Yes, there certainly were, and they'd always taken appropriate cautions. They were never particularly publicly demonstrative in places they knew it could be dangerous, and even places where it might have been okay. They both had understood the risks. "Yes, unless we got particularly close with the people we were working with, it wasn't something we really flaunted. And by the time Elaine was old enough to tote around with us - I think she was five the first time we brought her a trip with us - it was a lot easier to be honest about it. I think, being British helped?" He laughed a little. "There's a certain amount of privacy, inborn."
"Well, she sounds wonderful." Most female figures in Theodore's life had been particularly forceful - in particular, his teachers at Lindmarch - and he was rather charmed by that sort of personality. "I think reserve is something I excel in, and I have to tell you that it's a quality can certainly appreciate in others." But you could be reserved and still open up, as he'd found.
"Trust me," he laughed again, "you probably won't find it." At least, he didn't think. "And it wasn't much of an answer, anyway. As for a question I'm happy to answer, yes - Elaine was adopted. Her mother died during childbirth, and I don't know about her biological father, but it's safe to assume he wasn't in the picture. We just happened to be pursuing the idea at the right time. Of course, back then, we couldn't adopt jointly, but I had a stable enough income and good references by that point that I was able to adopt her outright. Jamie officially did so when we were married here, but of course, she has always been ours."