"She had me cleaning the floors yesterday. On my hands and knees, like a freaking maid, can you believe that? I was like, 'Belise, the wood floors don't even need cleaning, who in the world cares anyway?' and she was just like 'I care' and I mean, what kind of an answer is that? And she just walked away and I really thought about not doing it, but then---ugh anyway, the point is, it was ridiculous."

Through the long mirror Amaryllis half-watched her husband, half-watched the way the dress she was modeling fell on her hips, as she rambled off the events of the previous day. She was good at that, rambling, and it was probably a good thing that Jude didn't seem to mind it as much as other people did. Ever since she'd married into the Wickham family (well, sort of married into) she had walked herself straight into an ongoing hate-fest with Jude's first wife, who couldn't possibly be any more different in all respects. The two seemed to be at each other's throats over something or trying to push one another's buttons about every five minutes, and that usually elicited a lot of complaining to poor Jude.

Then again, it was probably the price you paid for having two wives.

Amaryllis frowned to herself and spun around to watch where Jude was casually lounging on one of the dressing room couches. "I don't know if I like this gold very much. What do you think? I could go back and get the green to try."