Tanya spent time with Susan and Chloe trying to help them overcome their loss. Often when she arrived, Susan made some excuse about her responsibilities now that Joe was in Newcastle and left her with Chloe.
The stupid, stupid bugger, Tanya thought, referring to Mark.
Tanya had realised that Jason and Venus were an item when Jason came to see her to announce that he and Venus had decided to get married, 'I have just told Mum. She's thrilled. She knows and likes Venus.'
'Congratulations,' said Tanya, kissing her nephew on the cheek. 'But be careful. We must be sure Thor is comfortable with everything. We don't want to upset him in any way. I expect he will want one of us, either David or me, to formally ask for his approval and he'll certainly ask for a bride price.'
'What?'
'In some primitive societies, like The Vikings are mimicking, it is customary for the groom's family to provide gifts to the bride's family on the occasion of the marriage of a daughter. I am slightly surprised Venus hasn't mentioned the subject.'
'You mean Venus has to be paid for,' said Jason aggressively. 'Why can't we just get married like everyone else round here?' He started to leave.
'Jason, sit down and listen to me.' He had too much respect for Tanya to ignore her, so he sat glaring at her. 'I'm thrilled you and Venus are in love and are to marry. You have been to The Vikings and your actions saved us a lot of unpleasantness, so you realise things operate very differently over there than they do here. Thor will see a marriage between you, a Bower, and Venus, as an important political alliance, so we just need to be aware of that.'
'What sort of bride price are we talking about, some more solar installations or something?' asked Jason, now more calmly.
'Thor will want a bargaining process, which could take a few months. I expect that when he sees this place he'll ask for something like one hundred head of cattle.'
Jason sat there with his mouth open for a few seconds. 'Where the hell am I to get a hundred head of cattle?'
'You won't be involved in the bargaining process. The matter will probably be settled between Thor and David. Thor may not want to deal with me because I'm a woman,' Tanya replied.
'You will pay Thor one hundred head so I can marry Venus?'
'I don't expect to have to pay quite that much, but yes, in principle.' Tanya laughed at Jason's discomfort. 'You have to understand this alliance is very important to us as well as Thor, so it must all be done properly. Don't under any circumstances go running around telling people, it will just wreck everything. Then you won't be marrying Venus anyway. '
'You've certainly knocked the shit out of the romance of it all,' said a very subdued Jason. 'I feel like a pawn in some political game.'
'Only temporarily,' said Tanya. 'Once this is all sorted, and the ceremony is over, life will go back to normal.'
'Ceremony?'
'You don't think that Thor is going to let his precious only daughter go without a big hoo-ha, surely,' said Tanya laughing, putting her arms around Jason. 'Come on, this is going to be fun! We've got to play it right and this sort of stuff is just up my street. Just one other thing,' she said to an apprehensive Jason, 'please do not get Venus pregnant.'
Jason left muttering and shaking his head, 'One hundred fucking head of cattle.'
Having spoken to David on the phone, Tanya decided that just she and David would pay a visit to Thor, and arranged to do so two weeks after the marriage discussion with Jason. They had been to The Vikings twice since the first encounter, once with Venus.
'What the hell have you got in the back there?' asked David, laughing as Tanya picked him up at The Bandstand.
'A present for Thor. It's a pure bred bull calf. I'm sure he'll like it. I had a discussion with him on the subject on our last visit, so I have taken the opportunity to surprise him since the seats are out for the supply trips to Newcastle.'
'But the bloody thing will crap all over the back of the machine.'
'It's firmly tied into a sack. It can't really move and will crap, or should I say has crapped, in the sack,' she laughed. 'We're just getting ourselves into Thor mode.'
Within forty minutes, they were unloading an unstable calf in front of a pleased Thor.
'No Venus this time?' he asked.
'Mark had some training exercise planned, so she had to stay,' explained David.
After making sure the calf would be properly looked after, and offering his guests a refreshing drink of fruit juice, Thor looked at David and said, 'You didn't come here just to deliver a calf.'
'We've been wondering how we might further cement the relationship with you and your outfit here,' answered David.
'What do you have in mind?'
'You already have some of our people here helping you with military training exercises. We could help you install more solar, where it is appropriate. We could certainly help to improve the quality of your herd,' Tanya interrupted.
Thor looked at them both quizzically. 'One certain way would be to arrange a marriage between my family and yours, the Bowers I mean.'
Tanya looked at him, saying nothing, hoping he would expand on the intermarriage theme.
Thor continued, 'Hercules would like to get to know your Kim better, but she does not seem interested. She is very strong, maybe too strong for Hercules.'
'Would you have any objection if Jason were to court Venus?' asked David.
Thor's eyes widened as the real purpose of the visit was now unveiled.
'Jason? Oh yes, the smart one. I actually had one of my senior lieutenants in mind for Venus. She can marry him when she comes back from your place.'
'And if she doesn't like him?' asked Tanya.
Thor laughed. 'She'll do what she's told.' He frowned. 'It makes no difference whether she likes anyone or not, she'll get to like the person I choose or get beaten.' David winced, but Tanya didn't bat an eyelid.
Thor looked at them shrewdly and then said, 'I don't know Jason very well, so send him here for two weeks. He can come in the helicopter, maybe with some more solar installations and that military rifle your people seem to carry. He can ride well?'
'Yes, very,' said David hurriedly.
They spent an hour walking around the area immediately surrounding Thor's palace, admiring some of Thor's new initiatives.
Then Tanya said quietly, 'We are in the process of creating a settlement on the outskirts of Newcastle and expect to be able to open the port within a year or two.'
Thor looked at her sharply.
'You don't go anywhere near Newcastle, do you? I could take you over there in the helicopter one day if you were interested,' Tanya continued.
On the way home David said, 'He seems to be set on marrying Venus off to one of his cronies.'
'I don't think so,' answered Tanya. 'He understands perfectly all the implications of a deal with us. Having Jason there for two weeks is just the start of a lengthy bargaining process. I can tell you that although he will play hard, this deal will go through.'
'Deal, you just see it as a deal?' David said in a horrified voice.
'Sorry, I didn't mean to de-romanticise everything, but in the end this d … er, arrangement will be bigger than either Jason or Venus, as far as the uninterrupted growth of The Settlement is concerned. In the end it will be a deal, but I will confine my conversation and thoughts in that direction to you.'
'In all the years I've known you, you never fail to surprise me,' said David. 'One step ahead of the sheriff, as always.'
'Only one? Just watch me. I'm going to have a ball with this one.' Tanya smiled.