‘Let me take a look?’
‘It looks bad,’ he said, wiping tears from his cheeks while Jonas gently took his boot off, then using scissors he pulled out of a first aid bag, cut his trousers and took his sock off to take a better look.
‘It is not so bad. Let’s strap it up and then get out of here,’ he said, grinning and patting Siggi on the shoulder.
Olafur crouched on the ground, letting Siggi lean into him. ‘Iris is with Gudrun,’ he said. ‘They are waiting for news.’
‘Iris knows?’
‘You messaged her. I guess she is in your contacts next to Jonas?’
He hated that he’d sent his SOS message to Iris. The last thing she needed was to be worrying about him when he’d treated her so badly. Because he knew she would be worried. She wasn’t the kind of person who could turn her feelings off in the face of rejection. The shame of how he’d spoken to her washed over him like a cold mist.
‘I need to talk to her.’
‘We’ll call them when we get to the jeep,’ said Olafur.
‘I love her.’
Olafur laughed, a low rumble. ‘I think she might feel the same way.’
Jonas finished up his first aid, which had been painful enough to make Siggi think he might pass out, but bizarrely, had helped with the pain. Jonas and Olafur had a brief conversation about what to do next. Siggi didn’t get involved, knowing that none of this was up to him now. He was happy to be in the hands of his friends.
‘Siggi, we are going to walk to the jeep. It’s not far and we cannot risk leaving the track we came in on.’
‘That is exactly what I did.’
Jonas and Olafur said nothing. Siggi knew they wanted answers as to what the hell he was doing here in the first place, but appreciated they knew that didn’t have to be now.
With Jonas and Olafur on either side of him, they helped him to stand and took his weight as he hopped back to the jeep between them. It wasn’t that far away. He collapsed gratefully into the back seat and sat across it, watching as Jonas directed Olafur’s three-point-turn from outside the jeep to make sure they turned back exactly the way they’d come.
Once they were underway and back on the main road, Siggi closed his eyes, hearing Jonas make the call to Gudrun. He hadn’t the energy to ask to speak to Iris. Now that he wasn’t going to die tonight, he could wait.
26
AS SOON AS the phone rang, Iris realised that helping Gudrun in the shop had been the distraction she’d needed because the feeling of dread she’d had since Siggi’s text now descended on her again.
‘He’s okay,’ Gudrun said before continuing the conversation in Icelandic.
Iris rubbed at the smooth wooden egg she held in her hands while she waited for the call to finish.
‘What happened?’ she asked when Gudrun had ended the call.
‘Jonas thinks he took the wrong road and his jeep got stuck. They don’t know any more yet.’
‘But he’s okay? Are they taking him home?’
‘They are going to the hospital. Jonas thinks he has broken an ankle.’
‘Oh my god.’ Iris wasn’t sure what to do. ‘Should we go to the hospital?’
Gudrun shrugged. ‘We can. We will have to walk, or get a taxi.’
‘I’d like to walk. Are you sure you don’t mind coming with me?’
‘Of course I don’t mind,’ she said.
‘Do you think it’s okay for me to go? I mean, I don’t know how things stand between us. He might not want me there.’
