Day 3 

I should have known better than trusting Æstrid, she got distracted and wandered off apparently. Frida and Eilidh tried their best but they can't bring all the sheep down by herself and Aleifr is too little to be much help. 

We lost half a dozen sheep to the beasts last night and Ivar is furious. He says it's my fault for leaving her but she's fifteen years old, she should be able to be trusted. 

That said, he was angry with me anyway. He didn't want me to go to the dance, he doesn't think I'm old enough and he's never been happy with my relationship with Jova. 

I had fun though, and Jova was happy. We danced together for hours and it was starting to get dark when he walked me home. 

He didn't even kiss me before I went inside but Ivar still wasn't happy. 

Jova is leaving the day after tomorrow for his last voyage before we'll be allowed to marry, surely that warrants us some level of freedom, not with these people. 

My beloved's eyes always light up in a way that makes my heart leap when we discuss our marriage. Gods that sounded pathetic, forget I wrote that please. 

I shouldn't stay writing for too long, but I think I've found a better hiding place for this book. There's a loose floor board under my bed with a gap just big enough between the bedroom floor and the downstairs ceiling.

It will do for now, it's not like I'll be here for very long. 

Day 4 

He joined us up in the hills today, he's been apprenticed to a shipmaster in town since we came here so he doesn't know much about livestock, but he still enjoys the fresh air. 

He commented to me today that "he likes being able to walk on solid land, the grass doesn't roll under your feet," but he did complain that "the air still smells like the sea." 

To which I had to remind him that live on an island so that's a given. 

Watching the sheep is a simple task which really doesn't require so many of us but it is more fun when we are all here. 

Jova decided to play with the little ones for a while, before he decided to sit down with me. 

"You're good with them," I said when he flopped down next to me. 

"I like playing with the little ones," he replied, "in a few summers, we'll have our own so it's good practice." 

I smiled at him then, but thinking about that feels so strange. Jova's children, my children, the thought seems so foreign. He'd be good with them though, I feel sure of that. 

Before we went back down, he asked if I'd go out with him again tonight. The leaving party in the Hall, they don't normally set out again so soon but needs must if they are to make another crossing. 

Ivar disapproves of me going out with him, especially two nights in a row, but he can't really stop me. I've brought the sheep in this time at least.