As she got off the phone Kristjan arrived at the desk, looking particularly delectable in a navy suit and waistcoat that emphasised the light blue of his eyes. Instantly her body went on high alert—the way it had last night, after she’d watched him exercise, when he’d walked right up to her and for a very brief moment she had thought—hoped—he would kiss her.
Her sex drive was high anyway, but pregnancy was making her feel as if it was firing on all cylinders—especially with him around, giving her her own private viewing of him working out. All those muscles working in perfect co-ordination... Flexing and tensing... Moving under his skin so smoothly that she had wanted to reach out and stroke him.
It had been difficult to get to sleep afterwards! Just the thought that he lay in the next room...
She’d heard him run the shower and had lain there fighting the urge to go join him, the way she had in Hawaii. But she’d had a stern talk with herself and told herself not to be so stupid! This lust she felt was a distraction and she was not here to act on it. She was here to decide if she was going to stay in Iceland or not. She was here to assess whether she could move her entire life over here. Not to dabble in sexual games with Kristjan. Even though that would be a welcome activity. After all, she knew what he was like in bed and she knew it would not be a disaster...
But sex complicated matters, didn’t it? One-night stands were fun, but they were fleeting, and there was nothing fleeting about their set-up right now. Getting into a relationship with Kristjan, even if it was just a sexual one, would just muddy the waters.
‘Hey,’ she said.
‘Hey. How’s it going? Your translator working out well for you?’
‘Yes, Agnes is great. Just waiting for my patient to go to CT.’
‘Ah. I’ve been up to check on Arnar and his leg. He’s had his surgery and he’s doing well. He’s sitting up in bed playing computer games against one of the nurses.’
‘Oh, that’s good...’
Kristjan had big, wide hands. Strong. Capable. Nice clean nails. She couldn’t stop looking at them. Remembering how they’d felt upon her body, how he’d cupped her breasts with them, how they’d slid so nicely down her back and over her bottom and held her against him. How was such a huge, strong man so gentle...?
‘Merry? Are you okay?’
‘Sorry—what?’
‘I told you he should be going home today on crutches, but you seemed to be in another world.’
She smiled, feeling her cheeks flame red at her naughty thoughts. ‘I am. I’m in Iceland.’
She got up and headed back to Hekla’s cubicle, so she could escort her to the scanning department. It was easier to think without Kristjan around.
She left Hekla and her parents in the capable hands of the nurses on the CT unit and then went to sit in the doctor’s booth to await the images on screen.
In front of her was a big window through which she could see the nurses getting Hekla into position and comfortable, with a pillow under her knees to support her. Then they pressed a button or two and Hekla slid into the machine.
Merry looked at her computer screen, awaiting the images, and suddenly there they were, showing that Hekla had a six-centimetre mass in her duodenum, almost blocking the pyloric sphincter. No wonder the girl had pain and kept being sick.
But what was it? Was it malignant? No one would know until they opened her up. Hekla needed surgery.
Sighing, she got up to go talk to the parents.
* * *
‘A what?’
The surgeon smiled. ‘A trichobezoar.’
‘A hairball?’
She remembered how Hekla had been chewing on the end of her plait. Was it really that she had consumed so much hair it had built up in her gut? Was it just a habit, or something more going on?
‘Okay, thanks,’ she said.
‘I’ll go and talk to the parents in case they have any questions about the surgery.’
‘All right. I’ll check on Hekla when she’s brought back to the ward.’
She thanked him again and headed to the staffroom. It had been a long day and her feet felt tired and she was hungry. She thought of Hekla, chewing on her hair so much it had built up and blocked her insides. Poor thing!
But there was something else bothering her right now. She was having one or two cramping pains, and in the bathroom she noticed there was a spot of blood in her underwear.
Heart pounding, she stood there wondering what to do. Was she losing this baby...
No! This can’t be happening! It can’t!
This baby was her first opportunity to have an actual relation by blood! A child! Someone she could adore who would love her unconditionally in return. She might have been shocked to have discovered she was pregnant, but now that she’d lived with the idea for a while she couldn’t bear the idea of losing it!
‘Merry? You’re white as snow. Are you all right?’ Kristjan stood looking at her in the bathroom doorway.
‘I’m spotting.’
He frowned. ‘Any pain?’
‘Some.’ She could feel her fear rising. Her lower jaw beginning to tremble. She just wanted someone to hold her and tell her everything would be okay.
‘We need to get you a scan.’
She nodded, feeling small and hopeless.
‘Everything could still be fine.’ He came towards her, took her hands in his, made her look into his eyes. ‘You’re going to be okay.’
‘You can’t know that.’
‘I know. But you should try to remain positive.’
‘I’m scared.’
He lowered her onto one of the couches. ‘Sit here for a moment. I’ll arrange everything.’
* * *
One of Kristjan’s sonographer colleagues fitted them in immediately. And, after the longest twenty minutes of his life, worrying and waiting, he watched Merry finally lie herself down on the bed in an ultrasound room.
