Page 17

Lizzie stared after Connie, and he wondered idly what she’d made of her. He could almost see the words trembling on her lips.

“Wonderous Females of the World,” he said in answer to her unspoken question.

Her head swung around. “I beg your pardon?”

“You were wondering what her attraction was.”

Lizzie frowned. “And just what are Wonderous Females?” she asked after a moment.

“Last time I looked, a snake charmer, a spotted woman, and a giantess.”

Lizzie was struck speechless for a full moment. “And people pay to see those things?” she asked in a faint voice.

They were approaching a gate at the end of a field, and Benedict held it open for her. “They do,” he said briskly as she passed through. He followed and they proceeded along the track until they reached a hedge leading to the camping field. He held out his hand, and Lizzie took it before clambering over the stile. She delicately averted her eyes when she had to lift her navy cotton skirts, revealing her petticoats.

As those garments looked to be more practical than decorous, he lifted an eyebrow at her excessive modesty. Still, he had to admit, she was taking things in her stride. Not many women of her station would still be standing after the week she’d had. She’d seen so many changes, it was a wonder she didn’t have whiplash.

He knew damned well she had not known of his fairground connections, for he had never told Betsy of them even. His previous fiancée had claimed she wasn’t interested in his past, but only his future, and in light of his recent custodial sentence, he had been glad of the fact.

He knew Betsy had tried to draw a discreet veil over his background wherever possible. She’d once described him as a ‘man of business’ in his hearing, and he’d had to pull her up sharply about it. If prizefighting was a social embarrassment, then he suspected fairgrounds would mean utter disgrace.

On the whole, he reflected, he thought it for the best that he had taken Lizzie to wife instead. He watched her marching her way through the next field resolutely. Her social ruin had been complete the moment she had been thrown out by the Andersons. Left to fend for herself, she would have been in dire straits, so she could hardly complain at the situation she now found herself in. In fairness to her, she hadn’t even tried.

By the time they had reached the camp field she was looking about with interest. “Is it this way?” she asked, pointing in one direction. He nodded and she looked pleased. “Yes, I thought I recognized it,” she said with satisfaction.

“You think you could find your way back to the main arena?” he asked.

“Certainly,” she answered with assurance.

“Good.” She cast him a quick glance, though she said nothing. “Likely you won’t want to hang about the boxing tent all day,” he added. Her lips formed a wordless ‘oh’. Sure enough, she seemed to be struggling how to put something into words.

“What will I be doing?” she asked as they made their way past a cluster of gaily painted caravans such as circus performers used. “While you’re pummeling day trippers?”

He shrugged. “I’m sure we’ll think of something.” She fell silent at that a moment, but he had the feeling she was biding her time.

“Frank is the oldest of you three brothers, I think,” she ventured.

He shot her a look. “That’s right,” he said shortly.

“And Jack the youngest?”

“Also correct.”

She hesitated. “I don’t recall my cousin mentioning that you had brothers.” He said nothing and she tried again. “Did – ”

“The subject never came up,” he interrupted her.

She pursed her lips. “I see,” she murmured. “And if we go to supper with your family tonight, they mentioned I would meet your mother, I think?”

“My grandmother,” he corrected her. “Ma Toomes.”

“And she lives with your brothers?”

“I don’t know the current arrangement,” he said dismissively. “This is our wagon,” he pointed, and she gave up whatever question had been hovering on her lips.

After that, he made himself busy gleaning flat stones and branches and building a small campfire nearby while Lizzie went inside to ‘tidy herself’. Then he went and fetched water both for washing and for boiling and set the pans down next to the fire. He was in two minds about that evening, but it might be best to get it over and done with, he thought grimly, though God only knew what Lizzie would make of Ma!

If they stayed here, Lizzie wasn’t the type to sit meekly by, he thought. She’d start poking and prying and want his whole damn life story. He glanced up, seeing her emerging from the wagon, her hair now neatly braided and looped under her ears and twisted up into that neat arrangement at the back. She looked so bloody respectable he almost winced.