Lord Dronovic rode his horse over the rise, an island with little more than an old tower on it greeted him.  Hardly a tree broke up the expanse of sea, and sky.  That tower was all that could be used as a beacon to find one's way.  He might have received land for his wife’s dowry but it never meant accommodations or income.  Nor did it mean people.  The land was desolate for two days ride in any direction, his land now.  What had his father gotten him into with this arrangement?  A small parcel of land on the sea was doubled now, no one exactly sure when the property had come into the family in the two hundred years since the first had stepped on these shores.  But when the opportunity came to expand it with a generous dowry from the King of the Orkney’s, his father had taken the offer quickly enough.

“I hear she is a fair woman, Dronovic.”  His cousin Rurik murmured as he took in the sight.

“The little I saw her at the wedding, yes, I remember her as such.  I’ve hardly said two words to her and it’s been how many years?  I can hardly remember anymore.  I’ll need something to make up for this dowry father thought was so valuable.”  They had both been little more than children when the vows were said.

 Even though it was visible, it still took them three hours to reach the tower and the shelter it would provide.  As they finally neared, it wasn’t as desolate as it seemed.  There were people everywhere, at least seventy-five of them.  All fair skinned, Dronovic could only guess they had come with his wife.  When you married a Princess of the Orkney’s, which meant Vikings not so long before, that was the only guess to arrive at.  He, himself, had some one hundred with him.  Many related, to some degree, but all barely filling their stomachs on the land they had on his father’s estates.

“Princess Jódís.”  Dronovic asked the nearest man he saw.  No words, he only pointed to the largest concentration of people near the tower itself on the small island that looked like it had been flung off the mainland.  No trees and yet there was timber enough to build a bridge and that was exactly what it looked like they were doing.  The sun came out from behind the clouds and illuminated a woman’s blond hair like gold. 

She looked up quickly.  “I hope you approve of the improvements I am making, husband.”

Dronovic could only stare.  There was no way this woman was his wife.  He should have noticed that he had married a goddess.  Had it truly been so dark?  Golden blond hair hung to her knees in a large braid, her flowing mantle of dark red was thrown back leaving her tunic clinging to her curves, and what curves they were.  Pulling herself from the midst of the crowd, she met him as he dismounted.