Alas, dearest reader, Cressida Cowper’s run as Lady Whistledown was not long for this world. It was certainly a major development on Bridgerton when Colin learned that his betrothed, Penelope Featherington, was Lady Whistledown and declared that he could never forgive her for keeping that secret, but I’d say the bigger drama was when Penelope totally owned Cressida by calling her a liar in her latest newsletter. In attempt to gain the Queen’s favor, Cressida (and her mother) hurriedly wrote an issue of their version of Whistledown, but it was full of lies, including a speculation that Violet’s Bridgerton’s children were of dubious parentage.
On the very same morning, Pen reclaimed her original tracks by releasing “Whistledown (Penelope’s Version),” calling out Cressida as a liar, both for claiming to be the Gossip Queen of Mayfair and for circulating untruths rather than actually doing her gossip research. Cressida is cast out of society once she’s called out, earning her a one way ticket to exile (i.e.
her Aunt Joanna from Wales’s estate), but Cressida actually feels bad about this while thing, not just because it means she’s a social pariah, but because she hates that she wrote such horrible things about the Bridgertons. Eloise was the one person, she tells her mother, who ever showed her true friendship, and now that’s gone. “Have I not raised you to know that in this world, it is every person for themself, especially amongst women?” Araminta Co.
