Chapter Seven

The news reporter strode across the red shore with the frozen lake behind her, her hair flawlessly coiffed, wearing a long lambswool coat and matching scarf. Her leather gloves were wrapped around the microphone like it was the most vital and powerful piece of machinery in the entire world. She walked awkwardly, with her torso turned towards the camera. Her breath condensed in front of her dark-red lips as she spoke.

‘All was quiet here at Lough Faol, just outside Mullingar, County Westmeath, this morning,’ she enunciated in an even and unaccented tone. ‘Until that silence was broken when twelve-year-old Ashling Barry …’

The camera operator zoomed right in on Ash so the picture shook slightly. She was sitting inside an ambulance parked on the verge beside the main road, wrapped tightly in a couple of blankets and sipping a plastic cup of steaming soup. One paramedic was listening to her lungs with a stethoscope. The reporter continued over the shot.

‘… of Ranelagh, Dublin – seen here – fell through the ice and into the freezing waters below.’

The cameraman zoomed in on the hole where Ash had fallen through, taking care not to step too close to the edge of the shore.

‘The shock of the chilly temperatures knocked Ashling unconscious and chances are she would have perished underneath the ice were it not for the quick thinking of her friend, twelve-year-old Arthur Quinn, also of Ranelagh.’

Arthur was now standing next to the reporter, with a couple of blankets still wrapped around his shoulders. His hair was no longer wet but one of the paramedics had given him a warm beanie hat to wear anyway.

‘It was colder than anything I’ve ever felt,’ Arthur said into the microphone that the reporter was holding to his mouth. ‘And it was really dark down there. But I found her and we got out.’

‘And how did you manage to find your way back out, Arthur?’

‘Em … well, we lost the first hole, but we were lucky and found a second one.’

The camera now panned around the busy scene, then back to the lake. Some paramedics fussed over Ash, while a little dog lay on the ground nearby, snuggling into its own brown blanket. A firefighter was leading a red-faced and flustered-looking older woman over to the rescued girl, accompanied by a young boy and teenage girl. A tall blond man was standing just beyond the edge of the woodland, patting a horse and watching the others intently.

‘Ashling and Arthur were incredibly lucky,’ the reporter went on over the image. ‘A passenger on a passing train spotted Arthur dive into the lake after his friend and called the emergency services, who arrived on the scene mere seconds after the children emerged from the water.

‘Paramedics revived Ashling and have found no major injuries. The Garda Síochána have stated that ice on lakes and rivers is unpredictable and that members of the public should not, under any circumstances, take the risk of stepping onto a frozen lake. This is Karen Kilfoyle, reporting for RTÉ News.’

And with that, the camera blinked off.

‘Oh my God!’ cried Cousin Maggie. ‘You poor things!’ She bundled Arthur and Ash into a constricting hug while Stace and Max looked on worriedly. Arthur and Ash had changed out of their dripping clothes into some too-large T-shirts and pants the paramedics had on standby and each of them was wrapped in a couple of blankets.

Eventually Cousin Maggie let them go, allowing them to breathe freely again.

‘We’re all right,’ Ash said. Her voice was hoarse and dry after almost choking on the lake water. ‘Honestly.’

‘You don’t sound all right to me.’ Cousin Maggie turned anxiously to the nearest paramedic. ‘How is she, really?’

‘No major damage that we can find,’ he answered. ‘No concussion. They both have a bit of a sniffle. But there are no symptoms of hypothermia, which is good.’

‘So I can take them home with me?’

‘Of course,’ he chuckled. ‘But at the first sign of their colds getting any worse, you have to bring them straight to a doctor.’

‘Don’t worry about that. I won’t let them out of bed for the next day, let alone outside. And my chicken soup has been known to work miracles.’

‘Sounds great. Let me just get their clothes and you can be on your way.’ He went off, calling after one of the other paramedics. For the first time Cousin Maggie looked down and noticed the pup at Ash’s feet. Its fur was still damp, despite Ash’s attempts to dry it with the coarse blanket. The pup gazed up at Maggie with watery black eyes.

After Ash had been resuscitated, a couple of firefighters had set about rescuing the pup from the ice. Ordinarily they would have used a helicopter, but since time was tight (and since the rescuee was a dog) they had to come up with another method of saving the puppy without walking onto the ice themselves. Using a special hitch system, they were able to crank a rope out over the lake to the dog. One end of the rope had a grappling hook attached and once they had cranked it far enough out they dropped the hook around the far side of the pup, allowing the firefighters to crank it back in. Ash was thrilled to have the dog finally safe in her arms.

