Hitched & Hitched Again: A Comedy of Marital Mayhem

With Tarquin out of the picture, the crowd grew bold and brash. They traded barbs like kids trading baseball cards, each comment sharper and less polite than the last.

Elysia, frowning deeply, watched them with a quiet disdain, choosing to rise above the noise.

Her heart ached for Tarquin!

The Bradford clan was notorious for their sharp tongues and sharper claws. She couldn't even begin to imagine the kind of torment Tarquin must have endured as a child at their hands!

Once the hubbub died down, Elysia finally spoke up, her voice cutting through the silence. She pointedly asked each of them, "And what's your name? You, you, and you..... and you over there. Let's have it. I'll be remembering.”

The instigators of the harsh words frowned, suspicious and wary, "And why exactly do you want to know our names?"

"To make sure I don't mix up the names when it's time to cut out some tongues," Elysia replied, her tone icy.

gasped collectively, their lips sealed shut in fear and anger. They remembered all too well Tarquin's warning about losing their tongues if they stepped out of

"When it comes to my son, I don't need your judgments or your gossip. Mind your own business and keep my son's name

back, "Oh, Elysia, acting all high

don't you go ahead and

"You..."

her neck, her arms, her legs... It was as if her entire body was under siege by an invisible army of

entire group started scratching furiously, a chorus of

have you done to us?!" one of them managed to gasp out amidst

tall. I can make you itch, I can make you cry, and I can

all about their quarrel with

spectacle unfold, looked from the retreating figures of the Bradford women back to Elysia, her eyebrows knitted in

to say?" Elysia

am I not itching?" Verity

my side; you weren't exposed to