Page 61 of When the Laird Claims
Her father’s eyes widened as if she had just plunged another blade into his back. “Do not… speak his name.”
“Why not?” she replied with a heavy sigh. “He has haunted you for years; if you had allowed us to speak about him, about Mama, then perhaps he would have stopped. If you had allowed us to speak about them from the beginning, maybe things might have been different. You might not have relied on drinking and gambling and frittering away your fortune to smother every memory of them.”
The conversation was long overdue. There had been times when she had tried to bring up her mother and the brother who had been lost in childbirth, both of them taken at a moment that should have been joyful instead of tragic, but her father had always refused to speak of it. So much so that, most of the time, he had left the room, rather than face his grief and that of his eldest daughter.
But her father could not leave now; he could not even sit up by himself.
“I will cover the debt,” her father mumbled. “It can… be fixed. If we can just… explain this to society and find you a new husband, then it can be fixed.”
Victoria’s gaze hardened along with her heart. “Thatis the only thing you can say to me? You wish to just rush me into a new marriage?” Her voice wavered. “You know that I would do anything to protect my sister. We would not be in this situation at all if that were not true, but… how can you speak of the mess you have made and then immediately start thinking about finding a new match for me?”
“Because… I do not know what else to do,” her father croaked, his head snapping up. There were tears in his eyes. “I do not know how else to ensure that you do not end up destitute. My daughters left… with nothing because of me! Marriage is how I can see to it that you are secure, and your marriage will keep Melody safe in turn. There is nothing… else I can do.”
He began to cough violently, his hand shaking as he covered his mouth.
Victoria hurried to grasp the cup of cooled herbal brew and brought it to his lips once more, urging him to drink. Spluttering and trembling, he managed to gulp down a few mouthfuls. The coughing subsided, his breaths evening out, and he sank back into the cushions with a grimace.
“I am sorry,” he murmured, turning his watery gaze toward her. “You are right; I thought I could forget them if I distracted myself enough, but… I had to drink more, gamble more, distractmyself more as the years went by. Iamthe cause of this mess, and I hate myself for my… cowardice. I hate that I must… sell you, in essence, to undo what I have done. I am so very sorry, Victoria. So very, very sorry.”
With great effort, he stretched his hand across the bed to where hers rested and took hold of it. He squeezed her hand with more comfort and affection than he had shown in all of her twenty-two years on this earth.
“If I had realized sooner that my missteps would mean losing what is the most precious to me, I might have found the… strength to stop,” he added, his voice hitching. “I should not, at the very least, have… trusted the man.”
Clearly, he meant the man who had put a blade in his back.
But Victoria wasn’t ready to forgive so quickly, for there was one more thing that needed answering. “Why did you side with him, even as he had you marched into this keep by mercenaries? At what point exactly did you realize what manner of devil you had handed me over to? I need you to be honest, or you and I have no chance of ever coming to an accord.”
Her father hesitated and looked at her imploringly for a moment or two, as if to confirm what she had already guessed: that he did not want to respond because she would not like the answer.
“Honesty is how we start afresh,” she said flatly, waiting.
With a strained breath and a few anxious glances around the room, her father finally seemed to understand that he could not escape this conversation.
“When he asked for you to spend the weeks before the wedding… at his manor,” he wheezed at last. “I did not think of him as a devil per se, but I knew he might be… unusual. But the engagement was announced, and the banns were to be read out and all seemed otherwise respectable, so I did not see… the harm.”
“And whendidyou see the harm?”
“When the Earl came to our home and all but… kidnapped me.” He shook his head in regret. “He threatened to do terrible things to Melody if I did not accompany him. He threatened to demand the dowry he claimed he was owed, which would mean no escape from my debts. He swore to me that no harm would come to you, that he only wanted to retrieve his bride. I obeyed because I was… a coward, and I am sorrier than you can know, my girl. I deserved to get a knife in my back, because that is what I have done to you. I betrayed your trust in me; I neglected you as a father; I was selfish and weak, and if I could take it all back, I would.”
It was far more than Victoria had ever expected to hear from him: more remorse, more sincerity, more validation, more affection. She had fully anticipated that they would leave this place with fragile civility between them and nothing else, but this was what she had longed to hear for years, ever since hefirst began to go astray with his behavior. Her father, at last, had taken responsibility for his actions.
“If almost dying can teach us anything,” her father continued, “it is that… one must right one’s wrongs before it is too late.”
Victoria squeezed his hand in return. “Do you know where Melody is?”
“I do not,” her father replied. “As far as I know, the Earl did not have her. He was bluffing when he took me from my home.”
She must have made it to Emma’s. Thank goodness… oh, thank goodness.
“Thank you, Father.”
“Thank you? What on earth have you got to thank me for?”
“For apologizing at last,” she replied quietly. “It often felt like Melody and I lost both of our parents on the day that Mama was taken from us. I never thought a day would come when you woke up and realized you still have a life to live, and two daughters to take care of; that it is not too late to put things right.”
Her father’s face crumpled, his hand trembling as she held it. “Do you swear that it is not too late?”
“I swear.”
