‘Another two or three weeks and the slopes here will be completely blue with lupins,’ Daníel said.

119

49

Ísafold agrees with everything that her brother-in-law Ebbi and I tell her, the three of us sitting around Ebbi’s kitchen table, with candlelight and a bag of doughnuts.

She’s finally ready to leave Björn. She can see for herself that it’s not working out. She knows there’s a danger that he’s going to do her permanent harm. She knows there’s a vicious circle that she needs to break out of.

I book flights to Edinburgh for both of us the next day, and a train ticket for her home to our mother in Newcastle. Ebbi goes to Björn’s place to fetch her passport and some clothes.

Later that evening her mother-in-law arrives and makes a plea on Björn’s behalf. She talks about how distraught he is. She tells her how much he regrets being heavy-handed with her, how much he craves her forgiveness. She finishes by telling Ísafold that she’ll have to take care not to provoke him like that.

In the morning when I wake up, Ebbi’s sitting at the kitchen table, shaking his head in despair. Ísafold has gone back home to Björn.

120

WEDNESDAY

50

Daníel pulled up the weeds along the wall of the house by hand, even though a trowel or a scraper would have been useful. But he didn’t want to risk the sound of metal against stone waking the neighbours, so he made do with putting on a pair of gardening gloves and relying on his strength to yank out the dandelions and the blades of grass that had taken root where the tarmac of the drive met the building. It was a job that needed to be done, however ridiculous it might seem to be out here weeding in the middle of the bright night. But he couldn’t sleep.

He was too annoyed with himself for having kissed her. What the hell had he been thinking? The poor girl was in a state of confusion, they hardly knew each other, and he was much, much too old for her.