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“Welcome, welcome, Mister Frost. How can I serve you today?”
“My… That is… I…” My tongue tied into knots as I tried to call Scarlett a word,anyword, that was not wife, and failed. I cleared my throat, glancing at her as my cheeks grew hot, and found her looking up with her eyebrow mockingly raised, her lips twitching.
I realized with outrage thelittle hussyenjoyed my discomfiture, and that made me speak boldly.
“My hussy needs a coat. I mean… Missus Frost! Missus Frost needs a coat. And boots. And… a hat. Yes. Thank you.”
To Mister Schmidt’s credit, he didn’t even blink at my outburst, merely set about rummaging in a rack of smaller winter coats lined with fur dyed in various colors. When he was distracted, Scarlett sidled up to me, looked up with a sweet smile, and then stepped hard on my toes.
I hissed and moved my foot from under hers, my tail wrapping instinctively around her leg to keep her from doing it again. “Ouch,” I whispered furiously. “You can’t just step on people’s feet!”
She narrowed her eyes at me, her fake smile vanishing. “If you want to call me names, furball, make up something original, at least. I’ve been called a hussy by dimwits and bullies. I don’t like it.”
In my outrage and—yes, hello again, still not the right time for this—growing arousal, I instinctively tightened my tail around her leg and moved it up her thigh. Scarlett’s eyes widened in shock, and she looked down, watching as her dress bunched up where my tail dove under it.
I found upon careful, totally innocent exploration, that she wore stockings. But they only reached up just above her knees. Her thighs were bare and cold, her skin peppered with gooseflesh.
“What are you… What…” Scarlett tried to speak, her face flaming.
I snapped my tail away from her the moment I heard Mister Schmidt’s voice. He announced he had picked out a selection of items for Scarlett to try on while he went to look for boots in her size.
“Could you please add a few pairs of warm tights to our order?” I asked, glancing down at Scarlett’s flaming face. “Something fit for a human female.”
Meaning, for someone without a tail.
She bit her lip and shot me a venomous look, but I just grinned back, my headache dissipating. It wasn’t all bad with my little snowdrop, I thought with growing anticipation. On that, me and my tail agreed.
Scarlett put on the coat she picked out—black, out of all the colorful options—and boots, but since there was no private way to put on tights in the shop, she had to suffer for a little longer. Despite my fur, I knew what cold felt like. Winter nights in the mountains reached outrageously low temperatures, so each Frost owned a full set of winter gear to put on in extreme situations.
“You all right?” I asked when we headed for Frost Street, which was further down the slope, though still pretty close to the main square.
Scarlett just glared at me, though at least now, she wasn’t shaking.
“Look, I’m sorry I called you… that,” I said after a moment, the furious crunching of snow under her boots making me uncomfortable. “It was a slip of the tongue. I guess I need to get used to, well, everything.”
She heaved a small sigh, and when she looked up again, her expression was marginally softer. “As long as you don’t do it again,” she said haughtily, then paused before adding in a quieter voice. “And thank you. For the clothes.”
I shrugged, holding her elbow again, not to prevent her from slipping now that she had proper boots on, but simply… I didn’t even know why. It just felt nice.
“You’ll need more. I’ll ask my sisters-in-law to take you shopping, I’m sure they’ll be delighted. They love shopping and clothes. Though I’m surprised you don’t have any luggage. They really send you in there with nothing but the clothes on your back, eh?”
Scarlett released a long, annoyed breath and looked up, her eyes colder than the snow gently floating down as we walked. My heart lurched, and honestlywhatwas it about those angry looks that turned me on so much?
“Some brides have luggage,” she said in a clipped tone. “I had nothing worth taking.”
I winced, cursing internally. I was kind of blunt and didn’t give much thought to how my words might be received. Now, the thought of having to watch my tongue around Scarlett made my headache return with a pounding vengeance. Thankfully, we were almost there.
“Whoa,” Scarlett said, her eyes going wide when we stopped in front of my family home.
“Welcome to the Frost family seat,” I rumbled and picked her up, knowing my ma would be very unhappy if I neglected the tradition of carrying my bride inside the house. “Welcome home.”
Chapter 8
Scarlett
The house was enormous and kind of untidy in a way that made me smile. Sprawling with multiple extensions and mismatched architectural elements, it was a bulky yet cozy structure of red brick, gray stone, and wood. The windows were painted in frost ferns, smoke curling over three of the six chimneys, and the yard surrounding the house was crowded with tall, naked trees.
A wide path of cleared ground led from a whimsically ornate gate to the wooden porch that wrapped around the front of the house. The front door was tall and painted blue, a twinkling wreath of fir boughs and silver bells decorating it.