‘And who’s this?’ Maggie asked, crouching to pet the dog. Max, who had also just spotted the pup, did likewise, rubbing it behind the ears excitedly. Stace didn’t pet it but made cooing noises at it instead as Ash filled them in on how they’d discovered the pup on the frozen lake.

‘Can we keep it?’ asked Ash, finishing her tale.

‘Oh, I don’t know, Ash,’ said Maggie. ‘That’s up to your parents.’ She ran her hands over the pup’s ribs and looked at its teeth and eyes. Ash mentioned that the pup hadn’t been able to walk out on the ice so Maggie also felt its legs. The front two seemed fine and healthy; but the hind pair were a different story. They were thinner than they should have been, slightly malformed with very little muscle definition.

‘It’s a female and she seems healthy enough apart from those back legs; she’s not particularly fat but she’s not malnourished. Judging by her unclipped, dirty coat, she hasn’t been that well cared for. Her hind legs are lame, poor thing. That’s why she couldn’t walk to you, Ash. She was probably dumped by her owner because of her condition.’

The pup licked the side of Maggie’s wrist. For a stray, she certainly seemed calm and amiable enough.

‘That’s terrible!’ Ash knelt next to the pup and patted her head. ‘I wonder how she got out on the ice.’

‘Somebody must have slid her out there.’

‘Why?’ Arthur asked.

‘To die,’ Cousin Maggie told him sadly. ‘People can be really awful sometimes.’

The paramedic arrived back at that point with their clothes in a plastic bag each, which he handed to Maggie. When he was gone, she looked down at the pup with sympathy.

‘We’ll take her,’ she said to whoops of joy from the children. ‘She can stay at mine for the time being. I’ll put up some Lost Dog signs in town tomorrow, although I doubt we’ll get much response, given that she was abandoned here deliberately. Also I think I have just the thing for her lame legs.’

Maggie picked up the lame pup and carried her towards her Volvo. The others followed, with Stace and Max questioning Ash furiously about all that had happened. Arthur excused himself, pretending that he’d dropped his mobile phone on the shore.

‘Maybe Ash can fix it,’ he claimed, running back over the track and down towards the forest. His legs were feeling shaky, which wasn’t a surprise considering the strain he’d put them through under the water.

Eirik was standing by the edge of the woodland, soothing his borrowed horse by stroking its soft neck. He smiled at Arthur when he saw him approaching, his painted white teeth glinting in the winter sun.

‘Is that all make-up from the actors?’ Arthur inquired when he got close enough to see it properly. It wasn’t too bad, actually. The flesh-tinted foundation made Eirik’s face look almost normal and, although it didn’t cover all of his wrinkles, it did hide most of the crustiness. Overall, Arthur had to admit that it was a pretty good attempt. The Viking grinned and nodded with a bashful shrug.

‘Good plan,’ said Arthur. ‘How did you know something was going to happen? Or even how to find us?’

Eirik leaned forward and tapped the pendant tied around Arthur’s wrist.

Arthur understood the meaning instantly. ‘Ah, of course. You have something of mine?’

Eirik nodded once more. He ducked behind a tree and emerged with the hammer. Arthur took it, hiding it under one of his blankets.

‘Thanks. I guess you’d better be off now.’ Arthur patted the horse and scratched behind its ear. ‘Let the horse rest up for a couple of hours then return him to wherever you got him.’ Eirik looked slightly forlorn at this but eventually grunted his agreement. Then he looked over Arthur’s shoulder with wide eyes.

‘Hello there,’ said a voice behind Arthur. He turned to find Stace standing there. ‘Arthur, aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?’

‘Uh … well … Stace, this is … uh … Eirik. He’s … um … my cousin.’

‘Your cousin?’ Stace seemed surprised but still took a few steps forward. ‘Your cousin lives in Mullingar too?’

‘Well, no. You see … he, uh …’ Arthur’s mind went blank. He cursed himself inwardly and tried to climb out of the hole he’d dug. He couldn’t see a way out of this, but then he spotted the ambulance on the main road, packing up to leave.

‘He works for the emergency services.’

‘He does?’

‘Yeah. They call him in if they can’t reach the injured with an ambulance.’ Arthur was cringing inside as he said this – no one in their right mind would buy the idea of a mounted paramedic, but it was the best he could come up with at short notice. However, Stace wasn’t really listening to Arthur. Instead she was staring dreamily at Eirik, with what Arthur considered a very soppy look on her face. With a burst of confidence, Arthur continued, ‘Yeah, we were just lucky that he was doing some training nearby.’

Stace actually looked impressed now as she stared at Eirik.

‘Wow,’ she said coyly. ‘So what do they call you?’

‘He’s a mounted paramedic,’ Arthur stuttered.

‘That’s cool,’ Stace said. She seemed not to notice that Arthur had answered, and hadn’t taken her eyes off Eirik. She put out her hand. ‘Nice to meet you, Eirik.’

