And there she saw it.
In Margaret’s surprised gaze. In the quick flash of guilt and panic across her face.
Margaret perhaps had not known the specifics of Frank’s plan. Lady Gardner’s presence certainly was a surprise.
But . . .
Her sister hadknown.
She had known that Frank planned something.
And Margaret had done nothing to stop it. She had been silently complicit in the plan.
Lottie struggled to draw in a breath.
The weight of such betrayal . . .
After everything Lottie had done for Margaret and Freddie . . .
And if Alex and Grandmère hadn’t been here . . .
Had Grandmère known that Frank plotted to compromise Lottie?
Or at least . . . suspected?
“Gracious,” Lady Gardner’s eyes lit with eagerness, as if attempting to unravel the currents of tension. “I feel there is a story to be had here.”
Lottie didn’t respond, her chest too tight, her eyes firmly lodged on her sister.
Did Margaret feel any guilt for her actions?
Would she have watched Lottie be forced to marry Nettlesby and spend the rest of her life bitterly unhappy?
And what if Lords sided with Alex in the end anyway?
It would have all been for naught!
Lottie could scarcely breathe.
Sometimes, family are those who put your interests first.
She closed her eyes and then opened them, meeting her grandmother’s sympathetic gaze.
Yes.
Grandmère certainly had suspected something.
Her grandmother had recognized Margaret’s desperation, her sister’s increasing fears for her son. She had sensed that Margaret, like many a mother before her, would choose her child’s future over her sister’s.
And Grandmère had been correct.
No path led to a harmonious resolution here.
Not for Lottie. Not for Freddie.
It had never been a possibility.
Lottie had simply been too stubbornly set in her loyal course to recognize it.
