‘It is… in my mouth,’ Magnús said.
‘It is OK. Come! We will go inside and we will fix it.’ He put an arm around the boy’s shoulders but before they could get back to the door a voice broke into the freezing air.
‘I have a towel! I see the blood!’
Gunnar looked up to see Hildur rushing from the house in her thin woollen dress, no coat, with slippers on her feet. What was she thinking?
‘Hildur! Do not come out here! The ice is?—’
His words were lost to the air as the old woman fell to the ground.
4
REYKJAVIK AIRPORT, ICELAND
Chloe had one beanie on her head, one in each pocket of the coat she was wearing and two coats under her left arm, her right arm controlling her overfilled cabin case. Somehow, amid the chaos of outfits on her bed, Kat had stretched out like a human steamroller over the lid of the case until the zips were as close to meeting as they could be and the grand stretching/straining/manhandling the pull along the track was soon completed. But, if Chloe was honest, she didn’t 100 per cent know what items were in there or not. What she did know though was if she didn’t get an update from Michelle soon, she might not have anywhere booked to stay…
She stopped wheeling her case, put the coats down on top and stood next to a sign that said ‘Exit to Iceland’. She checked her phone. Signal. At last. And three missed calls from Michelle. She didn’t waste time checking any other notifications, she called her boss.
‘Hello.’
‘Michelle, I?—’
‘Sorry, this is Gretchen. Michelle cannot come to the phone right now. She is under blanket.’
‘What?’ Chloe asked. What did that mean? And was ‘under blanket’ some maternity terminology she wasn’t familiar with?
There was some background noise, shuffling, grumbling, then a shriek until…
‘Chloe? Is that you?’
Michelle.
‘Yes, I?—’
‘I thought a pregnancy massage would be relaxing, but Gretchen has me trapped under a blanket like she’s a kidnapper and I need Liam Neeson on speed-dial. It’s traumatic rather than therapeutic and she hasn’t even touched me yet!’
‘Deep breaths, remember. For stress. Panting for when the time comes.’
‘I’ll be panting before that if she doesn’t turn the heating down in here! But, give me good news. Are you there yet?’
Chloe looked around at the walkways of Reykjavik airport – soft glittering festive lights and the frantic bustle of travel co-existing. ‘Yes. I’m here. The plane was on time and everything was OK and?—’
‘OK great! So that’s the good news! The bad news is… I haven’t been able to book you a hotel.’
Chloe’s stomach dropped. In an unfamiliar country, no idea where she was going or what she was doing, it was definitely bad news. What did she do now?
‘But there were a couple of places on Airbnb when I looked earlier, I just didn’t have time to finish before this torture appointment and I thought, with your knowledge of the local language, you’d be better off booking yourself.’
Chloe closed her eyes and breathed deep. Why, oh why, had she ever agreed to embellishing her CV with that statement about speaking Icelandic?! And why was it coming back to bite her in the arse when she really needed to stay on top of her professional game to prove to Michelle she was more than capable partner-material. But, thinking again, what better way to prove her prowess by taking this on the chin and making it work. She needed to keep her tone buoyant.
‘Not a problem.’
‘I know it’s not a problem, Chloe,’ Michelle said straight back. ‘Because you’re the best employee I’ve ever had. You’re 100 per cent reliable. Unlike the contraception that got me into this situation.’
Being likened to a pregnancy wasn’t quite giving the ‘take a stake in the business’ vibes she’d been hoping for. Still…
‘And I need to land this Sinclairz Chairs event and for it then to be the best event we’ve ever handled. Better than that actually! Because this could elevate us so significantly people could be saying Celebratey in the same breath as Dress Code.’
