manor looming over her. Kianna wished she could put a veil over the woman’s face, or cover her eyes with her hands. The manor hadn’t been properly cared for the last several years, and it was starting to show. Certainly, that would be the newest topic added to her gossip list. Her dull gaze returned to Ophelia. “I just wanted to make sure everything was all right.”
Her mother’s hands balled into fists, and Kianna could see how she was fighting to control herself in front of their neighbor, fighting not to straighten her plain, dirty dress, or pat her messy hair or fix her brown waves, or hide her wrinkling, makeup-less face.
Anger coursed through Kianna, and it was all she could do not send the woman on her away.
“We’re fine,” her mother said, her voice tight.
“Oh, I’m sure you are, dear.” Her fake smile boiled Kianna’s blood. “Didn’t I see you a couple of days ago at the new school assembly? I did, didn’t I? Oh, my kids have been accepted into the school. They start next week. I bet yours were too, weren’t they?”
Kianna would bet the few gold coins she had saved with much effort that the woman knew they hadn’t been accepted, not yet, and was asking to rub it in their faces.
Finally, the woman’s gaze landed on Kianna. “Oh, my dear, you’re looking as lovely as ever.” Another lie. Kianna knew that with her ragged dress, dirty apron, scuffed shoes, and her loose, wild blond hair falling in terrible tangles down her back, she did not look lovely. “Have you called on your friends lately? Hattie and Olive? Oh, I heard their engagements are moving well along. Soon, we’ll be receiving wedding invitations.”
Kianna’s stomach dropped. Hattie and Olive were engaged? They were getting married? She knew it would eventually happen, but thinking about it was one thing. Knowing about it was another.
What did she care? It wasn’t like Hattie and Olive had ever been her real friends. Once her father died and their situation had changed, Hattie and Olive never spoke to Kianna again. There was that time, not long ago, when Kianna went to the village to visit the apothecary. She saw Hattie and Olive, but when she went to greet them, the girls pretended they hadn’t seen her and left.
“That will be lovely,” Kianna said, forcing a smile at the woman.
“Yes, I was just saying that—”
Devon traipsed down the hill and stopped right in front of Jocelyn, his back to her.
They all stared at him in shock, Jocelyn most of anyone.
“Excuse, ma’am,” Devon said, addressing her mother. He sounded out of breath and disconcerted, and even after working all day long under the baking sun, Kianna had never seen Devon out of breath. “But I need to show you something.” He gestured up the hill, to where the field stretched over the property. “There.”
Her mother’s face contorted, from guarded to worried. “What happened?”
Taking a deep breath, Devon swayed and took two steps back.
Dirtying the hem of Jocelyn’s dress with his muddy boots.
The woman let out an exasperated gasp, her face turning red. “Why, you!”
Devon spun to her. “Oh, my apologies. I didn’t see you there.” Was he serious? He hadn’t seen the big carriage and the larger woman in the dress? He reached to her, brushing the skirt of her gown with his dirty hands—where it hadn’t been dirty before. He lowered his head. “My apologies.”
With a hiss, Jocelyn stripped herself away from his reach. “Mr. Flynn, let’s go.” She narrowed her eyes at Devon, then at Kianna’s mother, before gliding into her carriage. She didn’t wave goodbye as the carriage rode away.
With a half smile, Devon turned back to them. “Sorry if that was over the top, but I couldn’t stand the way she was treating you.”
Kianna swallowed a gasp, Cat let out a yelp, her mother smiled, and her siblings shrieked in delight.
“That was … it was well deserved,” her mother said, approaching Devon and patting his arm. “You did well. Thank you.” Her mother let out a long breath and waved her arms to the side. “I say we take the next couple of hours off and enjoy a long, lazy lunch. I think we deserved it.”
She ushered the kids inside the manor to wash up before laying their paws all over the furniture.
Devon glanced at Kianna. “I’m … tell your mother I’m going to finish one thing I was doing, then I’ll wash up and meet you all for lunch.”