Desdemona stared at her husband as if he were the most idiotic man in the world. Ever. Frankly, in this moment, she was not convinced that he wasn’t, as if somehow his thick-headedness now was worse even than the time he had been arrested. And he was happy—the blind idiot was happy, completely going against the tone of the announcement. Did he really know her so little as to think that this was good news for her?

Arthur was not always easy to live with, but he was easy to love, and so Dezzie had never truly questioned whether she had made the right decision in marrying him—not after the vows, at any rate. That streak was now broken.

Dezzie simply stared at him, shaking her head, with a look that conveyed her feelings better than any selection of words could.