The Defiant Wife (The Three Mrs #2) - Jess Michaels Page 0,78
arm and dragged her behind him. As he did so, she realized that Rosie had, indeed, pulled the gun she had claimed to have a few moments before.
It seemed Kenley could feel the fearful shift in the room as much as any of them because he began to wail. Softly at first, but with growing intensity. Rosie flashed her gaze on him, a combination of worry and annoyance.
“What are you doing here?” Rhys’s voice was thick with fear and an undercurrent of anger. Rosie’s hand began to shake in reaction, and Pippa’s stomach turned. If she didn’t calm the situation again, they might all be dead soon.
She drew in a deep breath and pushed back in front of him. He caught her arm once more, his eyes going wide that she would put herself in the potential line of fire. She met his gaze and gently shook her head, pleading silently for him to trust her. They stared at each other for a fraction of a moment, but she saw him soften, saw his faith in her override his drive to protect her. He released her arm, though he didn’t look happy about it, and allowed her to make herself the target first.
“Rosie and I are just talking, Lord Leighton. We are talking, do you understand?” She returned her attention to Rosie. “Put the gun away, my dear. No one is threatening you, I promise.”
“Of course he is,” Rosie whispered, flicking the gun barrel over Pippa’s shoulder in Rhys’s direction, an action that made Pippa’s stomach turn with every movement. At this range, the woman could kill them both with one shot. “We all know that I killed Erasmus.” Her voice broke. “I killed him.”
Rhys’s fingers gently wrapped around Pippa’s upper arms, and for a moment she leaned back against his chest. She didn’t want him here, endangered by Rosie’s terror. His presence enflaming that fear all the more. And yet she was so comforted by him. At least she wasn’t alone.
“I know you loved him,” Rhys said. “I know that you didn’t want to hurt him. That you were driven to harm him by what he said and did, that he had a bigger hand in all of this than anyone else. I don’t want revenge on you, I swear that to you now.”
“And what about the guard? The government. Don’t they want me transported or hanged for killing the second son of an earl?” Rosie spat. “Can’t let a little person do something like that, can you?”
Rhys shook his head. “Any interested authorities have been told that my brother’s death was accidental. No one knows Erasmus was shot or that you shot him. Going back on that would only make the situation he created worse…” He cocked his head, as if he were reading the woman threatening them. “Worse for me.”
Rosie shifted. “He left you a mess, didn’t he?”
“He did. And I’m trying to clean it up as best I can for myself. And for everyone he harmed. Everyone, Rosie.”
Rosie looked uncertain, though she lowered the gun a little as Kenley continued to cry in her arms. “You were looking for me. If not to trap, to take, then why?”
“To understand you,” Pippa said softly. “To try to figure out why you had been seen trying to obtain passage west but never took it…twice.”
Rosie was quiet a moment. “I-I wanted to leave,” she whispered. “I knew I had to run after what I did. But I kept thinking of Kenley. Erasmus wanted to abandon him, and that’s why I shot him. What kind of mother would I be if I did the same thing? So I stayed, even though I knew it was foolhardy.”
“You want to protect your son,” Rhys said. “Just as we do.”
Rosie’s eyes narrowed. “You hated your brother. Why would you want to protect his bastard child?”
Pippa reached up to cover Rhys’s hand, which tightened on her arm. She felt the strain in him, the pain amidst the fear. “I had problems with my brother,” he admitted at last. “But I don’t hate his son. The truth is that I…I love him, just as Phillipa does.”
He released Phillipa and took a step past her, toward Rosie. She lifted the gun again and Pippa gasped, but Rhys didn’t let her pass. “I would do anything to protect that child, Rosie. Anything to protect Phillipa. Even if it means walking into the barrel of