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I laughed. “Well, you cooked the whole meal. I think you can have whatever you like.”
I blushed again when I realized the implications of what I’d just said. He didn’t seem to notice, because I heard him finish his food and mine.
“There’s desert.”
“I really don’t think I can...”
“It’s strawberry-flavored ice cream.”
“What?” He got my attention, alright. “Where did you find strawberries in winter?”
“These are wild strawberries. I harvest them in summer and freeze them.”
“Oh, that makes sense. It must be easy to freeze things here.”
“It’s winter almost all year round,” he said. “So, would you like some ice cream?”
“Yes, please. But only a little. I feel like I’m about to explode.”
He laughed thunderously. “Better get used to it, Aura. You need to put some meat on those bones, so I intend to feed you generously three times a day. At least.”
I laughed too, but then I heard him go outside, probably through a back door, and silence fell for a minute, and the silence allowed me a moment to think.
“Do you know what Krampus does to naughty children?” I heard my mother say. “He eats them!”
Oh, no. What if the reason he was feeding me so well was that... No. No, no, no. That made no sense. Those were just old wives’ tales. They weren’t true. It was what mothers and grandmothers told their little ones to make them behave.
As if sensing my distress, Frost came to nudge my leg and spread his massive body on top of my feet. If I flexed my toes upwards, I could feel the shape of one rib. His warmth was soothing. I wished I could see him and play with him properly.
If Krampus hadn’t eaten his dog or his horse, he wasn’t going to...
Good heavens, I couldn’t think like that! This was ridiculous! He wasn’t a monster! Except he was... But, like, not that kind of monster. On Alia Terra, there were no monsters that ate virgins. At least, not that I knew of.
I heard Krampus come back in, and I shooed my dark thoughts away. This was a lovely dinner I was having with my husband, chosen for me by the Marriage Temple, through a DNA test that was never wrong. Everything was fine. More than fine. Everything was as it should’ve been.
“Careful, it’s cold,” he said as he fed me one spoonful of ice cream.
Much too brave, I swallowed it whole and got instant brain freeze. Krampus laughed, but he had the decency to pass me a fresh cup of mulled wine to soothe my pain. I had to eat the rest of the dessert like this: one spoonful of ice cream, one sip of mulled wine. By the time dinner was over, I was pleasantly tipsy.
“Now what?” I asked, as Krampus started clearing the table.
He hesitated before answering me. “Are you tired?”
“Very.”
After the hearty meal I’d had, all I could think of was sleep. But I was a married woman now.
“Oh. There’s a... tradition for the first night of marriage. It can wait until tomorrow.”
“No, it’s okay. If it’s tradition, then we must respect it. Like with the mask.”
I was truly hoping my words would make him backtrack and admit there were no traditions involved in anything he was telling me. He didn’t.
“All right,” he said. “I will be gentle.”
Chapter Nine
Krampus
