Niilo laughs again and hands Stellan a fresh can.
Chapter Eleven
My heart’s pounding under all these layers. I don’t know why I’m so nervous this morning, but I hardly touched my breakfast of yogurt and muesli. I gulped down two cups of that strong coffee, though. I’ll need it to fortify me against the cold. The thermometer outside the restaurant tells me it’s minus nineteen degrees, the kind of cold that kills if you’re underprepared.
I glance at my reflection in the revolving door of the lobby, through which, at any second, Stellan is going to appear. I’m dressed in three layers underneath the padded pink snowsuit I bought with Nari at the mall, and hey, who’s to say I wasn’t going for the well-lagged boiler look?
Nari’s looking business-like and is taking notes on a pad about all the food she just sampled in the hotel restaurant; mainly sliced cold meats, cheeses and various pickles and sweet pastries. She looks elegant all in white, and her black hair and red lipstick create quite a contrast with the white landscape and the late arctic dawn.
‘Are you wearing false lashes?’ I ask her, incredulously.
She gives me a slow Marilyn Monroe wink just as the door spins and delivers up first Niilo, then Stellan.
I search Stellan’s face nervously. Is he pleased to see me this morning? Or is this a duty visit to the mad English woman who he thinks might be stalking him? I’m relieved to see he doesn’t have the same cross expression he wore last night. I smile broadly at him in the hope that he’ll be warm and welcoming in return. ‘Morning.’
‘Good morning, Sylvie. Did you sleep well?’
Thank goodness, he’s being friendly, though he’s not exactly smiling.
‘I was afraid to sleep in the glass bedroom in case some scary men appeared out of the wilderness and shone their torches in at me,’ I say teasingly.
Stellan cracks a tiny smile, but without showing his teeth, and he nods with an amused sniff down towards his feet. I recognise the shy formality of all those years ago when he was boyishly handsome and we were both so young. I realise with frustration that he’s not going to reply.
‘I’m so sorry we frightened you both,’ Niilo offers with a gentle laugh. ‘We didn’t know which cabins you’d been assigned. But we found you.’
‘You sure did, and you took a decade off poor Sylvie’s life,’ says Nari, keeping her eyes on Niilo. ‘ButIwasn’t a bit afraid.’
‘I’m glad to hear it. I hope you don’t mind if we act as your guides today? We’ll give you VIP access to Frozen Falls resort, show you the stuff only a privileged few get to see,’ Niilo says.
After the briefest moment of silence as Nari and I exchange delighted glances, Stellan sweeps a hand, indicating the doors. ‘If you want to make the most of the coming light we need to go now.’
Nari’s face falls and I cringe at how abrupt Stellan seems. As I make my way past him, I can’t help casting him an anxious look which I know he catches as he looks down again with a brisk nod of his head, like a sentry on duty.
Outside the restaurant I see tourists dressed for a day on the ski slopes clambering on to a minibus heading for Saariselkä, but there’s no sign of our transport. It’s nearly ten o’clock and the sky is only just beginning to lighten. Through the silhouetted bare branches of the snow-laden trees I can make out a cool pink tinge creeping over the horizon and into the sapphire blue. The moon hangs low in the sky, a thin sliver like a curved blade.
‘It’s so beautiful!’ I say in Stellan’s direction. I seem to be saying that a lot on this trip.
‘This way,’ says Stellan, seemingly ignoring me, as he stalks past, setting a brisk pace a few feet ahead of me. I suppose he must be used to mornings like this, they’re not a beautiful novelty to him, but to me the landscape is making my heart swell and my senses tingle. I follow after Stellan as he stretches out his long legs, striding through the drifting snow.
Nari’s dawdling behind with Niilo and they seem to be chatting away to each other likethey’rethe old friends in this scenario. Occasionally Nari laughs and throws her bobble-hatted head back, making her long hair splay out over her shoulders and down her back. Niilo seems transfixed by her. This is going to be a long day.
‘Stellan, wait up.’
At least he stops and turns to wait for me. He watches me with an unreadably blank expression as I amble along through the snow. Even with its layer of grit the road is lethally slippery so it’s safer to walk through the piled snow in the gutters. I’m so glad I have these heavy snow boots that Stephen the Sex God’s PA arranged for us, and my puffy snowsuit is doing an OK job of keeping out the wet and cold, though I’m already wishing I’d put away my vanity and worn the big black super thick suit the resort provided. I mistakenly thought the pink suit would be cute, but instead I’m feeling a little chilly and somewhat marshmallowy.
‘I don’t fancy being the third wheel for those two.’
Stellan casts his eyes back along the road just as Nari loops her arm through Niilo’s. They’re walking painfully slowly. He makes a sort of grumpy snort and shakes his head. Maybe I detect a hint of a smile, but it isn’t amusement; it’s something else. Something I don’t like. He’s judging her, and unfairly too. I can’t remember ever seeing her react like this with a guy, other than Stephen. She must genuinely like him, but I’m not wasting my breath explaining this to Stellan; it’s none of his business.
‘So what are we doing today?’ I venture, as Stellan turns sharply off the road and into the woods.
We seem to be heading for a shed in a distant clearing, and I can hear…wait!I can hear dogs yelping as we approach.
‘Are wehusky sledding?’ I clap my mittened hands together and attempt to jump up and down, not so easy in these boots.
That’s when Stellan smiles, an actual proper smile, and I get a flash of his white straight teeth. ‘You always did love dogs.’
I can’t help grinning back at him. He’s right. ‘Yes!I was always a sucker for a pupper! Are theyyourdogs?’
