Now she was getting excited. She put the spear down and got her phone to take pictures.
‘Orla! Be ready!’ Jacques said, still pulling.
‘I’m ready!’ If slightly distracted at the sheer admirable physicality of this man-mountain, heaving a weight from the icy depths. If it wasn’t so cold she would be close to boiling point.
‘It’s coming!’ he yelled.
Concentrate, Orla.‘Oh my God, what is it?’
With one last tug, Jacques fell back onto the snow and landing on top of him was a slithering, thick, brown fish.
‘Argh!’ Orla exclaimed, caught between photo-taking, videoing, being jealous of the fish lying across his abs, or doing something to help. ‘What should I do?’
‘Take photos! I told you that!’ Jacques said, laughing as he put two hands around the fish and tried to hold it still.
Orla did as he said, capturing video and pictures of the writhing fish and Jacques trying to steady it and do something with the line it was attached to. How could someone look so sexy wrestling with an aquatic animal?
‘What type is it? It looks like a giant pike,’ Orla said.
‘It is! I have never seen one this large before!’
‘Careful!’ she exclaimed. ‘It looks like it might be able to eat you!’
‘Help me now, Orla! I cannot get to my feet holding it.’
She stopped her camera work and headed forward to assist him. It almost looked like something prehistoric. ‘What do you want me to do? Which bit do I hold? Of the fish?’ She felt her cheeks pink.
‘Just grab him around the middle for a second and I will try to get up.’
‘Ugh,’ Orla said, putting her hands on the fish. It jerked wildly and she had to grab on tighter for fear it was going to escape and somehow manage to get itself back down the hole. ‘Ow! Quick! I can’t hold it!’
Jacques got to his feet and took over. ‘OK, grab the spear.’
‘What are you going to do?’
‘I am going to put it out of its misery quickly.’
She didn’t need to ask any more questions about that. She reached toward the spear.
‘OK,’ Jacques said. ‘You hold the fish but… look the other way.’
‘Jacques, I’m a reporter,’ she said, meeting his eyes. ‘There isn’t a lot I haven’t seen on my travels, believe me.’
He matched her gaze. ‘You haven’t seen me kill something before.’
She swallowed as the atmosphere heightened ten-fold. She turned her head almost subconsciously, fingers holding the fish as firmly as she could. She held her breath as she felt the thud of the spear make contact and then it was over. She still had her eyes closed when she felt the fish leave her hands.
‘It is done,’ Jacques said. And then, in more upbeat tones, ‘Gerard is not going to believe it.’
She opened her eyes. ‘It looks like it could feed a family of ten.’
‘We should cook it. At the village. Let everyone see.’
Let everyone see. This was new from the man who seemed to want to hide himself away in his digitally controlled smart home…
‘I can imagine Delphine now,’ Orla said. ‘Setting up a spit by the fountain, opposite that wheelbarrow.’
‘Whoa, let us not go too close to thebrouette. The ancestors of Saint-Chambéry will not like it.’
