so-called friend with glazed over eyes. "'It's none of my business'. I see. And what exactly is your business, Pen?"

The taller girl walked around the tipped over table, trying to challenge Penelope to answer her. "Hearing you repeat all that gossip tonight, it struck me, because I have never heard you like that. You might have said those things before, but tonight was the first time I, in fact, heard you say them. It sounded so familiar. Your words. Not just the content or subject, but the pattern. It sounded written, almost. Why do you think that is?"

Penelope could hardly breath, let alone talk. "Because you have been reading too much Whistledown. Her voice, it is echoing in your head, Eloise."

"I thought so too, at first," the Bridgerton girl smiled dangerously. "But then I also thought about how you were always clinging to that wall, collecting all sorts of morsels of gossip. How when I expressed my dislike for the naming of the diamond at the beginning of the season, Whistledown disavowed the whole thing shortly after. How you were one of the only people who could've known about Miss Thompson's pregnancy."

"You could not--" Penelope tried, following her friend as she circled her in her own bedroom.

"And then," Eloise said, her voice strong and overpowering Penelope's. "I thought about how you said people have been talking... about me and Maria. Only, if that were the case, Whistledown would have written about it weeks ago."

The brown-haired girl swallowed her tears at saying the girl's name that she loved so dearly. "It is even why you chose to work with Madame Delacroix. Because she was someone I had already dismissed. Because this was personal."

Penelope could tell her time was up and she had been found out. The guilt came flowing out in tears, her lip trembling as she looked up at her friend. "Eloise, I am sorry. So sorry. You are right about all of it. I was trying to protect you."

"Is that what you were doing!?" Eloise exclaimed, her voice rising in volume. "By writing about me in your latest sheet? By telling the entire world about things I trusted you with?"

"It was the only way to convince the Queen it wasn't you," Penelope defended. "It was the only way I could save you."

"The only person you were interested in saving was yourself," Eloise snarled, feeling utterly betrayed that nothing else mattered. "All so you could keep making money, at a cost to everyone else. At a cost to Miss Thompson. To my brother. To my entire family. To your entire family. I ended my... friendship with Maria because of you! One of the only good things in my life, all because of your self-serving manipulation!"

"You have no idea how horrible it has felt to keep this from you," Penelope shouted back, her guilt overwhelming and washing over her like a wave. "From everything, for so long! Whistledown has been all I have had, and I have given it up. I am done with it. I wrote what I wrote, and I gave it up for you."

Eloise was blind to the girl's tears, it was only anger and betrayal that ran through her veins. "I do not even know you. I look at you now, and all I feel is pity for you. Sequestered here in this very room, writing your secret little scandal sheet, tarnishing everyone in town because you are too scared to stand up for yourself in reality. You are something, Penelope. An insipid wallflower, indeed."

The girl took to the door, not having any more to say to her so-called friend. But Penelope wasn't done with their conversation and the sadness ebbed away into the same anger as Eloise.

"Well, Maria was always there when I needed to share my scandal sheet," Penelope hissed, making Eloise stop short at her bedroom door.

The Bridgerton's heart felt heavy and she turned to look at Penelope with a look that really didn't want to understand what she had said.

"What was that?" Eloise whispered, chest tight.

"Maria. She knew all along," Penelope said. She didn't feel great about what she was saying, the words come out of her mouth were bitter and out of anger, but she wanted Eloise to know how much she was hurting. "As well as Madame Delacroix, they both helped in every way they could. Maria did not even need to protect me, she had no reason, she could have told whenever she wanted. But she did not. She lied to you. Is she still one of the only good things left in your life?"

Eloise only stood in place, wondering how her heart could break so many times in one day. She could not believe that Maria had lied to her the whole time they had been... whatever they had been. It made her want to punch something, anything, maybe even Penelope, but she wouldn't. She was above that, though she was coming dangerously close to the ground.

"Never..." Eloise whispered, her voice like steel as she stepped extremely close to Penelope. "Speak to me again."

And then she left the girl's room, shutting the door with a slam.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

Maria was loading up the printing in her hands, ready to take it outside and her brother was working beside her, finally well enough to be up and out of bed. That had to be the only good thing that was going on for her at that moment, her brother having overcome his illness, but everything else had been suffocating.

Eloise had broken her heart, that was clear, Penelope had not visited for at least a week or two and she was dangerously close to being fired from the printer's shop. The newsletter that Lady Whistledown had published had implied pretty obvious things and all fingers had been pointed at her.

She sighed as she picked up the last of the printing paper, going towards the back door when it opened extremely loudly in front of her. Her eyes grew wide and she dropped the rolls of paper from her arms, making her brother look as well.

"Eloise, what--"

"No. Do not speak as if I am the one who should answer your questions," Eloise spoke harshly, making Maria raise her eyebrows.

"Excuse me, Miss, but you can not be back here," Theo said, stepping towards the situation and Eloise turned to him with a glare.

"I do not believe I was speaking--"

"Eloise!" Maria said, shocked at how the girl was behaving before turning to her brother. "Theo, it's fine. You can retire to bed."

"If you are sure, Mari," he replied, sending a glare back at Eloise before walking out of the other door and they could both hear the stairs creak above before they actually said anything else.

"El-- Miss Bridgerton, the last time you were here you said we shouldn't see each other again," Maria said with lips pursed. "What has--"

"Just be quiet, Miss Sharpe!" Eloise exclaimed, her hands in the air with exasperation. "You are a liar! I can't believe I ever even thought, I even imagined, I even believed..."

"I truly have no idea what you are going on about," Maria sighed, rolling her eyes and she picked up the sheets of paper from the floor. As she did, Eloise stepped forward, grabbing the girls arm to stop her.

"You knew about Lady Whistledown this whole time and said nothing!" Eloise continued to yell. "I shared everything with you. Everything. And you never said a word when that was all I asked of you..."

Maria stopped in fear, Eloise's grip got harder and she gulped. Had Penelope finally said everything? Explained her true identity and brought her down with it.

"I-- I don't know what to say..." Maria stammered. "I wanted to tell you, it was just--"

"Just, what?" Eloise demanded.

Maria wanted to say what is was she was really think, but she knew she shouldn't. It wasn't right and Penelope had made sure to remind her of that by sending Eloise down there like that. "I wanted to protect you and I wanted to tell you, but I also wanted to keep my word to Penelope."

"Penelope said you had no reason to not tell me," Eloise whispered, tears appearing in her eyes out of her broken heart and anger. "So, why did you say nothing? Why did you make me look like such a fool?"

"I did not mean to make you look like a fool!" Maria pleaded, eyes swelling with her own tears. "I believed I could protect you from finding out the truth, so you would not feel as hurt as you do now... but, it has not gone as planned."

"Clearly!" Eloise laughed with a bitter tone. "Listen to me, Maria, listen to me well. I do not want you to contact me ever again. Not in letter, not in writing, not through one of my footmen. You are dead to me, just like Lady Whistledown."

Maria still felt Eloise's fingernails stabbing into her wrist and she felt the tears rushing down her face, Eloise matching her expression. She was heart broken and both their hearts, that belonged as one, were now ripped apart. Forever.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*