Princess Charming (32 page)

Ash smiled at his vehemence. “It is entirely your decision, but if you remain, your dishonor will become universally known. I daresay you will be hounded out of England, and even your closest friends will disavow you.”

“Damn you, Beaufort!”

“Protest all you like, but you should be grateful that I am not pressing to have you arrested. Your employees will shortly be on their way to jail, where they will be charged with assault on a peer.”

Traherne interjected with a trace of humor, “You should take his advice and go abroad for an indefinite stay, Deering.”

When the viscount snarled like a cornered animal, Ash’s smile broadened to bare his own teeth. “Buck up, Rupert. I am offering you a chance to avoid total disgrace. But if you should attempt anything like this ever again … if you dare act in any manner whatsoever against Miss Collyer, I promise I will hunt you down and kill you, do I make myself clear?”

His tone was amiable, but there was a deadly glint in his eyes. Pelham looked a trifle shocked at such plain speaking, but Deering apparently understood that Ash’s threat was serious. He also knew that he had no choice and that he’d been soundly beaten.

“Perfectly clear,” he growled, nearly vibrating with rage.

He cast a scathing glance at Maura then, his fury barely contained. She could feel his desire to punish her for his defeat and almost recoiled at the hatred in his eyes.

“This is all
your
doing,” he complained bitterly.

Ash took a protective step toward her, but Maura raised a hand to forestall him.

“You brought your banishment on yourself, Lord Deering,” she replied defiantly. “You have only yourself to blame.”

Wheeling, the viscount marched over to his waiting carriage and flung himself inside. As the vehicle drove away, Ash thanked Lord Pelham for his participation and his discretion. Then Pelham took his leave also, all the while shaking his head in incredulous disgust.

Traherne’s reaction was more positive. His eyes gleaming with appreciation, he clapped Ash on the shoulder. “Well done, cousin. And congratulations, Miss Collyer, on the imminent restoration of your father’s reputation. This is cause for celebration. I say that when we return home, we gather the family to raise a toast to your success.”

Ash answered for her. “Unfortunately, any celebration will have to wait until later, since I must lay charges against those fine fellows.” With his head, he indicated the bound thugs. “The wagon is full, however, so if you’ll give me a ride to Old Bailey, Quinn, I’ll send Miss Collyer home in my coach. There is no need to expose her to the criminal elements she would find there.”

“I would be happy to,” Traherne agreed.

“My thanks … and will you also allow me a moment of privacy with her?”

“Certainly.” Ash’s cousin glanced up at the crowd on the hillside. “I shall inform the spectators that the duel has been canceled. They will be sorely disappointed to be deprived of their entertainment.”

Traherne strode away then, leaving Ash alone with Maura. She stood there speechless, unable to move as she realized the import of what had just happened. She felt stunned by Deering’s confession, almost numb with euphoria.

“I cannot believe it,” she whispered before her voice cracked.

When she lowered her head and covered her face with her hands, Ash caught her wrists and made her look at him. She could scarcely see him through her
blur of tears, but she could tell his expression showed concern as he peered down at her.

“Why the devil are you weeping? I expected you to be happy.”

“I
am
happy. I am ecstatic. After all this time … I never thought this day would ever come. I only wish that Papa were still alive to see it.”

When she sent Ash a tremulous smile of sadness and regret, he looked relieved. Despite their audience on the hillside, he stepped closer and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her to his chest. His strength was palpable, surrounding her, comforting her.

However, Ash being Ash, he couldn’t resist provoking her. “I never thought you of all people would turn into a watering pot, vixen.”

Maura gave a shaky laugh against his coat front.

Tender amusement sounded in his voice. “I told you that you could trust me, did I not?”

“Yes, I believe you did.” He hadn’t given up, even when she had begged him to. She owed him a debt she could never repay, Maura knew.

“I am so very grateful to you, Ash,” she murmured. “I don’t know how I could possibly thank you.”

He pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. “You needn’t thank me, love. It is satisfaction enough, seeing Deering get his just reward.”

His declaration reminded her just how they had come to be in this situation in the first place. The realization served to jolt Maura out of her daze and bring her sharply back to reality.

She had resolved that once her father’s name was cleared, she would settle her uncertain future with Ash … and now that time was at hand. To be fair, she
couldn’t hold him to their temporary betrothal. He had only proposed in the first place because he’d wanted to defeat Deering. Now that goal was met, there was no more reason for them to continue the pretense of an engagement.

“Come, Thomas will drive you home,” Ash said, interrupting her thoughts. Releasing her from his embrace, he turned her toward his coach. “Quinn is right—we need to celebrate tonight.”

Maura, however, doubted she would feel much like celebrating. Not when she had to give Ash his freedom.

Suddenly her throat was clogged with tears for reasons that had little to do with her father’s vindication. She should be enraptured just now, since this was a profoundly joyous occasion. Yet as she accompanied Ash to his carriage, all Maura could think about was how badly she wished their betrothal could be real, and how unlikely it was that her wish would ever be granted.

During the entire
drive home, Maura argued with herself about when and how to resolve her future with Ash. As a gentleman, he could not honorably end their betrothal. Thus, she would have to be the one to do it, or at least give him the chance to withdraw his formal offer of marriage. But the pressing question was, should she broach the subject as soon as Ash returned home?

Her stomach churned with anxiety as she considered his possible responses. In order to protect her, he might decide to continue their deception a while longer, until the conflict with Deering was unequivocally settled and he actually left the country. Or, since Ash had claimed her virginity, he might even offer to marry her for real in an attempt to be noble.

