The Defiant Wife (The Three Mrs #2) - Jess Michaels Page 0,77

the room. “I need a horse,” he muttered.

“Come then,” Owen said, laughing at Rhys’s confusion. He caught Rhys’s elbow and dragged him from the room. “Coleman,” he called out.

The butler appeared momentarily. “Yes, Mr. Gregory?”

“The earl needs his horse. And I suppose I also need mine, since I will be going home to tell my wife that something wonderful may happen tonight.”

Coleman bowed out the door to call for the footmen to fetch the animals. As he did so, Rhys turned to Owen. “I almost fear the idea that it could be wonderful.”

“You shouldn’t,” Owen assured him. “God knows the woman is head over heels in love with you, as well. I have every confidence that you are going to arrive at her home tonight to find good things, a welcome you deserve, and a happiness that I know will last you a lifetime.”

The horses were brought ’round and Owen motioned to Rhys’s. Rhys swung up and glanced down at his friend. “I do hope you are correct, my friend. Thank you for the encouragement.”

“I only made you see what you already knew,” Owen said, then patted the horse’s flank. “Off with you.”

Rhys urged the horse into a trot out the gate and then faster down the street. Now that he knew what he wanted for the rest of his life, he wanted that moment to begin as soon as possible. And he could only hope that Owen was right. That he would find a warm welcome and a very happy ending to this tale tonight.

Chapter 22

Pippa’s hands shook as she reached behind her and shut the door quietly. She had no idea what Rosie Stanton’s plans were, but the threat of her words were clear. Certainly Pippa didn’t want to involve the Bartons or Nan in whatever would happen next.

“Rosie,” she said as calmly and gently as she could, in the hopes her composure would keep the other woman at ease. “Please. Think this through, whatever you plan to do.”

She moved a step forward, and Rosie shook her head. “I have a gun,” she said softly. “I don’t want to pull it out while I’m holding Kenley, but if you give me no choice, then I will.”

Pippa froze immediately, for her own good, but also for his. Kenley, meanwhile, had lifted his tired head from Rosie’s shoulder and now looked at Pippa. He smiled a little, then glanced at his mother nervously before he reached for Pippa.

Rosie tried to turn him so he wouldn’t see her, but Kenley continued to grasp for Pippa with increasingly anxious grunts and cries.

“He wants you,” Rosie spat at last. “I am his mother and he reaches for you.”

Pippa shook her head. “It is only because I have spent so much time with him. It has been months since he’s seen you, so you are a stranger to him. But if he saw you more, he would be comfortable.”

Rosie blinked, as if she hadn’t fathomed that abandoning her child for months on end might have an effect on the quality of their relationship. She stared at the boy. “He is so much bigger,” she breathed, almost to herself.

Pippa nodded. “He is. He’s doing very well. Growing every day. He’s beginning to make noises that are somewhat like words, and he can point to what he wants. He shifts himself around on the ground without help and he’s begun eyeing things to pull himself up with. He’s a good boy, Rosie. You should be exceptionally proud of him.”

Rosie’s eyes filled with tears that she blinked away. Her mouth hardened. “And you’re playing mother to him, even though you’re barren as a grave.”

Pippa flinched. There had been times, especially when Rosie was pregnant, long before she knew the awful truth of the father of her maid’s child, that she had been jealous of her impending motherhood. But God’s teeth, she was glad Erasmus Montgomery hadn’t gotten her with child. It would have made everything so much worse.

“I don’t have any illusions that I am his mother,” she said. “Though I do love him. I could not love him more if he was my own.”

Rosie’s expression softened, and Pippa might have said more on the subject to appease her. But before she could, the door to the nursery opened. She pivoted and, to her shock, Rhys stepped inside, a broad smile on his handsome face.

“Phillipa, there you are, you—” He broke off as his gaze moved past her to Rosie. His smile fell, and he caught Pippa’s