Oh, come on. She's completely mortified. Even if she has an assassination plot going on, if it had been the Empress the horse sneezed on you would have made her shed a few tears in mortification. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Stop pretending that blondes and redheads don't weep.
And stop making dark-haired women comment that they wouldn't have succeeded if not for... In certain situations when no writer ever makes a blonde comment that she wouldn't have succeeded in something without help.