‘It’s a Helm of Awe,’ she said. ‘It’s an old Icelandic rune that protects against black magic and enemies.’ 43

The minister smiled and took another drag on her cigarette.

‘Maybe I ought to get one,’ she said. ‘I wonder if it would work in politics as well?’

16

‘What do you mean, you don’t remember?’

Úrsúla had to make an effort to keep her irritation under control and suppress the urge to yell.

‘Friday morning, the day after I received the keys, a woman came here and you showed her into my office. She’d booked an appointment with Rúnar. I gave you a list of points afterwards and asked you to make a note of the meeting.’

‘I’m so sorry, but that was a very difficult day,’ Freyja the secretary said. ‘A new minister taking over…’

Úrsúla raised a hand to stop her. She wasn’t going to listen to a lecture, the subtext of which would be that Freyja was the one with experience and Úrsúla was the rookie. Úrsúla opened her mouth, about to remind Freyja that on Friday she had asked her to look after the woman, who was in floods of tears, and had watched them go along the corridor together, when she was stopped by Eva bustling in with an armful of clothes.

‘I’ve brought you everything in two sizes,’ the adviser said. ‘So you can try on both and return whatever you don’t like or doesn’t fit.’

Úrsúla followed her into the office and shut the door behind her. Eva dropped the bundle of clothes on the sofa.

‘My secretary is on the stiff side,’ Úrsúla said. ‘What should I do about her?’

She picked up a blouse from the top of the pile.

‘Give her a chance. The staff are always stressed out when a new minister is appointed, and you came in at pretty short notice. Let’s see if she softens up in a couple of days. Otherwise you just get Óðinn to transfer her.’ 44

Eva held up another blouse to show Úrsúla. It was a light brown, patterned with a motif of small flowers and made from some material that shone like satin.

‘Pretty, isn’t it?’ Eva said.

‘It’s pretty,’ Úrsúla agreed. She would wear whatever Eva told her to. Eva had a far more developed taste in clothes and had strong opinions on what women in politics should wear. ‘Óðinn and my secretary both seem to have gaps in their memory, and I’m wondering if it’s because it’s this particular case – something I asked them to look into. I get the feeling that their selective memory is a way of telling me what kind of issues they want me to be dealing with.’

‘What was it they decided to forget?’ Eva asked, placing a jacket and trousers on the sofa and holding a top next to them for comparison.

‘A woman who came here on Friday and asked me to check where in the system her daughter’s rape case is.’