Chapter 11
It was a joy for Ida to take the train up to Fl?yen on such a beautiful evening, and for the first time in her life with someone other than her family.
Standing with Erik at the top, looking out over Bergen, seeing him so delighted with the view was something so special that she found it hard to believe they’d only met for the first time a couple of days ago.
He’d taken her hand as they waited and squeezed it so hard, while at the same time not being able to do anything other than nod.
He seemed to know that she understood. And her friendship with him was far too new to ask questions about why that was the case.
People broke their legs and recovered all the time, so perhaps it was more to do with not being able to compete anymore.
Perhaps normal snowboarding didn’t hold the same appeal for him, and she certainly wouldn’t start suggesting it was better than nothing, even if on the face of it that would be her take on it.
And they were still holding hands now as they looked over the city, while Erik pointed out places he could identify. Could they see the island from here? Not quite, but it was fun trying. They strolled further up the hill into the woods.
‘What’s that?’ He screwed his eyes up, trying to see the figure that was in the shadow of the trees.
‘It’s a troll. There’s a troll garden.’
He looked at her, his eyes wide. ‘Let’s go see the trolls.’
Ida had a soft spot for trolls herself. Aside from the ones Lotta had used in the hotel, she had a few that she’d rescued from the farmhouse when they cleared it out.
Her grandmother had a vast collection of them that had been on a shelf that ran all the way around the dining room.
Mats knew she’d taken maybe ten or so back to the house, but he didn’t know that she’d kept all of them.
They were in boxes in the garage. She’d moved them from the warehouse they’d used for storing everything during the hotel renovation while Mats had still been living in Oslo.
Once they reached the troll Erik had seen, the rest of the troll garden presented itself. There was a small clearing in the trees where several statues, if you could describe them as that, all in different styles but all unquestionably trolls, were dotted around.
‘Wow. This is crazy,’ Erik said, as they stood in the middle of the first few trolls.
‘It’s our heritage.’ Ida tried to keep her face serious because, of course, she was winding him up. And because they didn’t know each other very well, of course, he fell for it.
‘I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to make fun…I think they’re amazing, obviously. Tell me the origins —’
‘I’m joking,’ Ida said, laughing and hoping she’d assumed correctly that Erik had a sense of humour and could take a bit of gentle teasing when he wasn’t in a grump.
He grinned and rolled his eyes. ‘You got me.’
‘I mean, they are our heritage in that there are stories about them, but they’re just fun, nothing serious. We love them.’
‘But you do see that they’re weird, right?’
‘Yes, but at the same time very attractive.’
Erik barked out a laugh. ‘Attractive? Okay. I can’t say the one in my room is attractive, but I guess maybe it’s not representative.’
It perhaps wasn’t the time to share about her hoard of trolls, or to admit to Erik that the troll in his bedroom was no longer there. The fact he hadn’t noticed it was missing made her feel that she did the right thing by removing it.
They continued their walk around the troll garden, choosing their favourite troll.
Ida’s had always been the witchy troll near the entrance.
Erik chose a troll that Ida wouldn’t have counted as a troll because it had none of a troll’s distinguishing features: ugliness, bulging facial features, unkempt hair.
Erik’s choice was a wooden carving of a face, from a piece of tree and still had a cylindrical quality, almost as if it were part of a totem pole.
Then, it was time to catch the train back down.
‘One more look at the view while we wait?’ Erik suggested.
He took her hand and led her down the steps to the fence that kept them from tumbling down the side of the mountain.
Some of this was new since she’d last been here.
One thing that caught her eye was right next to their feet.
Erik glanced down at the same time she did.
A square of slate was etched with the outline of two pairs of feet, facing each other.
“Kissing Point” was written underneath. A complete tourist trap, Ida thought, especially since it was written in English.
‘That’s cute,’ Erik said. He looked at her and then very deliberately moved his feet so they were over the top of one set of footprints.
Ida’s heart was fluttering. He wanted to kiss her?
Now? She moved her feet but once she stood on the feet outline she was too close to Erik and lost her balance.
But before she could step away, she felt his hand on the middle of her back, steadying her.
Her eyes were staring at his chest. Right at the part where his last button fastened.
She trailed her eyes upwards, past his Adam’s apple, up his chin, which was somewhere between stubble and a beard, and finally met his eyes.
‘I’d love to kiss you, Ida. Is it too soon?’
She shook her head before she could say anything stupid to ruin the moment. Because this was one of the best moments of her life.
She raised up onto her tiptoes and met his lips with hers.
It was no exaggeration to say it was more than she could ever have imagined.
He was gentle, testing the waters for a moment before he went in for a proper knee-weakening kiss.
It was a good job his arm was still around her waist otherwise she’d have been in a pool of happiness on the ground.
They were interrupted by someone calling that the train was about to leave. They looked at each other, both with a bashful smile on their faces before Erik grabbed Ida’s hand and they ran to the station.
There was very little talking on the way back down. They sat as close to each other as they could, holding hands, and Ida wrapped her other hand around Erik’s arm, wanting to be as close to him as they’d been at the kissing point.
‘I’ll walk with you to the boat,’ Ida said, when they got off the train and were heading back down the hill to the harbour.
‘You’re not coming back to the island?’
She shook her head. ‘But I’ll be back in the morning.’
‘Will you get home okay?’
