I'd expected exactly this. I deliberately stepped back, dropped to my knees, and raised my voice for the whole street to hear.
"Someone help me get justice! Finn Acevedo married me six years ago in a proper ceremony. I bore him a daughter! He promised to bring me back within three years and make me his lady. But now that he's the Marquess, he left me and my child in the countryside eating weeds! Is that something a human being does?!"
The manor sat on a busy street. The commotion drew neighbors from every direction, and whispers rippled through the growing crowd.
"They say the Marquess is famously devoted to his wife. He's got two children with her and won't even take a concubine. So where did THIS wife come from?"
"Probably a fraud. I mean, look at her. The Eastholm Marquess Manor is high society. She claims to be his wife, but she looks like a beggar off the road. Bet she's just some grifter trying to latch onto a noble house."
I listened without a flicker of emotion, then reached into the bundle I'd brought and pulled out a marriage certificate.