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The hall was silent for a moment as everyone took in Queen Charlotte’s announcement, before excited whispers flooded the room. Lady Whistledown, here? In this very room?
Penelope leaned further back into the sconce she had nestled herself under, hoping to hide the nervous feelings she could feel creeping up on her face. She breathed, reminding herself of how careful she had been, how thorough she had been with anything related to Whistledown since her encounter with Eloise last season. Unless?
She turned to where she knew Eloise to be, standing next to Cressida Crowper, looking as horrified as she felt and quickly threw the notion away. Her heart did warm at the thought that Eloise still might care, despite her refusal to see Penelope and the petty barbs she threw her way with Cressida.
Penelope shook her thoughts away and took a deep, fortifying breath. Queen Charlotte may not know about her. This did not mean she was found out. Her heart sunk as she realized that if she hadn’t been found out, it meant someone else would be getting the blame for Whistledown – possibly even Eloise. She could not let that happen.
Before she had time to think a second longer, palace guards surrounded her on all sides, directing the eyes of the ton towards her immediately, as if they were all one singular being.
“Is this not true, Miss Featherington?” Queen Charlotte inquired.
Penelope felt her breath catch in her throat and knew she had been caught. She had worried many times throughout the years, particularly after her argument last season with Eloise, what would come of her if the queen realized who Lady Whistledown was and realized that she hadn’t accounted for the sense of relief that would run through her. Finally, it was done. She did not have to hide anymore, did not have to betray anyone else to keep her identity hidden.
She was finally fully laid bare with no more secrets covering her. The alcove she had tucked herself away in now felt like the most exposed place that existed as she stared up at the Queen on the balcony. There would be no escape. Now all she could do was make sure that her associates and loved ones wouldn’t have to suffer the fallout for her actions.
“Yes, your majesty,” she said solemnly.
The sound echoed through the room as if she had shouted. The occupants of the room stood still, as if afraid to breathe. In the seconds that followed, she felt like she could see everyone and everything in the room. She noted her horrified mother in the corner of the room, grasping Prudence by the arm. She noted the shock, horror and disgust on the faces of all those around her and felt almost amused by it.
“Do you know how we found out?” The Queen asked, bringing everyone’s attention back to her. “Your latest edition did so well that we were able to catch the delivery boys asking for reprints.”
The latest edition with Lord Fife. Penelope almost laughed aloud at that. Of course Lord Fife would be the reason for her downfall.
“After that, your empire was quite easy to topple,” Queen Charlotte continued. “The literacy pamphlets you were disseminating amongst the commoners, the doctor you had installed in the workhouse. All of them tied us right back to you.”
It seemed she had truly and fully been found out. There was nothing to be done but fully accept her fate, whether it be the gallows or Australia. All she could do now was protect those she cared about with teeth and claws and pray they survived the fallout of her foolishness.
“Yes, your majesty. It was all me,” she stated.
“We find it quite shocking that a mere girl of nine and ten committed these acts by herself,” Queen Charlotte stated authoritatively. “Name your co-conspirators.”
“There is no one aside from myself, your majesty. Neither my family nor friends knew what I had planned,” Penelope said evenly.
“Not even your mama, girl?” Queen Charlotte’s eyebrows quirked.
“No,” Penelope shook her head. “I am just the latest misfortune upon the Featherington name. Another villain in a long line of villains who have harmed my mama and my sisters.”
God, her family. For all Penelope despaired of them, she did not want to see harm come to them due to her actions. Prudence was already married, having matched with the kind but extremely dim Harry Dankworth and Phillipa was long out of their family home, living with the Finches. However, that would be little protection if the Queen decided to turn her ire onto them. She knew she had to fully alienate herself from them.
“My family, as you may have heard in the rumors, are not the type to keep secrets. I have always been the odd one out so it was easy for me to deceive them. Whistledown was also a way for me to get back at them as I was able to air my grievances out in public with them. There is a reason why the Featheringtons were mentioned with such disgust in the society papers, your majesty,” she replied softly.
It wasn’t true. Or well, it was only partially true. Though Penelope did denigrate the family, it wasn’t out of malice but rather to divert attention away from her identity. Regardless, she would use anything she could to protect her mama and her sisters from the consequences of her actions. She would act as much of a villainess as she needed to be. Just as her family had survived Cousin Jack, they needed to survive Penelope.
“You made up lies about the Featheringtons?” The queen inquired, looking intrigued.
“No,” Penelope shook her head. “I have always sought after and written the truth. My goal was to place a mirror back on society, not lies. I merely spoke more frequently of the Featheringtons than anyone else.”
“And you used the downfall of your family for money?” The queen asked.
Penelope could see the Bridgertons in the corner of the room, staring at her as if they had never seen her before. She had to turn away before she saw the look of hate in their eyes, knowing they had every right to despise her. She refused to look at Colin.
“If I may be frank, your majesty,” Penelope said.
“Go ahead, my permission has never stopped you before”, the Queen replied sardonically, waving her hands at Penelope.
“Yes, the money helped. I was able to pay the debts left behind by my father and by the last Lord Featherington. With the money, I was able to start the pamphlets to teach the children in the east end to read. I was able to buy the time of doctors for people who needed them. I can’t deny that the money was helpful,” Penelope said.
“So you shamed the entire ton so your delivery boys could read? You may paint it noblesse oblige but it is betrayal at its finest. You gave up the lives and secrets of everyone here for the livelihood of the residents of the East End,” the queen said.
