Page 21 of The Hidden Daughter (The Lost Daughters #7)

‘You know, I don’t think I realised how much I needed this,’ Harrison said as they stretched their legs and began to stroll. ‘This project has taken everything out of me.’

‘I know the feeling,’ Charlotte said. ‘This is the very first time I’ve finished one job and not had another to dive straight into. I’m not used to building in downtime.’

‘Which means that if you take the position at the hotel…’

‘That I won’t be breaking with tradition,’ she finished for him. ‘A few days’ break is more than I’ve had before, though, so I wouldn’t be complaining.’

‘Not what I was thinking, but sure. I’m not the right person to talk you down off that ledge, trust me.’

‘Do you know much about the Vikings?’ Charlotte asked, looking out at the water as they walked.

She’d always loved staring out at the horizon as a girl and imagining what it must have been like, seeing the Viking ships as they sailed home, or perhaps as they left, the mist in the air as the hull disappeared from sight.

‘Other than from what I’ve seen in TV shows, not really,’ he replied.

‘In the harbour there, you can see a replica of the Viking Oseberg ship. The original is displayed in the Slottsfjell Museum,’ she told him. ‘The history here is very special, something I’ve always held dear to my heart, anyway.’

‘Speaking of history, have you mentioned what your great-grandmother has told you to your father? Could he shed any light on it at all?’

‘Perhaps. But I feel like we’re only just finding our way with each other, so I didn’t really talk to him about it,’ she said.

‘It’s actually my grandmother who I think could hold at least some of the answers to our questions, though.

She’s had me up in the attic taking down old photo albums and boxes of old clothes and mementos, almost as if she’s convinced that she’ll find something in storage that will give us the answers we need. ’

‘What do you think?’

She stared out at the horizon again and, before she could think about it, gave Harrison her most honest answer. ‘I think we’re on the cusp of discovering something in our family’s past that has the power to divide us, just when I’m finally finding my footing with my father again.’

‘Could it not draw you all closer together? Maybe it’s not as sinister as you think it might be.’

Charlotte shrugged and pointed ahead. ‘I hope you’re right. But enough about my family dramas—it’s time to start exploring. It’s not a very big town, but there’s still lots to see.’

They fell into step again and Charlotte felt as if she was seeing everything through fresh eyes with Harrison. It helped that it had been so long since she’d been there as well—a walk down memory lane at the same time as feeling new.

‘You know, my mum used to bring us here,’ Charlotte told him. ‘My father worked long hours at times, so my mum was always taking us on little day trips. The only place I remember my father coming with us was to the hotel at Sognefjord.’

‘Sognefjord?’ Harrison repeated.

‘It’s the place Amalie keeps talking about when she disappears into the past,’ Charlotte told him.

‘It’s strange that the one place she keeps revisiting in her mind is the one I keep visiting, too.

For me, it was the last time I remember my family being happy, that I can see my mum smiling in my mind and my dad laughing as we splashed him with water.

It’s the best and only proper holiday we ever had. That I’ve ever really had.’

Harrison stopped walking, and she recognised the look on his face, because she’d seen it so many times before. It was pity. The same look everyone had given her after her mother had disappeared.

‘I’m sorry, I—’

‘Don’t,’ she said, holding up her hand. ‘It was a very long time ago and I don’t want anyone, least of all you, feeling—’

‘Pity for you?’

Her eyebrows shot up. ‘How did you know?’

‘Trust me when I say that I know the look well, and that’s not what I was going to say, or what I was feeling towards you.

’ Harrison’s voice was gentle without being patronising.

‘I was just going to say that I’m sorry it’s the only nice memory you have, but maybe it’s better than having no good memories at all.

It took me a long time to really understand that, but a friend made me see that any happy memory should be a positive, not a negative. ’

He was right. Boy, was he right. She wouldn’t have given up that one lovely memory for anything, even though she had cried over it night after night when her mother had gone.

‘Do you see down there? They’re working on another replica ship. Shall we go down and take a look?’

‘Lead the way,’ Harrison said. ‘I’m all yours.’

Charlotte grinned and placed her hand to his back to guide him, surprised when he stiffened beneath her touch. But when he glanced back over his shoulder at her and smiled, she wondered if she’d imagined it again, because he certainly looked relaxed now.

‘Harrison, when did you say your friends were arriving?’

‘Tomorrow afternoon.’

‘I think I’m going to have to come up with a list of all the touristy things you need to do with them,’ Charlotte said, looping her hand through his arm without thinking, tugging him along with her.

‘I’m not letting you leave Norway without seeing the sights.

A couple of Viking ships are definitely not enough. ’

Harrison cleared his throat, and when he glanced down at her, she felt that familiar flicker between them.

But as soon as his gaze dipped and landed on her mouth, her lips parted, he pulled away, and she was left wondering all over again why the gorgeous, presumably single man beside her was running so hot and cold.