“You don’t know a thing about me,” she says.

“And you know nothing of me,” he replies.

Judy fumes, even expels hot air and anger between them. Whatever timid, gentle connection they’d forged before this is incinerated in the aftermath. Nick won’t mourn it. “I’d like to leave now, Mr. Wilde.”

“By all means.” He bows, low, and gestures toward the steps leading back into the house. “I won’t be the one to stop you.”

She nods, curtly, and does not bother to bid him a proper goodbye. He notes that she thanks his parents as she leaves, and he follows her just long enough to see her helped into one of the guest carriages, the door shutting over her now-placid face.

Good, he thinks. One less thing for mother to pester me over.

– A Fairer House, Chapter Two.