Ross doesn't say anything in response, Demelza doesn't need him to say it out loud to confirm it. Yes, he misses it. He misses home, his friends, his life in Cornwall. A part of him, a selfish part, even misses the reputation he'd had among those who'd respected him because their opinions had been the ones that mattered most. Those in his own class, most of them had been fools, and Ross would be the first to say so; but his friends had treated him as one of their own most of the time and frankly, Ross couldn't have asked for anything more.

"I do not miss Jud and Prudie," Ross settles on saying, though that's not entirely true. They'd been tiresome, to be sure, but they'd been loyal. To an extent. "My dear, if you'd learned to be a kitchen maid from either one of them, you would not have remained my kitchen maid for long."

He's teasing, of course, and he smirks at her as he says it. The truth of it is, as much as he misses home, there's no comparing it to what he's been given here. His daughter back, his wife well, his son. Ross would never trade any of this for the chance to return home, to a life without the three people he loves most.

"It would have been as good as hiring Garrick as a maid, I expect," he adds, lifting his chin in prepared defiance.