not sure that I could live here forever.’ Her spirits drooped. ‘My plan was to stick it out here for a least a year, before I knew the place is up for sale. Unfortunately,’ she held up a hand before he could comment on her stupidity, ‘I’m on a temporary contract.’ There was a silence when she thought he might have commented, so she carried on, ‘I thought it was a probationary precaution, now I realise it paves the way for any new owners to bring in their own team of people. And yes, feel free to tell me that was a dumb thing to do.’
Alex didn’t say anything, he seemed to be focusing hard on the road.
In the quiet of the car, with the engine humming, she brooded about the future. Reluctant to disturb Alex’s concentration, she stared out of the window at the endless black tarmac road lit up by the golden beam of the headlights.
She could see the grey ribbon of road stretching ahead for miles, weaving its way through the virtually uninhabited landscape. As they drove along, houses were few and far between, although the sheep were plentiful and quite a few strayed dangerously close to the road. As they followed the signs towards Reykjavik, Lucy reflected that it seemed a long time since she’d first driven this way, her heart sinking at how far the lodge was from any town of any size.
‘I can’t believe I’ve been here nearly two weeks already.’
‘Time flies when you’re enjoying yourself,’ teased Alex.
‘Or working double shifts,’ she retorted. ‘I’m glad that the staff are all more settled and there’s been no more talk about flipping elves. Although I’m still wondering where the dead mice came from and what stopped them.’
‘You mean it wasn’t the magic unicorn?’ he asked with a quick raise of his eyebrows.
‘I never thanked you for that. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the “steals their magic”. It was inspired,’ she laughed.
Alex smirked. ‘Not as inspired as the unicorn idea to start with.’ His face softened and he turned to her. ‘I owe you an apology actually. You handled it well. I’d have told them to stop with the nonsense if they wanted to be paid. I realise now that some people do take this elf stuff seriously.’
‘Mm,’ said Lucy, remembering his stern expression that morning and the disapproval he’d radiated. ‘I think you’ll find it was less inspiration and more desperation. My first day and I panicked. God knows what I’d have done if all the staff had walked out. Funny there hasn’t been a repeat of the anything like the “mices”. You haven’t heard of anything?’
Alex shook his head. ‘No, it’s a bit of a mystery.’
‘Mystery? That’s a kind way of putting it. Pretty mean trick. Someone playing a joke that really wasn’t very funny. Let’s hope with the arrival of the film crew, they’ll keep their tricks to themselves.’
They lapsed into thoughtful silence.
‘Do you want any music on?’ asked Alex, his hand straying to the radio.
‘Hmm, not sure. Apart from Björk, I don’t know any Icelandic music.’
‘Don’t worry, I’ve got a playlist on my phone.’
‘Could be interesting,’ said Lucy. ‘What sort of playlist is it?’
Alex looked worried. ‘It’s just a playlist.’
‘Not a driving playlist, then.’
‘No,’ he said warily. ‘A playlist of tracks I like.’
She pulled out her phone. ‘I have playlists for running, driving, cleaning.’
‘Cleaning? You have a cleaning playlist.’
‘Yes,’ said Lucy. ‘Doesn’t everyone?’
‘Clearly not,’ said Alex. ‘Although it’s not something I think about that much. I do the bare minimum when I absolutely have to.’
‘Typical man.’
‘I prefer to call it an efficient time and motion approach. So, what’s on your driving playlist? Is it fit for human consumption?’
‘Of course. Don’t you trust me?’
‘No, you might be a closet Metallica fan.’
Lucy pretended to think for a moment.
‘I might be.’
‘Are you?’
Lucy giggled and stopped. She was rusty in that department. It was a long time since she’d felt like giggling. ‘I couldn’t name a single one of their tracks.’
‘No, you look more of a Take That type.’
‘And what does that look like?’ She lifted one dangerous eyebrow daring him to comment.
‘Er … you know … normal.’
‘I’ll take normal. To be honest I’m not really that into music. I never had that much time to listen.’
‘Give us your worst, put on your playlist.’
Luckily Alex didn’t seem to mind her music and even commented a couple of times that he liked a track. He made her skip one but then she wasn’t a huge Justin Bieber fan either.
‘Look, the sun’s coming out.’ They’d been driving for forty minutes and the earlier thick black clouds had started to thin, like a ragged net, their edges tinged with pale pink and gold, and within the breaks Lucy could see pale blue sky.
‘I think Hekla might have got the weather right, it is going to be a nice day.’
‘Ah look, I think this is our turning. And yes, there’s a sign post.’ They followed the signs which were excellent, but then Lucy figured, you wouldn’t want people getting lost out here, the landscape was pretty inhospitable and even quite eerie in some places, like an alien planet. On some stretches of road, there hadn’t a been a single sign of human habitation for miles. She was glad that Alex was driving.
The road began to climb and before long they were pulling into the car park at Gullfoss.
‘Oh goodness, you can hear it,’ said Lucy, listening to the boom of water as they started walking up the footpath, passing early risers going the other way, drenched in their sodden waterproofs although managing cheery grins.
They stopped on the path as they caught their first glimpse of the torrent of water crashing down the craggy rocks. Fine sprays of water drifted through the air, rising up from the deep river bed billowing across the chasm like gossamer curtains floating on the breeze.
‘Wow,’ said Lucy, staring down at the roiling, foaming flow racing over the edge of the dark rocks like an unstoppable force.
‘It’s quite something.’ For a moment the pair of them marvelled at the view.
‘Do you want to go up there, out on the ledge?’ asked Alex, pointing to the rocky ledge protruding almost into the
