Octavian drew her back instead, for he would not allow her go near the loathsome man who had been willing to sell herinto servitude to save his worthless hide. “You little weasel,” he said, unable to hide his rage, “you put your daughter in danger for your own irresponsible pleasures. How could you do this to her?”
Her father held out his arms to her again. “It’s all been a silly misunderstanding. Come to me, daughter.”
Octavian refused to let her go. “No, she’s mine now. I’ll honor your debt to Sir Henry, but not a farthing more after this. Get out of my sight. You don’t deserve this gem of a girl.”
All eyes remained on Sir Henry and the Earl of Harcourt while they strode out of the place. Octavian would not release Syd when she tried to bid her father farewell. “Octavian, he’s my father!”
“He put you through this ordeal. Have you forgiven him already, Syd?” He continued to hold her until the pair left Gretna Green.
Could she not see that it was for her own good?
He was fully prepared to take a punch in the nose from her if she remained truly angry with him. But after seeing the pain this man had put her through, how could she be so quick to forgive and forget?
“He never meant to hurt me,” she said, sounding so wounded that it tugged at his heart. But he was not going to allow her to delude herself about her father’s love. The man placed his indulgent wants and needs above regard for his own daughter, and Octavian was not going to allow Syd ever to be trod on like that again.
“Stop lying to yourself,” Octavian growled back, wondering if she would ever be this loyal to him. Perhaps in time, she might. “The only person your father cares about is himself.”
Octavian and the Armstrong clan watched Sir Henry and Syd’s father ride out of town, none of them speaking until the pair disappeared from view.
All the bravado Syd had shown when confronted by the Armstrongs and then her father and Sir Henry now deserted her.
She broke down and emitted a sob.
“Oh, Syd. You are my wife now. You are safe, love.” Octavian wrapped her firmly in his arms, for her entire body was shaking.
“I am not crying,” she said when he withdrew his handkerchief to dry her tears.
Octavian did not believe her since tiny trails of water were sliding down her cheeks, but he was not about to make an issue of it. They were married and she was safely under his protection now.
Nothing else mattered.
He kept an arm around her shoulders as they walked to their carriage.
The Armstrongs followed them.
Mr. Henshaw was waiting beside the conveyance and must have taken in the entire spectacle. “I thought you were already married,” he muttered with a shake of his head, obviously uncertain whether to approve or disapprove their sharing a room at the various inns along the way.
Octavian cast him a warning glance.
Syd was already overset and did not need more guilt piled on her.
“Well, there was no mistaking you were lovebirds. You did what you had to do, considering you got her in that delicate condition.”
“What?” Syd’s entire body went stiff. “I am not–”
“Syd, leave it alone,” Octavian said, for everyone was listening in. “What does it matter? We are married now.”
The Armstrong laird and his men surrounded them.
Bollocks.
What now?
The laird stepped forward. “M’lady, no one is condemning ye,” he tried to assure Syd, who may have appeared tearful, but she was quietly seething and getting angrier by the moment. “He’s a handsome lad and ye could not have resisted giving him yer body as well as yer heart.”
Jamie now stepped forward. “But it all worked out in the end. The captain did the honorable thing.”
“Let me be clear,” Octavian said before Syd exploded and hurled another insult. Or worse, revealed that she was not with child, which would anger these Armstrongs into thinking he had deceived them again. “It was love at first sight for me. I knew I wanted to marry Lady Sydney from the moment we met. I did nothaveto marry her. Iwantedto marry her. Never a doubt in my mind. I love her. I have always loved her. And I will always love her.”
