Out of the Blue Bouquet (Crossroads Collection)

by Amanda Tru

  “Thanks.” Clari opened the flap and pulled a single picture out. A smile crossed her face. “Of course.” The big pond at the park near her grandparents’ house. She’d spent many happy hours near there.

  A glance at Joel and Rachel showed they were still engrossed in their conversation. She wouldn’t interrupt. The lake would wait a few more minutes.

  “So you know my amma?” Clari asked Anabelle who seemed to pick up on why she was stalling.

  “We love Mrs. T, even though we can’t say her last name. We’ve tried.”

  Clari laughed. “Thorbjørnsdóttir. It means daughter of Thorbjørn in Icelandic.”

  Anabelle grinned. “If you say so. She comes in a couple times a week to say hi and look around. I’m pretty sure she has far more yarn than she can use in a lifetime. Either that or she knits way faster than anyone else ever.”

  Clari thought about it. Had she ever seen Amma knitting? Before she said anything else, Joel walked over. “Ready for the next stop?”

  She stood and reached for her crutches. “Let’s go. But can we grab something to eat? I was going to have a late lunch today and never did.”

  “Sure.” Joel held open the door to the shop. “What sounds good?”

  After a few minutes of discussion, they settled on a drive through nearby. As she munched on her cheeseburger, Joel drove toward the park.

  “Thank you for stopping.” She took another bite and spoke around it. “This really hit the spot.”

  He took a sip of his milkshake. “I already ate, but I won’t ever turn down one of these.”

  “Only a crazy person would,” she told him as she reached for her own milkshake.

  “Where are we going next?”

  Clari showed him the picture of the lake. “Except it’s probably iced over by now.”

  “Isn’t everything? I don’t think I know that park. What part of town is it in?”

  “It’s not far.” She stirred her shake with the straw. “I am really glad I didn’t have to do some ice skating thing at the first stop. That would have been really hard.”

  Joel didn’t say anything until she told him where to turn to get to the park. Finally, “I hope this treasure hunt doesn’t last too much longer.”

  Of course, that’s what he thought. “I can get another Yfir driver,” she told him. “I’m sure you have other things to do.”

  “It’s not that. I think it’s supposed to storm tomorrow, and I need to go shopping first. I’m not a fan of driving in winter storms so I usually just stay home.”

  “Same here.” Something they had in common. “Tell you what. We’ll do a couple more, and if it’s still not done, I’ll let you off the hook. I can try to call the florist and get a hint about who sent the flowers and go straight to the source.”

  “It was an order placed somewhere else and sent here. From another country even maybe.”

  “I don’t know anyone in any other countries.” Did she? Not really. Her best friend, Gina, had been living in the States for a while, but she wasn’t the kind to send flowers or set up this ridiculous treasure hunt.

  “I’m not sure, but that’s the impression I got when I called to get the right name.”

  “Right name?”

  “It was originally addressed to the wrong person. They found someone with the same first name, but she insisted it wasn’t hers, so I called to have the guy double check.”

  “If the clues weren’t so specific, I’d wonder if there still wasn’t an error somewhere.”

  “My sister knew it was you and who your grandmother is, so I think it’s pretty safe to say they were meant for you.” He turned into the parking lot near the lake. “Any particular part of the lake?”

  “Hopefully the bench on this side, and hopefully there’s no ridiculous requirement either.”

  “At least the one at my sister’s shop was easy.”

  “I’m not even sure I did it right, but Anabelle said they’d take it anyway.”

  He put the car in park. “I’ll check the bench for you.”

  Before she thanked him, he crunched through the thin layer of snow covering the grass. Was it supposed to snow overnight?

  She pulled up a weather app on her phone. Five to six centimeters of snow expected overnight with another six to eight centimeters during the day tomorrow. Not too bad. It would triple what was already on the ground, plus a little more, but not enough to affect the city. People would need to be a bit more careful while driving, but generally, people drove pretty well in this kind of weather. It wasn’t until there were a couple dozen centimeters that it started to get too worrisome.

  Joel returned with a card in his hand. “I don’t see anything that you might need to do, but open it and see.”

  Clari took a sip of her drink before she slid the flap open. She read the note inside.

  Clari,

  You always said you’d never forget your fifth birthday. Go to the place where you celebrated for your next clue.

  Her fifth birthday? Where had she gone for her fifth birthday? Right. Of course.

  She groaned as the other implications hit her.

  “What is it?”

  “I hope you’ve got a full tank of gas.” Then she remembered his statement. “Actually, I can call someone else for this one. It’s going to take a while. You need to get to the store, then home to get some rest.”

  He didn’t hesitate. “No. I’ll take you and stop at the store later. Even if I didn’t, I should be fine. More that extra junk food you stock up on before sitting at home for a couple days. Where are we going?”

  “I’ll pay extra if you take me.” She’d never get there on her own right now.

  His eyes narrowed. “Why?”

  “Because it’s not close, and I’m keeping you from other things you’d rather be doing.”

  “It’ll be fine. Now, where are we going?”

  “A cabin off Lake Akushla.” A lake with the same name as a city it was nowhere near.

