Thoughts of Charles had her glancing around even though she knew he was not there. Pembroke had said Findlay had sent word of a prior engagement, but she suspected he simply hadn’t invited the man. She couldn’t help noticing that Lord Tibald wasn’t there either—also a prior engagement. She had come to the conclusion that Pembroke had simply decided to eliminate the competition during this excursion by neglecting to invite them. She didn’t know why he’d bothered, since he himself hadn’t approached her even once since the beginning of the journey. Lisa didn’t know if he was embarrassed about last night’s tussle in the garden, angry that she had rebuffed him, or just too busy seeing to everyone else to find the time to speak to her, but he had spent most of the journey fussing over his mother and seeing to her comfort. The man was definitely a mother’s boy.

This excursion was certainly an impressive one though. They had all gathered at the docks, piled on a boat and sailed up the coast to this rather lovely clearing. Pembroke had then herded everyone ashore and while the guests had all wandered about surveying the pretty flowers, trees and a nearby spring, a small army of servants had filed out of the bowels of the ship with tables, chairs, tablecloths, dishes and platters of food. It wasn’t really a picnic at all, but open-air dining, she decided. And the spread was really a quite impressive one too. However, she wasn’t willing to risk it and end up hanging over the basin all night. Besides, her stomach was still tender and she wasn’t really hungry.

“Oh, the torte is lovely too,” Christiana moaned. “Really, Pembroke’s cook outdid herself this time.”

Lisa forced a smile and then stood.

“I think I shall just walk along the shore while you all finish,” she said and moved away before anyone could protest.

Some of Lisa’s tension eased as soon as she had moved away from the tables, but she didn’t truly relax until she’d walked far enough that she couldn’t hear the chatter of the diners anymore. In that silence though, she became aware of the sound of footfalls behind her and glanced over her shoulder with a frown that dissolved into a sigh when she spotted Robert following her about ten feet back. Her watchdog was there. She should have known she wouldn’t be allowed to take even a moment for herself. The only peace she got anymore was in her room at Christiana and Richard’s. It was the only time Robert let her out of his sight. But that began to feel claustrophobic pretty quickly. It wasn’t that it was a small room or anything, it was simply that even the largest room shrank in size when you felt trapped in it.