Ice Maiden. Debra Lee Brown

are ye.” He raked his eyes over her body with a lack of tact that matched her own audacity. “Not like a woman at all.”

      She flinched at his words. “It matters not.”

      Oh, but it did. Women should be small and delicate. Submissive. A proper Christian woman wouldn’t dream of talking to a strange man. Her brash demeanor repelled him, yet his body felt strangely stirred.

      “About your bride, I mean. Once we are divorced you may go home and claim her. The dowry is all I want. It’s mine by right, by law, and I will have it.”

      He shook his head, not understanding her at all. What kind of scheme was this? “There can be no divorce. Ye are mistaken. A man weds for life.” He tried to move past her, but she stepped into his path.

      The sandy-haired youth at table shot to his feet, eyes blazing. George had guessed the lad would be trouble. No matter. George was about to snatch the dirk from Rika’s belt when Lawmaker reached up and yanked the youth back down to the bench.

      “Not always for life,” Rika said, ignoring the lad’s move. “Ask Lawmaker. He’ll tell you. Divorce is not common, but does occur among my people and suits my purpose well.”

      The woman was clearly touched. “And what purpose is that?”

      “I told you. I want my dowry—nothing more. Once we are wed, you shall acquire it for me from my father. When the silver is in my hands we’ll declare our divorce before the elders.” She shrugged. “After that, I care not what you do. Our ship will take you anywhere you wish.”

      George opened and closed his mouth. Twice. He shook his head again, as if he didn’t understand her, but every word was clear despite her strange accent.

      “Just like that,” he said.

      “Ja, just like that.”

      What she proposed was unthinkable. Outrageous. ’Twas a blasphemy against God. Did she think to use him to gain her fortune, let her think again.

      Marriage was a sacrament and, at its best, an arrangement designed to secure an alliance between clans. ’Twas not a pagan ritual to be done and undone on a whim, simply to gain the bride her coin.

      “I willna do it,” he said.

      “Fine.” She stretched her lips into a thin, tight line. “I hope you enjoy our island, Scotsman, for you’ll be here a very long time.” She turned her back on him and marched toward the table, where all eyes were now trained on him.

      “A lifetime, perhaps,” she called over her shoulder, and didn’t miss a step.

      Chapter Two

      The Scot was stubborn beyond belief.

      For days Rika and her people watched, amused, as Grant worked in vain to build a seaworthy raft of driftwood and pitch and bits of rotten rope.

      She stood on the cliff overlooking the beach, her cloak pulled tight about her, and observed him. The wind whipped at his hair and the loose-fitting tunic one of the men had given him to wear. His legs were bare though booted, and she knew not how he could stand for so long in the icy water, his gaze fixed on the southern horizon.

      Winter was at its height. A thin crust of snow clung to the rocky outcrops and grass-covered moors of the island. Daylight was short, and no sooner did the sun rise each day then the wind waxed with a vengeance. She turned her face skyward and breathed of the salt and dampness.

      All she knew was the sea, what it gave up and what it kept. As she fixed her eyes on Grant she found herself wondering what Scotland was like in the spring.

      “He’s given up.”

      Rika turned at the sound of Lawmaker’s voice. “Not yet, old man. Still he believes there must be a way. I see it in the set of his shoulders and in the way he clenches his fists at his sides.”

      Lawmaker smiled and spared a backward glance to the sheep he tended on the moor.

      Rika slipped her arm through his, as she often did, and huddled close. “You might have been right. This chieftain may not agree after all.”

      “He’ll agree,” Lawmaker said, as they watched Grant in the surf. “In his own time.”

      “Hmph.” They had precious little of that. Her patience wore thin. “He’s done naught but rage and pace the beach all this morn.”

      “With you stood here openly watching?”

      She nodded.

      “Ha!” Lawmaker shook his head. “No wonder the man’s enraged.”

      “What do you mean? I don’t understand his anger. The solution is a simple one. He has only to agree and we can move ahead with our plan.”

      “You make it sound so simple.”

      “It is.” It wasn’t, but she could see no other way.

      “Have you thought what you will do after?”

      She hadn’t, in fact. “I’ll do what I always have done—take care of you and Gunnar. Until my brother takes a wife, of course.”

      Lawmaker flicked her a sideways glance. “And what of you, Rika. Have you not thought about a husband for yourself?”

      She frowned at him. “You know well I have not. How can you suggest it knowing how my father treated my mother? And how Brodir—” she turned away and bit down hard on her lip “—what he did to me.” Her arm slid from his.

      “Had I known of Brodir’s misuse of you—”

      She raised a hand to silence him. “It’s of no import now. All is behind me. Gunnar’s freedom is what matters.”

      “Not all men are like Brodir, you know. Or your father.”

      That she could not believe. She sought Lawmaker’s eyes, prepared to make some retort, but caught him studying Grant. The Scotsman moved with purpose up the beach toward them, eyes fixed on her, his face a grim fusion of unconcealed hate and barely controlled rage.

      “He is,” she said. “Just like them. I see it in the way he looks at me.”

      Lawmaker shrugged. “The man’s out of his element, here in this place. Fair Isle is a world apart from his, and you a woman unlike any he has known, I’ll wager.”

      “Ha! So he’s made it plain each time I’ve spoken with him. This wager I shan’t take.”

      “Have you never thought to marry for love?” Lawmaker asked.

      Thor’s blood, would the old man not let the subject go? “Love.” She snorted. “An emotion for the weak of spirit. Men use it to bend women to their will. Some, to crush them. And I won’t be crushed like an insect under a man’s boot.”

      Lawmaker sighed.

      He’d heard it all before, but she cared not, and continued. “You speak to me of love, and conveniently forget that you yourself never wed. You and I are alike, old man. We need not such weaknesses.”

      “Ah, but there you are wrong. I have loved, more deeply and fiercely than you can know.” He looked into her eyes and smiled bitterly. “One day I shall tell you the story.”

      She had never seen him like this, so direct and forthcoming with his feelings. “Tell me now.”

      “Nay, for you are not ready to hear it. Besides, look—” He nodded toward the beach. “Your bridegroom comes.”

      He did come, and at a pace that caused her to take two steps back. She met Grant’s gaze and saw his rage had subsided. She hardened her heart against what remained.

      Hate. Disgust. For her.

      She felt it as keenly as she’d felt Brodir’s fist on numerous occasions. Rika knew she was not like other women,