lanie opted to remain standing. She would not be held captive in this room.
"Are you trying to nd your relationship with or hold my issues with your mother against ? The latter doesn’t have anything to do with you," said lanie.
"I admit that I wasn’t around when your mother needed , but I was around for you. I was doing my best to raise you just as I raised my daughters. I wanted better for you so you wouldn’t end up as I did," lanie said, sneaking a glance at Tyrion.
lanie didn’t know what to make of the prince. She wasn’t invited during the tis the Collinses sat with the royals, and she wasn’t at the balls.
lanie only knew of Tyrion from what she had heard from Penelope and the others in the past, as well as from gossip around the town. She had always known Penelope was close to the prince, but she never once thought love would blossom from the friendship.
"You went for one of the n who has a reputation to uphold. He has left the palace, but it doesn’t an he won’t act as a royal."
"Do you think being the daughter of a duke will matter to him or his family for long? You will serve him all your life. Look at how he smiles," lanie said, pointing at Tyrion.
Tyrion’s smile widened. How could he not smile after what lanie said?
lanie couldn’t have known Penelope well since she believed her granddaughter would serve anyone. If only lanie had watched before she judged, then she would have realised that it was Tyrion who was hellbent on serving Penelope in many ways.
Between Penelope and Tyrion, Penelope was the one who cared most about reputations.
"He smiles because you amuse ," Penelope said, knowing it wasn’t because Tyrion agreed with lanie.
Penelope knew that Tyrion had his hidden, dangerous ways, but it was reserved for others who troubled him, or now them.
Tyrion wasn’t the only man in town who was this way.
There were n in town who deserved to be judged for the things they did, like the one after Penelope’s family, and were responsible for all the recent deaths.
"Do you not hear what the town says about you? That you might be with child already? That you were sneaking around with him long before you wed. Then there is a matter of curses. They have tried to say I, too, had a curse," lanie said, venting.
lanie didn’t want to be caught up in talk of curses when her husband was a religious man.
"How terrible it must be for you," Penelope replied, lacking sympathy for her grandmother. "Luckily for you and , we have people around us during the ti of accusations. My mother wasn’t so lucky and faced it alone until my father showed up."
"You will survive," Penelope said, picking up her teacup. She sipped so the tea wouldn’t go to waste.
"What has beco of you?" lanie asked, unable to recognise the young lady sitting before her. "I should have been more involved in your upbringing. You were wonderful when I was at your side. Just like my daughters."
"While I cannot deny you have taught wonderful things, I will not have you take credit for how I was raised. There are a few won I look up to and try to follow in their footsteps. I’m afraid you are not on that list,’ said Penelope.
"I don’t need to be here for this. lody, it is ti that we leave. I will not forgive you and Lily for turning Isabelle against . She loved dearly, and you both ruined it that day. It was on purpose," lanie accused Penelope.
"Mother," lody touched her mother’s hand. "That is enough."
"We gave Isabelle the option to stay with you. She decided to co with us. Isabelle has a mind of her own. For so reason, you expect us to think and behave as if we are one mind and body. I would not stop Isabelle from going to you, but I will not sit with you again," said Penelope.
Penelope couldn’t think of sitting with lanie even after lanie was to talk with her mother.
"The chance of you speaking to my mother is quite low. You have been at odds with each other far longer than I have existed. Before, I wanted you and my mother to reconcile, but now, I want you to stay away from her," Penelope said, thinking this was best.
Penelope didn’t want her mother to beco close to lanie after all these years, only for lanie to disappoint her again.
"My kindness now has a limit," Penelope said as she stood up. "I should never hear you speaking of or my family to anyone. I hope to never hear you speak of my husband as being cruel. If you do, it will not be my husband or father you must keep watch for. It will be ."
Penelope looked away from lanie to address lody. "I would like to arrange a ti for us to sit together, but at that ti, it must be just us alone. I don’t want to speak of fixing any relationship with anyone. Should you bring anyone up, I will leave."
"I apologise."
Penelope once again peered at lanie. "You’re not sorry. I believe you are worried about your husband finding out about this. After all, he almost left you when you kept the big secret from him-"
"You! It is not right to make up lies," lanie argued.
Tyrion stood up to be at Penelope’s side.
"He is not mute. He has shared his feelings once before, and we have all kept it from you. It is unfortunate for him that our talks will now have to be outside his ho," said Penelope.
"You will speak to him but not with ?" lanie asked.
Penelope nodded. "Yes, I would. He is innocent when it cos to your actions. He didn’t pull you away from your child. He wished you were close to Alessandra. I am not the only one upset with you."
lanie was angry that her husband, Lewis and Penelope had conversations behind her back.
Lewis had once been angry with lanie since it was through the court finding them that he learned of Alessandra. lanie didn’t want him to go back thinking about ending their marriage.
At the mont, Lewis thought Penelope and the others weren’t visiting because they were busy for the season, not because they didn’t like his wife’s behaviour.
"Before you go, I find it interesting that you are so judgntal of who I married, as well as my mother, but you aren’t concerned about who my uncle married. And he’s not your blood son," Penelope said.
It wasn’t a secret that Penelope’s uncle tried to marry a woman with money. Penelope’s aunt Claire often boasted about her husband, whom she t thanks to her ties with a duchess.
lanie’s other children could climb the social ladder, but Penelope couldn’t marry a prince?
"I will never understand how you could be a mother to a son you didn’t give birth to while you leave your daughter behind," said Penelope.
lanie reached her limit of patience with how Penelope spoke to her. She was still Penelope’s elder.
Out of instinct, lanie reached for lody’s cup of tea. Before she could touch it, the table was kicked, spilling the hot tea on lanie’s hand and moving the table.
lanie winced and looked up at Tyrion.
"Trying to harm her will get you killed," said Tyrion.
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