Chapter Twenty
Percy and Phineas took turns using the spyglass to report on what was happening outside. “It’s my turn!” Phineas insisted reaching for the glass in his brother’s hands.
Percy blocked him with his elbow. “The man in the middle has a bandage wrapped around his head—there’s blood on it. His arm is in a sling. He could be a prisoner.”
“Why on earth would they be riding here?” Prudence asked her cousins. “Unless it has something to do with His Grace and his lordship.”
Caro added, “A valid point. Did you notice how Ryan and the others give every indication the group is a threat?”
“Do not forget to add that we have been sent to the nursery for our safety,” Lady Phoebe grumbled.
Pippa blew out a frustrated breath. “It seems as if you’re angry that your husbands and mine are trying to protect us.” She glanced at Millie before adding, “They could have been sent here by Trentchester!”
Millie met Pippa’s direct look and sighed as she continued to rock her babe. “It could just as likely be your brothers riding to fetch you home.”
“I’m a married woman now. I am home,” Pippa reminded her.
Lady Phoebe smiled. “From your dazed expression when you arrived here earlier, not one of us have any doubt that you are well and truly wed.”
Caro and Prudence dissolved into laughter, while once again, Pippa’s face flamed.
Millie smiled. “I recognized the signs too, Pippa. You might want to think over what you’ll be saying to Randolph or Miles or whoever it is that brought reinforcements to take you home.
You don’t want Flaherty to have to shoot one of your brothers. ”
“You have a warped sense of humor, Millicent,” Pippa grumbled.
“I have no intention of going anywhere with my autocratic brothers!” The thought of being parted from her husband turned her stomach.
The man had worked his way under her skin from the moment they met.
First it was irritation—he was irritatingly handsome.
Then annoyance—he managed to get a rise out of her whenever he opened his mouth.
When she accepted his proposal of marriage and protection with one condition, he’d agreed without hesitation, firmly embedding him under her skin… and in her heart.
Flaherty had a gruff exterior with an intimidating, formidable temper, but he had a soft spot for widows and babes. How could she hold back her growing feelings and attraction for the man when he had readily accepted her condition, that Millie and her son would live with them?
Millie spoke up, interrupting Pippa’s thoughts.
“It would have been lovely living with you and Dillon. If you are forced to leave with your brothers, I do not relish explaining everything to my father. He’ll want to know why I did not send word to him when Trentchester first started hurling threats. ”
“We both thought we could handle the braggart,” Pippa reminded her.
“Everything would have been fine, if your brother-in-law was not a complete reprobate…and if only—” She snapped her mouth shut.
Millie’s eyes welled with tears. Her friend knew Pippa so well, she knew what Pippa had not said.
“Forgive me, Millie. I did not mean to mention—”
Phineas flinched at the sound of shots fired.
“What happened?” Percy demanded, rushing to look out the other window facing the stables.
“The men in the trees fired warning shots—probably Forrester and Mattison,” his brother answered.
Lady Phoebe placed a hand on Percy’s shoulder. “None of the duke’s guard have changed their positions on the rise. We’ll have to be patient to see if it is indeed Pippa’s brothers who’ve come to call.”
“What about the man riding in the middle?” Phineas asked. “With the bandage on his head and his arm in a sling, he’s got to be their prisoner.”
The baroness patted Percy’s shoulder. “Wait here.” She walked over to the other window and held out her hand. “May I borrow the spyglass, Phineas?” The boy did not hesitate to hand it to her.
Pippa moved to stand beside the baroness as the woman lifted the glass to her eye. “What do you see, your ladyship?”
“The injured man is as broad as our husbands—which, of course, is not an indication of guilt or innocence, simply a statement of fact.”
Caro and Prudence moved to stand behind Percy, watching the scene unfolding below them. “The two men riding in front appear unruffled by the shots fired,” Caro remarked.
“If they were closer, we would be able to see their faces,” Prudence said.
Lady Phoebe handed the spyglass to Pippa. “Do you recognize any of the riders?”
Praying she did not, Pippa gazed through the glass and swore. “Botheration! It’s Randolph, Miles and…dear Lord…it’s Winston riding behind—” She handed the spyglass back to the baroness, grabbed Millie by the arm, and tugged her toward the door.
Millie resisted, refusing to budge. “I’m not leaving Roarke until we know who the men riding with your brothers are.”
