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Aksel guided her ahead of him, ducking under the arch and letting Mette find the handrail and climb the steps. Flora followed, Kari loping up the steps at her side. The four of them could just squeeze onto the small viewing platform at the top, bounded by crenellated stonework.
‘Papa! I found the way!’ Mette squealed with excitement, and Aksel lifted her up in his arms.
‘Ja elskling...’ He was hugging the little girl tightly, and he seemed to have tears in his eyes. ‘I’m so proud of you, Mette.’
‘I’m an explorer too, Papa.’
Aksel seemed to be lost for words. Flora wanted so badly to put her arms around them both, but this was their moment. Mette had used some of the techniques that the clinic was teaching her, and they’d worked for all of them in the maze. And Aksel had found that for all his height and strength, and even though he could see, he’d not known which way to go any more than Mette had.
Flora waited while they savoured their triumph. Then she reached out, touching Mette’s hand to catch her attention.
‘Are you going to lead us back out again now?’
‘She’d better. I don’t know the way.’ Aksel’s voice was thick with emotion still.
Mette regarded him solemnly. ‘What if I get lost, Papa?’
‘You won’t.’ He set Mette back down on her feet, turning to guide her carefully down the staircase.
* * *
By the time they’d navigated their way out of the maze, the stallholders had almost finished setting up for the opening later on that afternoon, and the proprietor of the village tea shop was pleased to sell them sausage rolls, warm from the small oven on his stall, and made with homemade beef sausagemeat.
They wandered between the lines of stalls, and when Mette had finished eating, Aksel lifted her up onto his shoulders. Then he caught sight of it, stopping suddenly and staring at the open-sided tent.
‘What’s that?’ He couldn’t take his eyes off the large blocks of ice under the awning.
‘You want to go and have a look? I’ll stay here with Mette.’ Flora had a feeling that this was something that Aksel would like to explore on his own.
‘I...’ He turned, but seemed unable to find enough momentum to walk away. Looking back, he nodded. ‘Yes. If you don’t mind.’
‘Of course not. We can go and get some doughnuts to take back with us.’
‘I’ll be back in a minute.’ He lifted Mette down from his shoulders and Flora took her hand, watching as Aksel strode across to the tent. She’d be very surprised if he was back in a minute.
They chose and purchased their doughnuts, and Flora looked back towards the tent to see Aksel deep in conversation with Ted Mackie, the estate manager. Ted was eyeing him up, clearly deciding whether it would be okay to let Aksel loose with a chainsaw. Flora resisted the temptation to run up to Ted, take him by the lapels of his coat, and tell him that if Aksel could be trusted to get to both Poles and back, he could be trusted with power tools. And that he really needed to do something like this.
‘What’s Papa doing?’ Mette was unable to see her father.
‘He’s right over there, at one of the other stalls. Shall we go and see?’ Aksel had taken the pair of work gloves that Ted had proffered, and was passing them from one hand to the other as he talked. He was tempted. Flora could see that he was very tempted.
She walked slowly over to the tent, wondering whether that would give Aksel time to give in to the temptation. She could see him checking out the chainsaw and running his hand over one of the large blocks of ice. Ted was nodding in agreement to something he’d said.
‘Hi. We’ve got doughnuts.’ Aksel jumped when Flora spoke, too immersed in his conversation to have noticed them approaching. Flora tried hard not to smirk.
‘Oh... I suppose...’ He handed the gloves back to Ted ruefully. ‘I’d really like to give this a go but...’
Ted flashed Flora a glance. ‘Shame. It would be good to have something to show people. It would give us a start.’
‘I’d like to but...’ Aksel turned, masking the regret in his face with a smile. ‘We need to get you back to the clinic, Mette. You’ve got a play date this afternoon.’
One of the well-organised play sessions, which would help Mette to make the most of her limited sight. They were very well supervised, and Mette was already making friends at the clinic. Aksel really wasn’t needed.
‘If you’d like to stay here, I can take Mette back.’
‘We bought you a doughnut, Papa. So you don’t get hungry.’
‘Thank you.’ He grinned down at Mette, taking the paper bag that she was holding out towards him. ‘I should come back with you, though.’
