Chapter 7 – A Christmas Feast

"We're on our own for our Christmas feast tonight," Elsa said as Bern walked with her towards the kitchens in search of something to eat. "Every other year, we've had a huge Christmas feast prepared and hardly anyone to eat it, so I told Gerda to not even worry about leaving us something to eat."

"You know what happens if you don't feed Kristoff, don't you? You're living dangerously, Elsa," Bern told her.

He made her laugh, those bright blue eyes looking up at him, ethereal in their beauty, with that whimsical sprig of holly still decorating her pale braid. He glanced away after only a second, afraid his gaze would linger on her red lips if he looked at her too long. Elsa thought he was candid, but there were some things he knew better than to let show.

"Can I light the fire, Bern?" Olaf asked. When Bern nodded, Olaf struck a match and lit the fire in the fireplace, and then stuck another match into the stove to heat up the pot of hot chocolate.

"I'm not much of a cook, but I can manage toast and cheese," Bern said, taking the toasting forks down from the hooks. "Could you look for bread and cheese?"

Either the toasting forks were too short or the fire was too big for making toast – Bern kept backing away from the fire and turning his head to avoid the heat. Elsa finally took the toasting fork from him. She stepped close to the fire and held the bread over the coals towards the back until the toast was golden, then set it on a plate.

"You really don't feel the fire?" Bern asked.

"No, I don't," Elsa replied, setting another piece of bread on the toasting fork. "Cold has never bothered me either."

"I can feel it!" Olaf said. He stood next to the fire until his face started to droop, then dashed off to a cool corner of the kitchen with his snow flurry and stood there until his snow firmed up. "I love heat!"

Bern looked from one to the other, trying to puzzle something out. Olaf and Elsa were connected; they had similar likes and dislikes, and yet Olaf could feel heat and even start to melt, while Elsa couldn't. He wished she hadn't told him not to touch her, because he wanted to ask if he could take her hand just to see if it was getting hotter from the flames, and she was simply failing to feel it. Suddenly, he realized the danger Elsa was in.

"Let me have the toasting fork, Elsa," he said. Without waiting for a reply, he took it from her and stepped between her and the fire.

She gave him a puzzled look at his brusque behavior, stepping back from the fire to avoid stepping on his feet. Bern stepped back to a more comfortable distance from the fire, which forced Elsa even further away from the flames.

"If you can't feel heat, you don't know where a safe distance is," Bern explained. "You could catch your skirts on fire."

"I couldn't possibly get burned," Elsa said.

"Then let's avoid it for my sake. I would never recover if I had to watch your skirts go up in flames," Bern said. He slid the bread off the toasting fork onto a plate. "You go ahead and eat. I'll deal with the fireplace."

"I told you if we waited long enough, they'd do the cooking," Kristoff said as he and Anna came into the kitchen.

"We wondered if you two would turn up!" Bern greeted them. Kristoff raised his eyebrows and jerked his head towards Elsa, who was hugging Anna and examining her ring. Bern returned a sheepish smile and hoped Kristoff wouldn't say anything embarrassing.

"What a beautiful concert!" Anna said to them. "Bern, I didn't know you played the piano! And listening to Elsa sing gave me goose bumps. Beautiful!"

"Where were you?" Bern asked them.

"In the receiving parlor across from the ballroom," Kristoff said.

"We shall not ask what you were doing in there," Bern said drily.

"We were talking about breathing," Kristoff said primly.

"And your conclusion?" Bern asked.

"It's important, so I should do what I need to do in order to breathe regularly," Kristoff answered, giving Anna a one-armed hug and a look of sheer adoration.

"I shall refrain from saying 'I told you so,'" Bern said.

"And to thank you for that, I won't hit you with another snowball," Kristoff replied.

"I shall refrain from pointing out that there isn't any snow in here," Bern said.

"I could throw Olaf at you," Kristoff replied.

Olaf looked indignant.

"I'm here too, Bern," Elsa said.

"Throw a snowball at him, Elsa," Anna whispered loudly.

Elsa said, "I'm not sure why I would want to throw a snowball at Bern."

"Do you need a reason?" Kristoff asked. "How about pitching one at him for thinking we're going to have toast for Christmas dinner?"

"We did the cooking; we chose the menu," Bern said loftily.

"Fine, I'll do the cooking." Kristoff went to the larder, then the cold room. Sliced ham, plum pudding, lingonberry jam, flatbread, goat cheese, yogurt, eggs, onions, carrots and potatoes piled up on the trestle table. He set two skillets on the stove and cracked eggs into a bowl, adding salt, pepper, cheese and milk before whisking them and adding vegetables. He put them all to work and within thirty minutes, Kristoff had produced Christmas dinner.

