Chapter 37

  Reaching the threshold, Samuel couldn’t help but let the weariness pull his shoulders down. He felt his age creep up on him and bemoaned the absence of vigor that had long since gone.

  Samuel despised that he became a lesser version of himself with each passing year. Against the inevitable passing of time, he fought tooth and nail to maintain his advantage and delay the frailty of old age.

  What he wouldn’t give to feel young again. To not pay interest on the aches and pains that accumulated throughout his life.

  But such a mood was unbecoming and deserved scornful admonishment. Samuel shrugged off the moment of weakness and knocked on the door smartly. He didn’t wait for a reply and entered, but did so with an ease to prolong his entry.

  He crossed the parlor room to another door and rapped his knuckles softly against the frame.

  “Gwen, I am coming in,” he announced clearly. He waited a moment for Gwen to clarify if she wasn’t decent. At no raised objections, he turned the handle and entered.

  Entering his daughter’s bedroom, he saw what he expected. His daughter sulking on her bed, lying with her face away from him.

  Without speaking, Samuel walked over and sat at the edge of the bed. And waited.

  As he did, he recalled the storm that had swept across his house just yesterday.

  Eleanor had been beyond irate. No, the word didn’t do her wrath justice. Samuel had never seen her so angry, least of all towards her own family.

  Samuel shivered just remembering his wife’s shouting and screaming. She was a banshee rabid with rage and had chewed out Gwen for hours. Amidst all the screeching, she had also thrown things in anger. Demolishing a fair share of furniture and decorations in the process of wrecking two rooms to the point that renovators were enlisted to touch up the walls and replace some of the tiling.

  Samuel just hoped that the damage didn’t include anything too unique or rare a piece. While he didn’t particularly care a lot about the décor, more so with his wife’s questionable selections, he hated burning money on irrational endeavors.

  Not that Samuel had stepped in to stop his wife. No, he hadn’t taken leave of his senses to attempt that folly. Eleanor was a passionate creature and you couldn’t have paid Samuel to intervene when she was well into her frenzy. He knew that nothing could be done but to let the storm run its course.

  He had remained close by the spectacle to make ensure that neither of his wife and daughter hurt themselves. That had been the extent of his involvement.

  His duties of a husband were tested once Eleanor had tired herself out, leaving Samuel to finally try and attempt to calm her down.

  It was usually Eleanor who played peacemaker and provided the emotional crutch in the Croft family. Samuel was incapable of matching his wife’s counseling, but he had been there for her throughout the night when she needed him. For all his efforts, Eleanor was still apoplectic, but she was less angry than before and that was a win in his book.

  And while Samuel will never make the claim to knowing about the workings of the female mind, he could understand his wife’s outrage.

  Far more severe than the anger at their daughter’s idiocy, that Eleanor had been humiliated and embarrassed was the graver offence. And that too at the hands of someone whom she admired. Made all the worse as she had no counter, not defense to the accusation.

  Left defenseless to a blunder that wasn’t of her own making. Rather it was at Gwen’s behest that Eleanor had to kneel and grovel for forgiveness.

  Assessing it all, Samuel couldn’t fault his wife and found her justifiably angry. If he had been there with them in front of the Duchess, he would be feeling much the same.

  Whether by coincidence or intentionally, Samuel had been spared the shame. Which had placed him in the predicament to play mediator between his wife and daughter.

  Absorbed in his thoughts, Samuel felt the bed ruffle as Gwen sat up and scooted over to sit by his right. Without saying anything, she leaned into him and placed her head on his shoulder.

  Samuel’s lips quirked upwards. His daughter had him wrapped around her finger and Samuel didn’t mind knowing that she did. He could never bring himself to be cross with her. He had always left that task of discipline to Eleanor, while he was dedicated to spoiling her and giving her everything she ever wanted.

  Sitting with his daughter, Samuel reminisced of the days when Gwen was little. Those were simpler times, when all that mattered for his family’s happiness was wealth. And since they always had wealth aplenty, they were happy aplenty.

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  That had all changed when Gwen had awakened as a wizard. Their future had altered at that very moment.

  When before the Croft family were another well off merchant family, with a wizard in their ranks they become an entirely different prospect.

  With his child being aether blessed, Samuel’s priorities changed dramatically. From providing for his family, to keeping them in luxury and comfort, he was charged with the crucial responsibility of building a legacy for his wizard daughter.

  Samuel had never really cared about anyone beyond Gwen and Eleanor. He would have been content to spend a long and fruitful life with them before meeting his end. But Gwen’s awakening meant that she would go on to live far beyond his death. And her talent only indicated that she would live all the much longer, possibly more than three centuries!

  Legacy came to mean a different thing for Samuel Croft then. It became a notion of increasing temptation. Imagining his daughter, his very own flesh and blood, a part of him, living and breathing far into the future, across generations, was a dream that he was unaware of. One that became an instinctual need once its very possibility became a reality. Where before his mark on the world would have ended to finding a suitable husband for his daughter and meeting his grandchildren, now there was a chance for Samuel to prolong his memory as a progenitor to aether-blessed descendants.

