chapter 2

As she embraced me I realised another change that I'd only dimly acknowledged: she'd gained weight during her sojourn, and a lot of weight. "Oh, Dejax, I've missed you so much," I sighed. "But look at you! What did you do to your hair?"

She smiled with a mixture of amusement and embarrassment. "It's all the fashion in Jertul right now. I was meeting with some important investors and mum insisted I should lose my Western cut to look more professional. It's very short isn't it?"

I rubbed my hand up her nape, which was cut down to bristles. But the feeling was soft and silky, velvety and alluring. I wasn't sure I liked her with this severe cut but I couldn't deny that it felt lovely. "It's far too short," I sighed. "And did you gain a little?"

I felt my cheeks flush as soon as I'd said it. It wasn't something that should be expressed, yet my ideas of propriety weren't those of a Jertulian. "I did," Dejax said proudly. "I never stopped eating when I was there. All my friends were shocked at how thin I'd got and they said I should do something to improve my figure now that my return home is so close."

"I can hardly recognise you! You look so different."

"And you look exactly as I remember you," she laughed. "I've missed you so much, every moment when I was awake I thought about you and I looked forward to my sleep when I knew you'd come to me in my dreams. And I did dream about you every night. Last night I dreamed that we were old together in a castle in Jertul at the top of a mountain, where we'd been for fifty years, but you were still beautiful and still made me ache with love. It made me cry with joy when I woke." I kissed her, light headed to be finally in the presence of my love.

We took her luggage back and headed to a restaurant. She seemed nervous and rapidly downed half of her glass of wine. "Xenia, I missed you more than I can say. I know it's only been a short time that we've known each other but I feel a connection with you that I've never felt with any other human. Our time apart convinced me that I don't want us to be separated like that again, and I can't go planning for my future in Jertul if you're not part of that future." She reached into her bag and look out a tiny leather covered box. "I hope you'd do me the honour of being my bride so that..." Her nerves got the better of her and her memory failed her.

I couldn't breathe. My chest seemed paralysed and I struggled to say anything. "Yes," I finally sighed. "I want it too!" She made a soft fluty sound and kissed me as she slipped on the ring. It was a heavy band of platinum, carved with inlaid black ornamentation and bearing a large diamond. I gasped at the extravagance.

"It's beautiful!" I whispered.

"It is," Dejax nodded, "but it's barely worthy to sit on your hand. You're the most perfect woman in the world."



I'd mentioned that I was seeing someone to my family and friends yet I'd not hinted at how serious our relationship had become, nor had I mentioned that my girlfriend was from Jertul. Now I had to explain that I was planning to marry and to leave the country where I'd spent all of my life. My parents were unhappy, mum especially. They'd read salacious tales of Jertul and were saddened to think that their only daughter would be living thousands of miles away. I assured them that I'd visit regularly, and explained that Dejax was very westernised, educated in England and returning to a very prestigious position as the director of a chemical complex.

Some of their doubts were allayed when they met Dejax. I was surprised to see that she was very nervous to meet my parents and appeared shy. Still, she was very charming and by the end of the night my parents were both taken with her. My mother tearfully asked her to promise to take care of me and I realised that she'd accepted our decision. I was elated.



Time seemed to accelerate. Dejax was extremely busy making plans for her return, yet her job also demanded long hours. Planning our long term future seemed terribly complicated and it was Dejax who suggested that we should get married at a simple ceremony in Britain.

"The marriage wouldn't be recognised in Jertul," she explained. "But it would be nice if we had a ceremony for your family, a celebration to allow them to say their farewells. I know how hard it is for them to see you go, for you too."

I agreed that this would be a fitting way to take my leave.

"Then we can plan a ceremony in Jertul without rushing. If we go for a traditional wedding it would take a bit of time to put together. But that's probably for the best. I'll be really busy with getting the business off the ground in the first few months. Once the plant is up and running we'll have our ceremony.

"I'd love you to be a traditional Jertulian bride," she whispered, overcome with a romantic anticipation. "But there are some things about the ceremony that you might find hard. I need to know you'd be able to accept..."

