“Thanks for organising this, Gudrun. I’ve been so desperate to see the Northern Lights and I thought I’d missed my chance.”
“No problem. It’s a pleasure. It’s a nice way to say goodbye. And I do think we’ll be lucky but you never know with the aurora.”
“So where are we going first? Is it a swimming pool?’ asked Rachel.
“I want it to be a surprise because you have to see it to believe it, I can’t explain.” She was shaking her head and grinning so enthusiastically that it made Rachel laugh.
“Oh, Gudrun, I will miss you!” She had never struck up such a good relationship with anyone she’d worked with before and she would be sorry to leave that behind.
“What will you do when you go home? I suppose you won’t go back to live with Adam?”
“No, I’ll pick some stuff up then I’m going to stay with my friend Anna for a few days. Can you imagine how awful it would be?” Rachel shuddered.
“Pretty awful. Have you spoken to him since he left?”
“No. I sent him an email to say that I’d be staying with Anna but he’s not replied.”
“I still can’t believe he came here about the Snug takeover without telling you. Olafur and I tell each other everything, even secrets. You should be able to keep each other’s secrets when you are partners.”
“He was always quite secretive about work. I suppose his job does depend on that sometimes and I never minded that he didn’t tell me. But you’re right. It was strange and quite embarrassing that he would have come here without at least mentioning that he was here for work, even if he wasn’t going to tell me it was to do with Snug. But I suppose that was because I’d broken up with him. He was probably trying to get the upper hand to make himself feel better.”
“He probably needed to show you that he was in control of something. It is a little childish but I think men can get that way when their ego is bruised.”
“Are we there?” Rachel asked as they took a turning off the main road.
“Almost. It is called the Secret Lagoon and it’s really hard to find unless you know where to look. Even Olafur used to get lost when he led excursions here.”
They did indeed seem to be in the middle of nowhere. There were very few buildings although unusually there were quite a few trees along the side of the road. There are hardly any trees in Iceland because the Vikings used them all up for building, a fact Rachel had learned from Jonas.
The track came to an end in an open area where Gudrun parked the car, next to a low stone building. There were no other cars at all and it seemed completely deserted.
“It looks closed,” said Rachel.
“It is closed. A friend of Olafur’s owns it and he is letting us visit specially by ourselves.”
“That’s so cool! What a treat.”
They went into a foyer, all the walls inside were stone too. It was very dimly lit but Gudrun led the way to the changing rooms. They took a cubicle each and Rachel had barely started taking her clothes off before Gudrun shouted, “I’ll see you in there!”
The changing rooms led onto a long corridor which again was barely lit but Rachel could see the darkness at the end and she could feel the cold air coming in as there seemed to be no door at the end. She walked rapidly towards the outdoors because it was absolutely freezing. The slate tiled floor turned into wooden slatted decking just before the end of the corridor and she could see the dark ripple of the water and wooden steps leading down into it. As she emerged into the icy darkness all Rachel could think of was immersing herself in the warm water. It was like stepping into a hot bath, almost hotter than she thought she could bear; it was complete bliss.
Once her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, she could make out how clear the water was. She swam out a couple of strokes to look for Gudrun. She could just see her, further into the pool, so she lazily swam over to meet her.
“Hey Gudrun!” she called and saw her raise her hand into the darkness in response. Rachel headed over slowly, languishing in the incredible warmth and marvelling at how amazing it was to be outside in this surprising place. On the edge of the pool further over towards Gudrun were lots of jars with candles in, shedding just enough light for Rachel to see the shape of the pool more clearly. It appeared to be completely natural because she could make out the shapes of rocks around the sides and she could feel with her feet that the bottom was shingle and stone.
As she swam towards Gudrun, she noticed that – it wasn’t Gudrun after all. This person was broader, fairer and without wishing to offend Gudrun, exactly the person Rachel would want to be with in a place like this.
33
“JONAS! OH MY God! What are you doing here?”
He reached out his hand and gently pulled Rachel nearer to him, kissing her before he said anything to explain himself.
“Oh, look at your poor shoulder, are you even allowed to come swimming?”
“I’m not swimming,” he said, continuing to kiss her.
It was so wonderful to see him again, Rachel felt like she was fizzing all over. His kisses were making her weak at the knees but she had a hundred questions about why he was there. Had he changed his mind? Wasn’t it too late? What did he think was going to happen now?
