And even if Frankwereso callous, Margaret would not permit Lottie to be bodily harmed in order to bolster Freddie’s chances of inheriting.
“Well,doyou intend to marry him?” Nettlesby asked, shooting a belligerent look at Alex.
“I don’t—” Lottie began, but voices rose outside the greenhouse.
More people?
The door snicked open.
Through the foliage, Lottie recognized Frank with Lady Gardner.
“There you are wrong, Lady Gardner,” Frank was saying. “Lady Charlotte holds no tendre for Dr. Whitaker. The man is a Scottish doctor, for heaven’s sake. Can you imagine Lady Charlotte Whitaker married to one such as him?”
“Bah! Youth these days—” Lady Gardner broke off as Lottie, Alex, and Nettlesby came into view. “Oh! I say!”
Frank and Lady Gardner froze.
Lottie was quite sure they made a comical tableau.
Nettlesby, sulking and petulant.
Alex, stern and ready for battle.
And herself, wide-eyed and horrified.
“Lady Charlotte!” Frank’s voice rose in outrage. “You are alone? With two gentlemen?!”
“Of course not, Frank.” Grandmère took a step out of the shadows. “Our Charlotte is hardly so heedless of her reputation.”
Lady Gardner nodded her head in greeting to Grandmère.
Grandmère returned the nod and then gave Frank a dramatically thunderous look.
Frank gulped. He had never been much of an actor; Lottie saw the truth clearly in his skittering gaze.
Frankhadmeant for Nettlesby to compromise her.
Given her furrowed eyebrows, Grandmère knew this, too.
Lottie’s stomach swooped.
How . . . deplorable.
That her own brother-in-law would sell her like this.
That he would sanctionviolenceagainst her person in order to bolster the chances of his son inheriting.
Before anyone could say anything further, the door burst open yet again.
“Lottie?” Margaret’s voice called. “Are you here?”
Her sister rounded the corner and stopped beside her husband.
“Oh, heavens!” Margaret exclaimed, her gaze landing on Lady Gardner, Nettlesby, Grandmère, and finally Alex.
“Margaret,” Lottie said.
Oh!
