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“That… is generous of him,” the viscount murmured, earning a censorious look from his wife. “What?” he said defensively. “I’m not being sarcastic, but truthful rather. It… is generous.”

“And perhaps you might tell your daughter just why that courtesy her husband extended youissogenerous?” Marcia’s mother said, showing absolutely no mercy, and no quarter.

Marcus flattened his lips into a hard line and gave a slight nod of his head. He took a deep breath. “I paid Andrew a visit prior to his coming to offer for you. I… made him an offer of my own,” he said quietly.

Her heart thumped funnily against her rib cage. “What did you offer him?”

Marcus hesitated.

His wife gave him a pointed look, urging him to speak.

“Fifty-five thousand pounds,” he finally said, and Marcia rocked back on her heels.

The night she and Andrew had been discovered, and Marcia ruined, Andrew had been offered two fortunes: one to marry her, and an equally sizeable one to not. “You offered him a fortune to marry me,” she whispered. Andrew would have received fifty-five thousand from walking away from her, keeping those monies free and clear and remain a bachelor. But he’d not chosen that. He’d chosen… her. So much love for him swelled again in her heart.

That great dunderhead. Why hadn’t he told her?

Because even with your father’s ill opinion, he’d been determined to protect the other man. Because knowing her as he had, Andrew had rightly gathered such a discovery would have brought resentment between father and daughter.

“Please,” her father entreated, misunderstanding the reason for her quiet shock. “I thought… I wanted you to be happy, and I feared he couldn’t, and…” He stretched a palm out. “I would have done anything, Marcia. Anything.”

Marcia pulled herself back from her musings, and looked to her father. “I love my husband,” she said bluntly. “He has been a friend to me for years. He treats me as an equal in our marriage.” Just as he’d treated her as an equal prior to it. “He makes me happy. And I’ll not tolerate him being treated as somehow less by anyone.” She firmed her gaze on him. “And that includes by my own father.”

Tears gleamed in her father’s eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice ragged. “Please, forgive me.”

“Of course I forgive you, Papa.” She paused. “That is, as long as you promise to treat Andrew with only respect and kindness in the future.”

Her father nodded, and Marcia rushed over, even as he opened his arms, and they hugged one another. From the corner of her eye, Marcia caught the way her mother’s shoulders sagged with relief. “You have my word,” he said against the side of her head. “I love you, Daughter.”

Daughter.

A watery smile brought her lips up. Yes, that was what she was… his daughter. “I love you, Papa.”

The door exploded open. “Are you done?” Lionel called as he skipped back into the chambers. “Because it sounded like you were, and I made the decision it was time to return.”

A laugh exploded from Marcia’s lips, melding with her father’s as he set her from him.

“It is myyyyy turn.” Flora’s raised voice cut across the other siblings.

“No, it is mine,” Maisie insisted, dancing out of her sister’s reach.

“Girls,” their mother scolded, and she clapped her hands lightly.

To no avail.

“Let Flora and Maisie have the bonnets,” Lionel declared. “I shall take”—he brandished one of her hatpins and pointed it towards his brother, Clarion—“herdaggers.”

“They are not daggers,” their mother bemoaned, and patting Marcia distractedly once, she rushed off to interject herself between her two sons, now in the midst of a game of bloodthirsty pirates.

Alas, her mother’s efforts proved futile as her sisters joined in the melee.

Suddenly, the door burst open a third time.

Marcia gasped as Andrew came hurtling in, out of breath like he’d run a long race. “Thomaston said you were packing. Why are—” He did a sweep of the room, taking in the small army of Grays. “You…” he finished in a bewildered murmur. “Are you going somewhere?”

Silence greeted him, so loud that Marcia heard the thundering of her own heartbeat distinctly in her ears.

The lull lasted just a moment, as all quiet did when Marcia’s siblings were about.