She held his gaze firmly, not flinching, not looking away during the battering of his harsh words, and he wondered if she was imagining the bastards that she’d brought into the world tossing the same words at her. “He can be quite charming when he sets his mind to it, especially when he was younger, more handsome, more virile. I actually loved him for a time.” She lowered her eyes to her satin slippers, the toes peering out from beneath her dressing gown. “Tell me, Mr. Trewlove”—she lifted her eyes, locked them on to his—“do you know when you were delivered to the baby farmer?”

So she was wondering the same thing he was. “The scapegrace dropped me into Ettie Trewlove’s arms on the twenty-sixth of February in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and forty.” With his pronouncement, her expression changed not one whit. He might as well have said the dawn of time. He wasn’t quite certain what he thought of this woman who had let the earl take children from her and then deemed herself in love with him enough to marry him.

“Is that date significant to you?” he prodded, the words tart and impatient. He wanted to see something from her other than cool reserve.

She sighed. “I fear not. Which is probably just as well. I suspect you hate the woman who allowed you to be taken from her.”

“I don’t know how I feel about her. Why would you marry a man who gave away your children?”

“I was seventeen, enjoying my first Season, when I caught Elverton’s fancy. I knew he was married, but I didn’t care. I loved him, and he promised to take care of me. So I became his mistress. My father, a baron, disowned me. I never held his actions against him, because I fully understood that I was a sinner, but his casting me aside did limit my options. A fallen woman with no skills. I couldn’t risk angering my keeper by insisting I be allowed to keep the babes. Perhaps your mother shared the same fate, Mr. Trewlove. For the most part, women have very little power. We do what we must to survive or to ensure the survival of those we love. Seldom are the choices easily made nor are they generally pleasant.”

He thought of Selena, the choice she was making, how he despised it. Yet she would soldier on, putting the needs of others before her own.