Maura knew she had to make the same effort at nobility. She didn’t want to trap Ash into matrimony or force him to be shackled unwillingly to her for the rest of his life.

He would likely leap at the offer of his freedom, Maura feared. He didn’t love her. He had won her heart
so effortlessly—in scarcely more than a week, in fact—but she hadn’t won his.

Admittedly, a tiny piece of her foolish heart held out hope that perhaps in time, with a great deal of luck, Ash might one day change his mind about her and come to see her differently, as something more than an intriguing experiment or a pleasurable game or his chosen lover of the moment. But the sensible part of her knew she was only indulging in fanciful dreams.

Idiotic, pointless dreams.

Ash wasn’t the kind of man to fall in love. He frequently called her “love,” but that was the same casual endearment he used with his sister and his cousin Skye, and no doubt with numerous other women in a manifestation of his rakish charm. Such endearments were meaningless in revealing the true state of a man’s heart.

She would be wise to crush her foolish hopes, Maura chided herself. She didn’t dare let herself believe in happy fairy-tale endings when doing so would likely result in devastating disappointment.

Yet despite her vow to be pragmatic, she couldn’t keep knots of dread from tightening her stomach at the necessity of parting from Ash now that there was no justification for remaining with him.

When Maura arrived home, she inquired after Katharine’s whereabouts and discovered her breakfasting with the rest of the Wilde clan—Skye, Lord Cornelius, Lady Isabella, and Lord Jack—in a family gathering.

They all rose from the table at Maura’s entrance, but Katharine was the first to ask with a trace of apprehension, “What news have you, Maura? We have
been anxiously waiting to hear the outcome of the duel.”

“It has been called off,” she announced, which elicited varying expressions of relief from the company. The elders exhaled audibly while Skye murmured, “Thank heaven.”

Katharine also blew out her breath, but then said rather cheerfully, “I confess, I was not overly afraid for Ash. This is not the first duel in our family, and my hair would be gray if I worried every time my reckless brothers or cousins”—she directed a pointed look at Jack—“did something dangerous or rash.”

“I was not in the least worried,” Jack commented with a provoking grin. “As I told Miss Collyer last evening, Ash can take care of himself.”

“You were concerned for him, too, dear brother,” Kate retorted in a ribbing tone. “Why else would you have joined us at this early hour, long before you usually rise?”

“Perhaps because your chef sets a fine breakfast table?”

Their good-natured squabbling brought a faint smile to Maura’s lips, but Skye quickly intervened. “Hush, you two! I want Maura to tell us what happened this morning. We heard from our servants about Deering’s treacherous ambush, but nothing since then. Why was the duel canceled?”

Maura told them in detail, recounting how Ash had skillfully compelled Deering’s admission of guilt and the conditions under which his dishonor would remain concealed from the
Beau Monde
. At her conclusion, Katharine and Skye both hugged her happily, after which Jack demanded an embrace also.

With reluctant amusement, Maura complied, then thanked all the Wildes profusely for helping to remove the ugly stain on her father’s memory. When she asked about the groom with the head wound, Katharine said the lad was resting quietly after being tended and bandaged by their physician and was expected to make a full recovery.

Maura didn’t doubt that after the carriage house battle, Katharine had taken charge as mistress of the manor to bring order out of chaos and see to the injured. Kate now assumed her frequent mother-hen role with Maura.

“Do sit down and eat with us, dearest. I’ll wager you skipped breakfast and are famished.”

Maura’s appetite was entirely nonexistent, however, even though she hadn’t eaten a thing since yesterday’s dinner. “Thank you, but I would rather go upstairs to my bedchamber and repair my dishevelment.” Not only did she need to wash and change her clothes and tame her unpinned hair, but she knew she would be terrible company in her present dismal mood.

“Then I will send up a tray for you,” Katharine said, linking their arms in a sisterly fashion. She accompanied Maura out into the corridor, where she made use of their relative privacy to resume her favorite theme of late.

“So now that your father’s reputation will be restored, Maura, you will surely proceed with wedding Ash, won’t you?”

Loath to be drawn into a discussion about her dubious matrimonial prospects, Maura responded with a pained smile and parried the question. “The matter
is still unsettled,” she murmured, before kissing her friend’s cheek and excusing herself.

Yet as she trudged up to her bedchamber, her agitated thoughts remained fixed on that very quandary, like a tongue probing a sore tooth. She badly wanted to delay facing Ash, but perhaps she had best get it over with at once, to learn her fate and end this torturous uncertainty.

When she spoke to Ash, she would dispassionately release him from any further obligation toward her and state her plans to return home to Suffolk, then judge his reaction. If he put up no resistance, she would
not
break down in tears, Maura vowed. She couldn’t let her pitiful emotions override her resolve. Nor could she make Ash feel guilty about ending their association. She had to be strong and do the honorable thing.

She would force herself to smile and accept whatever decision he made regarding their future together.

Even so, Maura wondered how she would endure it if he decided their affair was over, for the loneliness and hurt would be unbearable.

She did not have long to wait, since Ash returned by late morning. Maura had planted herself in the front parlor to watch for Lord Traherne’s carriage, and as soon as she heard Ash being admitted to the entrance hall, she went to greet him.

She was keenly aware of the dread squeezing her chest, but one look at the worsening cuts and bruises on his face and knuckles drove all thoughts of a confrontation from her mind.

“You should let me tend those scrapes,” she said urgently.

Ash seemed surprised by her offer. “You are a woman of many talents, love, but I didn’t realize you were skilled as a medic.”

“I have cared for plenty of wounded horses in my time.”

A gleam of amusement lit his eyes. “Should I be flattered that you are comparing me to a horse?”