Maura blinked. “I beg your pardon? You know that I believe in solving my own problems. I don’t need to rely on a prince to save me.”
“Of course you don’t. But that is not my point. What I meant was, Ash could be your legendary lover.”
She stared in disbelief. “Have you gone completely daft?”
Katharine smiled. “No, I am in full possession of all my faculties. You can scoff all you like, Maura, but there could be merit to my theory.”
“I very much doubt that!” Grimacing, she shook her head. “And merit or not, it is mortifying that you are trying to push me on your brother. I want nothing to do with your matchmaking.”
Turning away, she climbed into her gig and took up the reins.
Naturally, however, Katharine would not countenance her refusal and so reached up to place a delaying hand on her arm. “You cannot pretend you are not attracted to Ash, Maura. You told me yourself that you enjoyed kissing him.”
“That doesn’t mean I wish to marry him.” As a thought occurred to her, she gazed narrowly down at Kate. “Does your brother know about your demented theory?”
“Yes, I told him last night.”
“Was that why he called on me this morning?” And why he kissed me in the meadow? Maura added to herself. “Because he was interviewing me as his prospective bride?”
“I don’t believe so,” Katharine admitted reluctantly. “Ash was just as dismissive of my theory as you are.”
“I should think he would be,” Maura said with feeling. “What sort of man would marry only to fulfill a fictional legend? He would have to be an idiot, and whatever your brother may be, he is not lacking in wits. He would never consider me for his bride.”
Katharine’s expression turned earnest. “But, Maura, what if Ash were truly serious about marriage? He has to wed sometime to carry on the title. Why shouldn’t it be you?”
“Why should it be me?” she countered. “No, Kate, the notion of us being legendary lovers is simply ludicrous.”
“Don’t you want to marry someday?”
The question gave Maura pause. She did indeed want to marry. She had always wanted a family … husband, children, love. But given the dishonor staining the Collyer name, her chance for marriage had likely passed her by. No self-respecting gentleman would want a wife whose late father was thought to be a cheat. Even without the scandal, her own unconventional occupation would frighten off any normal suitor, not to mention her advanced age and her distaste for the confining rules of gentility. So despite her profound regrets, Maura had determinedly pushed her yearnings for a husband aside.
“Perhaps I might like to marry someday,” she replied, “but if I ever did, it would only be for love. Your brother certainly would never fall in love with me.”
“It isn’t inconceivable.”
“Yes, it is.”
Maura was willing to concede that with his dazzling allure, the dashing Marquis of Beaufort could easily fit the fairy-tale role of Cinderella’s wealthy, handsome prince. But in her opinion, all the Wildes were pleasure-seekers—most especially rakehell Ashton—and completely unserious about love. She couldn’t imagine any circumstance where she would want him for her husband, despite the beguiling possibility of finding a legendary love.
When she saw Maura wasn’t swayed, Katharine’s mouth curved downward into a pout. “After all we have meant to each other, my ungrateful friend, you could at least consider indulging me.”
Maura raised her eyes to the gig’s roof, striving for forbearance. Katharine was not above using coercion to gain her way, but that couldn’t be allowed to matter just now. She had a much more dire problem to attend to at the moment.
“Dearest Kate, pray forgive me, but I don’t have time to discuss my matrimonial aspirations with you just now. I need to be on my way if I am to make it home before midnight.”
“Oh, very well, but I am gra
vely disappointed in you, Maura.”
Katharine stepped back, clearing room for the gig to pass.
Hastily, Maura clucked at Frip and snapped the reins at his rump, sending him forward into a brisk trot. She would not be made to feel guilty simply because Katharine had rocks in her head and was bent on testing her nonsensical romantic fantasies on her elder brother.
Maura drove down the street, feeling her friend’s green gaze following her until she was out of sight. Relieved to be away, she shook her head once more in disbelief. Escaping Kate’s machinations was another excellent reason to leave London.
But the chief reason had nothing to do with matchmaking and everything to do with rescuing Emperor. And just now, Maura reminded herself, she needed to focus her mind and give all her attention to that vital task.
She had intended her contingency plan to be used only as a last resort, in the event she couldn’t convince the viscount to sell.