“He beat you at your own game,” Syd insisted. “And you were ready to hand me over to that beast to save your hide. Is it because I am not really your daughter? Was I expendable? Is this all you thought of me? Having drained the assets of the children’s trust, you had no more use for me and did not care who took me next?”
“No! It wasn’t that way at all!” He raked a hand through his thinning hair. “You are my daughter…my daughter of the heart.”
Syd inhaled lightly. “But not of the blood?”
“Whether of the heart or of the blood does not matter. You are mine, Syd. I have loved you from the moment I brought you home. I loved watching you grow up into the splendid young lady you are today. I am so proud of you, although I have a rotten way of showing it.”
“Indeed,” Syd grumbled.
“I know I pledged you to Sir Henry. It was the last thing I ever wanted to do. But the man was ruthless and obsessed with you. He threatened to kill me if I did not give you over to him.” He shrugged. “I did not care and told him to go ahead and do it. When he saw that threat had failed, he then vowed to harmyouif I did not comply. I could not put him off when he demanded you in exchange for my debt vowels.” He cast her a weak smile and continued. “But you are a resourceful girl, Syd. I knew you would think of something to save yourself.”
She frowned. “You believed me resourceful enough to handle that brute?”
Her father nodded. “Yes, you would have got the better of him.”
“You are deluded if you think so. He would have beaten me down. Physically beaten me until I had no soul or spirit left.”
“No. No!” Her father looked stricken. “You would have found a way to best him. And see, this is exactly what you did bymarrying Captain Thorne. I have not always been lucky in life, but you have. Syd, you have that golden touch. You’ve always had it, even as a little girl. I wish I could have taken you into the gambling hells with me back then. I would have won a fortune with you as my charm.”
She gave a light, dismissive snort. “And would you have paid off your creditors?”
Her father sighed. “In time. If pressed. Most of them. But the point is, I would have won at cards had you been with me. No debts. No bothersome collectors banging on our door. This is why I was sure something would come up to save you from Sir Henry. I was not surprised in the least to learn you had eloped to Gretna Green with Captain Thorne. See? Lucky.”
Syd now frowned at her father. “I’m sorry he married me. As reward, he is burdened with a penniless wife who does not even know her own name, and a looming scandal that will destroy his career and his family’s good name.”
“No, child.” He glanced at Octavian and smiled. “He has married a gem and he knows it. In turn, you have the best husband. He moved heaven and earth to keep you safe. Do you think he cares what anyone thinks of your parentage? One might say, you owe me a debt of gratitude for bringing the two of you together. Admit it, Captain Thorne. Would you have offered for my daughter had circumstances not pushed you together?”
Syd leaped to her feet. “Of all the gall! Only you would be so vain as to congratulate yourself for bringing about our match.”
“And why should I not? It is a love match, is it not? Or will you now pretend you do not love him?”
A blush crept up Syd’s neck and into her cheeks. “Of course, I love him. I have always loved him, but you could not know this. Do not dare take credit for bringing us together. You had no part in it. We would have come around to it in time.”
“How?” her father asked. “Gossip had it that Captain Thorne was courting Lady Clementine Renfield. Would you have said anything to him before you lost him for good? Not you, Syd. You are too proud. You would have hidden your feelings and wept in silence as he married the wrong woman.”
Octavian thought they were getting a little off the point. “Lord Harcourt, you said that you brought Syd home as a newborn. From where? Who are her natural parents?”
“Does it matter? They are both long since dead.”
Syd gasped.
Octavian wrapped an arm around her. “Harcourt, be careful what you say. Can you not see how painful this is for your…” He let his voice trail away, for he did not know who Syd was to this man.
“Who were my parents? I have a right to know.”
Octavian nudged Syd closer to him as tears now stung her eyes.
“Who?” she insisted, her heart laid bare for this man to crush.
Her father pondered the matter for a long moment and then nodded. “All right, child. You may as well hear it from me rather than from the gossip rags. You are the child of my best friend, the Marquess of Sutton and the squire’s daughter he loved. They never married, Syd. At least, I do not believe they did. Nor were they ever likely to marry because he was already betrothed to another. In the end, none of it mattered because he caught a lung fever before he ever had the chance to wed either of those ladies, and died before you were born.”
“And my mother?” she asked in trembling voice.
“She died shortly after giving birth to you. I was there at the convent for the birth, waiting in the antechamber for news she had delivered you. I was anxiously pacing back and forth as though I were the father. I was there by her side when shepassed. You see, I was fulfilling a deathbed promise made to Sutton to ensure his beloved and their child would always be kept safe. Your mother’s name was Catriona Langley, and she looked quite a bit like you, Syd. She named you before she died.Sydney.You must be called Sydney she insisted, for that was the family surname of the Marquess of Sutton. He was Douglas Sydney.”
Tears were streaming down Syd’s cheeks as she listened to Harcourt.
Octavian felt his own eyes moisten, but Syd had tears enough and did not need him crying, too. “Harcourt,” he said, hesitating to ask the next question because Syd was already so fragile, but it had to be asked, “do the Langleys and the Sydneys know about Syd?”
