* * *
She had come to Iceland with Joshua exactly four months ago. They had spent the first month touring the country while also lying as low as possible, afraid that American authorities in search of them might have alarmed their European counterparts. But of course nobody had come after them. As far as people back home were concerned, Felicia was dead, and Joshua had gone missing somewhere along the Canadian border. Besides, no suspected arsonist was worth being tracked by Interpol, even if she had staged a spectacular escape on her way to the first court hearing.
So after weeks of constantly being on the road, they had finally opted to settle down. Easier said than done if you were terribly short on money, and certainly no normal human on the inside. Neither of them wanted to live in the busy capital, Reykjavík. After all, they had come to Iceland because they wanted to be close to its breathtaking nature and its mostly empty rural areas where they would be left in peace.
Compromising between a village where they’d certainly find no work and a big city with no freedom, Felicia and Joshua had settled in Arborg. It was around 37 miles away from the capital and belonged to the south of the island nation. The town of Selfoss was their new home, and there they spent another month getting by on scraps and depending on the surprising hospitality of the Icelandic people.
Both had started looking for a job, but neither of them spoke more than a handful of hastily acquired words of Icelandic. So much for running away from something instead of running to something…
As luck would have it, the town’s main tourist abode, the Hotel Selfoss, was attracting quite a load of foreign tourists. Felicia made up her mind. She simply walked into the building and asked to speak to the Human Resources Manager. Impressing him with her English and the rudimentary bit of Spanish she remembered from her college days, and flaunting her new-found confidence that radiated like her fiery heat, she persuaded the manager into hiring her as the new receptionist.
Joshua had no such luck. He was still looking for a job a month later, while Felicia had settled into hers and took on many a weekend shift to cover their expenses. It was barely enough to pay the rent for the small annex on the outskirts of town and keep them clothed and fed.
Playing with Fire (Book 1 of the FIRE Trilogy) Page 42