  He hadn’t known that he wanted to pass on such a legacy until he envisioned it and became obsessed with it.

  To ensure such a future and etch his name in history, Samuel looked to the horizons to expanding an empire for his heir. As much a shield for her as a means to power, Samuel became obsessed with creating such an inheritance for his only child.

  Samuel wanted to give Gwen the world. And while he couldn’t do that, the best he could do was make sure that Gwen had the power to take it for herself. His ambitions were only matched by his success as he set on to expand his business empire.

  No expenses were spared when it came to Gwen, whether it be towards her upbringing, education or alchemy. Any advantage that had a price was bought, making her more privileged in many regards than the royalty of nations! All the while, Samuel strived for aggressive expansion with his dealings to become the most successful entrepreneur in the nation, amongst the richest in the whole of Ithica. All for his daughter.

  Samuel Croft would have been a very different man if his daughter weren’t a wizard. Maybe he would have been a better man, a better father and husband otherwise.

  For nothing in life was without its price and such ambitions came at a cost. Legacies were built on the sacrifices of those before. And Samuel had sacrificed. He had never been a saint, but he had crossed lines that he had never thought he would in pursuit of said ambitions.

  If a darker soul and a troubled conscience were the price for being Gwen’s father, Samuel would happily pay the price twice over.

  Despite everything, Samuel liked who he had become. He was proud of his family. Gwen becoming a wizard was a blessing, even if it did come with its set of trials. He would never have imagined otherwise playing the game of thrones alongside the royalty of not just the one, but of three nations over. And winning while he was at it!

  And now Samuel could see the finish line. They were so close. They just had to play along for another few years, just enough for Gwen to consolidate her power. No one would dare to come for them then. They would be invulnerable.

  Samuel was drawn out of his fantasy when Gwen whispered, “Sorry, papa. I messed up.”

  “You did,” Samuel spoke without any consolation.

  Gwen groaned miserably. “How is mama?”

  “Still, angry,” Samuel informed. “And frankly, I am on her side.”

  Gwen slowly peaked through her hair to weigh her father’s displeasure. “I apologized,” she defended meekly.

  “Your mother was humiliated,” Samuel worked to bring some heat to his voice. “What were you thinking?”

  “I,” Gwen stuttered, “It was a mistake. I, I know that. It won’t happen again,” Gwen quickly admitted her remorse to appease her father.

  “You know better than anyone that the smallest flaw stands out most glaringly on perfection,” preached Samuel, shaking his head. “I cannot remember being more disappointed in you. A mistake, I could readily forgive. But what you did was sheer idiocy! You were your own worst enemy.”

  Gwen grimaced. Reprimands from her father carried more weight and stung more.

  “Do you at least know what you did wrong?” Samuel asked in exasperation.

  Gwen nodded slowly.

  “Well?”

  Gwen squirmed, finding it difficult to voice her guilt. “I should not have been so flirtatious,” she admitted awkwardly.

  Samuel scoffed at her daughter’s embarrassment. “I concur. It would do all of us a lot of good if you control your urges. But neither of us here wants to discuss your amorous proclivities.” He cleared his throat. “And that is not the lesson here.”

  Gwen looked to him, confused.

  “You were careless. And you were caught. That was your mistake,” Samuel educated his daughter.

  Gwen’s eyes widened a slight.

  “No one would dare to tell you what to do. For goodness’ sake, you have immunity by Royal Writ,” Samuel pointed out. “That doesn’t make it so that you can flaunt your freedom and behave like a spoiled child.

  “Honestly, Gwen! How stupid could you get! In her home, in front of her child, your fiancé!” Samuel came closest to shouting. “I have never been so embarrassed by you. And for you that matter,” Samuel hammered the point home. “Since when were you such a base creature that you couldn’t think or control yourself? That abstaining for few days has you losing your common sense?

  “Men think with their cocks. And my daughter thinks with her,” Samuel trailed off, losing the bravado to complete his sentence.

  Her father’s expression elicited an involuntary chuckle from Gwen.

  The sound of his daughter’s laughter evaporated Samuel’s stern anger.

  “This was a small thing that could have become a huge problem, Gwen,” Samuel warned, calmer and subdued. “The Duchess was lenient when she had every right to make things difficult. We owe her.”

  Gwen stiffened at her father’s acknowledgment of a debt owed.

  “Be on your best behavior,” Samuel advised. “I will bring your mother around.”

  “Thank you,” Gwen muttered in contrition.

  “We all make mistakes, daughter,” Samuel consoled. “Fortunately, you make very few. Unfortunately, when you do make them, they end up being consequential.”

  Samuel rubbed the top of her head affectionately. “Learn from your mistakes, Gwen. Do not waste them away for nothing. There are only so many times you can make before they come due.”