Page 55 of Snug in Iceland
“What happened to you? Gudrun said someone had an accident but we thought it was a guest.”
“One of my crampons came loose when we were hiking and I slipped and fell on my shoulder. I have broken myviðbein; I don’t know the English word,” he said, gesturing to his shoulder.
“Collarbone?”
“Yes, collarbone. It will be fine in a few weeks.”
“Are you feeling alright though? Is it painful?”
“It is not too bad now but when it happened…” he closed his eyes and shuddered slightly. “It is okay now, I’m okay.”
Olafur rolled his eyes, clearly thinking that Jonas wasn’t alright at all, but he said nothing and moved away to look into a shop window.
Jonas looked tenderly into Rachel’s eyes, making her stomach flutter. Then, noticing she was shivering said, “Rachel it’s freezing, where is your coat?”
He took Rachel’s hand in his and held it to his chest rubbing his thumb against the back of her hand.
“I was just having a drink in Islenksi Barinn when I saw you walk past.”
“It’s great to see you, sorry I didn’t call you. I was waiting until I got back,” he said with a weak smile. He bent forward to kiss her.
“Hi, I don’t think we’ve met, I’m Adam.”
Adam was stood behind Rachel, holding his hand out to Jonas to shake. Rachel instinctively moved away from Jonas, staring in disbelief at Adam.
“Jonas.”
They shook hands. Jonas looked surprised and briefly raised his eyebrow to Rachel as if to ask what was going on.
“Rachel spotted you while we were having a drink. You look like you’ve been in the wars.”
“It’s not as bad as it looks.”
“She’s told me a lot about you. You’re the tour guide?”
She had hardly told him anything about Jonas. Adam was trying to stake his claim over her and even though she could see what was happening, she couldn’t think of anything to say. It was as if she was watching it from afar, powerless to intervene.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“It’s his company,” said Rachel.
That was all she could manage to say in defence of Jonas who seemed to be visibly waning as they stood there.
“Of course. It was great to meet you but we’d better be getting back inside before we freeze. Rachel?”
Adam took a couple of steps back towards the bar and was waiting for her to follow him
“I’ll call you later,” said Jonas.
“Actually Jonas, we’re in the middle of something. Rachel didn’t know I was coming to visit and we have a lot to catch up on.”
Jonas looked at Rachel to see if she was going to speak up for herself but she just looked at him with an agonised expression.
“Hey Jonas,” Olafur said, having re-joined his friend. “Let’s go.”
They walked away slowly with Olafur putting his arm under Jonas’s good arm to support him.
Rachel followed Adam back into the warmth of Islenski Barinn. She was mortified that Adam and Jonas had met like that, but now that she was over the shock, she was furious that she had allowed Adam to take charge of the situation. They sat down at the table again, Adam reaching for her hand across the table as if nothing had interrupted them.
