"When do you sleep?"
"Sleep is for people without flour deliveries at four in the morning."
"That sounds awful."
"It's peaceful, actually. Just me and the dough and the ovens. No one asking me to organize things or hang garlands or rescue their husbands from trees."
"Hey!" Mr. Ironwell protested. "I was helping!"
"You were decorating the tree with yourself, Harold," his wife said.
"That's still helping. I was very festive."
After dinner, the gathering moved to the parlor, where someone had produced a fiddle and people were making noises about dancing.
"Oh no," Alaric muttered.
"Oh yes," Marianne said, grinning at his expression. "Village dancing. It's like London dancing but with more enthusiasm and less skill."
"That sounds terrifying."
"It is. Want to escape?"
"Desperately."
"Come on. I know a way out through the kitchen."
She grabbed his hand, casual, unthinking, and pulled him through the crowd. Her hand was warm and flour-rough and fit oddly well in his. Not that he was noticing. He was simply observing. Scientifically.
The kitchen was empty, the staff having joined the others, and Marianne led him out the back door into the snow-quiet night.
"Better?" she asked, releasing his hand.
"Much." He tried not to notice the loss of warmth but failed. "Though won't they notice we're gone?"
"Oh, they'll notice. There shall be gossip by morning."
"Doesn't that bother you?"
She shrugged. "There's always gossip. Last week, everyone was convinced I was secretly courting the butcher because I ordered extra lamb."
"Were you?"
"Have you seen our butcher? He's seventy and believes bathing weakens the constitution."
"Ah."
"Besides, I needed the lamb for a large order. But try explaining that to Mrs. Martin."
They stood in the kitchen garden, snow falling softly around them. The noise from the inn was muffled, distant, like something from another world.
"Can I ask you something?" Marianne said.
"You've been asking me things all evening."
"Something serious."
"As opposed to our very frivolous discussion of apple seed poisoning?"
