Page 10 of Adrift in Iceland
Olafur stood up to let her scoot along on the bench next to him. ‘Everyone, this is Astrid.’
‘Hæ, Astrid,’ Jonas said, smiling. ‘I think we met a couple of years ago at Christmas. It’s good to see you. This is my wife, Rachel.’ He said the last part in English. ‘Rachel isgetting the hang of Icelandic. Finally,’ he said, earning a shove and a grin from his wife. ‘But we speak English a lot of the time to give her a break.’
‘And I’m Fliss. Also English. Nice to meet you,’ she said with a smile. ‘And I am terrible at speaking Icelandic.’
‘Great to meet you,’ Astrid said, laughing and feeling less nervous with every introduction.
‘And this is Brun, Siggi and Iris,’ Olafur said, gesturing to the last three people who were sitting opposite.
‘Also English,’ said Iris with a small wave. ‘So you were living in Norway?’
Astrid nodded. ‘For the past four years.’
‘I love Norway,’ Iris said. ‘Siggi and I went there for a week in the autumn. The scenery is incredible.’
‘Where did you go?’
‘We stayed in Ålesund and did lots of hiking around there.’
‘Yes, it’s beautiful. I bet the views were amazing.’
‘Amazing,’ said Siggi, putting his arm around Iris and gazing at her adoringly.
‘They are quite besotted. It is still new,’ Olafur explained in a low voice.
Astrid nodded, bemused. She was sure Siggi was the one who used to be away, travelling, more than he was here. Gudrun told tales of him leaving broken hearts behind him every time he left town. But this man was in love. Perhaps Gudrun was onto something when she said she had magical powers.
‘Here,’ Gudrun said, sliding Astrid’s beer across to her and squeezing herself onto the end of the bench on the other side of Olafur. Olafur put his arm around her waist and pulled her into him, and Astrid tried not to think about the fact that she was the only single person at the table.
After they’d eaten, and another round of beers had been collected from the bar, Jonas pulled up an empty chair from atable behind them.
‘Hey, Astrid, come and sit over here,’ he said.
She climbed over the bench, pressing herself against the wall behind to avoid having to make either Olafur and Gudrun or Brun move out of the way. Now that she’d had a couple of drinks, and spent the past hour or so dipping in and out of conversations on either side of her, she felt more at ease.
‘I have a business proposition for you,’ Jonas said in Icelandic.
‘You can’t talk about that tonight,’ Rachel said to him. ‘I know what you said.’
‘She doesn’t know,’ he said to Astrid. ‘She’s just guessing because she knows how excited I am about this.’
‘It’s okay,’ said Astrid. ‘I’m keen to hear it now.’
Rachel smiled and rolled her eyes. ‘It is exciting,’ she said. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’ She patted Jonas’s shoulder as she stood up, taking a seat at the end of the bench next to Brun and chatting to Fliss.
‘We’re starting a new venture with Iceland Adventures,’ Jonas began. ‘We’re going to start running boat tours. I’ve started a partnership with a friend who has a boat, but I need someone else to run it with him.’
‘Whale-watching trips?’ Astrid asked.
Jonas bobbed his head from side to side, seemingly reluctant to answer. ‘There’s a lot of competition if we go down that route. We need to offer something unique, and that’s where I think you could really help us out. The guy I’m working with comes from a fishing background. He knows these waters inside out, and he has some knowledge of where to find whales. But with your expertise, could we go further? Could we focus on other marine species that are just as wonderful?’
‘There are dolphins and seals as well, but they’re not asimpressive as whales and can be harder to find. In Faxaflói Bay you’re most likely to see humpbacks and minkes. I don’t have any special insight into anything else you could reliably look for.’
Jonas looked dejected. ‘I hope I haven’t sunk a lot of money into this only to do the same as everyone else.’
‘What made you decide to do it in the first place?’
‘The guy who owns the boat, Leifur, came to me with a business proposition. His fishing business is basically bankrupt, and all he has left is his boat. A lot of fishermen are switching into tourism, but he can’t afford to set up on his own. I like the idea of a new income stream, and he’s a good guy. I want to help him out.’
