C264 Shameless!

Clarissa was halted but didn't call out for Owen and the others to remove the woman. She cast a dismissive glance at the figure kneeling before her and silently assessed the woman. A sense of the absurd washed over her—what audacity had driven this woman to plead before her, the legitimate daughter of a wife?

And what had filled her father's mistress with such confidence to believe that she