The Defiant Wife (The Three Mrs #2) - Jess Michaels Page 0,48
agreement to head there first and put everything right, while Phillipa and Kenley stayed with the original Mrs. Montgomery, Abigail. A fine arrangement all around, and yet he felt more and more anxiety the closer they got to the city and the ultimate end of the connection he and Phillipa had built.
The carriage stopped and that ceased his maudlin thoughts too, or at least slowed them. There was a bustle of activity as Rhys’s driver clamored to arrange their accommodations and the Bartons and Nan joined together to get the items everyone needed for the night and Kenley inside. Which left Rhys to exit the carriage and turn back to offer Phillipa a hand out.
One she hesitated in taking. She also refused to meet his eyes as she set her feet on the ground and gently stretched her back. “This is a different inn than the one we stopped at on the way to Bath what feels like a lifetime ago,” she said.
“That is the longest sentence you have said to me in twenty-four hours,” he said softly.
Her gaze jerked to his face then and she blushed bright as a plum. “I…oh, I’ve been abominably rude, haven’t I? I’m so sorry.”
He shook his head. “You never need apologize to me, Phillipa.”
She drew back slightly. “Of course I do. If I am wrong in my behavior, I must apologize to you first and most strenuously because I—” She cut herself off and her eyes dropped to the ground between them. “Because you are a friend to me.”
He clenched his jaw. She hadn’t been intending to say he was her friend. It was true, of course, that he wanted to be a friend to her. He liked that role very much. But it was bound so closely with the other part he’d taken in her life: lover. Combined together, they were a very dangerous thing. A good friend who was also an amazing partner in the bedroom…that was what every person secretly hoped for. That was, he feared, love. And he couldn’t love Phillipa, not the way she deserved.
So he ignored the slip and motioned his arm toward the little copse of trees behind the inn. “There’s a pretty path through the woods here. Perhaps we could take a turn together.”
She worried her lip a moment, a most distracting action, and then she nodded. They walked together, not touching, toward the woods. “How did you know about the path?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I’ve stopped at this place before, returning to London from Leighton. It’s past Bath, but it takes some of the same roads to get to the city.”
“I always wondered about it. You never speak of it and Erasmus only said unpleasant things.”
“I’m sure that’s true,” Rhys said with a frown. “After all, he very much resented that it wasn’t his to inherit. He and his mother only had complaints about its dark halls and wild moorlands. It was too distant, it wasn’t modern enough. There was no company that they appreciated.”
“But you liked those things?” Phillipa asked.
He nodded. “I like London—I do spend most of my time there. And I do admit there is upkeep to the estate that will be…complicated by the current events.”
She flinched. “The money you’ve had to put out to fix your brother’s mistakes.”
“Yes.” He shook his head. “But when I wish to be alone, isolated, to just hear myself think…there is nowhere better in this world than Leighton. I wish you could see it, Phillipa. I think you’d love it. And as Kenley gets older, he can race along the same cliffs that I did. Probably get himself into trouble as I did and…”
He trailed off because she had pivoted to face him on the path and was simply staring at him. He realized what he was saying to her. That he was creating a picture of a future that could never be. Would never be.
“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I got carried away.”
She shrugged and started up the path again. They’d reached the woods now and she sighed as she entered the trees. The sun was just starting to go down and golden light danced through the branches and cascaded around her like a halo.
“If you say I must never apologize to you, you certainly must not apologize to me. I like hearing about where you grew up. It sounds beautiful. I never had much experience beyond Bath and London. I suppose now I never shall.”