By Joanna Maitland, Mary Brendan
A disgraced woman.... a single passionate night's encounter, long ago, has come back to haunt Colonel Etienne Hauke. He has a son - by a disgraced Society beauty who demands that Etienne should make an honest woman of her! Isabel must marry her charming seducer - for the sake of her child. Although still resenting her years of shame, she determines it will be a marriage in name only....
Severity reflects intensity, not value — “central theme” means a warning is a core part of the book, not that the book is bad.