Not just someone—his sister.
Her head was spinning. So was this Nathan his brother?
Shifting against the saddle, she breathed out slowly. She didn’t even know he had a sister or a brother—in fact, given the lack of any photos around the house and his reclusive lifestyle, she’d assumed he didn’t have a family. But clearly he did, and clearly he cared about them—a lot. So why hadn’t he said anything about them before?
Her pulse jumped again. Probably because he hadn’t trusted her any more than she had trusted him.
It was a disconcerting thought, but before she could pursue all its implications she realised that Ragnar had hung up and was riding towards her.
‘Sorry about that.’
His face was unreadable, probably intentionally so, but now that she’d got past the shock of discovering he had a family she wanted to know more—for the obvious reason that Ragnar’s family was also Sóley’s.
‘Is everything okay?’
For a moment she thought he wasn’t going to answer her, and then he stared past her, his eyes fixed on the horizon. ‘It will be.’
She took a breath. ‘So was that your sister?’
His hesitation was so brief she might not have noticed it but for the slight tensing along his jaw.
‘Yes—Marta.’
Holding her breath, she waited.
Finally, he said stiffly, ‘She’s had a row with our mother. It’s nothing really... It’s just my mother has rules and Marta pushes back. But it’ll blow over—it always does.’
She nodded slowly. ‘At least she can call you if she needs someone to talk to.’
‘Yes, I suppose she can.’ He nudged Camille forward. ‘Come on, it’s not far now.’
And that was that.
They reached the top of the ridge ten minutes later.
Pulling up her horse, she stopped and stared. It was an incredible view.
In the distance, she could just see the blue glint of a glacier. Closer than that, snow-covered fields bumped up against twisting towers of haphazard jagged rocks in every shade of grey and silver, and then, nearer still, twin one-hundred-foot waterfalls cascaded down black basalt cliffs.
‘Can we get closer?’ she asked.
He nodded. ‘We can walk underneath them, if you want.’
It took them another fifteen minutes to reach the waterfalls. They left the horses by the edge of a small geothermal pool. Steam from the water had melted the ice, revealing some surprisingly green grass, and both horses instantly lowered their heads and began to graze.
Behind the falls the noise of the water hitting the rock was ear-splittingly loud, and after a moment of neck-tilting admiration they moved far enough away that they could speak without having to shout.
She frowned. ‘I should have brought my camera.’
‘Here.’ He handed her his phone. ‘Use this.’
‘Thank you.’
Clambering up onto a rock, she took her time to frame the picture, conscious of his gaze and of the questions building up inside her head.
‘So, how many siblings do you have?’ she asked as she slithered off the rock.
She felt him tense at her question. Then, ‘Seven.’