Zelda was a bit more eager than Ros had expected—in retrospect, the witch thought, she ought to have held on to the package until that point in the talk.

"It is designed to be worn by your husband when you engage in intercourse—that is," Ros clarified, taking care to meet Zelda's eye, "the marital act." Sex was a perfectly normal act, and too many young ladies went into marriage seeing it as something almost taboo, though that did not quite eliminate Roslyn's discomfort in that moment. "It goes over the phallus, the part of his anatomy that most clearly differentiates men from women, and collects his seed so that you do not. It is the reason," she added slyly, "that Ross and I might be as affectionate as we like without Idris and Rhiannon ending up with as many siblings as you and I."