The next morning was a tense one, even though it should have been anything but. Lucas sat there, smiling as wrapped gifts were plucked from the pile and handed out, but really, his mind was a million miles away as he thought about last night and tried to figure if Gerwin was looking at him more sourly than usual.

Had the old man seen anything? Lucas wondered.

He was actually grateful that the butler had chosen the moment that he and Danaria had started making out to start walking up the stairs. That meant that the thing that never should have happened certainly didn’t have the chance to go any further than it should. Still, Lucas thought they’d separated an appropriate distance before the old man had reached the upper parlor to allay any suspicion; still, the way he looked at Lucas certainly implied that he knew what had happened even if he hadn’t uttered a word.

While that feeling might have been Lucas’s guilty conscience, the way that Danara was looking at him certainly wasn’t. She was looking at him like a love struck girl, which, he supposed, she probably was. She was twenty, but caged up in the house like she was while her brother waited to find the best noble to marry her off to, she might as well have been a school girl with her first completely in appropriate crush, and it was targeted right at Lucas.

That was his fault, of course. He’d gone and kissed her. When she’d kissed him in the middle of their argument about drugs a few months back, it had been because her emotions had overcome her, but this time it had been him that overwhelmed her, and he wasn’t sure what he was going to do about that now. Still, he forced himself to pull away from that thought as Adin unwrapped the small present Lucas had bought for him.

“Dice!” the man cried out, feigning a disappointed expression that failed to fully suppress his smile. “I thought I told you that cards were the preferred weapon of a nobleman?”

“Well, just in case you ever want to slum it, I got you a very noble set of dice,” Lucas said with a smile. They were expensive, that was for sure. Both of them were made with ivory, and the pips were inset pieces of onyx. They’d been carved by hand, and polished to within an inch of their life. Their balance was almost perfect, too.

It had been the second most expensive gift he’d purchased, though if he added up all the money he’d handed out to the staff and servants as thanks for their hard work it would have been the third. Kar’gandin and Hura’gh’s gifts had been cheap by comparison. Only Danaria’s hairpin had been more expensive.

Lucas had paid a jeweler to make a pin of gold and sapphires shaped like a soaring bird, in honor of her secret power. She’d been practically overwhelmed by it when she’d undone the brown butcher paper that had hidden it and given him a hug so hard that it had been almost inappropriate.

In return he’d gotten a new belt from Adin with a place to hide lock picks in the buckle, and some fine leather gloves that were perfect for the season from Danaria, and a set of delicate brass measuring scales from Kar’gandin. Hura’gh didn’t celebrate this, or any other human holidays. Neither did dwarves as it turned out, “But I thought you could use a better way to measure out the small ingredients down there instead of just guessing, and my cousin had this one for sale cheap, so I thought it was appropriate.”

Lucas could appreciate that logic, even if it was a touch rude to tell someone you got them something because it was on sale. Neither of them care enough to join everyone else for the festivities in the main house though. It was a pragmatic choice, since the Torvins were expected to attend for the feast later that evening unless the weather got worse. He would have gladly ducked out of that too, if he could, but he couldn’t imagine the sort of blizzard he’d need to say he couldn’t make it from the cider house to the main house.

“Not as appropriate as this, though,” the dwarf laughed, holding up Lucas’s gift. “Ye’ve outdone yerself her boy. It’s so good I could almost believe it was made by dwarves. Ye’ll have te tell me where ye picked it up.”

“No, I couldn’t possibly. It’s an old family recipe,” Lucas said, very seriously, shaking his head before he burst out laughing. “Nah, I’m just fucking with ya. It’s an easy trick. I’ll show you how it’s done one night here real soon. You can show your cousin… or you can keep it to yourself and we can sell it to him by the barrel full.”

“Now yer talkin’” the dwarf said, roaring with an approving laughter.

Sadly, as much as he might have liked to, he couldn’t stay out here all day, though it did was give him plenty of time to decide what he was going to do about Danaria on the slow walk back to the house. Today, more than usual, it was ful of distractions, and he needed them. He might visit the kitchen to check on the preparations before the cook shooed him away, or play a few games of dice with Adin to pass the time, but all of those activities were overshadowed by Danaria’s presence, and Lucas had no idea what to do.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

On some level he’d been attracted to the woman for months, but he knew that the right thing to do was to leave her at arms reach from his world. That worked of course, until he had one drink too many and reached out to grab her.

