Our Journey Begins

There is a positive side to this, as it suits me to be wearing a dress. It will enable me to disguise my pregnancy for longer than if I was wearing trousers. With luck, if we are away for about two months, as Don expects, we might even return home before he cottons on. (Of course, when he does realise, or I pluck up enough courage to tell him, we are likely to have our first big row.)

I just hope that my morning sickness won't get too bad. I've heard that it is normally something that is worst in the early stages of pregnancy, so with luck it will disappear before long.

Our journey to Theras should take about a week, Don tells me. Since we are in no desperate hurry, we will be covering about forty miles each day. We will be using a fairly major road (by local standards anyway, though its surface is only dirt). This means we will be able to spend every night at an inn. As well as sleeping in proper beds, an advantage of this is that we will only need to carry with us sufficient provisions for our midday meal. After our first day, we can buy supplies for the following day at the inn where we spend the night.

We cover the first twenty miles or so without incident. It is a pleasant day to be riding: sunny and quite warm for the time of year. We encounter a few travellers going in the opposite direction, but don't overtake anybody nor have anyone overtake us.

We stop for our lunch after four hours or so. As we eat, Don says:

1. "We will have to have separate rooms when we stay the night at an inn, even though we would both prefer to share, and even though it will be more expensive."
2. "Would you mind if we pretended to be man and wife, Harry? Then we can share a room." "All right," I say.
3. "Would you mind if we pretended to be man and wife, Harry? Then we can share a room." "Why do we have to pretend?" I say, perhaps unwisely. "I've been hoping that you would propose to me. Why haven't you, Don?"

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