Chapter 182

She might have been royal, but he might have been a highly qualified interior designer, who had trained with one of the most respected international firms, and whose own work was very highly thought of. She had very high standards and took pride in the excellence of her work, she reminded herself stoutly. She was a professional interior designer, yes. But she was also the daughter of a woman who had sold her body to men for money to feed her drug habit. Where did that place her on the scale of what was and what was not acceptable? Did she really need to ask herself that question? Of course she didn’t. The burn of the shame she had known growing up because of her mother was still as raw now as it had been then.

It hadn’t just been her great-aunt who had rammed home to her the message that her mother’s lifestyle made Orla unacceptable and unwanted in more respectable people’s social circles.

After her mother had died and her great-aunt had taken her in, Orla had had to change schools. I