a rare tenderness. “He was willing to give you up as well. I am not one who finds it easy to admit when he has done wrong, but I would be remiss now if I did not say that Captain Bateson appears to be much more worthy a man than I originally took him for. I always wanted a man who could protect you after I was gone, who had an eye for your wellbeing and could guide you in prudent paths. In many ways, I think I have been relying on the idea of wealth as a protector. But I now see just how dangerous a man like Waddington could be to you – character matters as well, and is perhaps more enduring.”
Margaret felt tears fill her eyes. “Father, I cannot tell you how happy this makes me.” She bowed her head, gathering courage. “I have always wondered about you and Mother, and after you told me you didn’t love her, I think I feared you expected me to settle for the same sort of arrangement.”
Her father’s silence caused her to look up again, and she was surprised by a look of utter shock on his face. “Pardon?” he said. “What do you mean, I didn’t love her?”
Margaret blushed. “I didn’t mean to be rude. It’s only that you told me when you first met Mother you cared not a wit for her, and that things worked out well enough without love in the picture.”
“Ah,” he sat back with a half-smile on his lips. “I have not always been the best communicator, I will grant you that, but in this case, I believe myself exempt. I truly did not love your mother when I met her or when we married – it was an arranged marriage – but I will say that after we grew to know one another we both fell in love. I believe it is safe to say she cared for me, but I can tell you with certainty that she was my life, my breath, my everything.” He had never spoken in this way. Margaret watched and listened, transfixed. “I would have done anything for her. I would have even challenged some poor chap to a duel over her had I been given the chance. When I first heard about your Captain Bateson’s foolish bravery in that area, I did not intercept him because I understood where a heart like that gets the courage for a duel.”
Margaret leaned forward impulsively, catching her father’s hand up in her own as she spoke. “I am so glad to hear you say that. I always wondered about my mother, and now I know…thank you.”
“You have my blessing to seek out that gamekeeper’s son,” he said wryly. “If he wishes to court you still, I will welcome it. There will be no disowning.” He cleared his throat. “Just as there will be no more talk about dismissing the little girl.”
Margaret’s eyes widened. “Penelope?” she asked. “You have decided that she should stay? You have decided it was a good decision, after all, to take her in?”
He didn’t answer these questions. Instead, he looked up at her with a pointed smile and said softly, “I think she prefers Poppy, love.”
Margaret bit her lip. “Do you think Captain Bateson would be willing to take me with Penelo… Poppy – as part of the package? It is a hard thing to come into a situation and raise another man’s child, especially when that other man happens to be one of your greatest enemies.”
Her father shook his head. “I’m not one to talk. I resisted this whole affair for too long, and can hardly speak about the openness of the male mind to new things. But I will tell you that I know my daughter – I don’t believe you would fall for a man who would turn down a child in need. If this Captain Bateson is good enough to capture your heart, then he is good enough to love a child that is not his own.”
“He may not take me back, after he’s made up his mind against the attachment.” She dropped her chin.
Her father reached out and raised it again, as he had done when she was a little girl.
“If he does not, then he is not the man I took him for,” he said. “Write him a letter, if you think you cannot face him in person. We can only hope and wait.”
Chapter 31
“Captain, your carriage is waiting outside.”