have such a pretty way of talking," he said. "Like a princess."
"Of course I talk like a princess," she said, baffled that he would say such an obvious thing. "Since I am one, however I talk is the way a princess talks."
He raised his eyebrows in obvious mockery. What right did he have to be so hateful? She couldn't help thinking back over the conversation to see what he could possibly have thought was unprincesslike in her words. Was it because she had spoken of a man lying down? She hadn't said anything about lying down with somebody, had she? Wherever he came from, they must be such prudes, to be so fussy about a man's nakedness and take offense at mere words.
She felt the warmth of exertion radiating from his body. His bare skin was so close to her, and yet he hardly smelled at all. And he was taller than she had realized. She was uncommonly tall for a woman, and she didn't even come up to his shoulder. In fact, she was almost eye-to-eye with the nipples on his chest. Which, she noticed, were shriveled with the cold. The breeze was picking up, too, and his skin was mottled and seemed to have a bluish cast. Again she thought of the clothing she had denied him.
She reached down, took hold of his hand, and started leading him into the village.
At once he pulled back, fighting her like a donkey that didn't want to carry its burden.
"What?" she demanded.
"I'm naked!" he said.
"Yes, you stone-skulled ninny, that's why I'm taking you to my father's house, so you can get out of the wind!"
"Can't you go fetch clothes for me?"
"Am I your servant? You're my betrothed - would you leave me to enter the village alone, with you cowering in the woods, not even seriously injured?" She yanked his arm and began dragging him on. She glanced over her shoulder and saw, to her shame, that he was cupping his genitals with his other hand like a toddler who had just learned to play with himself. Was he really that determined to make himself utterly ridiculous?
"Stop that!" she hissed at him. "Stop handling yourself!"
He rolled his eyes in obvious exasperation, but he obeyed and uncupped himself. But he also pulled his hand away from hers, and walked beside her, refusing to follow her or to be dragged along. Good - he was asserting his right as her husband to walk beside her, without claiming to be her lord and walk ahead.
As soon as she was recognized, women began coming out of their houses and children began to gather in the lane, shouting and cheering and jumping up and down. Some of the more eager boys and girls ran on ahead to her father's house, so her father was waiting for her at the door when she arrived.
Tears streaming down his face, King Matfei embraced and kissed her. Only after many such hugs and kisses did he finally give any notice to the naked man beside her.
"King Matfei, my father, here is the man who crossed the chasm and blinded the bear and kissed me to waken me from the spell."
If Father noticed that she had used the word mozhu instead of vitez - man instead of knight - he gave no sign of it. He simply took the cloak from his own back and placed it over the man's shoulders.
Naturally, the oaf began shivering almost at once. Naked, he doesn't shiver; put a warm cloak on him, and he acts like it's snowing. Was he determined to look like a fool?
"Come inside, come inside," said the king. "The man who brings me my daughter from the Widow's power will always be honored in my house. But you must tell me your name before you come inside."
The man hesitated, as if he didn't even know his own name, before finally saying, "Ivan."
Ivan, the name of the Fourth Evangelist, the one beloved of the Lord. What was a Jew doing with a name like that?
"Ivan," said Father, "you have brought joy to my house and hope to my people here today. Come inside, for this is now your house and your kingdom; as God is my witness, you shall have nothing but good from me and mine."
"Thank you, sir," he said. Did he not know a guest-pledge was expected from him in return?
But Father paid no heed to the lapse in courtesy, and led the man inside.