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“Phineas is just having a dalliance with Sarah.”
“I care not what they call it, but it definitely worked in my favor.”
“How did you convince her?”
Mr. Huxley glanced out the open window as he shared, “After I called on you, I wasn’t sure if my plan was going to work, so I knew I needed to come up with a backup one, just in case.”
“How romantic of you.”
“I even paid a groom to place a burr under your saddle, in hopes I could be the one to rescue you,” Mr. Huxley continued, bringing his gaze back to meet hers. “Unfortunately, I had not expected Mr. Stewart to show up before your ride.”
“I could have been seriously injured.”
“It was a chance I was willing to take,” he said. “Luckily, I found Sarah crying next to the stables and struck up a conversation with her. She is incredibly naïve to trust a stranger, but I knew I could use that to my advantage.”
He continued. “She told me all about how Lady Frances had forbidden Phineas from seeing her, even though they were desperately in love with one another.”
“She told you that?”
“She did,” Mr. Huxley said. “That and so much more.”
Daphne pressed her lips together, then said, “Sarah is just young and confused.”
“Precisely, which placed her in the perfect position to be manipulated,” he remarked. “We started meeting privately in the woods near your estate so she could moan about her relationship with Phineas.”
“How noble of you,” Daphne remarked dryly.
“Soon after, we started talking about how she and Phineas could be together,” Mr. Huxley shared. “She was the one who brought up foxglove.”
“She was?”
He smirked. “We may have been standing near some, and I may have alluded to it.”
“Of course you did.”
“Either way, a plan was formed, and Sarah intended to poison your grandmother this morning.”
“But your plan didn’t work,” Daphne said, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Why is that?”
“After my grandmother took a sip of her tea, she recognized the bitter taste as foxglove and stopped drinking,” she said. “She grew ill from the effects, but Sarah wasn’t successful in killing her.”
He cursed under his breath. “That was unexpected.”
“So, there is no point in us marrying.”
Mr. Huxley chuckled. “Can you possibly be that naïve?” he asked. “Do you truly believe I will just turn this coach around and deliver you back to your manor?”
“Whyever not?”
“You are still an heiress.”
“I hadn’t taken you for a fortune hunter.”
Mr. Huxley flicked his wrist in front of him. “I tire of working at the bank. I don’t want to work for an income anymore.”
“Instead, you would prefer to force a woman into an unwanted marriage?”
