The last of the firewood is gone and to get more, we’d need to access the woodshed to the side of the front door. It occurs to me that if Eirik hadn’t come to my rescue when he did, I would likely have died here, even though I made it back to the cabin. I wouldn’t have been able to dig my way out of a window, climb through, and make my way down to the car in shoulder-height snow – I can barely stand up. I shiver at the thought that if I hadn’t had the sense to message Eirik when I did, mentioning that I’d gone to Leah’s cabin, he wouldn’t have found me. I would have gone through all the firewood and when it was gone I may actually have frozen to death in my sleep. If that had happened, how long would it have taken for someone to find me? It could have been years. We’ve all read the stories here in Norway, of dead bodies found in the beds of abandoned and remote cabins.

What would my parents and Eirik and the police have concluded happened to me in the absence of a body? Would Anton perhaps have been investigated, considering I called the police expressing concern about him just before I came here? And what would have happened to my clients? Some of them may have experienced real shock and substantial setbacks at my sudden disappearance. Several tell me they live for our sessions; at least that’s how it feels for them, that our weekly hour is the one place they feel seen and heard.

‘Look, honey!’ shouts Eirik. I follow his pointed finger out the window where he has succeeded in making a narrow tunnel through the snow, at the top of which is a sliver of blue sky.

64

Elisabeth, August

‘Thank you for coming all the way out again this week.’ Elisabeth smiles at Kristina, who looks tired and a little pale, and pours two mugs of steaming black coffee from the thermos. They’re sitting on a blanket on the beach below Villa Vinternatt. The huge Color Line passenger ferry, bound for Kiel, fills the narrow sound between Drøbak and Hurumlandet, and many smaller leisure boats float languidly on the water. It’s a beautiful day, and Elisabeth is glad; it feels easier having this conversation out here rather than inside one of Villa Vinternatt’s austere common rooms.

‘That’s okay. It’s good to get out of the city for the afternoon.’

‘How have you been?’

‘Yeah, good. A little tired. This summer has been quite full-on. Eirik has worked nonstop and I’ve been keeping busy with the research paper I’m submitting in September. But, you know, I guess I would have liked to get away for a couple of weeks. We talked about going to Cannes, but then he had to work. What about you?’