Page 27 of A Hint of Scandal

“She is not my young lady.”

Maria tapped the side of her nose and bestowed her most knowing smile upon him. “So you say, my dear Maxim. So you say.”

Deciding to ignore her intimation that she didn’t believe him, Max shifted on his seat uncomfortably, groping for something else to say to distract her, and failing. What he itched to do was to question her, but he controlled himself. Raising a false hope in her would raise a matching one in him, and as far as he could make out, Serafina was not attracted to him. Although… perhaps Maria might be the one who could give him some advice. He’d confided in her on numerous occasions throughout his youth, and every time she’d fulfilled her promises not to share his secrets, small though they might have been. Unlike his mother who’d been known to announce them to all and sundry at dinner parties and the like. He’d learned early on not to confide in his mother. She had no sense of what should remain private.

“Maria…”

Her gaze sharpened. “Yes?”

He fidgeted. Confiding in anyone came hard to him nowadays. He was no longer a hapless boy. “I’m very aware that if I don’t marry, I won’t receive my inheritance, as you know.”

She nodded.

“And I think you know that I feel I have little to offer a young lady with my arm like this. It makes me feel…” He paused. “It makes me feel like I’m only half a man. And on top of that, I don’t think I have it in me to fall in love. Not now, at any rate.”

She opened her mouth to protest this, but he held his hand up, wanting to continue before his natural reticence silenced him. He’d heard her and Julian’s arguments to this before.

“I cannot deny that Miss Serafina Gilbert interests me. We have our love of Egyptian relics in common, at least. She is most knowledgeable on the subject. I think Julian would love to converse with her. But… I don’t think she’s interested in me.” He glanced down at his arm. “Why would she be? When I am like this.”

Maria pursed her lips for a moment. “Max, she is a girl in a difficult situation. She’s an orphan who has lived in the household of her brother for a number of years, and from her appearance—yes, I studied her for a short time at the ball—it does not appear that it is a happy home for her. She has more the appearance of a governess, or perhaps even a lady’s maid or unpaid companion. She’s too young to be condemned to that sort of life. Her niece, Arabella’s new friend, I had more leisure to observe, and a more spoilt and demanding young lady I’ve yet to meet.”

“She loves her niece unconditionally.”

Maria shook her head. “That’s as may be. I doubt the girl has any true affection for her aunt. Really, I’m quite surprised Arabella has taken to her like this, but they were somewhat thrown together at the ball. A superficial acquaintance I suspect, not to be continued.”

“And what did you think of Serafina?” Max asked, keen to shift the subject back to her, his tongue loosened now he’d found someone with whom to talk about her. He didn’t give a jot about the niece.

“I think she needs to escape that house and that family who are sucking her dry like a set of leeches, or she’ll end up a dry, withered husk of an old lady treated like a servant all her life. I’ve seen that happen to unmarried sisters before. It’s a half-life only, and from the look of her, she doesn’t deserve that.”

One thing you could rely on with Maria was her tendency to speak her mind, at home if not in public. A small smile twitched the corners of Max’s mouth. “I think you have it there.”

“Then why not offer for her?”

Yes, why not? “A lot of reasons, the main one being my arm, or rather my lack of it. Also throw in the fact that neither of us love each other. Although you might say that is the most important point.”

“A problem that’s entirely in your head,” Maria retorted. “And it’s also a problem, if you want it to be counted as one, that will be exactly the same with any young lady you consider. At least you like this one and have found common ground. And if she is interested in Egypt and its history, surely that means she is a girl in possession of a brain?”

Did he like her? Or was there something more? “I don’t know if she likes me though.”

“Did she talk to you?”

He nodded.

“Smile at you?”

He nodded.

“Did she enjoy herself?”

He nodded a third time. “But you can’t equate those reactions with her having liked me.”

Maria sighed as though she were dealing with a recalcitrant puppy. “Tell me, Max, do you look in the mirror when you shave in the mornings?”

Max frowned. “You know I have to have Watkins shave me nowadays.”

She frowned back at him. “I forgot. What about when you do up your cravat? Or comb your hair? Surely you look in the mirror when you’re doing that?”

“I do when I comb my hair.”