Princess Charming (Legendary Lovers 1)

Hannah sat staring at him, tongue-tied, while Lucy giggled again.

It was rather disturbing, Maura thought in sympathy, having a noble rake of his caliber in their breakfast room. Even so, she was a fool to let Lord Beaufort affect her so. She didn’t even know why he was there. On second thought …

I think you and Ash may be meant for each other.

Remembering Katharine’s declaration last night, Maura pressed her lips together. The suspicion that her friend was bent on matchmaking filled her with dismay. As if she didn’t have enough to worry about just now.

Her first inclination was to be rid of the marquis as soon as possible, but apparently he had other ideas.

“Pray, do not rush yourself, Miss Collyer,” Beaufort said easily as he pulled out a chair across from her and settled in it. “It is a lady’s prerogative to keep a gentleman waiting. However, you could offer me breakfast. The ball ran so late, I didn’t rise in time to dine this morning before our ride.”

Maura’s eyebrows shot up at his boldness in inviting himself to eat at their table, but while she debated how to answer, Lucy broke in.

“Yes, please do join us, my lord,” the girl implored. “Our mama will be enraptured to meet you.”

That reminder settled the issue for Maura. She had no desire to have Beaufort’s escort on her morning ride, but she urgently wanted to get him out of the house before her stepmother appeared and made him a captive audience.

Setting down her napkin, Maura rose with alacrity. “His lordship will have to meet Mrs. Collyer at some other time, Lucy. We should go, my lord. You won’t want to keep your horse standing.”

He had provoked her into letting him accompany her, and the smile in his eyes suggested he knew it. When she stood waiting impatiently for him, Beaufort rose also and snagged an apple from the bowl of fruit on the table before following Maura from the room.

She held her tongue as she hastened to collect her gloves and hat from the footman at the front door, not wanting to argue in front of Priscilla’s servants. Then she quickly led the marquis outside and down the steps to the street, where her mount was being held by a groom.

Yet when Beaufort asked in that amused tone of his, “What is the hurry, Miss Collyer?” Maura explained in a low undervoice. “Even if you are an unwanted guest, you don’t deserve to be subjected to my stepmother. She would toady you to death.”

“Your effort to spare me is much appreciated,” he murmured in return, “although it wounds me to be considered unwanted.”

Refraining from replying, Maura allowed the groom to aid her into her sidesaddle while Beaufort mounted his own horse, a splendid bay gelding. When she urged her mount down the street, he fell in step beside her.

“But you are unwanted, Lord Beaufort,” she continued when they were out of earshot. “I am only letting you come along because it will save me having to take one of Priscilla’s grooms. I would rather not have her know my business, and her servants usually report back to her.”

His mouth curved wryly. “Even more wounding, being relegated to the role of servant.” When that got no rise out of her, he commented further. “Surely, you can venture out of the house on your own, Miss Collyer. I would not have expected you to fear for your reputation.”

“I don’t fear for mine,” Maura said honestly. “But I have my stepsisters’ reputations to think of. Besides, my stepmother may not like having to spare a groom, but she dislikes even more having me ride about London without one.

And since I am living in her home at present, I try to accede to her wishes.”

She said nothing further as she turned the corner onto a busier street.

“Where are we riding?” Beaufort asked after a moment of negotiating various carriages and wagons and pedestrians.

“Don’t you know?” Maura countered archly. “You concocted this pretense of a prior appointment.”

“I thought to leave the choice to you.”

“How magnanimous of you.”

“Indeed, it was.”

When he offered her a winning smile, Maura’s defenses went on full alert. Lord Beaufort was as charming as the very devil, but she couldn’t afford the distraction of an irresistible rake just now.

Still, she couldn’t keep her eyes off him, noting his tall, muscular elegance as he sat his powerful mount with ease. She knew he was a bruising rider from summers and holidays visiting Katharine and Skye at their family estates, and undeniably his accomplishments as a horseman impressed her. Yet she felt far too self-conscious around Beaufort, no doubt because of those disturbing kisses of his … and because of his sister, too.

Reminded of Katharine’s threat to throw them together, Maura felt a renewed surge of mortification. She was not one to shrink from a conflict, however, and so decided to be frank. “You have not explained why you invited yourself to ride with me, Lord Beaufort. You are here in order to placate Katharine, are you not? She said last night that she would convince you to help me, but I told her I didn’t need your help.”

“I did not need convincing. I planned to intervene even before she pleaded with me.”

“I do not want her dragging you into my affairs,” Maura declared in frustration.