He sipped his coffee, which gave him a glow of warmth inside, and leafed through the newspaper on the table in front of him. On the first spread, there she was, Úrsúla Aradóttir, with the news that she had become a minister. Somehow it didn’t seem quite right that she could be as grown up as she appeared in the picture, but there was no doubt that it was her. Once again he had the odd feeling he sometimes got – that the lives of other people moved ahead along straight lines while his own time went in circles. He took out his notebook and was about to write down these thoughts when his eyes strayed to the man at Úrsúla’s side in the photograph. They both smiled as they looked at the camera. But while her eyes were lively and cheerful, as they always had been, his were as cold as ice. These were the coldest eyes in the whole world. He stared at the picture and failed to understand how Úrsúla, now a minister, and whatever else she might be, could stand there and shake the hand of this man, the devil incarnate.

2

They had just left the marriage guidance counsellor’s office that Monday when Úrsúla’s phone had rung and the prime minister 6gave her two hours to make up her mind about taking on the role of interior minister for a year, a post combining the Ministries of Justice and Transport. Her eyes were still red with tears after yelling at Nonni in front of the counsellor, and she was sure her voice betrayed her upset as she told the PM that she would call back before the deadline. But she didn’t really need two hours, and she didn’t need to discuss it with Nonni before reaching her decision. She knew that she would make the call in good time and that she would take the job.

Nonni became weirdly excited and dropped his voice almost to a whisper, as if he was now party to some kind of state secret. His hand cupped Úrsúla’s elbow, steering her towards a coffee house on Skeifan, where he took her to a corner table by the window.

‘So just what did the PM say?’ he whispered, taking a seat opposite her.

‘Well, that it’s for one year, because the current minister has to step down for health reasons.’

‘Wow.’

‘It’s a bit awkward,’ Úrsúla said. ‘Appointing a minister from outside parliament and from neither of the two parties means they haven’t been able to agree on which of them should get the ministry.’

‘It’s a smart move to take a third option,’ Nonni said, falling silent as the waitress appeared.

Úrsúla had ordered a coffee, but Nonni had asked for a beer, which was unusual for him in the middle of the day. He had to be more upset than he appeared.

‘You’ll do it,’ he said. ‘Maybe it’s exactly what you need; what you need to be able to put down roots here again. Maybe this is something that’s exciting enough for you.’