"It is nice to have you around," Elsa told him as she piled up a plate of food.

"Thanks."

"Are you going to be around more often now that you're engaged?" Elsa asked him.

"Yes and no," Kristoff said.

"What delightful ambiguity," Elsa replied.

"Yes, I'll be in the castle more often because Gustav wants me to start attending classes with Anna to learn history and work harder on reading and writing. He said he'd talk to Captain Torvin and Lieutenant Moyes about my schedule. I still will be spending time in the mountains though," Kristoff said.

"When did Gustav tell you that?" Anna asked him.

"I went to see him at his estate last week to ask his permission to propose to you," Kristoff said, adding more slices of ham to his plate.

"You did?" Anna said.

"Wow," Kristoff shook his head at the memory.

"Tough conversation?" Bern asked.

"I thought I'd be there an hour. You'll notice I was gone overnight," Kristoff said. "Gustav is thorough. I think it takes less effort to write a trade agreement than to work out what exactly I'm supposed to do as Anna's husband. His son-in-law found me afterwards and put me back together. Apparently, that's just Gustav, and he put them all through that."

Anna giggled.

"And now I'm going to be in classes with him!" Kristoff sighed.

"I get to teach some of those," Bern commented. "Before he left for Christmas, Gustav asked me to pull together some lessons about economics and foreign economies for Anna."

"Doesn't that sound fun," Kristoff said, rolling his eyes.

"It is, actually," Bern said, taking a second helping of fried potatoes and launching into his favorite subject. "Economics is a balancing act. Every contributor is working towards the goal of meeting needs for others, and getting their own needs met. If something gets out of balance, either because there is too much of one thing, or not enough of another, it can send ripples through the economy. Big enough ripples can bring down an entire country. Wars and military endeavors get all the attention from history because they're more dramatic, but countries live and die on economics. Economics is much more important to citizens than an army."

"When you put it that way, it does sound interesting," Kristoff admitted, piling up his plate for a third time.

"Because it's you, I'll start with ice," Bern went on. "Have you ever wondered how that ice you haul affects Arendelle's economy? It's closely tied to agricultural production, especially livestock, because we can't export food without putting it on ice."

"I could upset the economy if I started producing ice for free, couldn't I?" Elsa asked. "It wouldn't just put the ice harvesters out of business. What else would happen, Bern?"

"You wouldn't put us out of business," Kristoff objected. "You'd still need us to haul it, unless you're going to make deliveries yourself. Cutting ice is only part of our job."

"Good point, Kristoff. You're smarter than you look. It will be interesting to see what you do with an education," Bern said. "Delivery is as important as production to a smooth economy. The smoother the economy, the more money changes hands and the more prosperity a country experiences."

"Ack!" Anna cried. "Stop! It's Christmas! If you want prosperity, go make your fortune tomorrow!"

"He's not talking about himself, Anna. If you told Bern where he could find a bushel of diamonds, his only thought would be the good of Arendelle," Kristoff said.

"Oh, please!" Anna said, "unless you're already that wealthy."

"Until my mother devises a plan to disinherit me, yes I am. Olaf, consider yourself thrown at Kristoff. Go jump on his head until he stops talking," Bern said, shooting Kristoff a warning glance.

Elsa gave him a close look. "An anonymous benefactor helped us pay for this grain shipment from Lingarth, and Harold refused to say who it was. Would you know anything about that?"

"Elsa, the point of anonymity is to not know anything about that," Bern replied.

"How can your mother disinherit you? You're an only child," Kristoff said.

"Can I have more jam?" Olaf asked.

"Yes, that's a wonderful idea. Let's talk about jam," Bern said passing Olaf a jar of jam and gratefully changing the subject. "Would anyone like to hear me talk about how jam affects Arendelle's economy? Because we have to import the sugar, which contributes to our trade deficit in foodstuffs."

"I think you've got secrets," Kristoff said.

"I only keep secrets if my motives are good," Bern said. "Let's go back to jam."

"Olaf, didn't you buy some jam today?" Elsa asked. "Where is it?"

"It's gone. I shared it with my friends," Olaf answered, scraping a spoon in the jar of jam.

"Which friends?" Elsa asked him.

"Anyone who wanted jam was my friend," Olaf said, sucking on the spoon.

"I think I can turn that comment into an economics lesson about the elastic nature of demand," Bern said reflectively.

"I'm not only sentient, I'm economic too!" Olaf bragged.

