Christmas at the Island Hotel - Jenny Colgan Page 0,62

eyes. “Don’t look! Hold the tray still! You can’t see!!”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Isla, but she stood stock-still nonetheless. It was the oddest sensation, feeling his long smooth hands in front of her eyes, sensing his tall presence behind her. She found herself trembling slightly. It was the cold, had to be.

Of course he wouldn’t be thinking anything of it—he was only playing. On the other hand, he stiffened too, she was sure of it; for just a second, she thought she felt him quiver, and in an uncharacteristically tremulous voice he said, “Come on, everyone, take your drinks! But don’t let her see it!”

“I want to see it!”

“You can see it when it’s ready.”

“That’s very unfair when I’ve made all the hot toddies!”

“I don’t care! Turn around.”

Reluctantly, she turned around, his arms making sure she didn’t stumble, and looked up at him. Her tray was empty now; he held the last two glasses and handed one back to her.

“Can you come and find me when I can see it?” she found herself asking him.

“Immediately,” he said, without hesitation.

And just for a second, under the freezing dark starlight and the moon halfway through its travels to the east, they looked at each other, her small head tilted upward toward him. And Konstantin felt something quite unusual; it was, he thought, not unlike the feeling you got when you saw a little bird or a kitten—something very fragile, very innocent, that you had to be very careful not to touch or disturb.

It was the oddest thing; he’d barely given his sink mate a second thought. But now he saw her eyes wide open, looking up at him, a frightfully appealing look around her face.

“Oi!” shouted Hamish, and she broke free.

He watched her, thoughtfully, as she took the tray back up to the hotel. She kept her promise not to turn around.

THEY HAD TAKEN the wings off the sculpture, but it was still a monster as they strapped it down with guy ropes, and finally, Innes started very carefully backing out of the driveway of the Rock, the others jumping around the outside, making sure it didn’t wobble too much, then, very carefully, Innes did a four-hundred-point turn and headed off, trundling down the headland away from the lit-up hotel and on toward the village.

Sure enough, they didn’t meet another car on the way down the road. One day, Joel thought, he’d like to think that there would be many people coming up here, coming to stay at the Rock, enjoying its beautiful surroundings and peace and quiet—with only twelve rooms, they would never get crowded.

There would always be all the space, fresh air, peace, and quiet that anyone required there, the kind of peace of mind he himself had found. Well. Who knew? And this ridiculous project of Konstantin’s might even help. He eyed the young blond man. For a spoiled rich kid, he was doing surprisingly well. His father would hopefully be pleased.

As he watched, Konstantin finally figured the statue was safe enough on the flatbed and, with a giddy run, threw himself and his long legs onto the bed of the truck, beckoning Bjårk up behind him.

“So long, suckers!” he yelled cheerily, looking very young all of a sudden. “Enjoy your walk!”

Innes suddenly turned the wheel briskly and he nearly fell off (Bjårk, with his low and hairy center of gravity, was completely fine), and a long leg went up in the air. Normally this would have peeved him; he hated to look foolish in front of people, most of whom were always telling him how cool he was. But here it didn’t matter. Hamish was laughing so much it looked like he was going to fall over himself, skidding on the icy ground. Somehow, half of them walking, half riding, they made it down, although they made such a commotion they frightened the cows in the field.

AT THE FOOT of the hill that led up to the school, they stopped. The spot they’d chosen was as well positioned as they could make it, their most important thing being not to beam the installation’s lights in anybody’s window all night and send them completely insane.

The buried connection was about halfway up the hill, round the back of an old barn, so they weren’t in much danger of bothering anyone. Innes had already had the hole dug, causing much interest among the children, including many who wanted to bring spades of their own and do digging, which was hard enough