Chapter 12
Erik went down for breakfast the morning after his evening out with Ida, hoping to see her at the reception desk, but there was no one there. Disappointed, he headed into the dining room.
‘Hey, P?l.’
‘God morgen, Erik. Same table as yesterday?’
‘That’d be great.’
P?l handed him a menu that listed the items he could order from the kitchen. ‘Help yourself to the buffet as well. Can I get you some coffee?’
‘Sure, thanks. What would you recommend from this?’ He waved the menu, thinking that following Ida’s advice on the fish last night had worked out well.
‘The eggs with smoked salmon is a good choice, perhaps with some rye bread?’
‘That sounds great. Do you know whether Ida is here today?’
‘She’s in the kitchen. Would you like to speak to her?’
‘If she’s not busy.’
If P?l was surprised by his request, he didn’t show it. Less than a minute later, Ida came out from the kitchen carrying a plate of food and a mug.
‘Can I eat breakfast with you?’
Erik grinned so hard, it made his face ache. He stood up and pulled the chair out opposite him. ‘Please,’ he said.
She sat down, taking a bowl off her plate and arranging it next to her.
‘What do you have there?’
‘Some yogurt with berries and granola. And a custard pastry.’
‘I’m having eggs and smoked salmon. You think I’ve made a good choice?’
‘I think you should get one of these from the buffet before they all go,’ Ida said pointing to her pastry. ‘But the eggs will be delicious too.’
Erik left the table to fetch himself a pastry, and while he was there picked up some chia porridge. By the time he came back to the table, his coffee had arrived.
‘The chia porridge is gorgeous,’ Ida said. ‘I usually have that for lunch if there’s any left.’
He took a spoonful from the glass it was served in. It was creamy and had a fairly firm texture, not what he was expecting at all. ‘Delicious. I enjoyed last night so much.’
Her eyes sparkled as she smiled at him while crunching through a spoonful of her own breakfast. ‘I did too.’
‘I thought afterwards, we should have exchanged numbers so you could text me when you got home.’
She looked at him quizzically. ‘I’m always out on my own. It would be weird to have to check-in with someone.’
He hadn’t thought of it like that. He’d just been thinking of his own worry that he hadn’t been able to see her home safely. ‘I guess it is weird when you put it like that.’
‘Sorry.’
‘No need to apologise. I should have realised you’re more than capable of getting yourself wherever you need to be without having to let me know.
’ This conversation was veering into strange territory for people who met for the first time a couple of days ago.
His innocent comment about texting had blown up in his face, that’s for sure.
They finished breakfast and walked into the entrance hall together.
‘What are you up to today?’ Ida asked.
‘I’m going to take my kayak out.’
‘Looks like a great day for it. I’ll see you later.’
She turned away from him and he headed upstairs to get his things with a sigh.
How had the wonderfulness of last night disappeared so quickly?
It was hard to believe it was all about his misplaced concern that she got home okay.
He’d honestly thought that comment would result in them exchanging numbers and he couldn’t have been more wrong.
With his small daypack stuffed with waterproofs, a bottle of water and some snacks, Erik headed to the jetty to pick up his kayak. It was still exactly where he’d left it on the grass, partly hidden by a bush. He picked it up and slid it into the water, then climbed on.
Knowing exactly where he was heading, but feeling nervous, as if someone might see him and guess what he was up to, he paddled up the fjord that ran to the left of the island rather than going behind the hotel on the other side.
The paddle along the length of the island took him alongside the part of the island he’d walked the day before, ending in the tip at the opposite end where the mountains rose in front of him spectacularly.
The end of the fjord wasn’t visible because it curved to one side.
Another day he’d carry on paddling up that way and see what it looked like. But today he was on a mission.
Curving back on himself around the tip of the island, he paddled to the opposite shore, stopping well before the back of the hotel came into sight, choosing a place where he could easily hop out of the kayak onto the shore.
He pulled the kayak out of the water and stowed it out of sight behind a copse of young spruce.
He followed the shoreline, keeping a tree or two between him and the water so that he was out of sight, although who was likely to be looking, he didn’t know.
He’d never done anything that felt like spying before, and he clearly wasn’t a natural.
But was it even spying when it was potentially your own land you were searching for?
If he hadn’t made friends with Ida, he didn’t think he’d feel like this at all.
After a few minutes, the feel of the forest changed, and Erik realised he had found the spruce forest that was part of Strandg?rden.
