“None,” she said. “If she ever found out…” Amelia laughed nervously. “She might disown me.”
“Ah, so…” Lucy looked right at her. “You acted alone. I was wondering if you had, or if my stepmother was the reason.”
“Wh – what?”
“I am not going to accuse you, Amelia,” Lucy said with sadness, not even angry. Truthfully, there was a part of her that pitied Amelia, and never before had her stepsister looked so fragile. “I am not going to threaten you. All I want is to know why. Why did you do it?”
“Do what?” She laughed again. “I told you, I meant to come and see you but –”
“Not that,” Lucy cut her off. “Why did you try and kill me?”
The question cut through Amelia’s façade of confusion like a knife. Her face contorted with shock, then transformed to one of utmost panic. Her face somehow turned whiter, and she stumbled back, her mouth hanging open as the words she meant to speak failed to form.
“I… that… what…”
“You put something in my tea, Amelia,” Lucy said. “A sleeping draught, of some kind. What I would like to know is, did youmean for it to be so potent? Although I cannot imagine what simply putting me to sleep might have achieved.”
“Lu – Lucy, that is not… I had nothing to do… are you truly suggesting that I had something to do with what happened to you?”
“I am not suggesting it,” Lucy said calmly. “I am saying it outright.”
Amelia’s eyes were wide as she looked about the park as if for help. Or maybe she meant to run? Whatever it was, Lucy watched calmly as her stepsister descended into peril.
The lie formed, then faded. The anger rose on her face, then left. She furrowed her brow. She tried to laugh it off. She breathed heavily. She started to flush as pink as a rose in spring.
And then, finally, she broke.
“It is not what you think…” Her head dropped and her shoulders slumped.
“It rarely is.”
“I did not want to hurt you, Lucy. I swear that I did not!” She snapped her head up and looked pleadingly at Lucy. “It was only ever meant to make you sick. I was told… it would weaken you, is all. That it might make it so you could not leave your home for the rest of the Season.”
“Told by whom?”
“I would never want anything truly bad to happen to you,” she continued, speaking quickly now, tripping over her words. “And I was promised that you would be fine. Honestly. You must believe me.”
“Told by whom, Amelia? Who told you to do this?”
“It was your fault,” she began, her expression hardening. “You… you had to stick your nose in where it did not belong. If you could only have been happy for me. Why could you not have been happy for me?”
“Amelia…” Lucy took a gentle step toward her. “What are you saying?”
“You have always been like this,” she continued, trying to hold onto her anger. “Thinking you are better than me. Acting as if I am nothing – that is what Mother says. And I just knew that you would not stop. We both knew it.”
“Who? My stepmother? Did she make you do this?”
“I told you she did not.”
“Then who, Amelia? I will not lie to you. You are in a lot of trouble, but some of that might be relieved if you tell me why you did this. Who put you up to it?”
Her chin began to wobble, and her eyes started to well. “I cannot, Lucy. I… I promised I would not.”
“But you must.” Lucy closed the gap between them and took her hand. Amelia winced at her touch but did not look away. “I want to forgive you, Lucy. All I have ever wanted is for us to be friends. But I cannot do that if you do not tell me the truth.”
Tears started to fall down her cheeks and she sniffed.
“I told him what you had said,” she started softly, almost as if she spoke to herself. “How you warned me against marrying him, how you told me I should turn him away for my own safety.”
