“Trust me, he won’t refuse. I’ll goad him into it if need be. When I am done, he’ll be angry enough to strike back at me, and angry men tend to be reckless.”
“I would be delighted to help you goad him,” Maura muttered.
“Oh, no, vixen,” Ash said quickly. “I don’t want to give him any new reason to retaliate against you. I want him directing his wrath at me instead.”
Ash’s protectiveness still roused Maura’s exasperation, but his nonchalance actually worried her. “I don’t like the idea of you making yourself his target, either. It could be dangerous.”
“I doubt it. Deering usually backs down when facing serious opposition. But given the prior animosity between you two, you need to remain as unthreatening as possible, even charming.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Charming? You may have noticed that charm is not my strong suit. And even if it were, I could not possibly be charming to that odious man.”
Ash smiled in disagreement. “You have effortlessly charmed my entire family, sweetheart. Just last evening, Jack declared his love for you. You can do the same with Deering.”
“But I genuinely like Jack. I detest Deering with every ounce of my being.”
“So pretend otherwise for now, just long enough to vindicate your father. It’s for a very good cause.” When Maura hesitated, Ash prodded her. “If Deering were a horse, you would have him eating out of your hand in two minutes flat. Just think of him as a rogue horse you have to win over.”
“He is not a horse,” she grumbled. “Even the hind end of a horse would be too flattering for him.”
Ash took her hand and made Maura look at him. “Don’t make the mistake of letting your hatred get in the way of winning, love. You only have to persuade Deering that you want to mend fences with him and let bygones be bygones.”
“Tell me again why I must do so?”
“Because you will lull him into agreeing to play me at cards.”
“I suppose you are right,” she conceded grudgingly. “Very well, I will try.”
“Good. And you must also make a similar effort with your stepmother,” he added almost as an afterthought.
“What do you mean?” Maura asked warily.
“I want you to try to turn her against Deering. If she is willing to testify that she stole the deed from you and that he acquired your horse illegally, we will have a good deal more leverage over him.”
Maura’s first inclination was to scoff at the thought of Priscilla turning against the viscount. “You would do better to charm her yourself. You well know that my relationship with my stepmother is strained at best.”
“Do you hate her as much as you hate Deering?”
“No, certainly not.”
Maura fell silent as she considered her long relationship with her stepmother. As a child, she’d harbored selfish resentment against Priscilla for taking her father from her. As an adult, however, she’d had to concede that genteel women without independent fortunes were sometimes compelled to marry for security.
She’d also come to realize that even though her father had mourned his first wife deeply, he was lonely after her death, and that while his loneliness had made him vulnerable to a siren like Priscilla, somehow she had filled that emptiness inside him.
“In fact,” Maura admitted in a low voice, “until Priscilla betrayed me by selling Emperor, we had arrived at a truce of sorts. But I never could abide how she behaved after Papa’s death. She claimed to believe in his innocence, but it was as if she blamed him for dying and leaving her mired in scandal.”
Ash was unemotional in his reply. “Still, she could be useful to us, Maura. And in this case the end will justify the means.”
“Priscilla will suspect some kind of ruse if I suddenly pretend to be gracious and charming to her.”
“Even so, you should attempt to make an ally of her. The musical recital Skye is hosting for your stepsisters on Saturday could be the best time for you to speak to her, since she will see firsthand how we are benefiting her daughters.”
Maura clasped her hands in her lap and nodded. She wasn’t certain she could ever regard Priscilla as an actual ally, but for her late father’s sake, she would try.
An hour later, Maura was changing her gown for yet another afternoon outing when Katharine entered her bedchamber. Upon hearing about Ash’s plan, Kate fully agreed with her brother’s strategy. Yet clearly she was much more interested in his courtship of Maura.
“Have you come any closer to deciding if Ash is your match?” she pressed.
Maura couldn’t help but smile. “I am loath to disappoint you, but no.”