She shook her head, tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
Something about the way she said it made me wonder what she was sorry about. That she wouldn’t accuse me—or something else?
Leah reentered the kitchen, and I couldn’t find another moment to talk to Grace alone. Every time I met her gaze, I pleaded with my eyes, but she looked away.
Panic made me tremble as the dining room began to fill with customers and Grace finished breakfast. I wasn’t sure how she appeared so calm as she fried bacon and made bread pudding from yesterday’s penny loafs.
“Grace,” I said in a frantic whisper as she finished filling several plates that I would take to the dining room. “Please.” I glanced at Leah, who was leaving the kitchen. “Tell me what is wrong.”
Grace waited until Leah was out of the room. “Now isn’t the time. We need to get the meal served.”
“I must know. What is bothering you—besides Susannah? I know there is something.”
She finally let out a breath. “It’s about Luc.”
“Luc? Did something happen to him?” I grabbed her arms. “Did he die?”
She shook her head.
“Tell me—I don’t care if this isn’t the time. I need to know.”
“I-I’m in love with him.”
My breath caught as I stared at her, confused, certain I hadn’t heard correctly. “What?”
“I love him,” she said with a little sob. “I didn’t mean for it to happen, Hope. It just did.”
I took a step back from her, hurt and betrayal tearing at my heart. How had I not known this was coming? They had spent months together. I asked the question I had suspected in July. “Does he love you?”
She swallowed and nodded slowly.
“He—he told you?”
“Yes.”
I stared at her, seeing the telltale signs of guilt, and whispered, “Did you kiss him?”
She looked down at her hands and nodded.
I turned away from her. This was the final crushing blow to the disappointments I had endured the past few months. First, to lose 1912 and the man I loved—and then to have him fall in love with my twin sister?
“Hope,” she said as she reached for me.
I pulled out of her grasp, not wanting to talk to her or look at her or even acknowledge what she had said. Luc wasn’t supposed to love her. Nothing had gone as I planned.
Picking up a few plates, I walked blindly into the dining room, holding back the torrent of emotions wreaking havocin my heart. The storm was still blowing against the ordinary, and more people than usual had come to hear the latest gossip and spend the dreary hours with others.
As I aimlessly set the plates in front of customers, the front door opened, and Isaac entered.
I met his gaze and could see his concern immediately. He knew me better than I had realized.
The reality of Grace’s confession brought tears to my eyes even as I acknowledged that my heart had started to soften toward another man—one who was now approaching me. It didn’t change the fact that my sister knowingly fell in love with a man I loved—in a devastating time when she knew it would only add to my pain.
Yet wasn’t that what I was doing? Falling for a man Grace loved?
My heart constricted with guilt and shame. Did she still love Isaac?
“Is all well?” he asked, searching my face.
