The Northern Lights Lodge

by Julie Caplin

  ‘What?’ Lucy turned around and looked the way he was pointing.

  ‘Well look at that. By the generator. I guess they need one out here, the weather can get pretty severe and we’re quite isolated.’ He knew he was gabbling but the stark confirmation of their fledgling suspicions along with the need to fight his natural inclination to comfort Lucy had scrambled his brain.

  Her gaze followed the direction of his finger. Two large tyres were propped up against a large electricity generator.

  ‘Bloody hell,’ muttered Lucy, the brightness doused immediately as she stomped over and gave them a light disgusted kick. ‘How do you think they got here? Those huldufólk are mighty strong and clever.’ Her mouth twisted with sarcasm before she added with a scowl, ‘Houston we have a problem.’

  Still clasping the net, she put her hands on her hips and let out a heavy sigh. ‘Damn. I was hoping it was all coincidence. Stupid huh.’

  He winced and shook his head.

  She threw her head back in disgust, before lifting her chin again with that resolute thrust, he just had to admire.

  ‘In the meantime, we have a sheep to rescue.’

  ‘Oh bum,’ said Lucy when Alex leaned forward as far as he dared trying to scoop Dolly towards the edge so that she could grab the sheep. It was worse than bobbing for apples. No sooner did he try to reach the animal’s back end, the stupid creature dipped and swung out of reach floating towards the other side of the long rectangular hot tub. But he refused to be beaten. Stupid bloody animal. Didn’t it realise he was trying to help it? And why was he doing this?

  For what felt like the umpteenth time, he stalked around the end of the hot tub to the other side with Lucy following him. It was ridiculous. They both must look ridiculous. But he wasn’t giving in. Not when Lucy was looking at him like he was some kind of hero. Now, the sheep was bobbing right in the centre of the pool just out of reach. If he could stretch that extra inch. For a moment he floundered on the edge, a rush of adrenaline pumping when he almost fell in.

  What was he trying to prove?

  ‘Let me have a go,’ said Lucy, with another glance over her shoulder. He could tell she was anxious that someone might spot their antics. They’d been at this for twenty minutes.

  ‘What? You think you can do better?’ he said a touch grouchily. OK, he was being childish, but it was bloody annoying. How hard could it be to round the damn thing up? The sheep’s glassy eyes seemed to be sharp with malevolent glee as if it were enjoying the chase. He narrowed his eyes and glared back at it. Lucky sheep was toasty in there while he was starting to get seriously cold where the splashes of water had soaked his clothes. He jabbed the net into the water, trying to make waves to get the sheep to drift back to the other side.

  ‘No,’ she pursed her lips as if trying to hold back laughter.

  ‘Are you laughing at me?’ he asked rounding on her.

  Immediately her eyes widened in a guileless expression that wouldn’t fool anyone. She pressed her lips tighter. ‘Not laughing. No. N-not…’ Her eyes twinkled a little. ‘But it,’ she sniggered, ‘it’s a bit like man versus beast. You are determined not to be beaten.’

  Straightening up, he glared at the sheep and then her. He was about to throw the net at her with a childish, ‘well, you try then,’ when he realised how ridiculous the whole situation was.

  ‘You should see me playing Fifa on the Xbox,’ he said with a sudden grin.

  ‘Competitive, much?’ she asked, a giggle escaping as she looked up at him.

  ‘Hell, yes. And, I am determined to get this sheep out.’ With another push he reached out towards the sheep aware of the small smile playing at her lips. The net swished through the water and he leaned further forward. Steady Alex, he told himself. He didn’t want to fall in, in front of her but it felt as if Lucy had challenged him and he wasn’t about to concede defeat. The sheep was bobbing towards the far side now. If he made a quick dash around there he could pull the sheep to the side and fish it out.

  Slipping on the wet deck, he made a quick clumsy circuit, barely staying upright on his feet like some cartoon klutz, narrowly missing falling in. When he reached the side where the sheep now knocked against the side, he ducked down on his knees to grab it, but the creature bleated and with its legs going like the clappers under the water, it swam away.

  ‘Bugger!’ said Alex as Lucy burst out laughing.

