Cyrano De Bridgerton

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/42862842.

Rating: Not Rated

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: F/M
Fandom: Bridgerton (TV), Bridgerton Series - Julia Quinn, Cyrano (2021)
Relationship: Colin Bridgerton/Penelope Featherington, Penelope
Featherington/Original Character(s), Eloise Bridgerton & Penelope
Featherington, Background Kanthony - Relationship, Background
Saphne - Relationship
Character: Penelope Featherington, Colin Bridgerton, Original Male Character(s),
Anthony Bridgerton, Eloise Bridgerton, Daphne Bridgerton, Violet
Bridgerton, Portia Featherington, Prudence Featherington, Marina
Thompson, Phillip Crane, Francesca Bridgerton, Hyacinth Bridgerton,
Gregory Bridgerton, Benedict Bridgerton, Mrs. Varley (Bridgerton)
Additional Tags: Polin, Jealous Colin Bridgerton, Colin Bridgerton Being an Idiot, cyrano
de bergerac au, Penelope Featherington Gets a Happy Ending, Colin
Bridgerton Loves Penelope Featherington, Unrequited love switch,
Angst with a Happy Ending
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2022-11-05 Chapters: 1/? Words: 2646

Cyrano De Bridgerton
by BroadwayCutie16

Summary

Penelope Featherington is in love. Hopelessly, madly, deliriously in love. But not with
Colin Bridgerton. No, that ship has long sailed—much to his own chagrin. Still, his
heartbreak does not hold him back from helping her with her new love, the handsome and
charismatic but somewhat dimwitted Christian Burnwood.

Penelope wants to exchange letters with Christian and bask in his written declarations of
love. But Colin soon discovers a flaw in her expectations, beknownst to her—Christian
hasn’t a poetic bone in his body. Unwilling to let Pen be disappointed, Colin conspires with
Christian to write love letters to her under Christian’s name. But just how long can Colin
keep up this charade before he loses himself?

Penelope Featherington looked aimlessly out the window of her family's sitting parlor. She wasn't
looking out for anything in particular, except perhaps, a distraction from her crumbling life.

It was the start of yet another social season, Penelope's third, and her oldest sister Prudence's fifth.
Their middle sister, Philippa, had wed last year to Mr. Albion Finch, and recent news had told that
she was expecting their first child.
As for Penelope and Prudence, they were still in need of husbands, especially since they were on
thin ice concerning finances. Poor Prudence, in her fifth season, was now considered "on the shelf"
and in high danger of ending up a spinster, especially after her engagement with Jack Featherington
had fallen through the year before. This season couod very well be do or die alone for her.

As for Penelope...well, she had given up any hope for a storybook romance after the last ball of the
previous season, during which, after years of hopelessly pining for Colin Bridgerton, she overheard
him tell his friends that he would never dream of courting her in his wildest fantasies.

Since then, Penelope had focused all her energy into her writing, practicing her literary skills,
sharpening her quill and her tongue in anticipation for the next season. It was not like she had
anything better to do, since she had fallen out with her best friend Eloise upon the latter figuring
out her secret identity and declared wanting nothing more to do with her.

For the first time in forever, Penelope was completely on her own. No father, no Eloise, no Colin.
Even Philippa, the one living family member that Penelope at least found tolerable, had moved on
with her own life. Just her overbearing mother, her haughty oldest sister, and her dark, dark
thoughts.

"Pemelope!", came Lady Featherington's shrill cry. "Come down this instant! Do not dawdle!
The Earl will be here any moment!"

Penelope sighed and gave herself one final look over at her reflection in the glass of the window.
By some miraculous luck, Portia Featherington had gotten in contact with the Earl of Portors, an
old friend of her late husband's from school, and comvinced him to spend the social season with the
family. Clearly, Lady Featherington was hoping the Earl would come to fancy Prudence and make
her his Countess. This may, after all, be Prudence's very last chance.

As fir Penelope, she had no interest in taking a husband anytime soon. She still needed time for her
broken heart to heal. Of course, given that she was the wallflower of the season two years running,
she was fairly certain she would be given plenty of time to heal.

Penelope hurried down the stairs in her new dress. Portia was waiting at the bottom of the stairs,
touching up Prudence's hair, when she spotted her youngest standing on the steps. A scowl
darkened her face when she saw the gown she had donned. "Penelope, what is that?"

"A dress, Mama."

"A green dress.", Lady Featherington elaborated.

It was true. The dress was a mossy green with some fake pink and blue flowers, reminding one of
the peaceful bayou lake.

"I thought I set out the yellow dress for you.", said Portia.

"Mama, I don't want to wear the yellow dress.", said Penelope.

"Why not? Yellow is a happy color!"

"It also makes me look like an overripe lemon.", quipped Penelope. "It makes my red hair look
garish and too bright. I hate it."

Portia's eyes siftened. "You've never complained before."