“But Millie, Roarke—”
“Is finally asleep after being awake for hours. I’m exhausted and not up to listening to you argue with your brothers, Pippa. You Stanhopes are so stubborn!”
“Millie, Roarke is—”
“Still asleep, despite our raised voices,” Millie said. She patted Pippa’s hand before she shifted out of her friend’s grip. “You are the best of friends to think of my son. He will be so lucky to have the sister of my heart watching out for his welfare too!”
A loud, familiar roar had the room falling silent. Shock had Millie grabbing hold of Pippa’s hand. “Is that… Did you hear… Pippa, am I dreaming?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. It’s Roarke! Come on.”
Pippa pulled Millie toward the door. This time, Millie swatted at her arm. “I am not going outside to meet my husband without our son!” Tears welled up and spilled over. “Oh, Pippa! He’s not dead!”
Pippa struggled to hold her tears inside. She could weep later. “Hurry, Roarke’s calling you.” She tried once more to grab hold of her friend. “Don’t make him wait.”
Millie wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands and tucked in a loose hairpin. “Not without our son!”
“But you just put him down,” Pippa reminded her.
“And he is about to meet his father!”
Prudence solved the argument by scooping up the sleeping babe, blanket and all. “Shall I carry him for you, Millie? That way you can greet your husband with open arms.”
Pippa noted that all three women had tears in their eyes. Sisters of the heart, one and all, crying tears of joy for Millie and her babe. “What do you think, Millie?”
Lady Phoebe spoke up. “Before there is a melee down there, I suggest we all accompany Millie and her babe.”
Prudence handed the sleeping infant over to Millie before motioning for her nephews to accompany her and Caro downstairs.
Pippa was closest to the door and opened it.
The two footmen eyed the group of women. “His lordship told us no one is to leave this room.”
Lady Phoebe crossed her arms over her pregnant belly and glared at the men. “You two accompany us. Pippa’s brothers are outside, and they’ve brought Millie’s dead husband with them.”
The men frowned. “Isn’t that too gruesome a sight for a new mother to behold?” one footman remarked.
“Do you have to identify the body?” the other asked.
The baroness laughed softly. “Reports of his death were premature—”
“MILLICENT TRENTCHESTER!”
Millie beamed as her babe stirred in her arms. “That would be my husband. I best not keep him waiting.”
“One of you lead the way,” Lady Phoebe said. “The others may follow us. Once Summerfield sees us all together, he will know that I countermanded his orders.”
“Again,” the younger footman grumbled.
“Yes,” the baroness said with a laugh. “You should be accustomed to that by now.”
“Aye, your ladyship,” the reprimanded servant replied.
Two guards led the way down the servants’ staircase. It was closer to the back door. Two more guards brought up the rear. Pippa noted that all four men braced, as if they knew they were about to get their heads handed to them.
Pippa slipped her arm through Millie’s on the way down, and had to hold her back when Millie tried to scoot around their guard to dash outside. “Wait. Please, Millie. Let the men do their job and protect—”
“Bloody hell, Phoebe! Are you mad?” Summerfield strode over to the women, who moved to form a semicircle of staunch support behind the baroness and Millie. “You were told to wait inside.”
“You are the one who is mad!” the baroness retorted. “How could I possibly keep Millie from reuniting with her husband, who is very much alive?”
The baron’s frown was fierce, but he gentled his touch when he reached for his wife’s hand. She resisted at first, then acquiesced, allowing him to tuck her against his side. “We shall discuss this later.”
The baroness laughed, and Pippa locked gazes with Flaherty, whose frown was just as fierce as the baron’s had been.
He, his cousins, and Tremayne moved to form a broad-shouldered wall between the baron and baroness and Pippa’s brothers.
Safely tucked behind Summerfield and Lady Phoebe, Pippa tugged on Millie’s elbow until she moved to stand beside Pippa.
Studying the couple, Pippa wondered if she and Flaherty would become as comfortable with one another in time.
Would they be able to discern each another’s thoughts and actions as easily?
Millie stiffened beside her and rasped, “Roarke, is it really you?”
“Millie!”
The two groups of men shifted—though Flaherty and the others did not relax their guard or human wall.
A gaunt man, with his head wrapped in a bandage and his arm in a sling, slid off his mount one-handed.
Pippa was smiling as Roarke strode toward Millie, who had slipped around them all to stand in front of Flaherty.
As one, the men in the duke’s guard shifted and crossed their arms in front of them.