Biting her lip in thought, Jill nudged Salma onward as the horse - not quite happy with their sedate pace - stopped to nibble at a little tuft of grass at the side of the road. "Yeah, I can't cook to save my life," she agreed, smiling at Lillie's suggestion. "Maybe it all evens ought. Can you cook? My mother tried to teach me, but I seldom had any time to attend her, I was always working with my father instead."
As Lillie pressed her cheek against Jill's shoulder, she smiled at the air in front of her and made a humming noise in her throat, in lieu of actually saying something. She was more than happy with Lilie's companionship, it felt exciting and comfortable at once to have a female friend, someone who was more like you than, oh say for example a group of male horse messengers. It was nice to have someone who was a tad more sensitive (even though Jill herself was not really a prime example of female sensitivity) and who didn't just mumble and punch your shoulder when it came to feelings. (Duane had done that sometimes, it drove Jill crazy)
Realising Lillie had asked another question, Jill shook her head to make her thoughts move along again. "Usually just me and Salma, yes," she said, grinning when the other woman hurried to include the horse in the question. "Sometimes, if the missives were more important, there would be a real armed escort. But they usually just slowed us down, so mostly I travelled alone. If there had been a lot of messages sent in the same direction, we would travel together, for the company. That's what we were doing the other day..." she shook her head again, this time to force herself to breeze by this mention of her dead friend and their former boss.