Daníel shrugged. He would rather avoid a long conversation about a single dandelion right now, and didn’t want to allow himself to be accused of destroying nature’s beauty. It was too late at night for that. He would try again later. He could spray it with weedkiller sometime when Lady wasn’t watching, or even just come outside with the vacuum cleaner and hoover up the seeds once the dandelion had become a puffball. Surely Lady wouldn’t object to that. 122

Now he was going for a shower, then coffee while he waited for the border-control office to open so he could enquire about Ísafold’s possible movements. Once he had an answer, he would have a reason to call Áróra, and that would give him a chance to slip an apology into the conversation – something to casually defuse the drama around his ill-conceived move on her. And it would be an opportunity to act as if nothing was amiss – to act as if it didn’t matter to him that she had turned him down.

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51

Áróra slept fitfully, with dreams that went around in circles, from which she woke with her heart pounding. The circle of dreams began on a motorcycle, an exciting joy alive inside her, and her belly tight against his back, then there were kisses – and in her dreams they went further than they actually had; and then she was back on the motorcycle heading back to the city, the proximity of their bodies now awkward and the speed giving her motion sickness.

Now, standing under the shower and trying to come properly to her senses, it was difficult to separate the dream from reality.

‘My emotional side is out of balance,’ she had said as she drew away from him. ‘While all this with Ísafold is going on I’m not ready for anything romantic.’

‘It’s the age gap, isn’t it?’ he asked, his voice low, despondent. She denied that his age had anything to do with it, which was absolutely true, but while her sister was unaccounted for she couldn’t bring herself to think about men. That wasn’t strictly true, but she decided it wouldn’t do to mention Hákon or try to come up with explanations. The closeness between them had evaporated the moment things turned awkward. All the same, she picked up the cans and foil wrappers, and put them in the bag, while he folded the blanket and stowed it away under the bike’s seat.

Áróra was hot as she stepped out of the shower, so she patted herself dry and wrapped herself in just a towel. She switched on her computer and took a deep breath before clicking the email link from the spyware that gave her access to Hákon’s computer.