But if given the choice, they clearly wished to have their skirts tossed by a king.

It was ludicrous.

Mars.

Chopping wood.

For an audience!

It was more ludicrous Mars allowed it.

I sat on the edge of a chesterfield and turned my attention to pouring tea.

“Come, Father, before it gets cold,” I urged.

“You should come,” he replied, moving my way. “Home,” he finished. “At least for dinner. If that barbarian wishes to sit at our table, he is my daughter’s husband, I’ll allow it. But seeing as he enjoys attention so very much, letting you spend time in your home with your mother and father, it will give him the time to have as much attention as he likes without the distraction of his wife.”

I miraculously kept my hand from shaking as I offered him his cup and saucer after he’d seated himself across from me, and I did this murmuring, “I wish you wouldn’t call Mars a barbarian.”

“He’s shirtless outside, Silence,” he declared.

“Chopping wood is onerous work. Even the men at Bower Manor take off their shirts when they do it.”

“Not when I’m home.”

This was, thinking back, correct.

“And not,” he continued, “now as I know they’re doing it.”

“His people do not wear very many clothes,” I reminded him.

“And the man crossed the Dellish border some time ago, daughter,” he reminded me. “We put up with his idiosyncrasies when we were in his country. He’s in ours and should show some respect.”

I finished pouring my own cup and sat back with it, sighing.

“And it’s chilly out there,” Father continued. “Even chopping wood.”

I could not imagine my father ever chopped wood, thus he would not know the effort it would take or how that might fight back a chill.

But he was not wrong about the cold.

After a short warm spell, the nip had set in.

At first, this was delightful, cuddling with Mars in our tent as we journeyed here.

And then it continued to be delightful, cuddling with Mars in front of the fire, or in bed before we slept, after we arrived here.

Then it became less delightful.

We cuddled, and Mars kissed me and embraced me and did things to me with his mouth and his fingers that were extraordinary.

Once he gave me a climax, however, he’d then hold me, this lasting less and less time, before, eventually, he began to sigh heavily, as if he was annoyed, and if it was in the night, he would turn away from me, but if it was in the morning, he would get out of bed and leave me.

Marriage, I was finding, was not a’tall easy.

Marriage to Mars, I was finding, was like being in a carriage with the shades drawn on a ride on a very bumpy road when you could not see the dips until you felt them.