  He gave a resigned sigh. “Let’s go.”

  At least the snow wouldn’t start until overnight. By then Joel would have delivered Clari safely to her final destination, and he’d be in his flat with a fire blazing. Lake Akushla wasn’t close, but he had enough time.

  Didn’t he?

  In fifteen minutes, they’d left the more urban part of the not-very-urban Akushla and headed into the mountains.

  “I appreciate you doing this for me,” Clari told him as she stared out the other window.

  “My pleasure.” With his intentional shift in the presentation of his attitude toward Clari, he’d found his actual attitude shifting as well. And he wasn’t going to charge her for any of this. He’d gotten a huge bonus for the last minute delivery to the palace, more than he normally made in a full day of driving, but his attitude had been pretty deplorable. “So what part of the lake are we going to?”

  “The north side. My grandparents have a cabin there.”

  Good thing they were coming in from the southwest, even if he did hate this drive. It wouldn’t take as long to get to the north side as if they’d been on the other end of town when they left. That direction was much longer to get around the lake.

  Such were the vagaries of driving on an island nation with mountains in the middle.

  “How much time did you spend up here as a kid?”

  Clari adjusted the heating vent a bit. “We’d spend a week in the summer. If weather permitted, we’d spend several days at Christmas. Technically, there’s about two-and-a-half hours of daylight during Christmas week, but the reality is that it’s always in shadow. The way the mountains are, the little bit of sunlight is blocked for most of it.”

  “I bet it has a fantastic view of the aurora borealis, though.”

  “Oh, yeah. I wish I had my camera with me. There’s almost always some lights around, it seems.” She shrugged. “Not always of course, but it feels like it sometimes.”

  “I’ve never seen them outside of one of the
parks in Akushla. Since they made the whole switch to ‘no light pollution’ street lights thing, it makes for some decent viewing.”

  “That is one good thing King Benjamin’s done.” Clari clapped her hand over her mouth then moved it slightly so he could hear her. “You didn’t hear me say that.”

  Joel chuckled. “Not allowed to talk bad about the family.”

  “Not allowed to talk about the family at all, really, but definitely nothing that could be considered disparaging.”

  He reached over and rested his hand on her forearm. “I won’t say anything to anyone about it, but you’re not wrong. The king isn’t very popular and isn’t doing anything to make people like him more. The nationwide light initiative was a great move though. People do love having less light pollution when they get even a short distance away from town or in a park.”

  “I’ve met him a couple times,” Clari admitted. “He’s not the warmest person around, but everyone knows that. I think losing his father at such a young age affected him more than most people realize. That’s me the Eyjanian citizen making the statement, not the palace employee.”

  “Losing a parent at thirteen affects anyone. It’s traumatic at any age. To have the responsibility of running a country placed on your shoulders at the same time surely makes it worse, even if Princess Louise did most of it until he turned eighteen.”

  “I can’t imagine life without my parents.”

  Joel didn’t respond immediately, but after a few seconds decided to go a different route. “I’m not asking you to violate any confidences, but rumor has it that the Queen Mother became a recluse, from her family as well as the public, for a long time, too. In a sense, the king kind of lost both parents at least for a while. I wonder if that explains why he is the way he is.”

  “It might.” She didn’t actually confirm that the former queen had retreated from daily life inside the palace as well as out, but it was as close as she would come. Joel believed he could safely assume the accuracy of his statement.

  “You’re close to your family?” he asked. His sister and Anabelle had insinuated just that.

  She nodded. “I talk to my parents almost every day and my brothers once a week or so. That’s besides seeing all of them most Sundays at Amma’s house.”

  The term startled him. “Is your family Icelandic?” Native Eyjanians didn’t use that term for grandmother.

  “Amma is. Afi is Eyjanian, but my amma insisted on keeping some Icelandic traditions. She didn’t change her last name when they got married. She’s still Thorbjørnsdóttir. My great grandparents apparently threw a fit, but she won them over. They loved her, just wanted her to take my afi’s last name. When she reminded them the kids would all have their last name, they accepted it.”

  The kilometers sped by as they talked about their families and growing up. Joel carefully avoided anything about the last few years - or looking too closely at the accident scene they passed. He hoped Clari didn’t notice.

  Lake Akushla sort of came into view in the distance as a flake landed on the windshield. Joel glanced out at the sky. There weren’t any stars, but what he could see of the clouds didn’t look particularly ominous. Yet.

  One downside of living this far north and being so far from anything that produced light except the moon - it was hard to tell what the sky looked like when it was cloudy. Or see the mountain lake vista as you drove through the pass.

  “Now where?” He glanced a little nervously at his fuel gauge. Wasn’t there a town not too far away?

  “Just keep going. It’s on the far end.”

  His odometer told him how far he’d gone since his last fill up. He should have plenty to get to the other end of the lake and back to the town he knew was nearby.

  Hopefully.

  Or should he mention it now?

  No. Based on his usual consumption, he really should have enough to get to the cabin and back to town at least twice. No sense in stopping this excursion before then.

  But the road hugged the winding coast of the lake, taking them almost twice as far as it would have been if the road was straight. The snowflakes had begun falling a bit more in earnest as well.