"Because I did not wish to make a fuss.", said Penelope. It was true. She had always complied with
her mother in the past, but now that she knew she was doomed to become a spinster, she knew she
had to start brushing up on her independence skills making her own life choices. And that started
with her mother. "Besides, it doesn't even matter what I wear in front of the Earl. You're bringing
him here for Prudence, not for me."

Portia pursed her lips slightly. "Very well. If you feel that strongly." She glanced at the dress
again. "And...as much as I hate to admit, the color is quite becoming on you."

Penelope smiled. Had her mother just...complimented her?

She should have stood up for herself years ago.

The brief moment of joy was halted all too soon by the entrance of Mrs. Varley. "The Earl of
Portors, madame."

Penelope stepped down from the bottom step and stood next to her mother as they awaited their
guest. Prudence puffed up, glowing with excitememt and anticipation to finally meet the man she
was determined to marry.

A man stepped into the foyer, and Penelope blinked.

He was...ugly.

That was not a word that Penelope liked to use, seeing as she was almost a hundred percent certain
that it was a word many people used about her in conversation behind her back. But she could
think of no other word to describe such a man.

He was almost six feet tall, his belly round. And not fully-figured round like Penelope, but only in
his gut. The rest of his body was lean except his gut, which bulged out as though he was with child.
His face was caked with ghastly white makeup abd reddish-pink rougue, lips painted red with a
false beauty mark below his left eye. His head donned a powdered wig with rolls down the side of
his head.

But perhaps most important of all, there wasn't a speck of true compassion to be found on him. His
eyes were beady and cold, his face unwelcoming and snobbish. His aura was callous and hollow.
He gave off the very same essence that radiated off of Cressida Cowper. And she was the most
unpleasant person that Penelope had ever had the misfortune to cross paths with.

He scanned the three Featherington women with a calculating eye, his icy stare sending chills up
and down Penelope's spine. Then he approached the matriarch of this trio. "Lady Featherington.",
he said in a deep yet snobbish voice, taking her hand and bringing his reddened lips to the back of
it. "It is an honor to see you again."

"The honor is all ours, Your Lordship.", Portia replied haughtily. "You have certainly gotten better
with age. Now...I take it you remember my daughter, Prudence? She has certainly blossomed
since you were here last."

The Count faced Prudence, who puffed up to make her chest appear bigger, and fluttered her
eyelashes at him. Penelope thought she looked quite foolish, even for her.

Then his sharp voice struck her eardrums. "Amd who pray tell, is that behind you?"

Penelope met his face to see his eyes aimed directly at her.

"Oh? This is Penelope.", said Portia, caught off-guard. "You probably did not recognize her.
After all, it's been years since you saw her last."

The Count stepped towards her, grinning like a rattlesnake, and Penelope felt very ill. "Ah,
yes...little Penelope. You certainly have grown. You were but a mere child the last time I was at
your father's home, but now...now you are a woman."

Penelope's stomach churned as his grinning lips parted to reveal his crooked, yellowed teeth, his
eyes on her like a lion eying their prey.

"Well! We best be off!", said Portia, clapping her hands and leading her daughters and their guests
away. "I was told Your Lordship would provide a carriage?"

"Indeed, Lady Featherington. I brought only my best. I must put my best foot forward. After all, I
am set on finding my Countess this season."

Portia and Prudence smiled even bigger.

Prudence stepped up to the Count's side, smiling at him expectantly. Taking the hint, the Count
offered her his arm, which she happily accepted. Portia let the potential couple walk past, beaming
at the fruits of her efforts coming to life, when she felt a hand on her arm.

It was Penelope, and she looked like a frightened mouse who had just escaped the clutches of a
wild cat. "Mama, I don't like him."

"Well, it's as you said, he's not here for you, now, is he?", replied Portia.

"That's just it, Mama! I don't like the way he looked at me just now. Did you not notice how he
spoke to me?"

"My dear, he's probably just surprised at how much you've grown. After all, the last time he saw
you, you were all but five." Lady Featherington gathered her skirts. "Come now, no time for
chitchat! We'll be late!"

Penelope reluctantly followed her mother out the door into the Count's awaiting carriage, which
was ten times finer than anything her family had ever owned, even before her father had passed
away, even before he had gambled his family into debt.

Penelope looked out the window and began to sing spftly.

"What does it feel like to slow dance in sunlight with someone you love?
Somebody who sees you, and won't ever leave you alone, whatever comes?
I need something to die for, write poems and cry for, and I won't be ashamed.
I'm nobody's pet, no one's wife, no one's woman, and I won't play that game."

She soghed as her voice grew a little bit louder.

"I'd give anything for someone to say

That they can't live without me and they'll be there forever.
I'd give anything for someone to say to me
That no matter how bad it gets, they won't turn away from me..."

Soon enough, the opera house came into view of the carriage window. A few coaches had already
arrived. Including, Penelope's heart sank. The Bridgerton carriage.