Eirik looked down at the gloved hand, perplexed. No one had ever shaken his hand before and he didn’t quite know what to do, so he simply put his own hand out mirroring Stace. Their fingertips just about touched each other. Before it got any weirder, Arthur took Stace by the shoulders and led her away.

‘Come on, Stace! Cousin Maggie will be waiting and Eirik’s in a hurry.’

As Arthur herded her off, she reached around and waved at Eirik.

‘Goodbye!’ she called. ‘Hope to meet you again soon, Eirik!’ The Viking was simply standing there, staring at her with a bemused expression. He waved back, then showed off his pearly whites again in a broad smile.

‘Arthur,’ said Stace as she shuffled up the verge to the main road. ‘He’s so cute! You have to bring him around some time!’

‘Uh … yeah, we’ll see!’

As Eirik set off with the horse through the trees to find some grazing, a pair of icy blue eyes watched them go from the other side of the woodland. Things hadn’t gone exactly as Loki had anticipated. In fact, he smiled to himself, they’d gone better.

As soon as they arrived back at Cousin Maggie’s house, they piled out of the car and followed her to Knick and Knack’s barn. In her arms, Maggie was carrying the pup, who was looking curiously at her new surroundings. She didn’t even yap at the goats or the pigs as they passed. They went in the back door of the barn and the stink of manure was almost overwhelming. Shelves and wooden crates full of tools and old junk that Maggie had accumulated over the years were piled in one corner near the door. The pigs stayed outside in their pen, watching lazily.

Maggie handed the pup to Stace and started rooting through the heaps of clutter. She knocked empty paint cans aside and threw blunted garden tools over her shoulders. It was clear that Cousin Maggie was a bit of a hoarder, keeping stuff for years that she had no intention of ever using again.

‘Ah!’ she exclaimed joyfully when she finally found what she wanted. She took the pup from Stace, laid her carefully on the ground and unwrapped her from the blanket. Then she turned her back to them and started to get to work properly on the little dog. The pup stayed quiet and whatever Maggie was doing didn’t seem to be disturbing her. They heard the sounds of straps being tightened and plastic buckles snapping into place. Then, at last, she turned around to show them the pup.

The back half of the brown dog was fastened into a harness, its lame legs held aloft by a couple of loose belts. The harness itself was mostly shiny aluminium. Two bars ran along either side of the ribs, then curved downwards by the tail. At the end of each bar was a small rubber wheel. The pup looked back at the harness and wheels, then up at Ash.

Ash took a few steps back and then, patting her thighs, said, ‘Come here, girl.’

The dog took a tentative step forward with her front paws and the wheels followed. Then she took another step, and another. Before they knew it, the little pup was running around the barn, barking excitedly. They all laughed to themselves, watching her go.

‘You remember my old dog Snowy who got hit by a car when he was getting on in years?’ Cousin Maggie explained through chuckles. ‘He lost the use of his hind legs so I had to get him one of those doggy wheelchairs. I was hoping it would fit her and I was right!’

‘Of course,’ said Stace. ‘That was when I was pretty young and Ash was only a baby. I’d totally forgotten about him!’

‘We should give her a name,’ Max suggested, slightly out of breath from laughing.

‘Let Ash name her,’ said Maggie. ‘She found her.’

All eyes were on Ash. She patted her legs again and the pup came rushing over to her. Ash crouched to rub her back and thought about the perfect name. She wanted something that would sum up the dog and how they’d found her. Something with a bit of mystery.

‘I have it!’ she said. ‘How about “Ice”?’

The rest of them considered it, slowly nodding their heads.

‘I like it,’ said Arthur. ‘Ice.’

Ice looked up at Arthur, as if she knew it was her name, her tail wagging so much that it whacked against the aluminium bars.

Cousin Maggie stayed true to her word and wouldn’t allow Arthur or Ash to leave the house for the next twenty-four hours. She had Ash and Max swap beds to keep the two ill friends confined together. (Stace wasn’t too thrilled about having to share a room with her younger brother and even suggested that he should sleep on the living-room couch – a proposal Maggie had laughed down.) She fed them steaming bowls of chicken soup, with buttery crusty rolls on the side, followed by two juicy mandarin oranges with a scoop of real vanilla ice-cream each. She believed that the vitamin C in the oranges would help stave off the flu germs, while the ice-cream was just a well-earned treat.

