Excitement and besides this allowed her to say that her heart leaped when she fell in love then in one of those inexplicable quirks of fate the wind picked up quite suddenly and lifted her bonnet which much to her mother’s chagrin she had not tied properly since the ribbon chafed under her chin straight into the air and splat right onto the face of one of the riders penelope gasped taking her breath away and then the man fell off his horse landing most inelegantly in a nearby mud puddle she rushed forward quite without thinking squealing something that was meant to inquire after his welfare but that she suspected came out as nothing more than a strangled shriek he would of course be furious with her since she defectively knocked him off his horse and covered him with mud two things guaranteed to put any gentleman in the foulest of moods but when he finally rose to his feet brushing off whatever mud could be dislodged from his clothing he didn’t lash out at her he didn’t give her a stinging set down he didn’t yell he didn’t even glare he laughed he laughed penelope hadn’t much experience with the laughter of men and what little she had known had not been kind but this man’s eyes a rather intense shade of green were filled with mirth as he wiped a rather embarrassingly placed spot of mud off his cheek and said well that wasn’t very well done of me was it and in that moment penelope fell in love when she found her voice which she was pained to note was a good three seconds after a person of any intelligence would have replied she said oh no it is i who should apologize my bonnet came right off my head and she stopped talking when she realized he hadn’t actually apologized so there was little point in contradicting him it was no trouble he said giving her a somewhat amused smile i oh good day daphne didn’t know you were in the park penelope whirled around to find herself facing daphne bridgeton standing next to her mother who promptly hissed what have you done penelope featherington and penelope couldn’t even answer with her stock nothing because in truth the accident was completely her fault and she’d just made a fool of herself in front of what was obviously judging from the expression on her mother’s face a very eligible bachelor indeed not that her mother would have thought that she had a chance with him but mrs wetherington held high matrimonial hopes for her older girls besides penelope wasn’t even out in society yet but if mrs featherington intended to scold her any further she was unable to do so because that would have required that she remove her attention from the all-important bridgetons whose ranks penelope was quickly figuring out included the man presently covered in mud i hope your son isn’t injured mrs featherington said to lady bridgeton writer’s reign colin interjected making an expert sidestep before lady bridgeton could maul him with motherly concern introductions were made but the rest of the conversation was unimportant mostly because colin quickly and accurately sized up mrs featherington as a matchmaking mama penelope was not at all surprised when he beat a hasty retreat but the damage had already been done penelope had discovered a reason to dream [Music] later that night as she replayed the encounter for about the thousandth time in her mind it occurred to her that it would have been nice if she could have said that she’d fallen in love with him as he kissed her hand before a dance his green eyes twinkling devilishly while his fingers held hers just a little more tightly than was proper or maybe it could have happened as he rode boldly across a windswept moor the aforementioned wind no deterrent as he or rather his horse galloped ever closer his collins not the horse’s only intention to reach her side but no she had to go and fall in love with colin bridgeton when he fell off a horse and landed on his bottom in a mud puddle it was highly irregular and highly unromantic but there was a certain poetic justice in that since nothing was excitement and besides this allowed her to say that her heart leaped when she fell in love then in one of those inexplicable quirks of fate the wind picked up quite suddenly and lifted her bonnet which much to her mother’s chagrin she had not tied properly since the ribbon chafed under her chin straight into the air and splat right onto the face of one of the riders.

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