“When you hit your head, did you forget all words of more than one syllable?”
“Yes.”
She huffed a chuckle beside me and I allowed the corner of my lip on the side facing away from her to turn up.
“So, your sister?” She tried, more tentative this time.
“Lizzie.”
“Lizzie. If she’s anything like Kate, I imagine she’ll have a few questions…”
“More than a few.”
“And how will we be answering those?”
I turned to face her and slowed to a stop. I waited until her gaze met mine. “You’re my wife, aren’t you?”
Something unreadable crossed her face before she replied, “Right, yes.”
“You’re my wife. We’re traveling to tell your brother. We were going to stop to see her and my mother on the way back to London as a surprise.”
She blinked in astonishment. “That will work. But, Kit, I don’t have a ring. Mrs. Lanaham would have missed it, but your sister won’t.”
“Mother’s ring.”
“What about it?”
“My wife would get my mother’s ring.”
“Oh, but that should be something special, for your wife.”
I merely raised a brow in answer.
“Which… is hardly a more significant concern than the fact that I’ve proclaimed myself your wife,” she finished with a self-deprecating note.
“Precisely. Besides, we’re not visiting my mother. You’ll have to live without the ring,” I said, starting off down the road again.
I brushed at bits of dried mud clinging to my arms and it flaked off in little sheets. It would’ve been satisfying if a layer of dirt didn’t remain.
A needling thought danced in my mind, even though I didn’t want to give voice to, didn’t want to disgrace Davina by speaking. But I knew her. I knew her family. I knew her financial situation. And I knew she’d likely never been in a home such as Lizzie’s.
“Davina… Lizzie and Sydney, they’re not… He makes a good living. They’re comfortable. But it’s not… it’s not what you’re used to. And I hope that?—”
Her hand caught my wrist and yanked me back to face her. “I know you’re not asking me what I think you’re asking me.”
“I just… They’re my family.”
“And you think I would insult your family?” Incredulity slipped into her tone.
“Not intentionally.”
“You’re the one who turned up your nose at my carriage.”
“Your carriage was a safety hazard. As evidenced by our current predicament.” I gestured to the fields surrounding us.
“Any carriage could have struck that rock!”
“And collapsed in on itself?”
