Baby?So Stellan does still have his soft side! My heart crackles and bangs like popping candy as I watch him lift little sleeping Toivo to his lips and place a delicate kiss on his pink nose. He’s better with dogs than with people, I think to myself.
‘I guess they’re a lot of work?’ I say.
‘Yeah. But Niilo’s often out here too,’ he says, casting a glance over his shoulder towards his friend. ‘He’s my partner in the business, has been for five years. He’s been a huge support. For a few years after my parents retired to Helsinki I ran this place by myself. It was hard work. And we have so many tourists coming through, three or four hundred a week in the snowy season, and we need to ensure everything is perfect for them. Then there’s the reindeer too. But they’re Niilo’s herd and he has his own herdsmen working with him. I’m better with the dogs.’
He tails off just as I’m getting used to his beautiful thick accent. I want to urge him not to stop talking now, not as he was just getting warmed up. Speaking of warm, it’s definitely getting hot in this snowsuit and all these layers. Stellan seems to read my mind, or maybe it’s my face turning as pink as my bobble hat that gives me away.
‘Unzip your snowsuit and remove your outer layer. You’ll find you do this often. One minute you’ll be cold, the next warm. It’s the heat from the walk and all these animals.’
Not just the animals, I think, as I fumble for the zip by my throat. Just as I’m wondering if he’s going to watch me, he averts his gaze, which is ridiculous because I’m wearing the equivalent of three duvets here. He won’t get as much as a glimpse of bare wrist.
I pull my pink and cream Fair Isle jumper off over my head, making my hair stick up and buzz with static. Stellan stalks away as I’m smoothing it down and comes back with something small and silvery.
‘Take a sip. You need to stay hydrated, even in the cold.’
I reach for the little flask and when I unscrew it, steam curls in the air between us. He sits down again, closer now than he was before, but still, maddeningly, at a respectful distance.
‘Cheers,’ I say as I take a drink of what turns out to be berry juice. It’s hot and sweet and I can’t help but heave a sigh as it slips down my throat.
‘Kippis,’ he says seriously, and I assume that’s some kind of toast. This time heiswatching me, so I take another slow drink and enjoy his pale eyes on me.
After a quiet moment where we both pet the puppies and pretend this isn’t totally awkward, Stellan breaks the silence.
‘So, the dogs are fed and watered. In ten minutes my staff will arrive and take the tourists out on husky trails around the resort. Would you like to join me and Niilo on a ride a little further away?’
‘Don’t you have to stay with your tourists?’
‘I do. I mean, usually I would, but I’m going to let my staff take care of everything on their own for once. Would you like to help me harness the dogs to our sleds?’
It doesn’t take long to get ready to set off. Niilo and Nari bring out the two sleds, long and thin and bundled with blankets, and five excitable dogs are carefully harnessed to each one.
Stellan takes my hand with an encouraging nod of his head and I clamber down onto the sled. I’m seated right at the back with my legs stretched straight out in front of me, watching Stellan checking the ropes and giving each dog one last pat and some words of encouragement, which makes me smile. Stellan’s dressed all in black and has a thick black beanie hat pulled down over his ears and a wide furry hood encircling his face like a halo. The fur is blowing in the cold breeze. I watch him treading through the snow with that serious look of earnest concentration on his face and I can’t help wondering whether his hair still falls in sleek blond perfection around his cheekbones like it used to.
I’m distracted by Nari’s voice a few feet away. She’s settled into her own sled and Niilo’s crouching in the snow by her side pulling thick blankets up over her legs, tucking her in like a parent would a child. I watch them surreptitiously out the corner of my eye, half expecting Niilo to plant a goodnight kiss on Nari’s head, he’s so attentive and tender. Nari’s giving him a dopey grin and I think to myself how I’ve never quite seen that look in her eyes before. I cannot wait for a full post-sledding debriefing about her date with Niilo. I mean, she is on a kind of date, right?
I look around for Stellan, who pointedlyhasn’ttucked me up in my sled. He’s over by the dog shed giving instructions to his staff. Behind us on the road a minibus has pulled up and some tourists are spilling out and approaching the dog yard. I can hear loud, happy American accents exclaiming about the cold from all the way over here. I pull the covers up over my chilled legs. Just sitting here is making me cold again, even though I scrambled back into my jumper and zipped my snowsuit right up to my throat before leaving the shed.
‘Get your balaclava on, Sylve! It’s going to be freezing once we get moving,’ Nari shouts across at me.
I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear her. The last thing I want is for Stellan to see me in a woolly pink balaclava with its weird little eye and mouth holes that make me look like some kind of giant worm. No, I’d rather my nostrils froze up completely than wear that thing. I glance over at Nari and she’s putting hers on. It’s white and snood-like with a cowl neck and has the whole face cut out so it reveals her pretty features. Why didn’t I go for one of those? I pull my pink bobble hat down over my ears and forehead, then I gather my scarf up around my mouth as best I can.
‘All set?’ asks Stellan from behind me as he steps onto the sled’s long runners.
‘Aren’t you sitting in front of me?’
‘I steer the sled from back here.’
He says it so curtly I feel stupid. Of course he steers this thing. I try to laugh off my embarrassment, palming my forehead and shaking away the sneakily intrusive vision I’d had of Stellan clambering under these blankets with me as I nestle up against his broad back – my legs wrapped around him, maybe. He doesn’t laugh and so I turn away, settling in for a long morning’s husky-sledding.
‘We’ll head west and stop at the lake for lunch. Yes?’ he shouts.
I can barely hear him over the sounds of the dogs barking and through his carefully arranged scarf layers. Only his eyes are showing through the black slit beneath his beanie.
‘Yes,’ I manage but he shouts over me with a sharp ‘Mush!’ and the dogs strain and yelp and prance in their harnesses. The ropes go taut and I feel the sled start beneath me. I have to grab the handrails so I don’t fall backwards onto Stellan’s legs. We’re off!
The dogs stop their barking immediately and lean into their yokes, already panting with the effort. I’m in awe of their strength and the smooth motion of their shaggy legs powering us along the narrow track in a jolting stop-start motion.
I can just see over the snowy walls of the sunken path as we race along, picking up speed with every second. It takes only moments and we’re out in the wild again, and I remember how remote the resort is. There’s nothing more than blackened bracken and stunted bare trees jutting out from the deep snow as far as I can see.
