Chapter Twenty-Four
Tina turned partially away, hiding her face. How was she to answer that?
She wanted so much to tell him the truth. To tell him of her hard life. Of her shameful birth. But if she did, he would turn away from her in disgust. There was no doubt in her mind that he would—and so he should!
It was shameful.
She had never been allowed to forget how disgraceful it was to be illegitimate. She knew that her mother, no matter what she said about wanting to keep her, couldn’t have done so for the shame of having had a child out of wedlock.
How could she tell this man, this duke, with his perfect, easy, legitimate life that she was the product of a florid affair that had sent her mother running into hiding? And yet, there he was smiling benignly at her, not aware in least the