  He glared at her, unable to see the funny side of things. Instead he gripped the net tighter and reached for the sheep again, managing to hook the net over its head. The animal’s shrill indignant bleats filled the air.

  ‘Come here you stupid thing, I’m trying to help you,’ he ground out through gritted teeth, hanging onto the net and trying to coax the sheep towards him.

  Lucy laughed again, the usual strained lines on her face lifting as if she hadn’t laughed quite so openly and easily for a while. He paused, his cold fingers clenched around the handle of the pole, realising the absurdity of the tableau. If his Paris staff could see him now. He couldn’t help but smile. They were used to seeing him in an expensive, well-cut suit, calm and in control of the busy hotel, like a captain at the helm.

  ‘Glad you’re finding the funny side of this, but any suggestions?’ he asked with a crooked smile.

  She pressed her lips together, her eyes dancing and looked at the water.

  ‘And no, I’m not going in.’

  ‘I didn’t expect you to,’ she said blithely, her mouth twitching. ‘This is my problem.’ She tossed her hair over her shoulder. With a sudden movement, she wriggled out of her coat, dropping it to the floor.

  Not quite believing it, he watched as she yanked her jumper and t-shirt over her head in one smooth move.

  ‘Lucy?’ but before he could say anything more, she was kicking off her boots and shimmying out of her skirt and tights.

  Like a stupid dolt, he gaped at the sight of her in bra and pants. Speechless. Wow, she was gorgeous. Eyes down, Alex. Eyes down. But he couldn’t seem to help himself and he sneaked a peek at the high well-rounded breasts peeping over a lacy white bra and the creamy white skin cinched in at a narrow waist. Then, with a quick shudder as if steeling herself she jumped into the water

  Striking out with a determined front crawl she swam toward the sheep.

  ‘What are you doing?’ he asked stupidly.

  She cast him an unnecessary what the hell do you think look. The sheep like a spectator on centre court, thrashed its head from side to side with a loud baa, but Lucy went straight up to its side, standing up and pushing it towards Alex. It took less than a minute for her to manoeuvre it his way and for him to crouch down and channel his inner Australian sheep wrangler to grasp the soggy mass of wet wool and yank it out. The damn thing was heavier than he’d thought but with Lucy grinning up at him, ten degrees of smugness glimmering in her eyes, there was no way he was letting go. As soon as the sheep landed dockside the ungrateful creature skittered off the decking, hooves clicking on the wood, without so much as a look back, and scampered off down the field towards the fence, baaing as it went.

  ‘Bloody typical,’ he snarled as Lucy laughed again, her eyes sparkling with suppressed glee.

  ‘It’s kind of funny,’ she snorted, her shoulders shaking, making the water swirl and lap across her breasts.

  He narrowed his eyes and then unable to help himself laughed back at her. ‘That’s one way of doing it. Want a hand?’ Still on one knee, he leaned forward and extended a hand, half wondering if she might pull him in. Being a gentleman he tried not to take in the sight of her cleavage. She pulled her hair out of her face, the movement pushing her firm breasts upwards.

  Her eyes caught his and he realised despite his good intentions, he’d been staring and that all the blood in his body had gone someplace it shouldn’t and his jeans felt uncomfortably tight. Worse still her eye level was right on the same place.

  With a nonchalant hand he brushed down his jeans. When he looked at Lucy a fierce pink t
inge ran along her cheekbones and she was studying the floor with great diligence. There was an uncharacteristic vulnerability about her that brought out the quick, sharp desire to pull her close and wrap his arms around her.

  She peeped up at him, uncertain and shy. His heart stuttered in his chest, the next beat misfiring completely.

  ‘Let’s get you out of there.’ He held out a hand and hauled her up on to the side. Hitting the cold air, she immediately tensed, folding into herself and crossing her arms over her chest. Without thinking he unzipped his coat and wrapped it around her, pulling her towards him. As soon as he pressed her wet soft body up against his all he could think about was wanting to kiss her. Right there on her pale pink lips. She lifted her head, wary eyes zeroing on his own lips. It was the shyness that did it, so unlike her normal practical, decisive attitude. He ducked his head and grazed her lips very gently, hearing her startled, quick indrawn breath. Alarm bells were ringing in his head – proceed with caution – but she tilted her head up like a sunflower and a tremulous smile filled her eyes, so he kissed her again, pulling her closer into the shelter of his coat. Her lips met his in cautious exploration and despite wanting to deepen the kiss he held back, sensing a fragility about her.

