Board Game Arena

So the on-screen description of the Baroness says "look at 1 or 2 hands". When I've used this previously, I have been forced to look at 2 hands (which is fine) but in my current game I was only allowed to look at 1 hand. At this time, there were only 2 other players in the game so I can imagine the rule is that you can normally look at 2 hands unless there are only 2 hands to look at, but I can't find this described anywhere. (A problem with searching online is that there are so many different versions of this game.)

Can anybody clarify this please?

Is it possible, that another player was under protection? I mean that Handmaid=4 was in play.

No they weren't. At least not that I remember. And I commented in the chat during the game and that wasn't offered as an explanation. Somebody suggested that maybe I had clicked on the same player twice by accident but again I don't think so, and I don't really want to test that theory in a real game.

What I'm trying to understand is where the choice of looking at 1 or 2 hands comes from? Is it the player who plays the Baroness? Because I don't think you're given the option of only looking at 1 hand normally in the BGA implementation. You click on one player and then you're expected to click on a second player so you're forced to choose 2.

I think it has to do with how many players have been eliminated when the card is played. If it's down to 4 or fewer players you only get to look at one hand.