Inside? Poppy was confused, something Turner picked up on. “You got it from the staff or someone in the family.”
“It doesn’t matter where I got it,” Preston said, standing up. “What matters is it’s true. It’s the reason for all of this. Violet humiliated Abernathy so he wants to humiliate her. This isn’t about Poppy. If Poppy went for it then that would work out even better, he’d still get to maintain business ties with the Grangers and keep on rubbing it in Violet’s face that he moved on to something better. He didn’t do grand and romantic with her, he’s really pulling out all the stops for Poppy. It can’t be easy for Violet to know he’s capable and just never bothered with her.”
“If the staff knew this then the press would,” Poppy said. “Weren’t you just telling me we could have a spy in the halls? Unless your source was Tiller… But why would Tiller tell you and not me?”
“Sometimes old timers are old school,” Turner said. “Figure things should be handled by the men. That the women need protecting.”
“If Violet really was sleeping with her old boyfriend while planning her wedding to Holden then she caused this mess. Okay, so it’s not all her responsibility, Holden’s been a conniving, two-faced slime, but she has some share of blame.”
“I’d say Abernathy wouldn’t want the truth being broadcast,” Turner said and frowned. “Which makes me wonder why the hell Tiller didn’t use this against him months ago. Why did he even let the wedding go ahead if he knew—”
“It wasn’t Tiller,” Preston said. “And the truth didn’t come to light before the wedding, not to my source anyway.”
“Who is your source?” Poppy asked.
Not knowing would drive her nuts and irritate her paranoia. The anonymous source could be noting down all sorts of things. They could be watching, drinking in the drama, ready to reveal all to the highest bidder. Poppy couldn’t think of anything particularly shocking that she’d done that the world couldn’t know; that didn’t mean no one else saw it that way.
“Yeah, spill,” Turner said. “Who told you all this?”
“Hanover?” Poppy speculated. “Trey was here the other day… he didn’t stay long and why would he reveal the truth? What would be the benefit to him? If Grammie knew, I would know. She’s terrible at hiding things from me.”
“You think,” Turner muttered.
The implication she and her Grammie weren’t close pissed her off. Though that sensation was probably related to her previous anger.
“She wouldn’t hide it from me and then tell Preston,” Poppy said. “Grammie isn’t close to Violet anyway. Violet doesn’t tell her things. Violet tells my mom things, but no way Mom would know this and not tell my father. If he knew then Tiller would know and this would’ve been cleared up months ago.” In the last words of her rant, Poppy hit on a truth. The only truth that made sense. Slowly, her attention crept up to Preston. “Oh my God.”
“What?” Turner asked. “Baby?”
“You slept with my sister.”
“Violet?” Turner exclaimed.
Poppy stood up. “Primrose. It was Primrose who told you, wasn’t it?” She sighed. “Sex loosens more than her morals. She can never keep a secret after an orgasm. That’s when the deepest darkest truths tumble out of her.” The middle Granger sister had history in that area. Usually the secrets Primrose revealed were more of the embarrassing variety than the profound. “How come she gets to have sex in the main house and I don’t?”
“Her room’s on the third floor,” Preston said, his shoulders tense.
“Shit,” Turner said. “Are you fucking kidding me? This is Ritchie’s shtick, I’d expect him to sniff out the only available female in the building. You’re supposed to have your head screwed on. How the hell did you… You’ve been here like four days.”
But the Granger sisters had been locked up for longer than that. Her sister was used to male attention. Just a couple of weeks without Turner had been tough on Poppy. Primrose wasn’t used to going so long without a social life.
“Did you use her?” Poppy asked. “For information?”
If he used her for sex, Poppy wouldn’t like it. The chance that Primrose might have used him in the same way did sort of suck the righteousness out of that stance though.
“No!” Preston declared, offended. “Neither of us planned it, it just happened. I didn’t know that she’d… Violet only told her a couple of days ago, she needed to process, someone to confide in.”