The truth, and the mere thought of its revelation filled Gwen with a sense of dread. There would be disaster. What if their father found out and, driven by a desire to protect the family name and salvage their reputation, demand that the Duke marry Beth? And what if the Duke refused, insisting that Beth was only a friend?
What if, in a cruel twist of fate, he agreed to only make her his mistress, a fate all too common for women of their family's economic state? Gwen felt a terrible headache.
And worst still, what if Beth turned out pregnant? There were so many destructions for the little time her sister claimed to have spent with the Duke, and there was so much to repay if things were ever to go wrong. This was not what she had prayed for. It was not what she had hoped to happen between them. This was so far away from what she had wished.
