With hindsight, Áróra wasn’t sure if he meant that she should be allowed to do it because it was such a change for an Icelandic child to get to play in unfrozen ground all year round, or if it was because there was no point trying to tame her wild Icelandic nature, which had a different rhythm to its English counterpart. There was so much that she now wanted to have asked her father, but when she realised, it was too late.

11

4

Edinburgh Airport was always a nightmare to get to, so Áróra decided to leave the car at home and take a taxi. It wasn’t that far that she could be bothered with trains and buses to save the taxi fare, as her mother would not have hesitated to do, reminding Áróra how badly she managed her finances. Her response was usually that there wasn’t much point in having money if you didn’t use it to make life easier for yourself.

It was a long time since she had been to Iceland in summer, but she remembered how cool it could be and had packed a few warm clothes in a weekend bag. She’d booked a hotel in the centre of Reykjavík. Its name wasn’t familiar, so it had to be a new place. Her mother had suggested staying with some relatives she barely remembered, but she had managed to dissuade her from making arrangements on her behalf. It was an evening flight, but it didn’t matter what time of day or night it was – she would arrive in daylight. It was June, with its cold sun that never left the sky.

The sisters had each inherited a mixed bag of genes. By nature Áróra was the more English of the two, but with typical Icelandic looks – a fair complexion and a robust physique. Ísafold’s darker looks were more English, with her ivory skin and petite frame, but she had always been instinctively more Icelandic than her sister, as she had spent more of her formative years in Iceland and had been closer to their father.

‘One’s an elf and one’s a troll,’ their father had said when they were small, managing somehow to make both appear desirable options. Ísafold was delighted to be an elf child, taking ballet and later gymnastics classes, for which her natural agility was perfect. Áróra was quite happy to be the family troll, taking after her father, whose build brought him work as a doorman and as a competitor 12at Highland games, so physical strength was often a subject of discussion in their house.