"I do, my darling," I sighed. "I want to do anything that makes you happy. It's strange, I keep imagining myself in Jertul, completely lost, except that you're there as my guide. You'll make me gain weight, won't you?"

"You'll be my gamtre," she smiled. "Those are little chubby ground squirrels that live in the foothills of the mountains. We call a cute girl a gamtre, and that's what I want you to be. A gamtre has to be plump and soft."

The idea still made me feel uncomfortable, yet somehow there was something intensely romantic about letting my love change me into her vision of a Jertulian bride. "Please can we wait till I leave before I gain weight?"

She nodded. "You'd feel bad in front of your friends if you were fat, wouldn't you? OK, we can wait. You'll get a taste for Jertulian food and even if you wanted to you couldn't stay skinny."

I blushed as I imagined being fat. "You'll still think I'm pretty?"

"Oh, my little gamtre! You forget, I'm a child of Jertul. It makes me ache with anticipation to think of you with a lot of soft flesh. It's the most beautiful thing I can imagine. I have a crazy idea, but you'll probably hate it. You can say no if you wish..." I nodded, eager to hear her thoughts.

"You said you imagine yourself lost in your new country, but with me as your guide. What if I don't tell you anything about the ceremony? You just have to passively accept what's necessary to become my bride."

I giggled nervously. "You make it sound scary! Is there anything awful that will be done to me?"

"Well, I suppose it's only fair that I make you aware that one of the traditional things is to tattoo brides."

I gasped. "We'd get tattoos."

"Well, no..." she said sheepishly. "Only the inferior bride is tattooed. Oh, you hate this, don't you? We should go for a modern ceremony."

"No, Dejax. I know this means a lot to you. Where would I be tattooed?"

"The idea was that you'd accept without knowing!" she laughed.

"But a tattoo? I didn't know I was signing up for that."

She kissed me. "Would my gamtre be tattooed for me? Would she have a mark that meant she was mine forever?" I nodded.

"I'd do anything for you."

"Then make me a promise that you'll not try to find out anything about Jertulian brides. I want you to be my little girl lost, to be led to your destiny by me."

"It really scares me though," I admitted. "You'd really turn me into a fat, tattooed woman?"

I could sense her arousal growing. This was deeply erotic for her. "You can't show your fear. You must be passive. That passivity is something that is treasured in a wife. To allow herself to be made a bride while she shows no emotion. You need to practice that for me. There's a saying, the girl who can orgasm with a plain face."

I laughed incredulously. "So you want me to look bored while we make love."

"Oh God! Yes," she sighed. "You have no idea how I would love that. In the west girls fake orgasms to please their boyfriends. In Jertul they fake not having orgasms."

And that evening she made love to me and I lay impassively as she stared into my face, accepting every instruction she issued. I found I could soften my face so as to show as little of my emotional state as possible and even as I orgasmed the only outward sign was a long, soft sigh.

"Oh, sweet lord, did you just cum?" Dejax asked. I could only make a grunt as I tried to contain the joy I still felt. She squealed with excitement and I realised that my self control had aroused her to the point where she was climaxing. I wanted to scream my delight but I merely let my head fall to the side, which only seemed to intensify Dejax's orgasm. I felt weirdly powerful as I took control of my emotions, particularly as I knew I had a way to deepen Dejax's pleasure. To see her delight meant that I would strive to perfect my control.

And I discovered that she liked me to maintain my neutral expression all of the time, in private and in public. I had always been easily embarrassed; Dejax said it was cute but now I would be her bride and I had to lose this mannerism, which wouldn't be looked upon well once I was a Jertulian (it still made me feel a terrible anxiety to know that soon I'd take on a new nationality, and Dejax had even suggested she'd like me to relinquish my British passport). She made me do things that induced embarrassment in me, such as complaining about a meal in a restaurant. I had to criticise every fault and ask to see the manager to repeat my objections. I'd never in my life complained, even when there were obvious faults with a meal. But now Dejax insisted that I did it calmly, maintaining my neutral face.

It was a terrible ordeal for me and by the end of it I'd broken out in a sweat. Dejax looked at me mysteriously. "Your face turned red. You need to learn not to blush. And your eyebrows move about when you're excited. In Jertul we don't do the thing western people do with their eyebrows."