“I think you do,” Enid pressed. “Is that why Eugenie went to go see Phineas? Was she going to confront him about your condition?”
Rising abruptly, Lady Charlotte declared, “It is time for you to go.”
“Charlotte—”
Lady Charlotte spoke over her. “I have nothing more that I want to say to either of you,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.
Greydon rose. “We are just trying to help Eugenie.”
“How is that exactly?” Lady Charlotte asked. “You are just on a witch hunt.”
“I assure you that is not the case,” Greydon responded.
Lady Charlotte started tapping her left foot. “Leave my home and never come back. If you do, I will call for the constable.”
Greydon looked as if he had more that he wanted to say but he closed his mouth and nodded. “As you wish.”
Neither of them spoke as they exited the townhouse and stepped into the carriage. Once Greydon urged the team forward, he said, “That was odd.”
“I agree,” Enid responded. “I do believe that Lady Charlotte knows more than she is letting on.”
“That is what I surmised, too.”
“Why wouldn’t she want to help her sister?”
Greydon’s jaw clenched. “It makes me wonder in what condition Phineas truly was in when she left.”
Enid’s eyes grew wide. “You don’t think Lady Charlotte had anything to do with his murder, do you?”
“Either the murder itself or she was poisoning him with arsenic.”
“But she is so young.”
Greydon huffed. “That means little when you are dealing with matters of the heart. Charlotte had means and the opportunity to kill Phineas.”
Enid glanced over her shoulder at Lady Charlotte’s townhouse and wondered if that young lady could be guilty of such a horrific crime. She might have been angry enough to have killed him, especially if he wouldn’t acknowledge their baby.
Greydon broke through her musings. “I do think Eugenie came to the same conclusion as we did and is trying to protect her sister.”
“With her own life?” Enid asked.
“Wouldn’t you do the same for someone you loved?”
Enid grew quiet, knowing that Greydon spoke true. She would do anything to help Marigold, even give her own life to save her.
Greydon exited the carriage and extended the reins to the footman. Then he proceeded inside his townhouse. He had just come from escorting Enid home and he had only walked her to the main door. He didn’t want to become a nuisance but he had no intention of dropping his suit, no matter how much Enid objected. He knew that she cared for him. She had said as much, but he could see the fear in her eyes.
He had to prove to her that he would never betray her. But how was he to do that, he wondered. He had confessed his deep feelings for her, stopping short of revealing he was in love with her. He didn’t want to scare her off by being too brazen.
The butler stepped out from a room off the hall and said, “Your father is requesting your presence in his study, my lord.”
Greydon’s foot stilled on the first step. He didn’t want to talk to his father, but it was best that he got this over with. No doubt his father would criticize him for something he had done, or perhaps he was just in his usual cantankerous mood.
He shifted his course and started walking towards the rear of the townhouse. He had just stepped inside of the study when his father glanced up, his expression growing hard.
“There you are,” his father grumbled. “Where have you been?”
“I have been busy,” he replied.
