‘He might be alright. The phone signal is terrible. Maybe he lost contact?’
Iris held out her phone so that Gudrun could read the message.
‘An accident could mean anything,’ she said, but they exchanged a glance that told Iris they were both thinking the same.
‘Can I help you with the Northern Lights cancellations?’ she asked.
‘We could split it between us,’ said Gudrun. They went over the details, knowing who they would offer a rain check to the following night and who would need a refund because tonight was their last chance. ‘The forecast is terrible, anyway,’ said Gudrun. ‘It has been cloudy all day, so no one will be surprised.’
It took them an hour to rearrange all the clients, and by the time they’d finished, there was still no word.
‘They must be there by now,’ Iris said, looking from her phone to Gudrun’s, which was lying on the desk.
‘They will call when there is something to tell us. They know we are waiting.’
‘Could we —?’
‘No,’ said Gudrun, interrupting Iris before she could get any further. ‘They are searching. We can’t bother them.’
Iris knew she was right, but every minute felt like an hour.
‘We must wait,’ Gudrun said gently. ‘But we can do something to help pass the time.’
They locked up the office, and Gudrun led the way to the Snug store.
‘This might seem like I am taking advantage of you, but it is the best distraction I know,’ she said, unlocking the door.
She led the way inside. The only lights that were on were the ones in the window. They walked to the back of the store, where Gudrun shrugged her coat off and laid it across the counter, and Iris followed.
‘It’s quite exciting being here when it’s closed,’ Iris said. ‘It feels like we’re being naughty.’
Gudrun laughed. ‘I still feel like that when I’m here by myself, even though I am in charge.’
‘What are we going to do?’ Iris asked.
‘We are going to decorate for Easter,’ Gudrun said. ‘But first, we are going to pour ourselves a glass of wine.’ She opened a cupboard underneath a kitchen island that sat to one side of the counter, displaying all manner of crockery and other kitchen paraphernalia like wooden chopping boards, and pulled out a bottle of wine and two glasses. ‘This always takes the sting out of a late-night job,’ she said.
‘Would you be doing this tonight anyway?’ Iris asked.
Gudrun shrugged. ‘It needs to be in the next few days, but now is the perfect time. I will fetch everything we need.’ She disappeared down the stairs to the basement.
Iris took her glass of red wine and perched on the edge of a navy blue velvet chair that had several cushions artfully arranged on it.
When she came back upstairs, Gudrun was carrying a large cardboard box and the better part of a tree balanced on the top. She put it all on the counter, then took a sip of wine before she began pulling out various decorations.
‘Okay, we will put these pieces of tree in vases and then decorate them,’ she announced, pulling a few vases of various types out of the same cupboard the wine had come from.
Iris watched as Gudrun sorted through the branches, choosing the best twigs to stick in the vases. As she waited for the perfect tree to be assembled, she picked through the box of decorations. ‘Wow, these are beautiful.’
‘The first year we were open at Easter, we commissioned some of our artists to make decorations for us. We did the same at Christmas and it is a great way to celebrate and show off their talents at the same time.’
There were solid wooden eggs, which were intricately carved with Icelandic words and small flowers, hand-blown glass eggs, eggs knitted with the tiniest of stitches, delicate ceramic eggs with beautiful designs painted on them. It was incredible.
‘Don’t mix different kids of eggs on one tree,’ Gudrun advised. ‘It will look terrible.’
‘That’s exactly what the Christmas tree at my parents’ house looks like. It’s just a mish-mash of all sorts of baubles, stuff we all made when we were kids, naff tinsel, but it always looks amazing.’
‘My tree is also like that,’ Gudrun grinned. ‘But we have to be boring and tasteful here.’