  “How much farther?” Should they turn around? “I’m going to need to fill up in town and think maybe we should go back to do that.”

  She pointed to a street sign barely illuminated by his headlights. “That’s the turn. We’re basically there. Let’s get the clue, and we’ll head out.”

  He made the turn and crunched over gravel and snow until he saw the cabin.

  Or what must pass for a cabin in Clari’s family.

  Because in his family, they couldn’t have even dreamed about owning something like this. The house he grew up in would fit inside at least twice if not three times.

  “Cabin?”

  She shrugged. “Afi’s parents were quite well-to-do, and he was an only child.”

  That explained the last name thing a little more.

  “Why don’t I run in for you?”

  Clari winced. “It’s nothing personal, but I can’t give you the code.”

  He nodded. “Then let me help you.”

  Before he could turn off the engine, it sputtered.

  And died.

  Dread filled Clari. “Was that the engine dying?”

  “I think so. Usually, I get another thirty or forty kilometers before I have to refill.” Joel tried to turn the engine over, but nothing happened.

  “Driving through the mountains changed your consumption?” Something Clari usually thought of.

  “I guess.” He sighed. “Any chance your afi keeps some extra around here?”

  “I don’t know.” She opened her door. “But right now, let’s get inside, and I’ll see if I can call.”

  The snowfall had increased in intensity in the last few minutes. If Afi didn’t have what they needed, she could call the station in town, and they would send someone out, but likely not until the storm ended.

  Joel helped her up the stairs to the front door then carefully walked back to get some things from the car, including her wildflowers, while she punched the code in. When the whirring and click told her it was open, she turned the handle.

  The first thing she noticed was warmth.

  Not just in from the cold, but actual warmth.

  “Someone has been here,” she told Joel as she crutched her way in.

  He stopped and put a hand on her arm. “Do we go in?”

  It took strength not to roll her eyes. “Yes. No one is here, now, but the heater has been turned on.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket and text Afi.

  His reply came a moment later.

  It’s called smart technology, sonardóttir. I turned the heater up a little while ago so it would be warm when you arrived. Unfortunately, your surprise has been delayed and will not arrive until at least morning. Will you be all right there until then?

  Her surprise? She told him she’d manage and asked what the surprise was. He wouldn’t tell her.

  Joel asked what she’d found out, and she read the text to him. “Sonardóttir?”

  “Granddaughter. Specifically, daughter of my son. Out of all the kids and grandkids, I’m the only girl not grafted in by marriage. They both call me that when they’re not encouraging me to find a kærasti.” At the look on his face, she explained. “Boyfriend.”

  “Ah.” He didn’t say anything else. Something bothered him?

  “Listen, I’ll call the garage in town. They’ll send someone out, but not until the storm passes. Some parts of that road get slick pretty quickly. I really don’t want Afi to know I’m stuck here with some guy I just met. I know your sister is Rachel, and Amma loves her, but still. Does that work for you, or do you need to be back tonight?”

  He closed the door behind them and flipped the lock. “It’s fine.”

  “Good.” Clari turned and really looked at the room for the first time ever. It had always been part of their family traditions, and she’d never tho
ught about what it must look like to an outsider.

  The main room extended two full stories with windows facing the lake. To the right was the kitchen with its modern appliances and granite counters and enormous island. Also on the right, past the kitchen, was a table that seated at least a dozen.

  In the center of the room and to the left was a spacious living area filled with comfortable couches and chairs arranged in several smaller groups to allow for conversation or gaze at the lake in the summer.

  Clari set her purse on the island and started for the far side. “I need to use the bathroom.” In the corner opposite the dining table, a half set of stairs led to the room she always used. “If you go upstairs, there’s one you can use as well.” The full staircase clung to the wall by the dining area.

  “Thanks.”

  She flipped the light on in her room. Sometimes she felt a little guilty about being the only girl in the family, but not when she got this whole room to herself. Occasionally, when the boys had girlfriends, she’d be asked to share, but not often. Most significant others didn’t get to come to the cabin until there was a ring and a date. That meant she didn’t have to share often.

  She hobbled to the bathroom on the far side of the room. The slate flooring led to the sunken garden tub that called her name, but she didn’t have time to enjoy it. Even if she didn’t have to keep a cast dry anymore and could remove the boot if she was careful, she wouldn’t abandon Joel for that long.

  A few minutes, later she passed her bed and returned to the living area to find Joel staring out the window.

  “It’s snowing pretty hard.”

  “We’ll be fine. Afi has a generator if we need it, but we’re not on the main power lines way out here. We shouldn’t lose power, there’s a tankless water heater and about eighty-three fireplaces with plenty of wood stacked outside. There’s nothing to worry about.”

  He didn’t answer but stood there with his hands shoved deep in his pockets.

  Whatever. Maybe he was worried about food.

  “And Afi always leaves provisions here. It’s all canned food and stuff, so nothing mouthwatering, but it’ll keep our bellies full. Every once in a while, a stranger needs to take shelter. There are instructions on the door for how they can get into the basement. The rest of the house is locked off, but there’s plenty of food down there to last the royal family for the whole winter.”