Would Octavian demand that she move out this very night?
CHAPTER 19
OCTAVIAN RACED UPto his bedchamber as soon as Greeves told him Syd was not feeling well. He cursed under his breath, knowing the visit to her parents must have badly overset her. He should have gone with her. Why did he not go with her? Those blasted Admiralty reports could have waited an extra day. It made no difference whether he turned them in tomorrow or two days from now.
He felt a heaviness in the air as he strode down the hall toward their chamber. His heart twisted in knots. What had her parents done to her? Greeves said she had returned home looking ashen and pale, and had practically crawled up the stairs.
She was in utter despair, if his butler was to be believed.
Of course, he believed Greeves.
The man was loyal and never lied.
The room was dark when he entered, the curtains drawn tightly closed to hide the late afternoon sunlight. “Syd?”
He saw the littlest lump beneath the covers and knew she was lying there, curled in a tight ball. He crossed to the drapes to draw them wide and allow in all the light because he wanted to see her face while he spoke to her.
She groaned as the fading rays of sunlight streamed in. “Why did you do that?”
He marched to the bed and sat beside her prone form. Her head was barely peeking out from under the covers, so all he could see was the top of her head and a little of her nose. “Syd, sweetheart. Talk to me. Tell me what happened.”
An ill feeling overtook him. He knew this dread haunting her for weeks had finally reared its ugly head and become horribly real. It was no longer a wispy specter that hovered on the outer edges of her mind. He waited for her to speak, but all that came out were hitching breaths and soul-deep sobs. “Syd, please. I’m here. We’ll deal with the problem together.”
“That’s just it. We cannot be together,” she said between hiccups and more ragged breaths. “I’m so sorry, Octavian. You are completely blameless in all this. I will do whatever I can to spare you. It has all been make-believe. I feared it. Did I not tell you how much I feared it? Not just our marriage, but my entire life. A complete sham. Please believe I never knew. And now I’ve got you into this scandal and ruined your life, too.”
He had never seen Syd this vulnerable and shaken.
The fight had gone out of her.
The impassioned fires had been stomped out.
It tore him up inside.
“You haven’t ruined anything for me,” he growled. “And what is it that you never knew?”
She tried to speak, but was aching so badly that she couldn’t.
Blessed saints.
What had her parents done to her?
He sighed. “Sweetheart, start at the beginning.”
Her father was a despicable cheat and a weasel, but his method was to charm and cajole. It was not his fashion to intimidate and destroy. Whatever took place during her visit to her parents was no mere argument.
Syd looked broken.
“No more hiding, love. Come here.” Despite her token protest, he slid the coverlet aside and hauled her onto his lap because he wanted to look at her face and hold her in his arms as they spoke. Her eyes were red and her cheeks blotched from all her crying. He withdrew his handkerchief and gave it over to hersince hers was thoroughly soaked from her tears. “Tell me, Syd. What has this to do with your parents?”
She took several deep breaths to calm herself. “I knew something bad was going to happen. Did I not tell you so?”
He nodded. “Yes, love. You did.”
And he blamed himself for dismissing her concerns.
Syd was no feather-headed fribble of a girl. Nor was she a mouse who shrank at her own shadow. She was often too brave for her own good. For this reason, he ought to have taken her distress more seriously. That she could not explain exactly what was troubling her was no excuse to absolve him of blame.
He should not have let her go into the Harcourt house alone.
