she went in there and Holden focused his wrath on her, an army wouldn’t have the strength to hold Turner back. As Poppy considered his request, Primrose suddenly came rushing into the first floor hallway, pausing when she noticed them on the stairs.
“Daddy’s going crazy,” Primrose said.
Going around Turner, Poppy hurried down the stairs with him just at her back. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” Primrose said, hurrying through the gallery to cross the width of the house. “He told me and Violet to wait in the library. We’re sitting there and next thing we just hear Daddy shouting.” She stopped in the rounded hallway outside both the drawing room and library. “What should we do? Should we go in?”
It was strangely quiet, eerily quiet in fact. Poppy caught a glimpse of the pale Violet standing in the middle of the library. She didn’t know what to do. If her father had asked the women not to go in, Poppy didn’t want to disrespect him, especially while he was no doubt feeling so raw about the whole situation.
Without really thinking, her gaze appealed to Turner.
Stroking her hair, he pulled her in for a quick kiss then nudged her toward the library. “Wait in there, all three of you.”
Protecting sisters was his specialty and Primrose definitely didn’t need to be told more than once. She took Poppy’s hand and dragged her into the library. Before Poppy could even turn around, the sound of the drawing room door opening and closing carried to her.
He was gone. Turner was in there. In the lion’s den, in the midst of the chaos. Clark Granger wouldn’t like to be manipulated or to find out his daughters had been used as pawns. If they’d thought about it for more than a minute, the Granger Girls might have realized that their father wouldn’t want them in such a contentious situation.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” Violet said, actually hugging Poppy when the three of them came together.
“How did Daddy take it?” Poppy asked.
The three of them walked in sync to the curved window seat.
“He was calm. He didn’t say much,” Violet said as they all sat down. “I told Mom first, she helped me figure out what to say… I talked, Daddy listened, and then he just looked at Mom. She sent me out of the room and told me to get ready for dinner.”
“They were talking in their room for a while,” Primrose said. “Then Daddy went down to Tiller’s office. They stayed in there until Holden arrived.”
“What did Mom say after Dad left her?”
“Nothing,” Violet said. “I got ready and went down to her room. She was on her own. She just said Daddy would handle it.”
“That’s it?” Poppy asked.
Primrose nodded. “That’s all she said to me too. When we came downstairs, she went into the dining room and Daddy came out with Tiller to say we should eat dinner with the family. He kept insisting even when I said we wanted to help… We were still talking about it when Holden arrived at the gate. Daddy told us to wait in the library.”
“When we heard him shouting, Primrose came to find you.”
“What was he shouting?” Poppy asked, though there was no time for an answer because Grammie came in, interrupting the conversation.
“What’s going on?” Grammie asked, eager to be in on the drama.
“There’s a whole to-do,” Poppy said. “Daddy won’t let us help with Holden, but he’s in there shouting at the guy.”
“About time someone did,” Grammie said, still in the doorway. “Should I go and shout at him too?”
“No!” all three sisters said at the same time.
“Daddy wants to handle this,” Poppy said. “Tiller is in there…” She looked to her sisters. “Isn’t he?”
“Yes,” Primrose said. “Him and Preston too.”
“And Turner,” Grammie said, relenting and leaving the doorway to come their way. “I don’t think he’d miss out on all the fun.”
“No, but we have to,” Poppy said, sort of aggrieved to be on the wrong side of the drawing room door.
Grammie sat at the desk that stood in front of the window, turning the padded captain’s chair to face her granddaughters. “Your father isn’t an affectionate man. That comes from my father’s influence on him after Will died,” she said, sitting back. “But your father loves you girls. What Abernathy has done is inexcusable.”
“You told her,” Violet whined.
“You don’t have to worry about my judgement,” Grammie said, leaning in to take Violet’s hand. “I did much worse for love in my day.”