Page 69 of Snowbound with the Scoundrel
There was a pregnant pause before Rosalind said, “You know I’ve been anxious ever since these attempts on Oliver’s life began.”Rupert could hear the hesitation in her voice, could sense her wondering if she could trust her own cousin.
Phyllis laughed, a bitter, ugly sound.“You expect me to believe that you care what happens to Oliver?”
“Of course I do.He is my husband, and—” Rosalind suddenly shrieked.“Phyllis!Is that agun?”
Shit shit shit.Rupert started moving his feet again, because a great lot of good he was doing standing here listening to Rosalind get shot.
The two women were worked up sufficiently that Rupert could still hear them even when he wasn’t standing still, straining his ears.
“You stole him!”Phyllis shouted.“Oliver and I had an understanding.He was supposed to marryme!”
“You know I didn’t want to marry him!”Rosalind cried.“You know my father forced me to agree to the match!”
“You should have refused,” Phyllis spat.
Rupert came to an opening in the hedge that took him toward the voices.He ran through, but it led nowhere, so he went right back out again.
Rosalind’s voice was tremulous with feeling.“As far as I am concerned, you may have him.He can sue me for divorce.I won’t contest it.Then we can see how well you like being married to a man who belittles you at every turn!”
“How dare you speak of him that way!You’ve never been worthy of him, never had a thought for his well-being.If you did, you wouldn’t dare suggest something as ridiculous asdivorce.The scandal would be the ruination of his political career!”
Rosalind laughed, disbelieving.“You think there won’t be a scandal if his wife is found dead in a hedge maze with a bullet through her heart?”
Rupert came to a dead end and turned.The only place to go was an opening that would push him out even farther from the center of the maze.It didn’t seem that he had any choice, though, so he took it, running as hard as he could.
“He will be seen as a tragic figure,” Phyllis said with absolute confidence.“Freed at last from the shackles of the mad wife who took her own life.”
Now Rosalind sounded angry.“What nonsense!I won’t do any such thing.”
Phyllis laughed.“Oh, but everyone will think you did.I’ll make sure of it!”
“I offered you a place in my home after your brother was forced to sell your house!”Rosalind snapped.“And this is the thanks you show me?You will burn in hell for this!”
Phyllis’s voice contained nothing but indifference.“I am merely correcting a wrong, undoing an unholy union that never should have happened.Besides, the greater sin would be to let Oliver’s child be born a bastard.”
“You… you…” Rosalind sputtered as Rupert sprinted around the back side of the maze.“You’ve been carrying on withmyhusband?Under my own roof?”
“He never wanted you,” Phyllis said, voice shaking.“He always wanted me, and that never changed!”
It sounded like Rosalind was crying.“I know Oliver doesn’t love me.That he never has.But he wouldn’t want me todie!”
Phyllis’s voice was full of satisfaction.“Who do you think told me you were here in the maze?Who do you think sent me out to finish the deed?You’ve been in our way for far too long.But that ends today!”
Rupert heard the metallic click of a firearm being cocked.Rosalind gave a piteous cry.
But then, there was another voice.
“Don’t even think about it, Phyllis!”It was Claire’s voice, of course.She sounded confident.Fierce.
Unlike Rupert, who felt sick with terror.
“Pull that trigger,” Claire continued, “and you will be the next to die.”
Rupert came to a gap in the hedge.It led to a dead end, but when he turned the other way, he found another opening that led deeper into the maze.The voices were just a row or two over.He was getting close.He knew he was.
“Howdareyou!”Phyllis shrieked.“You, the most scorned woman in all of England.You were supposed to be on my side.You were supposed to understand!”
Another gap opened just ahead.As he sprinted through it, Phyllis came into view.He could see the deranged anger on her face as she looked over her shoulder at someone behind her.The gun was pointed the opposite direction, at someone deeper in the maze.
