“I cannot control how he felt about me,” she protested. “He looked at me like I had wronged his entire bloodline.”
“You fumbled like a child,” Lady Grisham spat. “It was pitiful. Laughable, if I weren’t personally invested in your future. Do you know what people will say after this?”
“I don’t care what people say!” Elizabeth’s voice trembled. “I didn’t ask to be paraded around like a—like a piece of fruit at market. Everything I do is foryou, not for me.”
“Forme?” Lady Grisham asked, voice rising. “Foolish girl, I wantyoutosucceed. To marry someone useful before it’s too late. I want you to stop embarrassing yourself and us.”
Elizabeth stood frozen. Her throat was dry. Her cheeks burned with humiliation.
“I’ve tried,” she whispered. “I’ve done everything I was told.”
“Trying isn’t enough,” her stepmother snapped. “And since you can’t be trusted to choose a suitor wisely, I will do it for you. I will select your husband. Immediately.”
Elizabeth gasped, hand flying to her mouth. “You… you would force a match on me?”
“Yes, since it seems you are incompetent to do so yourself.”
Elizabeth’s jaw remained dropped, “Perhaps it’s better I went through trial and error first before we resort to mere tyranny.”
“Tyranny?” Lady Grisham’s voice came out like a squeak.
Elizabeth pressed her lips together, “Yes, tyranny, Lady Grisham. You’ve treated me like an unruly broodmare all my life, as though I’ve committed some cardinal sin. My only sin, if it could ever be considered as such, is that I am not your daughter. Not that you treat Wilhelmina and the twins any better.”
Her chest heaved, her breath escaping in slow, quiet bursts.
Lady Grisham’s face darkened. She leaned in, her voice a venomous whisper. “Your mother would be ashamed of you.”
The words hit Elizabeth like a blow.
“You know she would be, if she were alive,” Lady Grisham continued. “You disgrace her memory. The same one your father still worships. And now you’re dragging your sisters down with you.”
Elizabeth stared at her, speechless. Her vision blurred, but she wouldnotlet the tears fall. Not here. Not in front ofher.
So that’s what this had been all along. Not about her success, but her mother’s memory. A memory Lady Grisham clearly hated. A rivalry from beyond the grave.
“Soyou. Will. Do. As. I. Say.” The words were low and sharp, each one a stab.
Elizabeth stood rooted to the spot, trembling, numb. She had believed—naively—that her stepmother would be better than her father. That at the very least, she would not use cruelty as a weapon. But now, Elizabeth saw her clearly.
This woman was just another jailer in different clothes.
Just as Elizabeth was about to open her mouth to respond, a voice came through from behind.
“That’senough.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“Your Grace,” Lady Grisham said sharply, stepping forward. “Apologies if we disturb your peace, but this is a private family matter.”
Elizabeth’s eyes snapped to the voice behind her.
Alasdair stood only a few paces away, towering and rigid, like a storm barely held at bay. His posture was taut, jaw clenched, his dark green eyes fixed on Lady Grisham and on her. But it was the stillness in him that struck Elizabeth most, the kind that came before something broke.
“Huh,” he murmured, stepping closer. His voice was low and dangerous, the sound of a blade being drawn. “From what I was hearin’, ye were nae treatin’ her like family at all.”
Lady Grisham’s lips curled in disdain. “Be that as it may, whatever is happening here does not concern you, Your Grace.”
Elizabeth’s pulse quickened. This could not be happening. Not here. Not now.