She had hardly interacted with the family since that dreadful double whammy at the closing ball
last season. Eloise would not speak to her, Anthony was reveling in newlywed bliss, Benedict
busied himself with his art, Daphne was off managing her family and her duties as Duchess of
Hastings, Francesca was swamped in preparing herself for her first social season, Gregory and
Hyacinth played as they always did, and Colin...

Well, Colin had sent her a series of letters from his travels. Every single one of them rested in a
little hidden drawer in her desk, each unopened, the seal still perfectly in tact. Every time Penelope
thought of opening one, the moment her fingers touched the parchment of the envelopes, Colin's
cruel words from that noght would echo in her head.

"Are you mad? I will never court Penelope Featherington! Not in your wildest fantasies!"

After that, Penelope would immediately take back her hand as if the paper had burnt it, slam the
drawer shut, and crumble inti a flurry of tears. The last time that drawer had been opened was three
months ago. Once upon a time, Penelope had lived for those letters from Colin, lived to see the
words he had made by hand and imagine his voice in her ear, as though he were right there beside
her, telling her everything. Now? Those letters felt like lies, false evidence Colin had forged to
trick her into believing that he truly cared for her, that he saw her, and not just pitied her.

Penelope sat in the carriage, keeping her gaze on Colin in the crowd. As she got up, she could see
Anthony and Kate, his new Viscountess Bridgerton, leaning against each other, basking in each
other's presence, so in love and so joyous, and her heart yearned for what she wanted and could not
have. Not just from Colin, but from any boy. Penelope sincerely wondered to herself if she would
ever find love like that, like Anthony had, like Daphne had with the Duke, like Violet had once had
with the late Vicount Bridgerton.

"What do you do when you're always waiting to find love at first sight?
If I'm naive, why does all the poetry say that I might?
I have heard songs that say love conquers everything, wherever you name it.
It's right there in front of you, wherever you are, you just have to claim it."

She saw the happy clan, laughing and hugging and talking excitingly about the upcoming
performance, and, just as she had a thousand times before, she wished her own family could be that
close and affectionate. She saw Colin emerge from the crowd and see her exiting the carriage with
her mother and Prudence and the Earl. He waved towards her with a smile, but for quite possibly
the first time in her life, Penelope did not return the gesture. She did not even smile back at him.
She just bustled away into the crowds to get as far away from him as quickly as she was able to.

The Earl led her and her mother and sister towards the box seat he had reserved for them. As she
shifted through the crowds of the awaiting audience, invisible as always, and climbed up the stairs,
she could hear the people's wishes and conversations."

"I'd give anything for someone to say

That they can't live without me and they'll be there forever!"

"I'd give anything for someone to say to me..."

"That no matter how bad it gets..."

"They won't turn away from me..."

As Penelope finally settled in her box seat, she caught sight of the Bridgertons settling into another
box seat on the other side of the opera house. She allowed her gaze to linger on them for just a
moment, as she allowed herself just a moment to mourn everything she had dreamed of her whole
life long and everything that she now knew would never come to be. Then she allowed herself a
wish. A wish that she could find love. If it'd only reveal itself to her.

"If love's there, I'll feel it in it's stare.

It'll be freedom at first sight, I'll be walking on air..."

She turned away her head, towards the audience, into the sea of faces.

"If love's there, I won't dare run away..."

Her eyes caught onto one face in particular. It was a man with light brown skin, rich abd smooth,
like caramel mixed with chocolate. His thick hair was as fine and dark as a raven's wing.

"I'll swallow my pride..."

Their eyes met, her azure blue hues meeting those of deep hazel, rich and warm and yet so bright,
with a spark that captivated the soul immediately.

And at once, all breath left Penelope's body.

"And I'll ask you to stay..."

Their gazes locked together, each finding themselves unable to tear their eyes away from the other.
The rest of the theater—the audience, the performers, even the Bridgertons and Featheringtons—
they all seemed to fade away, making it feel like they were the only two people left on the whole
face of the earth.

In a single moment, Penelope felt as though everything she had spent her entire life pining for,
longing for, waiting for...had at long last revealed itself to her.

And it was hers for the taking.

Just then, her bliss was cut tragically short by the sound of a knife slicing through leather. She
gasped and pointed towards him with a frightened expression. The boy looked behind him to see a
man running pff with something clutched in his hand.

"Stop! Thief!"

Penelope watched him running after the perpetrator with great speed. As he vanished into the
crowds and out the theater doors, her heart followed him.

"Penelope? Penelope? Penelope Featherington!"

Penelope jolted at the sound of her mother's sharply-toned voice. "Yes, Mama?"

"His Lordship asked about your hobbies.", said Lady Featherington.

"Oh, I do not have much.", answered Penelope quite absentmindedly. And she looked back in the
direction where her mystery man had gone.

In her lovestruck daze, she was completely unaware of the bright-eyed Bridgerton boy looking at
her.

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