‘Wow, Iris.’ Bjarkey grinned at her. ‘This is the kind of drama I love, you know that. How have you kept this from me?’
‘Because since things got more serious between us, and then he freaked out, I’ve only seen you yesterday. And I didn’t think it would be that professional to bring it up with Aron and Kári when we’d only just met.’
Bjarkey laughed. ‘Good point! But don’t lose focus because of him,’ she said in a more serious tone. ‘I know how much this work means to you. Iceland is your best option to hone this new technique. We have eruptions all the time. And if you need to travel to somewhere else, they will support that. There is a lot of investment in this type of thing because it is so important to the country.’
‘I know. It’s an amazing opportunity. And I would love to continue working with you.’
‘You have to think of this without thinking about what this man wants. It is about what you want.’
‘I know, and this is what I want. It’s been incredible working with you and the team. This is incredible,’ she said, stopping and stretching her arms wide. ‘We’re standing on what might be the most volcanic area on the planet at this very moment. Why would I ever want to leave?
‘Is that a decision made?’ Bjarkey asked.
Perhaps making the decision before she had any chance of knowing what Siggi thought was the best thing. She needed to make it for herself without reference to what he thought or wanted. She had worked for years for an opportunity like this and it was stupid to throw it away over someone she had known for two weeks.
‘Yes, I think it is.’
‘That is fantastic!’ Bjarkey hugged her, awkwardly, because the stiff padded jackets they were wearing made it difficult to bend their arms. ‘I will talk to Emil this afternoon and we will make a formal offer for you to consider.’
It already felt to Iris as if she’d made the right decision. She had no regrets about leaving British Geology Labs behind. They’d given her a great start, but she’d realised now that to progress in the way she wanted, she needed to leave. Having worked there for so long was holding her back. She was always going to be the girl who kissed Jay at the Christmas party, as much in her own mind as anyone else. And the only way to evolve from that into the accomplished scientist she hoped she was on the way to becoming, was to leave all of that behind.
‘Brilliant, thank you Bjarkey. It wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for you.’
‘Nonsense,’ said Bjarkey, linking her arm through Iris’s. ‘I am just happy that it is working out for both of us. And who knows, when you tell your man that you are staying, it might make him feel differently.’
On the drive back to Reykjavik, Iris’s phone pinged with a message from Siggi saying that he would be back later and wanted to see her. She was so happy to hear that. She’d missed him and wanted to clear the air between them, no matter what the outcome was. They’d had an amazing couple of weeks together and she’d never forget that. Even though she’d fallen in love with him, she would accept that if he couldn’t give her anything more, that’s how it had to be. She couldn’t expect him to fall into a relationship with her just because she was planning to stay in Iceland. But what she hoped, more than anything, was that he would tell her that if she stayed, he wanted to be together. That she was still his love.
23
THE ROAD THAT Siggi had taken to circumvent the roadblock was not really a road. It was generous to call it a track, and his jeep was not up to the job at all. The further he drove, the rockier the terrain got. And he was still miles away from the town. What was he doing? It was ridiculous. He couldn’t rock up, find Hekla and Arna and insist they leave with him. Arna had no idea who he was. And that was before he’d even thought about how Hekla’s husband would fit into the scenario.
He stopped battling with the increasingly large rocks that were scattered across the road in front of him and came to a stop. He dropped his forehead onto the steering wheel.
‘Fokk!’
He had to turn back before he made a fool of himself, or worse. He was right in the middle of somewhere that was about to erupt. As if to remind him of that, the earth shook briefly. Enough was enough. He had to get back on the road.
A three-point-turn ended up being a five-point-turn as he tried to avoid the worst of the rocks. He only hoped he hadn’t shredded his tyres and that they’d get him back to the main road. Once he’d made the one-eighty, he carefully drove back along the way he’d come. He took it steady now that the impulse to race to Hraunvik had left him and common sense had prevailed. His priority wasn’t Arna. He had to accept that. And hehadaccepted that a long time ago. It was the stress of the situation that had led to him forgetting that for a moment or two. What heought to be doing was getting back to Reykjavik to tell Iris he was an idiot. Perhaps he was always an idiot? That’s definitely how the last couple of days were looking.
After another ten minutes, he thought that he should have made it back to the road by now, but maybe he had gone further than he thought before he’d turned around. When he came to an enormous boulder with a ditch on one side of it and a steep bank rising to the left, it was clear he wasn’t on the road he’d set out on at all.
He reversed the jeep ten metres. Twenty metres. There was no other way he could go. Unless he turned around again and tried to find the way he’d come originally. But because the ground was basically an old lava field, like most of Iceland, his jeep wasn’t leaving any tracks, so chances were he’d end up taking the wrong turn again and end up lost. He opened the door of the jeep and stood up in the footwell to get some height and see if he could see the road, or Hraunvik. Anything to help him get his bearings. Grabbing his phone in desperation, he found he still didn’t have a signal. He opened the maps. The dot that showed his location was far from anything resembling a road. It looked as if the main road where the roadblock had been was a couple of kilometres away, if he walked on from the other side of the boulder. Maybe he should walk to the road and flag someone down.
But that would mean leaving his jeep, and although he didn’t want to do that, his tour guide safety training kicked in and he knew he needed to get out of the area as soon as he could. He grabbed what he could carry, loading only the most essential things into his rucksack. He shoved some spare clothes in there and the small amount of food and water that he had left. It should only take half an hour to get to the road, but he might have to wait to be picked up for a while longer than that.
Keeping his phone in his hand to make sure he was heading in a straight line, he began walking. On foot, it was easy to get past the boulder, and if he had more time, he would have back-tracked and found a way to drive out. But by now, there had been another couple of earth tremors and he didn’t want to push his luck.
After a few minutes, his phone came to life, having connected to the network again. Siggi whooped and scrolled through the messages to see if there was anything from Iris. There was. She was ready to talk. He checked that his own message to her had finally sent and, with a big grin on his face, he carried on walking. Rather than type out a message, which would take ages, he sent a voice note to Jonas telling him what had happened, and hoped that it would send before he lost the signal again.
The relief at being in contact with the world again was so immense that he lost concentration for a second and stumbled over a rock. He ran a couple of steps to catch up with himself and stop himself from falling over, but his foot went over and pain shot through his leg.
He called out as he fell, unable to stop himself, landing on rocks that hammered into his ribs despite the layers he was wearing. With his rucksack on his back, he couldn’t roll off them, and it took him a minute to gather himself enough to be able to sit up. His breathing was ragged. The shock of the fall disorientating him and the adrenaline coursing through him, meaning it was another minute before he realised he was hurt.
He reached down and pulled his trousers up from his ankle. Even that slight movement was agony for his ribs and his ankle, and he thought he might pass out. But he took a deep breath and tried again while he exhaled, trying to visualise pushing the pain away. What he saw was enough for him to know, if he didn’t already, that something was wrong. Something that was going to mean he wouldn’t make it to the road without help. His phonehad flown out of his hand when he fell and was lying a couple of metres out of his grasp. Reaching it seemed next to impossible. He shrugged the rucksack off his shoulders and propped himself against it.
If he could just get the phone, he might find that there was still a signal and be able to call for help. Sitting here for any length of time wasn’t an option. Being sat on the cold, wet ground was sapping the warmth from him.
He put his hands on the ground behind him, and lifted himself and his injured leg up from the ground, then shuffled his hands along behind him while trying to shift his bottom across the ground as gently as he could. A small earth tremor stopped him in his tracks, but at least he was closer to the phone. Another couple of tries and he would be there.