Kristjan switched off the lights. Should he hold her hand? He wasn’t sure what the protocol was here. Where exactly he stood in his relationship with Merry. They were friends, he thought. They got on well and they had a searing attraction to one another that was often very distracting. They even lived together for now. But were they in a relationship?
That was something as yet undefined, and he didn’t like it. For a man who always knew where he stood with everyone this was unfamiliar territory. Once upon a time it would have simply confirmed to him that his stance of not getting involved with people was the right thing, because it stopped all this worrying and wondering. But he wasn’t that person any more. His child was in her belly and he was trying to persuade her to stay.
But most of all...he knew she must be scared. And probably believed herself to be alone here. With that thought, he took hold of her hand.
She turned in surprise to look at him.
‘We’re in this together, no matter what it shows,’ he whispered.
Merry smiled, clearly grateful.
‘How far along are you?’ Magnús asked Merry.
‘Um...coming up to fourteen weeks... I had a scan just before I came out here and the baby measured twelve weeks and six days.’
‘Okay.’
Magnus was quiet for a moment as he squirted gel on her belly and moved the probe over her lower abdomen, frowning at the screen for a moment before turning it so they both could see.
‘We have a heartbeat. Look.’
Kristjan stared in shock at the screen. That was his baby! Heart thundering away like a runaway train! It lay in Merry’s womb like a curled bean and he could see it moving its arms and legs, as if it were trying to settle into a more comfortable position.
‘Oh, my God! It’s okay?’
‘It’s absolutely fine! Sometimes you can get a little breakthrough bleeding. We don’t always know why it happens,
but it does.’
‘So it’s going to be all right?’
Merry squeezed his hand and he squeezed back.
‘As long as you take things easy. Monitor the spotting. If it gets any worse you can come back. I’ll just take some measurements to check baby’s growth.’ He smiled at Merry, then turned his smile on Kristjan. ‘Who would have thought Mr Eternal Bachelor would father a child, hey?’
‘Life happens, Magnús.’
‘It certainly does.’
Merry gasped. ‘It’s moving! Jumping!’
Kristjan had no words. None he could say, anyway. At that moment of pure joy he was struck dumb, afraid to speak in case he wept, and he hadn’t shed a tear since he was a small boy who had realised for the first time that he was all alone in the world.
He’d known that being a father mattered to him, but he hadn’t realised just how much until he’d found Merry in the staffroom and she’d told him she was bleeding.
He’d seen many ultrasounds before, but nothing like this. Nothing that was personal. This was his baby. His child. His creation.
His family.
He squeezed her hand tightly and kissed the back of it.
‘It’s a good sign that the baby is healthy,’ said Magnús. ‘I’m just going to check the Nuchal Fold and then I’ll take the measurements.’
Kristjan watched in fascination, unable to take his eyes off the screen, not wanting to miss a moment with his child. He could feel tears welling up and he surreptitiously wiped them away, hoping no one would say anything. It was too early to know whether he was having a boy or a girl, but this was still amazing.
Magnús focused on the baby’s heart and played the heartbeat audibly, so they all could hear it as it roared away. A healthy heart. A perfect heart.
‘This all looks good. Baby is measuring at just over thirteen weeks.’
‘That seems about right,’ answered Merry.
‘Can we get a picture?’ Kristjan asked.
‘Sure.’ Magnús printed a few off and then he was done, and giving Merry some blue paper towel to wipe up the gel from her abdomen. ‘All looks good here. No problems that I can see.’
‘Thank you, Magnús. It was very kind of you to fit us in.’
‘No problem. I’ll leave you two to get yourselves sorted out. See you later.’ And he left the room.
Merry looked at him with a huge smile on her face. ‘I think that was the most amazing thing I have ever seen!’
He smiled, overwhelmed. ‘Me too.’
‘Can we do this, Kristjan? Can we be the parents this baby needs?’
He didn’t need to think about that. He knew he would sacrifice his life for his child if it needed it. ‘Yes, we can. If we stay together.’
She nodded to show that she’d heard him. He wasn’t sure she nodded to show she agreed with his statement. He still had no idea if she would remain in Iceland. He hoped so. He needed her to.
‘Have you any plans for this evening, Merry?’
‘Nothing except putting my feet up. Why?’
‘There’s something I want to show you.’
‘Okay...’
‘But let’s go home and get changed first.’
* * *
‘Wonderland? You’re taking me to Wonderland?’
Wonderland was the big tourist attraction that sat alongside Snowy Peak. The place they’d raced through on the dog sled. And now they were approaching the big reindeer antler arch on a motorised snow sled.
Kristjan had arrived in front of his house with it and had asked her to hop on and put her arms around his waist if she needed to. She’d been wary of doing that, but the second they’d begun moving she’d clutched onto him, her arms wrapped around his waist, her face pressed into his back. For a few minutes she had allowed herself to close her eyes and just relax and enjoy the moment.
It was laughable, really. She was used to getting around places on foot or by car. Here, she’d been on a dog sled and now a snow sled! And they’d passed people wearing snowshoes and even a couple on skis!
