Working Wonders by Jenny Colgan

Author:Jenny Colgan [Jenny Colgan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780007379989
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

The howling was definitely closer now. There was still no sign of the driver or the sleigh. They were huddling together underneath the Viking ship, some hundred yards or so ahead of where the house had now vanished into the darkness.

‘Oh crap,’ Gwyneth was saying.

‘Ssh,’ said Arthur. ‘Just keep moving on. We’ll find them.’

‘Or die horribly!’

‘No, I’m sure that won’t happen.’

‘I’m just going to play dead here like Sandwiches,’ said Sven.

‘Oh no you’re not,’ said Arthur. ‘I am not hauling your carcass through the snow.’

The howling came again.

‘Are there more than one of them?’ said Gwyneth, feeling her heart jump.

‘God, I hope not. Because if there’s only one, then it’ll get tired after the first throat …’ Sven trailed off.

Arthur shut his eyes. What was coming? It was getting rapidly colder. They were going to have to go back to the old man, they had to. Sven was being ridiculous. But where the hell was the cabbie? Had he not understood and just up and left them? More than anything, Arthur wanted him and the horse to be standing round the next corner, looking relieved and asking them where they’d been.

Round the next corner was an odd sculpture which resembled a desert scene in ice – there was a cactus, and a palm tree, and a coyote.

It wasn’t a coyote.

Arthur felt as if an enormous hand was squeezing his windpipe. The cold air he’d sucked in burned its way down his throat. It was every time he’d ever woken up in the night thinking he’d heard a burglar; every time he’d nearly walked in front of a moving vehicle. Simultaneously, it felt like he was being punched in the chest.

Gwyneth hadn’t meant to punch him in the chest but – look!

‘Look!’ Her voice had petered out to a petrified squeak.

‘Yes, I know,’ said Arthur, whispering. The wolf was about twenty feet away, casually regarding them in the moonlight. The wind was gently ruffling its fur, and it was staring straight at them with ice-blue eyes, looking completely unperturbed. Its entire body gave off a power: heavily contained muscles under tight control.

Arthur’s brain was working overtime. He couldn’t think straight. Could they scramble up the side of the ship? Could wolves climb? Anyway, how could they climb up the side of something made of ice? Could they make it back to the cottage? Almost certainly not: the creature could outrun anything and it would definitely grab the one nearest the back. He glanced at Sven, who was carrying at least three extra stone in weight, not to mention a cowardly dog round his neck.

‘If only we had a weapon or something,’ he moaned.

‘It’s all in the sleigh,’ said Sven mournfully. ‘They have a plan for times like this. Flares and things.’

‘Well, that would have been great,’ said Arthur, ‘if it hadn’t eaten the sleigh.’

Slowly, as if relishing its status, the wolf started to pad from side to side, moving almost imperceptibly closer.

‘Oh, Christ,’ said Gwyneth. ‘It’s coming for us. I can’t … I mean, we’re not going to die, are we? I mean, on a business trip.

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