Charles shook his head. “I slipped an emetic into your tea while Tibald was telling you all about the runner he’d hired. You were so busy chattering away, you didn’t drink the tea until everyone got up to leave.” He smiled wryly. “From the way you grimaced as you downed it, I thought for sure you would jump up and say there was something in your tea, but you didn’t.”

“It was cold and nasty but I thought it was just because I’d let it sit so long,” she said quietly, recalling the sickly sweet taste.

“Ahh.” Charles nodded, and then commented, “The emetic was supposed to be fast acting. I imagine you probably barely got upstairs before the vomiting started.”

“I made it all the way to my room first,” she informed him coldly.

“Hmm.” He shrugged. “Not as fast acting as claimed then. Ah well, it’s for the best, I suppose. Seeing other people get ill tends to turn my own stomach so it wouldn’t have done for you to vomit on me.”

Lisa was starting to think it was a shame she hadn’t. She also thought she would definitely keep that tidbit handy for future reference. If she didn’t escape, she would vomit on the man at every opportunity.

“And the attack during Pembroke’s outing?” she asked, pushing away the possibility of not escaping.

Findlay shrugged with amusement. “He refrained from inviting me to it. Or Tibald for that matter. Cutting out the competition. Most unsporting of him, really,” he said with a tsk, and then shrugged. “It didn’t matter though, I knew what he’d arranged and bribed the boat captain to tell me where the planned stop for the picnic was so that I could send my man ahead to lay in wait.”

He considered her for a moment and then admitted, “In truth, I didn’t expect there to be much hope of grabbing you there. I expected you to stick close to the others, or for Langley to be keeping such a close eye that there would be no chance to snatch you. But you decided to walk along the beach, and while Robert followed, he then turned to leave you there.”

“You were there?” Lisa asked with surprise.

“Good Lord, no. I was at my club, establishing my alibi so no one would come looking when I disappeared for a couple days to drag you to Gretna Green.”

“Oh,” she muttered.