Page 105 of The Make-Believe Marriage
She gave another bitter laugh. “Oh, it is just you and your father. I’ve kept quiet all these years, but no more.”
Her father looked upon his wife, still enraged. “There is no reason for your cruelty, Lady Harcourt. Why can you not let any of the past go? Captain Thorne has saved us from ruin. Your status is secure. Is this not all you care about? Is this not all you have ever cared about? You certainly never gave me a thought.”
Her mother made a snide sound of dismissal.
Her father pressed on. “You and I shall never be reconciled. It is far too late for us now. But is this how you are to show your gratitude to our daughter? By filling her good heart with your poison?”
Her mother’s expression turned chilling. “Our daughter?Ourdaughter? Oh, that is amusing. But you were always a great jester. How easily you charm everyone and make them laugh.”
“Dear heaven.” Her father now turned to her. “Go home, Syd. Go home to your husband, my precious girl,” he said in all seriousness.
“Papa?” Syd wanted to run, but before she could move, her mother grabbed her by the wrist and held on so tight that Syd yelped. “Mama, let me go!”
“Know this before you run away like a scared, little rabbit. This man is hardly worthy to claim himself as your father. Who knows if he really is your father? He’s always told me that he is not. Is that not a wonderfully dirty, little secret? But who can tell if it is true or not when he never tells the truth? More important, I wasneveryour mother. Do you hear me? You are not my daughter. You arenothingto us. We’ve used you all these years. To us, you are just a foolish nobody.”
Her father hurriedly shut the door and turned to her mother…this woman…this unrecognizable, mad person holding onto her wrist with enough force that Syd feared she might actually snap a bone. “You have gone too far,” her father growled, turning on her mother. “Do not utter another word or I shall have you locked away forever. Did I not assure you that I would take care of you? Have I not kept to my word all these years? There is no question of divorce, as you well know. Your status is secure. Why are you causing trouble now?”
“My status secure? Ha! You have taken every last shred of dignity from me. It was the only thing I had left because you stripped away everything else. And now you think to bring a mistress into this house? My home? I will not have it!”
Syd gasped. “Papa? Is this true?”
“No, sweetheart. But I do intend to move out and get some joy in my life now that I know you are happily settled and safely away from this woman.”
Her mother’s laughter was more of a witch’s cackle. “See how he continues to lie? How sweetly he does it, too. Joy in his life? He’s found himself a rich widow and she is to be his next victim. He’ll abandon her as soon as he’s lost all her money, too.”
“Syd, please. Do not believe her.” Her father looked pained as he turned pleading eyes on her. “Yes, I am a gambler. I readily admit I am a lowly hound. I know I have not been the bestfather to you, but I have given you whatever I could. Everything possible within my means.”
Her mother gasped. “You’ve stolen whatever you could! This is what you do best. Steal. Lie. Take. Take.Take.You never give.” She squeezed Syd’s wrist hard again. “Who are you going to believe? Him or me?”
She had no wish to take sides. “I love both of you.”
This turned out to be the wrong thing to say to her mother, apparently an incendiary statement that put her in a rage. She finally released Syd, but only did so in order to raise a hand to slap her.
Syd had been fearless when fending off those Armstrong reivers and drunken MacGregors. But she watched in horror as her mother’s bony fingers whipped closer, and she was too stunned to defend herself.
Her father stepped between them in time to prevent the blow from striking her. “Enough, Lady Harcourt! Calm down and apologize to our daughter immediately, or I shall have you declared mad and put away.”
“Mad, am I? If so, then you have driven me to it. You and thisthingyou picked up off the streets.” She glowered at Syd. “You think you are so high and mighty. You think you are an earl’s daughter. Well, you are not. You arenothing. Just some lowly by-blow acquired as a useful tool to gain an inheritance.”
Her father looked thoroughly stricken. “Do not believe a word she says, Syd. She is only trying to hurt you.”
“She’ll hear the truth now, you lying scoundrel.” This woman she had always considered a mother now turned the force of her anger on Syd. “You were brought here because I could not bear children, and there was all this money just lying untouched in a trust established by my family for any children of mine. Your father was on his way to gambling through his inheritance.”
“They were business ventures gone bad. How was I to know?” he argued.
Her mother ignored him. “Then he began to gamble through my dowry. As our resources dwindled, he came up with the bright idea of claiming this children’s trust. It is all gone now. Everything lost in a puff of smoke. So, now he intends to leave me because I am no longer of any use to him.”
Syd was ready to toss up her accounts.
She felt nauseated.
Her father put an arm around her. “My dear girl, do not believe a word of the bile spewing from her lips. She is angry and trying to hurt us.”
But Syd knew it was the truth.
This is exactly who her father was. Jovial. Amiable. But also lazy, selfish, and not above swindling anyone and everyone. Having used up all his resources, he was about to move on to more fertile ground and cheat an unsuspecting widow out of her life savings. He would do this rather than put any effort into restoring the Harcourt properties.
As for herself, had she not felt this iciness in her mother for all of her life? And if this embittered woman believed herself so righteous, then why did she not say a word when he began to dip into the children’s trust? She was as much in on his lies and schemes, keeping silent as he used the funds that were not his. She did this in order to maintain her position in Society. She did this to live in stylish fashion. New gowns. Jewelry. A town carriage. The lavish parties they once held because appearance was everything to both of them.
