Violet and Primrose outside. It was time to overcome another obstacle, one that didn’t have support on both sides. It wasn’t fun, it was necessary; Poppy would have to make it work.
TWENTY-TWO
Eating breakfast hadn’t even occurred to Poppy until Grammie offered to have brunch sent to the tables by the grove.
When they were really little, the Granger Girls would spend hours in the grove, looking for fairies and woodland sprites. One year, Grammie spent a fortune having the forest setup with different colored lights and audio effects to really immerse the girls in their fantasy.
It was nice that such a happy memory accompanied Poppy as she went outside. The warmth of it faded some when she saw her sisters’ expressions. Primrose was sort of solemn while Violet was much more stern.
Before she even reached them, Primrose was backing away, gesturing for her to hurry up. “Come on,” she hissed, grabbing for Violet’s hand to pull her along.
“What’s going on?” Poppy asked, spurred on by the middle sister’s urgency.
“When are the three of us ever seen around together?” Primrose asked, snatching Poppy’s hand too. “If Mom sees us out like this, she’ll know something is going on.”
“Where are we going?”
“Music room,” Primrose said. “That’s like your secret lair. We’ll be alone.”
Despite a couple of decades going by, not so much had changed when the three of them got together alone. It was comforting, exciting almost. At least it was until they got there and the three of them went inside.
The drapes were open and the bed was made, though Violet’s sneer wasn’t approving. “You’re staying here?”
“Turner and I slept here last night,” Poppy said, going over to open the deck doors to let in some fresh air. “Grammie said she’d have brunch sent down to the grove. Do you want me to call the kitchen and let them know we’re here?”
“I’ll do it,” Primrose said, quick to hurry back to the entry hallway where the line to the main house was located.
Giving Poppy and Violet some time alone was, in theory, a good idea. Poppy wasn’t sure where to start. As Violet strolled around the room, taking in details and ending near the deck, she didn’t give any hint that she was in a hurry to talk.
“It’s probably been a while since you’ve been down here,” Poppy said.
“It’s your room, why should I be down here?”
Sleeping in the main house made sense when she was there for dinner anyway. With Turner in the mix, the value she placed on privacy skyrocketed. Until Violet’s statement, Poppy had never spent any time wondering how her sisters viewed the space she valued so much.
“Violet, I’m sorry that all of this has happened,” Poppy said, crossing the room to join her sister as she went out to the deck. “None of us wanted it to happen, I know, but we have a way to fix it.”
“Primrose told you about me and Trey,” Violet said, wrapping her hands around her elbows in a loose self-embrace. “She chooses now not to keep a secret.”
Primrose must have told Violet that Poppy knew, though she couldn’t have revealed how the transference of information had come about. It was somewhat odd to be discussing Violet’s secrets while keeping Primrose’s. Still, it wasn’t just about Primrose. Preston might not want the whole household knowing what he’d done with the middle Granger Girl.
If Violet knew how the news had been spread, that it started with Primrose and Preston in bed, she’d be less surprised about their sister exposing the truth.
“I know you didn’t want the world to know your business.”
“I don’t care about the world,” Violet said, spinning around to glare. “The whole world knows my business because of you and Holden.”
“No,” Poppy said, shaking her head. “Nothing ever happened between us. You have to believe me.”
“He stood up there in front of the whole world and humiliated me because of you.”
“No,” Poppy said, shocked that her sister could still believe anything romantic had ever occurred between her and Holden. “Yes, he wanted to humiliate you. He did that because he found out about you and Trey. You know it’s true. Didn’t Trey ask you not to go through with it?”
“They’re fighting over some business deal, putting me in the middle,” Violet snapped, her frustration showing. “I wouldn’t give either of them information on the other. Though, of course, both of them accused me of it. Every time something went wrong in negotiations or…” She paused to inhale through her nose. “I