“Are you certain?” he queried gently. “You’re very good at it, as I always knew you could be—”
“Papa, you are not triumphant in this,” she cut in. “You behaved appallingly.”
“Yes,” he agreed without hesitation. He nodded, looking away, as if he couldn’t quite face himself, let alone her. “I did. You will never forgive me, perhaps, for what I did, for what I am doing now to your sister as well.”
His mouth tightened, and a look so lost crossed his face she nearly gasped.
“But I do not know what to do,” he suddenly blurted. “I thought I knew what was best for you when I raised you to be so independent and so fierce and to love things as I did. But then I saw the unhappiness creeping in as you did not fit into society, Victoria. And I hated myself for what I had done. If I had just raised you differently, perhaps there might not have been so much suffering. And so I determined that I would see you wed. To see you accepted. No. More than accepted. Admired and respected as you deserved.”
“To Craven?” she hissed, not caring that people had begun to look upon them as they passed.
Her father took another step toward her and handed his valise to the footman waiting quietly by the coach, as all good servants did.
Her father tilted his head down and said very softly, “I rigged the dice, you know.”
Those words crashed through her. She couldn’t reconcile them. Rigged…
She shook her head, not able to take it in.
“What?” she gasped.
“I rigged the dice,” he repeated. “I would have never thrown you away on a man like Craven. Though I had to make Chase believe it. And you.”
“You…you lied to me. You lied and you hurt me and you—”
“Yes, so the ruse would work,” he rushed honestly, his voice thick with self-disgust. “I have barely slept every night, praying that it was not a mistake, but you see, I knew that if I did that, if I gambled you away, that there would be some man who could not see it be borne. And I knew Chase would be present that night. I knew he would see it. And I had a very strong feeling he would not let it come to pass.”
“You cannot be serious,” she breathed. “You expect me to believe that you are a soothsayer and could see what Chase would do. His reputation—”
“I have heard rumors about him, Victoria,” her father cut in firmly. “Very reliable rumors. And all the things that he does… He is not as he seems. I have heard them for a while now, from certain quarters. You see, I have my own little spies and secrets. And yes, I had a strong feeling that he might come to your rescue, and he did. And then I rigged the dice so he would win. Craven was always going to lose.”
“How?” she blurted, her mind reeling. “How could you possibly know how to do such a thing?”
“It was not a spur of the moment thing, Victoria,” he whispered, his voice barely audible above the din of the noise from the street. “I had been planning it for some time, and I had a gambling sharp teach me how to do it. A fellow from the East End who would as soon as kill you as look at you. Fortunately, he understood the persuasion of gold.”
“You did this. You did all of this?”
“Yes,” he confessed, his eyes dark and haunted. “Can you forgive me?”
“No,” she said honestly. “You have maneuvered and manipulated me and my sister. We could have been happy without—”
“Yes, perhaps you could have been happy without a husband, but look at all the things that have unfolded and the freedom that you have found,” he insisted. “Look at the life that your sister is choosing. She’s choosing not to go the way that everyone expects her to, the way she thought to go of—the ton and frivolous nothings, and dancing and breeding. She chose like you. She chose independence. She’s not going to be just some man’s wife. She’s going to be so much more.”
“And me? Some man’s wife,” she taunted.
Her father smiled slowly. Proudly. “You’re not just some man’s wife, Victoria. You’re the Duchess of Chase. You have more power than any other woman in this country, and I know you will wield it well.”
She sucked in a shuddering breath. “I cannot forgive you for this, Papa,” she whispered, “even though you seem to be saying you did it for a good reason.”
“I understand, my girl,” he said, reaching out and taking her hand in his. “I understand that you will never comprehend the depths of the mistakes that I felt I made and what I had to do to fix them. I wronged you in so many ways. Perhaps I wronged you by trying to fix it. Perhaps I wrong you still now in telling you the truth. But whatever the case may be, I wish you happy.”
“You wish to run away,” she said, her throat tight.
“Yes, perhaps I do,” he replied. “Perhaps I’m a weak old man and I can no longer bear my own failings and how much I have disappointed you.”
“Oh, Papa,” she said, feeling strangled with confusion. “How very sad this all is.”
“Perhaps,” he agreed gently. “But promise me one thing.”