“And you decided to give her a task you knew she had no experience with. And you gave her no instruction whatsoever.” I whirled around to face her.
“If she had questions— She could have asked.”
“You’ve been so kind and welcoming. I wonder why she did not?”
“How was I to know she didn’t know how to do something as simple as chopping an onion?” Lizzie crossed her arms the same way she used to when we were children and she thought she’d won an argument.
“You knew damn well she’d never done that.”
“Did I?”
“Don’t play the fool, Lizzie. It’s beneath you.”
“I’m not the one who married someone incapable of even the most basic tasks. And then brought her around to judge from on high.”
“Davina has been perfectly pleasant. The only person I see judging anyone is you.”
Her eye twitched, the only hint that my point was struck. Instead of answering the accusation, she pivoted. “Your entire life you worked to be a solicitor. And you’re giving that all up for what? The wealth? The title? A pretty girl? That’s not the Kit I know.”
“I haven’t decided anything,” I insisted.
“You did, though, the moment you married her. Do you think that girl in there is suited to be a solicitor’s wife?”
“That girlis my wife. You will treat her with the respect she is due. I understand that we’ve inconvenienced you. I am aware that you’re displeased with my choices. But Davina has done nothing to deserve your ire. She hasn’t disparaged you or your home. She has quietly patched up my wound, cleaned up, andoffered to help you make supper. Meanwhile you’ve varied only between being cold and outright hostile.”
“I have done no such?—”
“You have.”
“For all that you complained about Hugh and Kate, I thought you would make a better choice,” she snapped.
“Davina is not Hugh. And I am not Katie.”
“She had you wed her without your family. You were traveling right past without stopping.”
“It’s planting season. Are you suddenly able to leave for a fortnight? And we planned to stop on the way back down.”
“You’re forsaking everything you are for her. You’ve changed,” she insisted.
“I changed the moment Father passed. My life changed forever that day.”
“Well, I don’t like it,” she mumbled to the ground.
“Neither do I,” I agreed, approaching her cautiously. She tucked herself up under my arm, hugging me back.
“I miss him,” she whispered into my shoulder.
“Me too.”
“I’m sorry I was mean to your wife. She’s not been like Hugh at all.”
“Much as it pains me to admit it, Hugh isn’t entirely awful.”
“No?” she asked.
“No. He took his sweet time about it, but he loves Katie. And their boy. And he’s helped me a bit with this title.”
“He wasn’t wretched when they came for the funeral either.”
