Dorinda

The Daughter of an Actress

Brought up in a respectable country village, Dorinda Hale was as beautiful a gentlewoman as anyone could wish. But her actress mother had married a rakish nobleman for love -- and his sudden death left them without a feather with which to fly.

An ignominious career on the stage seemed like the only way for Dorinda to earn their keep -- until the Dowager Lady Torrington whisked Dorinda off to serve as the sober chaperone to her irrepressible high-spirited granddaughter.

But at the dazzling round of London routs, balls and operas, two men haunted Dorinda: the arrogant Duke of Shalford, and the rakehell Sir Fabian Mordaunt. Both men knew her past -- and one held the key lo her future happiness.