Smart Wife

“God, Todd, just listen to me for once!” Rose snapped, trying not to raise her voice as she jerked her hand upward, an old habitual gesture from the days when she used to scold students in lecture halls at the University of Vienna, making them instantly shrink in their seats, and now it only earned another one of Todd’s stupidly sincere, simple chuckles.

“Oh, Rosie,” he said with a broad grin, pulling her against him with one huge arm so easily like she weighed absolutely nothing, “there you go again with your smart speeches.”

He gave a short laugh right into the top of her head, and Rose felt everything inside instantly begin to boil with helpless irritation. This enormous country idiot didn’t even understand how humiliating all of this was. Once, a single comment from her could make a graduate student stutter for half a semester, and now… now she just got hugged like some fussy wife throwing a tantrum.

“I’m not ‘making speeches,’ Todd, I’m trying to explain something obvious to you!” she shot back immediately, squirming in his arm. “It’s basic math, Todd. Like two plus two! You got cheated! Flour cannot cost that much!”

Todd chuckled quietly again, not even trying to hide his smile, and shook his head as if he was listening to an amusing child complain.

“Well of course,” he drawled with a good-natured smirk. “And how would you know that, huh? You’re not a merchant. Not a miller. And not even a man to be thinking about things like that. Better bake me some pies instead, Rosie.”

And after saying that, he even patted her shoulder like he’d just said something incredibly reasonable and caring. His heavy hand slid over the corseted bodice and brushed against the braid resting between her breasts, then Todd calmly turned back toward the wagon like the argument was already over.

Rose froze, feeling everything inside her practically trembling from humiliation.

Like it wasn’t enough that because of some stupid artifact she’d ended up in the past, became a woman, and now lived in this filthy village among people who could barely read, every single conversation, absolutely every one, ended exactly the same way: either she got interrupted, or people smiled at her like she was saying something cute and meaningless.

And before all this, she taught mathematical statistics and economic modeling at the University of Vienna, published papers in scientific journals, argued with people whose names were known across Europe, and coldly enjoyed watching men in expensive suits begin stumbling over their own words while she dismantled their arguments piece by piece during conferences. Granted, back then she’d been a man herself, but did that really change anything?

Rose slowly inhaled through her nose, trying to calm down, but instead only felt the tight corset digging harder beneath her breasts. From anger her breathing deepened, and the soft fabric of her blouse stretched unpleasantly across her breasts, which suddenly felt far too noticeable in that moment. She always felt it during moments like this. Another reminder of what she was now.

“You act like an idiot, Todd,” she hissed. “And one day because of your stupid confidence we’re going to end up with no money at all.”

Todd just waved a hand and started lifting sacks of flour as easily like they were stuffed with hay instead of heavy grain. The muscles beneath the rolled sleeves of his shirt tightened, his broad back shifted under the rough fabric of his vest, and Rose felt that irritating, almost humiliating sensation again. The way her body literally started trembling from the sight, while inside, low in her stomach, that warmth began rising again, the one she couldn’t escape no matter how hard she tried.

It was such a mesmerizing sight that Rose literally lost her train of thought for a moment. Her gaze caught on the movement of his hands, on the way Todd effortlessly hoisted another sack and tossed it onto the wagon without even changing expression. And somehow that only made it worse inside.

Rose sharply looked away like she’d been caught doing something shameful, then spat out the saliva that had gathered in her mouth during all this. Fast, angry at herself.

What the hell was even happening to her?

This was Todd. Just Todd. A huge peasant brute who mispronounced half the words he used, couldn’t read anything beyond church signs, and sincerely believed that “too much thinking is bad for women.” Rose used to despise people like him. In fact, she’d practically built her entire career on intellectually destroying exactly those kinds of arrogant idiots.

And now her body practically melted whenever he carried sacks. And it hadn’t stopped for two years now, ever since she ended up here.

“Gods…” she breathed under her breath, sharply turning toward the house.

“Hey, Todd,” came the voice of their neighbor Edd, the one who was always dumping jobs on Todd that nobody else wanted to do, “got something for you.”

Rose immediately jerked around and shot an angry glare at the neighbor.

“He’s not doing anything with you, Edd. Why don’t you go wherever the hell you were headed!”

Edd stopped right in the middle of the yard, raising his eyebrows in surprise.

“Ohhh, Todd,” he started mockingly, “what, your wife’s the boss now?”

“Pffff. Ah come on, what boss?” Todd rumbled good-naturedly while wiping flour off his hands, grinning broadly at the neighbor. “Rosie’s just hot today, that’s all. Women are like that, Edd. Especially mine.”

Rose opened her mouth to answer, but the loud laughter mixed with farting from those two brutes drowned out her words before she could even say them. And seeing Edd double over laughing while slapping his knee, while Todd merely snorted smugly, clearly enjoying his own joke, only made it worse.

“You two are unbelievably stupid,” Rose muttered, feeling her cheeks starting to burn. “I don’t even understand why I talk to either of you.”

“Because you’re my wife, Rosie,” Todd answered immediately, without even thinking, with that disarmingly simple smile that made her want to hit him and… far worse than that… keep looking at him.

Edd snorted again, wiping his nose on his sleeve.

“Oh, Todd, I swear your woman cheers me up better than a tavern.”

“Yep,” Todd snorted. “Especially when she gets angry. Just look at those puffed-up cheeks. Like back at the tavern!”

The laughter exploded even louder and Rose, despite all that stupid desire that sometimes rose inside her and that could only be soothed by intimacy with Todd, something she still refused to truly accept and kept excusing as merely “physiology,” suddenly turned around and marched toward the house, nearly breaking into a run like she was trying to escape not from them, but from her own body, which betrayed her every single time at the worst possible moment.

The two of them didn’t even seem to notice her leaving, continuing to laugh like the entire world existed solely for their entertainment, while her outburst of anger was just another familiar little village scene they could casually joke about without giving it the slightest importance.