Robert shrugged. “We were talking just before that, but were interrupted. I said we would finish the talk when I was done.”

“And she ran off to avoid that,” Daniel guessed dryly, and walked over to slap him on the back. “You do seem to have a way with Lisa.”

“Your sarcasm is not appreciated,” Robert growled. “I was trying to tell her that I had come to the realization that my fears about her being unfaithful were ungrounded, a result of my father’s woman-hating paranoia.”

“I knew you’d come around eventually,” Richard said quietly. “What did it?”

“Our talk last night,” Robert admitted without glancing around. “You were right, Richard. My father was a bitter, woman-hating idiot.” He sighed and shook his head. “Once I recognized that, it made me look at everything a little more objectively.”

“Hmmm,” Daniel grunted. “You say you were trying to tell Lisa that. Was she not listening?”

“She didn’t get much of a chance to listen. I didn’t get far before Handers announced that Smithe was here and I had to leave.”

“And then she left,” Daniel murmured and stepped up beside Robert to peer out the window. “She has been gone more than two hours then.”

“I know. I didn’t worry at first, travel can be slow this time of day, and the appointment may have taken as much as an hour. Still, just before you two returned, I sent Harry to check and be sure the hack driver isn’t back without her or something. He’s to come tell me what he learns when he returns.” Robert had barely finished speaking the words when an uproar in the hall made him turn to peer at the door curiously. Richard was just moving toward the door to check on it when it burst open and Harry appeared, dragging a coachman by a hard grip on his upper arm.

“Sorry to burst in, my lord,” the stable master muttered with a nod to his master. “But I’m thinking you’ll want to hear what this “gentleman” has to say about what he did to Miss Lisa.”

“I didn’t do nothing,” the man protested, jerking wildly at his arm in an effort to try to get free of Harry’s iron hold. “Didn’t do a thing. Never hurt anyone in my life and didn’t hurt her none either.”