“Why don’t you tell me what prompted your encounter with Deering?” Ash suggested. When she didn’t immediately answer, he prodded further. “What led him to proposition you?”
“He believes he has leverage over me,” she said in a low voice. “He illegally gained possession of something very precious to me.”
“Your stallion, Bold Emperor, I take it?”
“Yes.”
Precious, indeed, Ash mused. He’d had the privilege of seeing the famous stallion race on past occasions. A descendant of the Byerley Turk—one of three official sires of the Thoroughbred line—and more recently, of the champion Noble, Emperor possessed blistering speed and remarkable stamina and had obliterated the competition in numerous prestigious races during his spectacular career. At ten years of age, the horse now no longer raced, but stood at stud at Maura’s farm near Newmarket and had sired a dozen winners thus far.
Indeed, the Collyer Stud was becoming known as one of the premiere breeding stables in England, due primarily to the stallion’s superior bloodlines in combination with the canny expertise of the aging stable master, George Gandy.
“I hadn’t heard that Emperor’s ownership had changed hands,” Ash remarked.
“My stepmother sold him to Deering three weeks ago, even though I am his rightful owner.” The bitterness in Maura’s voice was unmistakable. “Emperor has always belonged to me. My father gave him to me the night of his birth, and I helped raise him from a foal.”
“Then how did your stepmother manage to sell him to Deering?”
The story came spilling out then, perhaps because she was too enraged to hold her tongue. “Lord Deering has his own racing stables and has long wanted the prestige of having a prize stallion. He succeeded in gaining Priscilla’s allegiance by promising his patronage for her daughters’ society debuts.”
The assertion matched what Ash knew about Maura’s family situation. At a young age she had lost her mother to a fever, and her father had remarried again some dozen years ago, to a widowed lady who already had two young daughters of her own; girls who were now of marriageable age, but whose chances of making even modest matches had been scotched by the disgrace attached to their family name during a cheating scandal. Reportedly, Maura shared an uneasy relationship with her stepmother, in large part due to maternal envy. It had never set well with Priscilla Collyer that Maura outshone her rather plain stepsisters so markedly.
“I thought your father provided Mrs. Collyer an adequate fortune, but left the stud to you,” Ash probed.
“He did,” Maura acknowledged. “When my father died, our house in London went to Priscilla, but his will left the farm and breeding stables to me, including all the horses. The deed of birth for Emperor, however, was in my father’s name, not mine, and Priscilla exploited that fact. When she visited my farm a few weeks ago, she took the deed from my files, then sold Emperor to Viscount Deering for a significant sum. I didn’t even realize what she had done until Deering came with the sheriff to collect Emperor. I was away from home that afternoon, so Gandy had to let my horse go.”
“And you have no proof of ownership?”
“No, none. I have little recourse, either. I could try to sue in court, but I might not win. And by the time the legalities are sorted out, Emperor could suffer irreparable harm.” Maura’s hands curled into fists, betraying her anxiety. “Deering brought him to London, of all places, and is stabling him in a cramped mews with no place to run. And according to Gandy’s connections, Deering has taken a whip to Emperor more than once. I cannot bear to think of him being beaten and abused.”
“So you decided to try and buy the stallion back rather than fight a legal battle you may lose?”
Maura nodded. “I don’t have such a huge sum at my disposal just now, since I put my entire inheritance into building up the Collyer Stud, but the bloodstock is worth a great deal, and I am willing to sell my two other stallions and all the broodmares if need be. In fact, I immediately came to London for that very purpose—to make my offer to Deering in person. But he refused to receive me every time I called. Then Katharine hit on a plan to aid me.”
“What sort of plan?”
“When she learned what happened, she promised to ensure that Deering attended her ball this evening so that I would have a chance to speak to him.”
Ash felt himself frown slightly. “When was this?”
“A fortnight ago.”
About the time Katharine had asked him to throw her a grand ball, he realized. The timing seemed curious. In truth, he could almost recognize his sister’s fine hand at work here. Katharine frequently plotted to bend fate to her will. He wouldn’t be surprised if she had contrived the entire ball merely to help her bosom friend.
“But all our careful planning was for naught,” Maura muttered.
“Because Deering refused your offer outright?” Ash asked.
“Yes. You heard his odious reply. I swore I would control my temper when I confronted him, but I couldn’t manage it.” She bit her lower lip. “I suppose I should never have hurt him like that, even if his proposition was utterly revolting.”
“Probably not,” Ash murmured wryly, his mouth curving at the memory of the viscount getting his comeuppance.
When Maura stopped her pacing to glare at him, however, he stifled his smile. “That was not a criticism of your courage, sweeting. I only meant that Deering cannot bear being bested. You clearly earned his enmity by savaging his pride. ‘She-devil,’ ‘witch,’ ‘vixen’ … what other names did he call you just now?”
Her voice vibrated with irritation. “I have a few choice names for that conniving villain as well. And yet I have likely ruined any chance to persuade him to sell Emperor back to me.” Suddenly Maura brought a hand to her temple as if just now realizing the ramifications of her actions.
To Ash’s surprise, she trudged over to the bench and sank down beside him. Her elegantly-clad shoulders slumped as she gazed unseeingly at the ground.
“I would not put it past Deering to punish an innocent animal,” she lamented, “but I will never forgive myself if he takes out his anger at me on my horse.”