Iceland in the winter was simply another world. Or at least it was up here in the mountains. She’d thought she’d hate not having many daylight hours, but she was getting used to the darkness and all the Christmas lights, and now Kristjan was about to throw her into a place that celebrated Christmas.
‘This is a very special place to me,’ he said.
He parked the snow sled to one side of the street and helped her off, and she took a moment to take in her surroundings.
Every building looked like a little gingerbread cabin. Only the snow on the roofs wasn’t icing and the decorations weren’t sweets. There were real lights and Christmas trees and candy canes. The streets were lit with electric candles and there was real holly and mistletoe. Everyone was dressed in winter gear—woolly hats and scarves and gloves—and from hidden speakers Christmas music played. Family groups walked from cabin to cabin, looking into shops full of wintry goodness, chocolates, gingerbread...
It was Christmas overload.
She was trying her best to hate it, and show her disapproval in her face, but it was hard to do because Kristjan was standing there looking at her with a smile as the snow gently fell in fat flakes and she couldn’t help but laugh.
‘What?’ she said.
‘You know you love it really.’
‘Oh, do I?’
‘You’ll be singing Christmas carols before the night is out.’
‘You want to put money on that?’
He grinned. ‘Sure! I’ll take that bet. How much?’
‘If I sing a Christmas song before the night is over I’ll work the entire day tomorrow dressed as an elf.’
‘Done. Only not tomorrow. Tomorrow I want you to rest at home with your feet up.’
He held out his gloved hand for her to shake and she shook it, feeling confident about their wager. She’d never sung a Christmas song in her life! She knew the words to most of them, though. How could anyone not? They were shoved down your throat from early November.
‘So...where exactly are we going?’
‘The Elf Foundation.’
She raised an eyebrow. It sounded kitsch, whatever it was. ‘Lead the way, my dear fellow.’
Kristjan performed a mock bow and began to walk across the street. She followed him, aware that some of the shop owners waved to Kristjan when they saw him pass.
‘People know you? How often do you come here?’
‘All will be revealed.’
‘A man of mystery, eh?’
‘Everyone has their secrets.’ He smiled.
He led them past a shop that sold nothing but ornaments for Christmas trees, its window filled with miniature trains, nutcracker soldiers, reindeer and all manner of novelties. Another sold only Christmas jumpers, another only books, and at this window she stopped to look in.
Kristjan looked at her. ‘Do you like books?’
‘Are you kidding me? I love books! My favourite author is Nicola Drake. Look! They have her latest! I haven’t read that yet.’ Merry looked at the shop door and saw that it was closed already. ‘Oh, damn! I might have to come back to get that.’
‘Maybe Santa will bring it.’
‘Maybe.’ She turned away from the window and saw his face. ‘Sorry. I’m putting a downer on the evening. You want to show me something that means a lot to you.’
She had no idea what the Elf Foundation could possibly mean to him. He was a doctor. A paediatrician. A grown man! What was he doing coming to this Christmas paradise where children outnumbered adults four to one? The Elf Foundation sounded like some silly factory shop where they got kids to help make toys, or something.
They rounded a corner and went down another street as the snow silently fell. Here she could see someone had tried to build a snowman, and it str
uck her that she had never done that as a kid. Mostly because there just hadn’t been the kind of snow in England that had allowed her to do so. She could only remember it snowing heavily on a couple of occasions, and the snow had usually disappeared after a couple of hours.
As they passed she saw that one of the sticks that had been used to make the snowman’s arms had fallen off, so she stooped down to pick it up and reattach it.
‘Getting into the Christmas spirit, Dr Bell?’
‘No.’ She smiled. ‘I’m a doctor. I fix people. And this snowman needed my help.’
Kristjan laughed and steered her away from the snowman, grabbing her shoulders and positioning her in front of another cabin.
The Elf Foundation
She read the sign that was in English and Icelandic—Álfasjódurinn. There was some smaller text below it. As they got nearer it became clearer and she read it, in shock.
Founded by Dr Kristjan Gunnarsson
She turned to look at him, hoping he would give her some explanation, but he said nothing, simply smiled mysteriously and led her inside.
Warmth hit them both. Kristjan helped her off with her coat and hung it on a hook, and then she got the chance to take in just what she was seeing.
The place was mostly filled with kids, of all different ages, and just one or two adults—staff, they looked like—were helping to organise them on a stage. Some were dressed normally, others were in costume, and she guessed that they going to perform something along the lines of a nativity play.
But there was no Mary or Joseph or Wise Men here. One person looked like some kind of mountain troll, dressed in camouflage or hunting gear, and one was dressed in a furry black outfit with a hunchback.
She felt completely confused.
‘Kristjan! You’re here!’ One of the staff came over, a big smile on her face, and greeted Kristjan, clapping him on the back.
‘Of course, Gúdrun. I wouldn’t miss it! Can I introduce you to Dr Merry Bell? She’s an elf, too, but she only speaks English.’
The Icelandic Doc's Baby Surprise Page 7