  When they pulled back looking at each other, her eyes were dazed and wary again, and he drew her into a swift instinctive hug, holding her against him. She hugged him back, standing in the circle of his arms for a minute.

  ‘We need to get you inside and warmed up. It’s not really the weather for swimming.’

  She sighed and he felt her small frame shudder. ‘Thanks Alex.’

  He wasn’t sure what she was thanking him for but he felt like a conquering hero and he grinned like an idiot at her. What was wrong with him? This was standard nice guy behaviour, what had happened to being business-like? He was supposed to be evaluating her and the hotel. Although, what was the corporate line on fishing a sheep out of a hot tub? Or falling for someone your boss might fire in a couple of weeks...

  Chapter 19

  Hekla blew. And boy did she blow ‒ a stream of curses erupted from the office as Lucy stood talking to Brynja and Kristjan at the front desk. Despite the language difference, the vehemence of her tone made it quite clear she wasn’t being particularly complimentary.

  There was a shocked silence and then the three of them peered around the office door.

  ‘Ónytjungur,’ snarled Hekla, ripping a sheet of already mangled paper out of the printer.

  ‘Roughly translated as?’ Lucy asked Brynja who was trying to contain her laughter. It was pretty comical, tall blonde Viking goddess versus squat black plastic box, the former circling the latter as if she might finish it off at any second. All she needed was a large dagger covered in runes.

  Brynja pulled a face and whispered. ‘Useless sack of shit.’

  To be fair, the printer had become increasingly temperamental over the last few days, although it had always been Hekla’s sworn enemy. Now it was causing too many problems as they relied on it to print out guest receipts at the end of their stay. As it had taken to chewing up every other sheet of paper, it did hold people up when they were trying to check out and were already antsy about catching a flight.

  ‘Hey Hekla,’ Kristjan tossed her a heavy book. ‘Why don’t you beat it to death?’

  She caught it, slicing it out of the air and Lucy thought she was going to throw it right back at his head.

  He ducked his shoulders and beat a hasty retreat heading back to his kitchen as Hekla let rip with another stream of angry invective and stomped back to her desk where she started hammering at the keyboard of her laptop.

  ‘Hey,’ Lucy said. ‘Time out. What’s the problem?’

  ‘I’m trying to print off the itinerary for the golden circle tour for the party that arrived yesterday. They’re being picked up at ten o’clock by the tour company. And the –,’ she used a word that Lucy could have guessed at the translation, ‘printer won’t work. They will be here in a minute.’

  ‘OK.’ Lucy looked at the pile of churned up paper, making a quick decision. In a move she’d never have done at her last hotel, she put an arm around Hekla and gave her shoulders a squeeze. ‘Why don’t we use the manual feed for now? Get it done and then let’s take a trip to Reykjavik and buy a new one. Brynja, we don’t have many bookings for tonight, you can hold the fort. We’ll have our phones on.’

  ‘But…’ Hekla’s lower lip trembled.

  Lucy gave her another squeeze. ‘Come on. You haven’t had a day out for a couple of days. I bet you could do with a change of scene. We can go and have lunch. You can show me a bit of the city and we can pick up a new printer.’

  ‘New printer.’ Hekla shot the current one a triumphant sneer. ‘Ha! Yes. A new printer.’ She was already reaching for the down coat hung on the back of her chair. ‘I’ll ask Olafur for the keys to the jeep. He won’t mind as long as we’re back in time for him to take the crew out tonight.’

  ‘Right. Give me ten minutes. I need to … er…’ Lucy gave her watch a surreptitious look and then wrinkled her nose, feeling the tiny bite of disappointment. Breakfast service had finished half an hour ago. The serving staff would be long gone. Alex had been on duty this morning. She gave Hekla a catch-all sort of nod and slipped out into reception. She hadn’t seen him since yesterday morning although he seemed to have taken up most of her thoughts. That kiss. Holy heck that kiss. His first kiss that night in the staff room had made her heart race, the one by the hot tub had been off the scale. Her cheeks heated at the memory. And what had she been thinking stripping off like that? God, hadn’t she learned her bloody lesson? She was his boss for crying out loud.