"Kristoff, do you mind if I ask how long you'd been planning such a public proposal?" Elsa asked. "It was such a delightful thing to watch, but I admit I'm a bit surprised that you wanted it to be so public."

At the reminder of the proposal, Anna sighed happily, resting her chin on her hand and gazing at Kristoff.

"I planned it for at least two minutes before I did it," Kristoff said. "There was no place to get any privacy today anyway. Then I thought that if everyone in the village heard Anna say yes to me, I'd stop getting so many proposals myself."

Elsa couldn't help laughing at Kristoff's exasperated expression. Bern got caught between laughing and swallowing and started to choke. He took a swig of hot chocolate to try and get it down, which made it worse because it was too hot.

"Are you going to be all right?" Elsa asked him.

Bern shook his head, still coughing.

Elsa held her hand above Bern's mug of hot chocolate. The steam went from lazily drifting into the air to funneling straight into Elsa's palm. She caught the heat, then turned her hand upward, releasing the steam.

"It's cool now," Elsa told him.

Bern gulped down his drink and managed to stop coughing.

"What did you just do?" Anna asked.

"If I'd simply frozen his mug, then the mug would have been cold but it still would have taken time to work the cold through the drink. What I just did pulled the heat out of the drink itself," Elsa said, looking at her hand in surprise.

"How does that work?" Anna asked.

"Cold isn't really its own sensation," Elsa explained. "It's the absence of heat. Heat can't keep to itself and tolerate a space that isn't hot. It's like water. If there's a channel leading downhill into a pool, the water has to follow it; it can't decide to stay where it is. Cold is like carving out a pool for heat. I focused the cold, and it drew out the heat just like a downhill stream draws the water down. Heat can't stay away from cold any more than water can refuse to flow downhill."

"How long have you known that?" Bern asked her, recovered now.

"I've done it before. It's how I broke the gauntlets that Prince Hans put me in, and I once broke a sword blade by drawing all the heat out – if you draw all the heat out of something, it becomes brittle and breaks easily. I didn't know how to explain it until just now, though," Elsa admitted.

"You stood next to the fire and you didn't put it out," Bern said.

"I wasn't focusing the cold when I was by the fireplace," Elsa replied. "I had to think about doing it."

"It's like you've been noticing for months now, Elsa. If you love someone, you can use your power to help them!" Anna gushed. "Whoops! Did I say that out loud?"

Elsa blushed all the way to her hairline.

"I'm going to wash dishes," Bern announced, hastily scooping up a pile of plates and leaving the table.

"I'm not done eating yet," Kristoff objected.

Bern lifted the sluice gate and the sink filled with water. He filled a basin and put it on the stove to heat. He was blushing as hard as Elsa and hoping he was far enough away from the fire and candles for anyone to notice. Anna brought over the silver, along with an apologetic smile and shrug.

"Things don't seem as frosty as they were earlier," Anna whispered.

"Anna, she's sitting just a few feet away," Bern whispered back.

Anna sighed. "Fine. But just so you know, I want my children to have cousins their same age to play with."

"Anna!" Bern hissed, his ears on fire. "Go kiss Kristoff or something."

"I'm telling Gustav you gave us permission," Anna giggled.

"Get out of here before you get me in any more trouble!"

Anna laughed all the back to the table where she helped Elsa put the food away.

By the time he'd finished the dishes, Bern had regained his composure and dared to join the other three at the table, where Kristoff was still drinking hot chocolate.

Elsa watched Kristoff until she saw him take a mouthful of hot chocolate, and then she said, "We really should go, Bern. They haven't even touched each other for an hour. We should reward their restraint and give them some privacy."

Kristoff dropped his head to the table onto his folded arms, choking and coughing on hot chocolate.

"Elsa!" Anna howled. "I can't believe you said that!"

Elsa chewed on the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. "It's Bern's influence. I'm going to try and be more candid from now on."

"Don't you blame that comment on me!" Bern said to her.

Elsa gave up chewing on her cheek and laughed instead. "Let's go, Bern. Come on, Olaf."

When they were out of earshot of the kitchen, Bern said, "I saw you time that comment to choke Kristoff."

She smiled at him. "Payback for when he nearly choked you."

Bern laughed with her. "Thank you."

"No, thank you, Bern. Thank you for today. And thank you for the grain. There's nothing I would have wanted more this Christmas than to be able to help out my people," Elsa said.

Bern didn't deny it. "Merry Christmas, Elsa."

He bowed and left her at the bottom of the grand staircase, cutting through the ballroom to get to the spiral staircase that was the shortest way to reach the Councilors' wing of the castle. It really had been a very Merry Christmas for him.