Chapter 48: The boys.

She had a lot on her mind. All regretful solicitude. It was hard to speak of something she had not came to terms with at all. The journey felt extremely long, dawdling. Merri noted that, the first journey with Austin had not felt this way because she was happy...excited...and...in— she would not say it. She was glad she had never said it with her own lips. She would never say it, unless she was begging to look like a fool. Her thoughts wondered off to that woman, Hilda? Merrigold spitefully still remembered her name. Who names their child Hilda? Merrigold hated the name. Hilda? It irked her... so did Stella. A part of her felt sympathy for Austin when her thoughts wondered off to the confession he had made to her. Merrigold thought a lot throughout this nearly 36 hour carriage ride. There were stops here and there but it did not daze her from thinking.