The Defiant Wife (The Three Mrs #2) - Jess Michaels Page 0,32

your greater concern would be how I intend to set things as right as they can be for your daughter.”

Windridge let out another of those cruel little snorts of derision and shook his head. “Set things right? You know, you look like a clever fellow, but I wonder if you are actually daft. There is no setting things right for Pippa. She made a bed with her choice of a partner and she will lie in it in the end.”

“It wasn’t entirely my choice, though, was it?” Phillipa said softly. “You wish to absolve yourself, to blame me entirely, but we both know what really happened.”

She pushed to her feet and paced away to the fire. She stood there for a moment, still fighting that gallant fight to control her emotions. When she faced them again, she was almost serene.

“We can go around and around forever about whose fault my sad marriage was,” she said, and her gaze flitted toward Rhys before it darted away. “But it doesn’t matter anymore. It happened. My larger question is—why are you here? You made it more than clear in your last letter to me that you want nothing to do with my life. Do you only come here to witness my suffering?”

“Your suffering?” Windridge repeated with a slam of his palm against the arm of his chair. “Selfish girl. You think you are the only one to suffer?”

Phillipa tilted her chin up in that defiant display of strength that Rhys had been captivated by since the beginning. “Far from it,” she said, soft but powerful.

“That’s right. Your mistakes impact my business,” Windridge snapped.

Rhys jerked his gaze back to the man in shock and horror. “You compare whatever you have gone through to what she has endured?”

“My business has dropped all summer, since the truth of Erasmus Montgomery came to light.”

“And you blame Phillipa for that, despite the fact that she is a victim of my brother?” Rhys asked with a cock of his head at the foolish logic of that statement.

“Phillipa should have been more careful.”

“That isn’t what you said two years ago,” Phillipa said as she folded her arms, Rhys thought as a way to protect herself. “You were after me to marry a man who would elevate you and your salon for years. How many men did you all but throw me into the path of at your precious salon? Erasmus looked like a golden prize to you as much as he looked true to me. You and Mother were supportive of the union.”

“Don’t bring your mother into this. She’s hardly left her bed since word reached us.”

Phillipa’s mouth tightened. “Yes. I recall how she reacts in those moments when she is so very upset. I was not the only cause of them.”

Her father jumped up at that and snatched her wrist. Rhys didn’t think, he just acted. In a breath, he was also on his feet, peeling Windridge’s fingers from Phillipa’s wrist.

“Don’t touch her,” he said slowly and succinctly as he pushed Windridge away from her.

There was a moment when there was only silence as Phillipa stared at her father, Windridge stared at Rhys and Rhys held that stare with a hard, heavy one of his own. But then Windridge stepped away, his face lined with disgust.

“I can see there is far more here than I imagined,” he sneered. “Be careful, daughter.” He smoothed his jacket. “I came here to see you for myself,” he explained. “And now I have.”

“And I assume to tell me that you will not see me again,” Phillipa said softly, so very softly, almost like the words hurt her and she didn’t want to give them more power.

“I will not see you again,” Windridge said. “Nor will your mother.”

Rhys set his jaw even harder. “You cannot mean that, sir. You cannot break with your daughter because someone else did something so cruel.” He said the words as a way to protect Phillipa, but he was beginning to realize that her life might be better on every level if she never saw this horrid little man again.

“I have a business and a reputation to uphold, my lord,” Windridge said. “As do you, I think. It is best, in these situations, not to allow anything…or anyone…to poison our chances.” He glared past Rhys at Phillipa. “If you insist on remaining in Bath, I must ask that you do not ever associate yourself with my name again. That is what I came to tell you. And now I