At this, the crowd looked incensed, as if remembering every word that Penelope had written at their expense.
Penelope refused to demure to them, knowing that there was no way to dissuade them of their perceived victimhood.
“I did not shame them with my words any more than their actions did, your majesty. I merely documented how they lived their lives and if they feel shame for it, I am not the cause. To me, the real betrayal was the fact that those in the East End were denied the same rights as those of us here. I once believed that we deserved them because we are better but time here has taught me, if anything, we may be the undeserving ones.”
Gasps surrounded the hall at Penelope's words. They were almost treasonous in nature and the way she spoke them, head held high, was at odds with the quiet, bumbling woman that they knew.
“The people in the East End may be simple, they may not know the excesses we know but to me, they are better than this nest of vipers,” Penelope continued.
“And you’d say this here? In front of the entire ton themselves? In front of us?” Queen Charlotte seemed intrigued.
“I may be slightly good with words, your majesty but even I know that there is no way that I can come out of this unscathed. If I am to be destroyed, I want them to know why I did it and who I did it for. Take this article about Lord Fife. You cannot tell me that his shame, for it would be shame, your majesty, is not worth it. He, as a man, would never be ruined. It fed the delivery boys, it fed their families. If Lord Fife were to die today, nothing of value would be lost. In fact, I dare say, some of the mamas in this very hall would give a great sigh of relief at the thought. But if one of the delivery boys I employ passes, who will feed his family? Who will raise his siblings? Who will take care of his mother?”
From the corner of her eye, she could see Lord Fife glare at her with incensed, hateful eyes. He looked as if he could come at her direction and slap her fully if she hadn’t been surrounded by the guards.
“So it was for the good of the people? Out of the kindness of your heart?” The queen asked sarcastically.
“No, your majesty.” Penelope smiled sardonically, “I am not a saint. My writings did help but they hurt just as much. And often the ones that they hurt were people truly odious to me. Ones who talked to me as if I was dirt on the bottom of their shoes -- as if I deserved divine punishment for the crime of not being enough for them. I did take petty happiness that I could say to them what I had always been thinking. I will apologize to those innocent that my words hurt but after three seasons in the ton, I have discovered that there are very little innocents here, if at all.”
Penelope knew she was going beyond the pale but it felt as if she could not stop talking. All of the words that she had bottled up inside of her seemed to be coming out of her. And there was a moment where she gleefully realized that there was nothing holding her from speaking them aloud. She was ruined now, untied from her family, from society. Fully unmoored. A woman loose.
“You have such sharp barbs for one who called themselves – what was it, an inspid wallflower? Were you too incapable of saying these things aloud? Writing them as to protect yourself in a cowardly manner?” The queen hummed.
“I will not deny that I am a coward, your majesty. But if I were not, would anyone have listened? I have spent much of my life screaming and no one has turned my way even once,” she said.
“Screaming, you say? And your family knew nothing of this still?”
The queen no longer seemed as intrigued as she had been during the beginning of the conversation and Penelope knew her reckoning was coming. Within the next few moments, her fate would be decided and she endeavored to make sure she was the sole beneficiary.
“No, just as the former lord Featheringtons, I am a stain upon this family. My mama and sisters had no knowledge of what I was up to. I acted not as a Featherington but as Penelope no-name,” She stated calmly.
“We shall grant your wish,” the Queen said.
“Pardon, your majesty?”
For the first time in the conversation, Penelope felt a sense of confusion. Though she had not known how much the Queen knew of her escapades, she knew her life was over. She knew she was speaking her final words. And this diversion from them was something she was not prepared for.
“Your wish for a new name. You acted on your own and now you will handle this name on your own. Your new name shall be Penelope Queensbury, countess of the east end,” the queen’s eagle eyes looked down at her.
The whispers roamed around the halls.
“Y-your majesty,” Penelope stuttered.
“Though you may have written incriminating things, we cannot disagree with you that you were only documenting what already existed. And though you may have acted against us in some ways, we cannot deny how you have helped our people. More than one townsperson in the East End has come to one of our secretaries, begging for mercy on your behalf. We may be queen of the ton but before that, we are queen of the people.”
As Penelope looked into the queen’s eyes, she felt as if she had lost the plot. She had not foreseen these circumstances and in some ways, she could not understand them. She looked around and noticed the confusion on some of the ton’s faces. As she turned back towards the queen, she noted the look on Lady Danbury’s face. Ah. This was punishment.
This was golden handcuffs. A gilded prison to keep her in for her crimes. A punishment without it being a punishment. She was now forever tied to the queen’s good graces, always acting under her. The queen had always kept those she needed to be wary of the closest to her.
As whispers rose through the room, as Colin and Eloise looked at her, truly looking at her, she knew it was over. She knew it would break her heart to look either of them in the eye. It seemed that Eloise and Colin wouldn’t understand fully yet but they’d soon realize that she was tied forever to the royal family. The queen may have destroyed the leash her mother kept her under but she fashioned a newer, stronger one, with many more responsibilities.
But at the same time, it would take her out of her mama’s home. It would give her power to write without hiding, without fear. And it would take her away from the marriage mart – away from these people who hated her for things she could not control. Now, she thought glibly, she could make them hate her for things within her control.
“Come, countess. We have much to talk about,” the Queen said. “Let the festivities resume.”
And with a wave, the queen turned away and walked out the door. Penelope followed.