‘Yes. It’s not far. I’ll take the bus.’ She could tell he was the kind of man who would see a girl home at the end of the night and she’d love nothing more if that didn’t mean he’d miss the last boat back to the island and probably get lost in the suburbs of Bergen as well.
‘Tonight has been… it’s one of the best nights, Ida. The best.’
‘Same for me,’ she said smiling up at him. ‘You’re a great kisser.’
He laughed. ‘Thank you. So are you.’
She didn’t know if that was true because she certainly hadn’t had much practice, but it had felt natural and she desperately wanted to do it again, which had to be a good sign.
The boat was at the quayside with a couple of other guests already on board.
‘I’ll see you tomorrow then,’ he said softly.
Ida could tell they were going to kiss again, so she leaned up, hardly able to believe that it felt as great as the first time.
‘Vi sees.’
‘Bye.’ He climbed aboard and stood on deck as the boat headed away. He raised his hand in a wave and Ida did the same, then stood there until he was out of sight. With her heart full, she headed to the bus stop.
Mats and Lotta were still up when she got back. They were lying on the sofa together and hurriedly scrambled to sit up when she came in.
‘You went on a date?’ Lotta said.
‘With Erik. Why didn’t you tell me?’ Mats said.
‘Where did you go?’ Lotta asked.
Ida knew there was no point in trying to keep whatever it was with Erik a secret. She’d see him tomorrow at the hotel, in front of other people, and she didn’t want to be weird about it. It didn’t need to be a secret.
‘We went to Fjellsk?l. The fish restaurant we went to for Fredrik’s birthday,’ she added for Lotta’s benefit.
‘And what’s he like? Did he just ask you out?’
‘He only arrived yesterday. He’s a fast worker,’ Mats said.
‘So it was love at first sight,’ said Lotta.
‘I’m making tea. Do you want one?’ Ida said to them both before heading into the kitchen. She couldn’t answer questions like this. How could she explain any of it to them when she didn’t know what was happening herself?
‘We’re pleased for you,’ Mats said, coming up behind her.
He knew her better than any of the others, probably because they were oldest of the five of them, and they’d spent more time together over the past couple of years than any of the others.
‘But I know you just met the man today and you’re not the type to open up so quickly.
So I’m guessing it was more of a friends thing. ’
‘Yes,’ said Ida, hardly able to believe she was barefaced lying to her brother.
But she could understand that’s what he’d assume based on the fact she hadn’t been on a single date for the past few years.
She didn’t even have a friendship group anymore.
Of course it was far-fetched for him to believe she’d been out on a date with Erik because she liked him.
Already. It seemed far-fetched to her when she thought back to the kiss. Kisses. Did they really happen?
‘Don’t worry. I’ll let Lotta and Ingrid know to manage their expectations.’
‘Ingrid?’
‘She messaged Lotta about it. Said you’d asked her what you ought to wear.’
‘I didn’t want to show him around in my work clothes.’ Had she told Ingrid it was a date? She could hardly remember now.
‘Of course not,’ Mats said solemnly. Was he humouring her?
‘Anyway, he’s very nice. We had a lovely meal.’
‘And then he caught the boat back to the island?’
‘What else is he going to do? Do you think he’s waiting outside for me to sneak him in?’ Wouldn’t that be a delightful prospect?
Mats laughed. ‘I don’t know, Ida. It’s unusual, that’s all. You can’t blame us for being interested.’
‘Thank you for your interest. Feel free to inform the family that I may have new friends going forward.’
‘Hey,’ Mats said, pushing her arm and forcing her to turn and face him. ‘No one’s anything except pleased that you had a great evening with a friend. You don’t have to tell us everything. I know you’re not Ingrid.’
‘I bet she’s already looked him up and sent Lotta a link to something or other.’
Mats immediately looked guilty. ‘He was the best snowboarder in Canada, Ida.’
She couldn’t help but smile at her brother. He looked conflicted by trying to be loyal to her while having clearly joined in Ingrid and Lotta’s stalking. And it was funny to see him impressed by Erik’s achievements.
‘I know. He mentioned it.’
‘What’s he doing here? We’re a long way from Canada.’
‘Family research. And didn’t he mention to you he’s looking for a supplier of spruce? His father’s a joiner. I was going to ask you if you could let him know where you got the wood from for the hotel. Wasn’t it from somewhere local?’
‘Very local. He asked me this afternoon. It was from our own land across the fjord from the island. I’ll catch up with him again tomorrow. I did quite a lot of research on other suppliers around here before I realised we could use our own trees.’
‘Thanks. I think he’d appreciate that.’ Ida gave her brother a hug.
‘It’ll be a good opportunity for me to find out what his motives are.’
He held onto her extra tight so she couldn’t pull away and give him the wallop he deserved and after a moment of fruitless struggling, she started laughing and went all weak and helpless.
‘Mats!’
‘Ida!’ He let her go. ‘Seriously. Give yourself a break,’ he said, holding her upper arms so she had no choice but to look at him. ‘There is nothing wrong with liking a guy and going on a date. Let us be pleased for you. Be pleased for yourself.’
She wanted to give him another hug, but he held her fast, waiting for acknowledgement. So she nodded. ‘Okay.’
Mats’ words meant a lot to her. She needed to hear that it was okay to fall for someone she’d just met.
That it was okay to be someone other than the Ida they all knew.
The Ida who was fierce, maybe verging on grumpy sometimes.
Who held everyone but the family at arms’ length until she knew them. Until Erik.