Sure enough, they didn’t meet another car on the way down the road. One day, Joel thought, he’d like to think that there would be many people coming up here, coming to stay at the Rock, enjoying its beautiful surroundings and peace and quiet—with only twelve rooms, they would never get crowded.

There would always be all the space, fresh air, peace, and quiet that anyone required there, the kind of peace of mind he himself had found. Well. Who knew? And this ridiculous project of Konstantin’s might even help. He eyed the young blond man. For a spoiled rich kid, he was doing surprisingly well. His father would hopefully be pleased.

As he watched, Konstantin finally figured the statue was safe enough on the flatbed and, with a giddy run, threw himself and his long legs onto the bed of the truck, beckoning Bjårk up behind him.

“So long, suckers!” he yelled cheerily, looking very young all of a sudden. “Enjoy your walk!”

Innes suddenly turned the wheel briskly and he nearly fell off (Bjårk, with his low and hairy center of gravity, was completely fine), and a long leg went up in the air. Normally this would have peeved him; he hated to look foolish in front of people, most of whom were always telling him how cool he was. But here it didn’t matter. Hamish was laughing so much it looked like he was going to fall over himself, skidding on the icy ground. Somehow, half of them walking, half riding, they made it down, although they made such a commotion they frightened the cows in the field.

AT THE FOOT of the hill that led up to the school, they stopped. The spot they’d chosen was as well positioned as they could make it, their most important thing being not to beam the installation’s lights in anybody’s window all night and send them completely insane.

The buried connection was about halfway up the hill, round the back of an old barn, so they weren’t in much danger of bothering anyone. Innes had already had the hole dug, causing much interest among the children, including many who wanted to bring spades of their own and do digging, which was hard enough in the frozen ground, but he told them it was farm business and to be on their way. It being after school, when most children are in absolutely dire need of a large snack and a sit-down before going out to play again, this more or less did the trick, except for Agot, of course, who stayed doing helping and shooing off any other children who came by, saying only she was allowed to help as it was farm business, which was actually quite helpful.

Now, the concrete mixer was churning away, and everyone was incredibly excited. As well as the headlamps from the flatbed, they had some storm lanterns to light everything and made sure the angel was straight as they carefully winched it down, hand over hand, into the hole. Then, when everything was as plumb as it could be and the wires were fixed, they got out of the way and let the concrete cascade down into the hole.