“How likely is it that any of the tainted sugar or grain made it to England?”

He reached again for his tea, mainly to give himself a moment to consider. She didn’t seem to be asking from fear—or if so, her fear didn’t reveal itself like his sister’s did. “Nothing is outside the realm of possibility, of course, but I discovered nothing to hint at it. Why?”

Dot turned around, her drawn brows focused now on Margot rather than him. “Yes, why?”

What an interesting young woman she was. She didn’t flinch under their regard, didn’t shift, didn’t look away. She didn’t raise her chin or straighten her spine. She just blinked. And answered them. “Because the symptoms my mother was apparently suffering before her death are consistent with anthrax.”

Dot took a tentative step forward, her hand stretched out a few inches toward her friend. “Margot . . . they’re also consistent with a heart attack.”

“She was perfectly healthy.”

“We both know these conditions aren’t always apparent.”

Still Margot showed no signs of either defense or offense. Her posture didn’t change, nor did her facial expression. “The statistical probability of her falling prey to the same ailment that felled my father four years ago, when considerations such as diet and location and exercise are so vastly different, is considerably lower than the probability that one of our abundant enemies has been at work.”

Dot’s eyes went wide, and her arms spread out in a gesture that said, Look about you. “In what world is a heart attack less likely than—than assassination?”

Drake willed his sister to look over at him so that he could give her a sign to shut up. She was Margot’s friend, and she ought to know better than to say something like that, even if she thought it. He could scarcely believe she just had.

His fault, he suspected. She was reeling from his news and lashing out.

Margot didn’t miss a beat. “In my world. We lived for months under the same roof as a German general who never hesitated to share with us how readily the High Command would kill anyone deemed an enemy. We watched our entire town be torn to pieces and burned. Any family whose military-aged son had escaped the country could be arrested. They dismantled our factories and sent the pieces to Germany so that we cannot rebuild after the war.”

“But that is different than being targeted.”

Why was Dot fighting her about this?