“Hungry,” she said flatly. “I am hungry. I have not had anything to eat since early this morning, and you just let the easiest things to cook fly out the window, now you're telling me we're not eating the lamb or goat either.”
Rosmerta shook her head in mild wonderment, not entirely certain what to make of this god sitting on the floor offering her milk. Milk! As though she were a babe. Milk was for wee ones and making cheese. Who drank milk after the age of four? But she took the mug, because it was offered. Because refusing it would be more rude than even she could conceive of being. Because it would be something in her stomach at least.
“I know who you are.” She made that announcement, then paused to take two large swallows of the milk. It was creamy and rich, and actually quite tasty. But it still felt a bit odd to be drinking it at her age. “You're the horned lech that gets himself a new bride every year, after wearing out the old one. But I'm not like the others, and the only reason I am here is because...”
Actually, she didn't want to tell him why she was here. What her parents had threatened to make her go through with this. To say that he was the better option that had been placed before her was an understatement, and she was still both hurt and angry over the ultimatum. But those were personal things that she didn't want to tell someone that she didn't even know, let alone somebody she was beginning to think she would actively dislike.
“I'm Rosmerta,” she finally answered. “And I know damn well you don't have to bed me in the dirt under the stars to make the crops grow. I make the crops grow. I make the cow give milk. I give fertility just fine without all this nonsense. And if you think you're going to get close to me by helping me take the braids out, I'm telling you right now the same thing I already told you, I'm not consummating anything with you, you dirty pervert.”
There. There it was. Out there on the table. She disapproved of all this pageantry which was really nothing more than a way for him to whore his way through girls that didn't know how to stand up for themselves. Now he knew just what she thought of that practice. How could her parents do this to her?