  And then as if she’d conjured him up, there he was, crossing the lobby coming straight towards her, still wearing his waiter’s uniform, looking ridiculously handsome in smart black trousers and a white shirt which was unbuttoned to half way down his chest, as if he’d been changing and had remembered something. He just needed a loose bow tie dangling from his hand and he’d be sexy tuxedo man after a night on the town. Lucy’s mouth went dry.

  ‘Hey Alex,’ her voice came out unnaturally high.

  ‘Hi Lucy,’ he grinned at her. ‘No sheep crises today?’

  ‘No, thank goodness. And thank you so much for helping yesterday.’ Keep it professional, she told herself.

  ‘No problem.’ His eyes twinkled and held hers. She swallowed, being professional going straight out the window. A hot flush raced over her skin as she remembered, for what felt like the thousandth time in the last twenty-four hours, his gentle kisses. It had taken all her will power not to pop into the kitchen this morning during service to see him. Ever since yesterday, she’d been trying to persuade herself that he’d just been offering comfort during a stressful situation. She was his boss. Kissing him was wrong. Wanting to kiss him again was wronger … was that even a word. It showed how discombobulated her brain was around him.

  ‘Kristjan hasn’t collected the print copy of today’s menu.’ Alex’s voice interrupted her thoughts. ‘I thought I’d pop by and get it for him.’

  She frowned. ‘But Kristjan just left,’ she said looking back at the office, puzzled. The young chef knew the printer was out of action.

  ‘Oh, I-I er,’ stammered Alex.

  Lucy pressed her lips together intrigued by his very un-Alex-like discomfit, although he recovered quickly, those amber flecked warm brown eyes holding hers with a steady gaze.

  ‘Well, now I’m here.’ And normal, in control, Alex was back. ‘I’m planning a glacier walk and I know how much you enjoyed the trip to Gullfoss. Fancy tagging along?’

  Lucy’s heart did a quick flip. ‘That would be great,’ she said trying to emulate his matter of fact tone, despite her excitement at the thought of spending time with him. Her pulse was rocketing at a ridiculous pace completely ignoring the stern voice in her head, reminding her of boring things like boundaries and employee rights.

  The drive to Reykjavik foll
owed virtually the same route as the trip Lucy had had with Alex, although with Hekla driving it was somewhat different. Where he’d been cautious and careful on the road, Hekla didn’t know the meaning of the word caution. She raced around corners, hit the gravelled edges frequently and turned her head when she spoke to Lucy, taking her eyes off the road constantly.

  Gripping the seat and keeping an eye on the road certainly took Lucy’s mind away from brooding about Alex and her contrary reaction to him and she was grateful to see the environs of the city.

  ‘We’ll park down by the harbour, you can see the Harpa Concert Hall from there and the Sun Voyager, a beautiful sculpture. One of my favourite things to see here, although I don’t like the city so much,’ said Hekla as she drove through the centre.

  Lucy realised that although she hadn’t missed city life before, now she was here, her senses had come alive. Although it felt more like a small town than city, with its wide-open streets and the so, so pretty houses, white with brightly coloured rooves, and then as they moved through another part of the city, the houses themselves were bright red, green, a gorgeous blue, orange and even lime green.

  The sky had brightened since this morning and now light clouds were strewn across a blue sky, which was reflected in the huge glass frontage of the rather impressive Harpa, the concert hall and conference centre, which Hekla had explained was home to the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and Icelandic Opera. It looked incredibly modern, perched like a jagged hunk of ice on the edge of the old harbour, with its unusual glass tessellations reminding Lucy of a giant frozen honeycomb.

  ‘As we haven’t got much time, I’ll take you Hallgrímskirkja, the biggest church in Iceland. It is very beautiful, well I think so. It was built like a volcano is formed.’ She grinned, her good-natured face sunny and happy now as if her earlier explosion had never happened. ‘And you know I like volcanoes.’