What am I supposed to do now? He wondered. Do I let her down easy? Do I see where this goes? Hell, in this world I’m probably supposed to talk to her brother about a dowry or some shit.

He didn’t know, but not knowing wasn’t going to make it go away. So, it spent the day hanging over him like an unwelcome guest at their harvest festival celebration.

The celebration seemed to be something like a combination of Thanksgiving and Christmas, at least the way those were supposed to be celebrated. For the last decade his holiday meals had alternated between fast food and stove top stuffing, but this was the real deal.

There was a giant turkey, slowly roasting on a spit in the kitchen. A number of smaller pies and dishes were also baking. The whole thing was sort of a, thank-the-gods-the-harvest-was-good hopefully-the-winter-isn’t-too-harsh sort of thing the way it had been explained to him. It was about ending the year on a high note, even if the new year was still a good way off. That made a great deal of sense to him when central heating wasn’t exactly an option.

Still, it was a nice celebration. He certainly appreciated it. When he’d fallen from the sky into this world a couple of years ago he’d ended up the apprentice to an alcoholic alchemist that was more of a bootlegger than a scientist. Still, Lucas could have appreciated that mindset if the man wasn’t so intent on beating him. So, back then, he really hadn’t had much of a chance to explore the holidays and feasts his neighbors and the upper crust enjoyed.

Now, though, one prison break and gallons of drugs later he was part of that upper crust, and he had to admit it was kind of nice. It was cushy even, especially sitting on one of the overstuffed couches, watching the snow fall while he sat by the fire.

This winter, there would be no scrounging for food or firewood. There would just be delicious food, a celebration or two, and all the time in the world to play with his experiments in the lab. Thanks to the harried and feverish efforts of his gatherers, he had all kinds of odds and ends he normally wouldn’t bother to seek out. That meant that he could try all sorts of new recipes.

Who knows, he thought to himself. Maybe I’ll even find something worth mass-producing that isn’t addictive. That would make for a hell of a New Year's resolution.

Soon enough his time goofing off and enjoying the festivities was over as their guests started to arrive. This wasn’t intended to be a business meeting, at least in whole. So, there were people from all over that were invited to join them at the house for dinner. That list was a long one, and though the main table had been lengthened in the dining hall, several more tables were laid out in the main hall.

The gues list included nobles from neighboring families, important people from the villages that owed allegiance to the Parin’s including Lucas’s favorite herbalist and tailor. It also included the more important of the lieutenants, and tradesmen they’d done business with. The year had been a good one for the Parins, and though not everyone in the room knew exactly why that was, it would have been considered very rude to watch a family soar to such heights, and not find a way to give back to those that had played a part in it.

Lucas spent as much time as possible in the main hall, greeting the those that were considered commoners. It wasn’t even just to avoid his soon-to-be in-laws, either. He just liked spending time with them.

All too soon though, he had to abandon the kiddy table and join the important people at the main one. Adin had set it up so that he sat at the head of the table like the patriarch of the family he styled himself with his soon to be wife at his left hand and his father-in-law at his right. He’d set Lucas’s place at the foot of the table, but Lucas didn’t mind that at all. Honestly, since he had everyone at the other end of the table under his thumb already, he kinda felt like he was already at the head of the table. Mostly he was just happy to sit with Danaria and some of their less important neighbors. They made much better company than the Torvin’s, who still found time and reason to scowl at him now and then, even on a day like today.

Lucas was trying to decide how many little blue candies he should remove from their present before he gave it to them, when the servants finally started to bring in the dishes he’d been smelling for hours. After that, socialization took a back seat to eating in a well planned gourmet ballet. First came the soup and the breads. This was followed by something resembling a green bean casserole, and small meat pies. It was only after that, that the turkey followed; it was so large it had to be wheeled in on a cart, and the way that one wheel squeaked, Lucas could hear that cart rolling up and down the halls for the next hour, making sure everyone was fed before coming back around for seconds.

As it turned out, the fantasy world had not in fact invented stuffing yet, so Lucas added that to his to-do list, right up there with hot sauce. By the time the desert course arrived he was resolute; he wasn’t just going to make potions and drugs, he was going to fix the gaps in all this delicious food, or he was going to die trying.