From the moment they’d been rescued to the moment they got back to Maggie’s, Arthur had felt fine. He guessed the adrenaline must have kept away any sick feeling because now, lying in a bed across from Ash, he felt terrible. And, clearly, so did she. Even though they were both bundled up in two blankets and a duvet each, with hot-water bottles warming their toes, the pair of them shivered involuntarily every so often. Arthur had a sore throat and Ash’s voice had grown even hoarser in the past couple of hours. Aunt Maggie had carried Ice upstairs so they could all keep each other occupied. Ash would call Ice to her and the little dog would scamper around the room and occasionally even attempt to leap up onto Ash’s bed. She never made it but at least her cracks at it kept Arthur and Ash giggling.

‘Laughter is the best medicine!’ Cousin Maggie declared when she was done administering some sweet cough syrup to them. ‘And sleep is the second best. Which you two should be doing now.’ With that, she picked up Ice, switched off the light and shut the door behind her. Before Arthur knew it, he had fallen into a heavy sleep and didn’t dream once during the night.

The following day, he woke to find Ash kneeling on the floor and playing with Ice.

‘How are you feeling?’ he asked.

‘Much better,’ she answered, her voice still croaky. ‘You?’

‘Great, actually.’ And it wasn’t a lie either. There were still faint echoes of the pain in his legs, and his throat was still a little raw, but overall he felt really rested.

‘See?’ Cousin Maggie said when she saw how much they’d improved. ‘I told you my chicken soup could work miracles!’

Although she still didn’t want them leaving the warmth of the house in case their colds flared up again, there was still plenty to do and the day went by quickly. Stace and Max stayed indoors with them out of sympathy and they spent the day playing board games or being chased about by an excitable Ice. As promised, Cousin Maggie had put signs up around the town with Ice’s picture, but so far no one had claimed her.

When Arthur woke up the following day, his heart sank. It was Friday, he realised, which meant that it was time to go home. Cousin Maggie made them breakfast and they all ate it noisily, clearly wanting to forget the fact that their brief holiday was coming to an end. Arthur really had enjoyed his time at Maggie’s, despite nearly drowning and the ensuing stint in bed. As he chewed on some crunchy bacon, he looked across the table at Ash, who was feeding the end of a sausage to Ice. He wondered how she’d react if she had to leave the pup behind.

Mr and Mrs Barry arrived shortly after eleven in their large people-carrier. They gave their children tight hugs, particularly Ash. Mrs Barry surprised Arthur by embracing him too.

‘What you two did was so reckless,’ Mrs Barry said crossly, then in a gentler tone, ‘but we’re glad you’re safe.’

They all went inside for a cup of tea before the return journey. Before Maggie could offer them all third helpings of her rhubarb crumble, Mr Barry announced, ‘It’s time we hit the road. Put your bags in the boot and we’ll be on our way.’

‘Dad?’ Max piped up.

‘Yeah?’

‘Can we bring Ice with us?’

‘What’s Ice?’ As if on cue, the little dog hobbled into view in front of Mr Barry.

‘Oh no!’ he said. ‘No dogs.’

‘Why not?’ Stace demanded.

‘For starters, you wouldn’t walk it or clean up after it. And you know who’ll end up doing it all? Muggins here!’

‘Please, Dad!’ begged Ash. ‘She won’t need much walking and I promise I’ll feed her and brush her and do anything else that needs doing.’

‘No and that’s final. Get your bags.’

A few minutes later they were all squashed into the car, watching Cousin Maggie and Ice get smaller as they pulled away. There were tears in Ash’s eyes as she looked back at them. Suddenly, Ice started running after the vehicle, yapping loudly. Mrs Barry, who had been watching in the rear-view mirror, turned to get a proper look at the dog. At this rate she would never catch up with them, but it was heart-breaking watching her try.

She laid a hand on her husband’s arm as he steered towards the laneway.

‘Francis,’ she said imploringly.

He looked at her, catching the sympathy in her eyes.

‘They won’t look after her, Ann,’ he said as reasonably as he could manage, his voice softening. ‘You know that.’

By now, Arthur, Stace, Ash and Max were looking at the adults, silently praying for the answer they wanted to hear.

‘If they don’t,’ Mrs Barry said, turning around to address her children face on, ‘then we bring Ice back to Cousin Maggie. Sound fair?’

‘That definitely sounds fair!’ proclaimed Stace.

‘You won’t have to do a thing, Dad!’ promised Ash.

‘I’ll walk her and bring her to the shops and play football with her and build her a kennel and wash her and do everything!’ added Max finally.

Mr Barry slowly took his foot off the accelerator and the car ground to a halt.

‘All right then,’ he agreed reluctantly.

Ash whipped her seatbelt off, swung open the car door and ran to meet the puppy. She swept her up and the dog licked her face joyously.

‘We can keep her!’ Ash shouted back to Cousin Maggie, who was still standing by her house but now with a big smile gleaming across her face. ‘We can keep Ice!’