Sydney Goddard is one of the romantic leads from Cat Sebastian’s Regency romance, A Delicate Deception.
A land surveyor, Quaker abolitionist, and pathologically serious man, Sydney is still reeling from the loss of his brother, and his brother’s pregnant wife, in a catastrophic fire. It doesn’t help that the fire also robbed him of his relationship with his lover, his sister-in-law’s deeply sarcastic brother Lex who was badly injured in the fire and retreated to his own estate to recover where he stopped writing Sydney back. Add to that the inheritance of their burned-out shell of a manor, and that Lex has finally written to him to ask him to meet him there and Sydney would rather be anyone but himself, something that causes all sorts of problems later down the line.
Chronically responsible and pathologically serious, Sydney is also a free thinker with surprising yet plausible opinions on both women and sexuality for a man of his time. Though he doesn’t keep plain speech or plain dress he has internalized the Quaker ideals of the equality of man, as well as the spiritual equality between men and women. Convinced as well that responsible sexual relationships, based on mutual respect and care for any children that result, are neither sinful nor immoral, he feels able to engage in relationships with men and women free from internal stigma or any contempt for the women involved.
Despite this, he’s defensive, stubborn and too afraid of more loss not to self-sabotage when he finds himself growing too close to someone. Something he manages to overcome as the novel progresses, finding he values his relationship with Amelia too much to let his flaws drive her away.