Page 51 of Scales and Sensibility
The door opened. Candlelight glowed in her cousin’s hand.
“Mrs. De Lacey?” Penelope whispered. “You aren’t asleep yet, are you?”
Elinor gritted her teeth and remained stubbornly silent.
Penelope stepped further into the room and closed the door behind her. “You must wake up, Mrs. De Lacey! I need to talk to you.”
Inwardly, Elinor let out the kind of curse she would never allow herself to utter out loud. Resigned, she pushed herself up in bed. “What is so important that it cannot wait for the morning?”
“Well…everything!” Penelope set down her candlestick and collapsed onto Elinor’s bed. In the flickering glow of the candlelight, her beautiful face was shadowed, but Elinor could still make out the signs of recent tears. “Everything’s going wrong for me. You have to help!”
“Do I?” Elinor sighed. Sir Jessamyn was a still and watchful presence beside her, tense but not yet frightened. “I promised I would help you with your début, Penelope, and I will. But I’ve had a rather long day, and—”
“You’vehad a long day?” Penelope let out a huff of disbelief. “What about me? First my father fails to find my cousinormy dragon…then he announces he won’t even try to hunt her down—and then my mother goes mad!”
“Lady Hathergill has not gone mad,” Elinor said, trying hard not to sound guilty. “As ladies grow older, they do often tend to speak their minds more strongly, and—”
“What kind of mind would even come up with such evil things?” Penelope sniffed. “I picked those draperies in the drawing room myself! Papa and the draperbothapproved them and said how perfect my taste was. Now she decides to call them ‘vulgar’? And to claim thatIgo into hysterics when anyone criticizes me—! Me? Of all the—”
“I understand,” Elinor said hastily. Penelope’s voice was already rising, sending Sir Jessamyn shrinking towards Elinor’s side. “You were hurt by the way that your mother spoke of you in front of company.”
“I was hurt by the fact that she belongs in a madhouse!” Penelope’s tone was venomous. “Papa is going to summon a physician to inspect her, he promised me.Hethinks it very likely that she may have developed some sort of mental disorder.”
Elinor stared at her. “You cannot be serious.”
“No one would change their entire personality so suddenly unless they had gone mad,” Penelope said. “It’s the only possible explanation for her behavior! But…” She drooped, her voice turning piteous. “It may already be too late. When I came back down to supper, you should have seen the way everyone looked at me. They’d all been listening to her! And Mr. Hawkins…”
Elinor stiffened. “Mr. Hawkins…?”
Penelope burst into tears. “He barely even looked at me!” She launched herself forward into Elinor’s arms. “What if she’s given him a disgust of me? I couldn’t bear it!”
Elinor patted her cousin’s back and took deep, steadying breaths. Things could have been worse, she told herself. If anyone else had thrown their arms around her, they would have been shocked by the difference between her curvaceous appearance and the figure that they felt against them.
Penelope, on the other hand, was far too self-absorbed to take any notice.
When her cousin’s sobs finally began to subside, Elinor said, “I am sure he still admires you.”
“I don’t believe he does.” Penelope choked on her tears. “When I said that your dragon was just as horrid as all the rest, he actually looked as if he didn’t care for me at all!”
Elinor couldn’t halt the burst of rebellious warmth inside her chest. “Perhaps he’d eaten something that displeased him,” she suggested. “He might not even have been listening to what you said.”
“But that would be just as bad.” Penelope drew back, her chest heaving with her final, hiccupping tears. “My mother has ruined all of my marital chances!”
“Penelope…” Elinor sighed. “You haven’t even had your début yet.”
“But by the time I have my season in London, she might already be in a madhouse,” Penelope said. “Even if she’s only kept restrained in a cottage somewhere, in the care of a nurse, people are sure to find out in the end. Then no one willeverwant to marry me!”
Elinor cringed. “Your mother certainly does not need a nurse—much less a madhouse! And if you want to be certain to attract a good husband without any unpleasant rumours spreading around—”
“Oh,Iknow,” said Penelope heavily. “There is only one thing that I can do, anymore. I simply must become betrothed by the night of my début. It’s my final chance.” She drew herself up, looking tragic and heroic. “Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Armitage mustbothoffer for me. It’s my only chance at happiness!”
“But…” Elinor blinked at her. “You can only accept one of them, you know.”
“So?” said Penelope. “Theybothhave to ask before I can say yes to either of them, obviously. I couldn’t bear to have only one proposal of marriage. If I couldn’t turn even one gentleman down…well, then, I’d be a positive laughing-stock! Don’t you see?”
Elinor sighed. She did see, all too well.
She hadn’t been able to save her own family, but she could still help Benedict save his…and there was only one way to do that.