The trees were spaced pretty regularly; their wide trunks straight and true.
There were fewer stray branches on the lower parts of the trunks.
It altogether looked tidier, as if these trees had been looked after instead of being left to nature, at least for the first part of their lives.
He changed direction and headed inland. The land went from relatively flat near the water into a steeper incline, which he had to negotiate by walking in zigzags back and forth along the hillside.
It was lucky that there were plenty of trees to use for balance because it was tricky ground to negotiate.
The muscles in his bad leg were still recovering.
It could be many more months before he saw more improvement there, and while for walking in normal places it was fine, this terrain was problematic.
It was frustrating to say the least, but before he climbed any higher, he had to sit down and take a break.
Even though it had been a dry couple of days, the forest floor was damp so he pulled his waterproof coat out of his pack and sat down on there.
The layers and layers of pine needles that had fallen over the years made for a soft landing when he plonked himself down.
He lay back against the slope and listened to the silence while he thought about what he was going to do next.
His plan had always been to find the forest. See if it still existed after all these years.
It could easily have been harvested, and his hopes would be dashed.
But that question had been answered, and he was lying on the floor of this forest, which quite possibly was partly his.
The second part of his quest was making it known to the current owner.
That was trickier, not least because it wasn’t the faceless person Erik had been happy to confront before he got here.
Someone he imagined was a ruthless money-maker, tearing up the land for their own gain.
He’d been quite prepared to take something from that person.
It felt fair since he’d lost so much himself, that he could redress the balance.
But he didn’t feel that way anymore. It belonged to Mats, a guy who was clearly preserving his family legacy rather than exploiting it.
Okay, he’d make money from the hotel, but it wasn’t at the cost of everything that mattered.
Heck, he’d even given his sister one of the biggest jobs, keeping it in the family, which was something Erik could get behind.
As he stood up, stretched, packed his waterproof away again and continued his slow ascent, he realised he was going to have to rethink his strategy.
After another half hour of slow progress, the trees stopped, replaced by naturally-seeded spruce and other greenery as the top of the mountain came into view.
The ground gradually levelled out until Erik was standing on the top.
The view was far more spectacular than he’d imagined it would be.
He could see the large fjord that led to Bergen in one direction and to the North Sea in the other.
There were mountain peaks all around him, some with snow on top.
Some shaped like a pile of sugar, some far more dramatic with sheer vertical sides that soared from the water. Incredible.
He sat and pulled out his water and a Kvikk Lunsj chocolate bar, enjoying the warmth of the sun on his face.
A week here would not be long enough. He only had three more nights booked at the hotel, and it was going to take longer than that to speak to Mats and talk all of this through.
He’d see if he could book another week to give him more time to get to know Mats and Ida, and surely that could only help his cause when he presented his documents to them.
But he knew part of his decision to stay longer was driven by his attraction to Ida.
He was drawn to her in a way he hadn’t been to a woman before.
There was more to her than met the eye, and he sensed from their conversation over breakfast that she was a complicated person.
Independent because she’d had to be, because she was the one taking care of everyone and holding the family together now that their parents had gone.
Regardless of what had happened last night, a night of absolute perfection until he’d had to leave her on the quayside, she clearly wasn’t a woman who was going to smile sweetly and walk into the sunset with him.
He didn’t want that anyway. He didn’t know what he wanted, but it wasn’t a woman with no mind of her own.
So maybe Ida was going to be a challenge he hadn’t expected or been looking for, but she was one he would not give up on after one small — awkward but small — setback.
The walk back down was infinitely easier than the way up. Keen not to prolong the hike, Erik opted to go straight down the side of the hill.
Walking downhill felt easier, but it wasn’t long before his leg ached the same way it had after the plane journey, and the slow, deliberate steps he started out taking were making it worse.
So he ran down between the trees, using them to stop him from losing control and ending up rolling down the hill and probably breaking his leg again.
This hike was probably a one-time thing.
It was a relief to get back into the kayak.
He paddled back around the way he’d come but stopped at the opposite tip of the island instead of going to the main jetty.
This was a better spot to keep the kayak, and the walk back through the woods would give him a chance to stretch his legs with a normal walk after the exertion of the mountain.
He’d thought this would be a moment of triumph. He’d found what he came for, but it didn’t feel like that. Now that he was here, it felt different. Almost as if he was betraying something.