Håkan took on the leading role as the fun, much-loved daddy, while Anna, without quite knowing how it had happened, had been allocated the clichéd supporting role as the miserable, mean-spirited mother who was always going on about rules and responsibilities. Who disliked animals so much that she wouldn’t even let her own daughter have a puppy. And so she’d given in. Let the wretched animal into the house to prove that she too could be cool and spontaneous. It hadn’t helped at all.

Milo whimpers again, louder this time, as if he can see something in the shadows among the trees that only a dog can detect. Rabbits, probably. The stupid creature is crazy for rabbits and can chase them for hours if he manages to escape, which he does with depressing regularity. He is both hyperactive and spoiled, and he treats Anna with the same thinly veiled contempt as Agnes does. But there is no denying that Milo loves Agnes more than anything else in the world, and she feels the same about him. Sometimes Anna realises that she envies their relationship, which of course is ridiculous.

The track winds deeper and deeper into the forest, the burnished leaves close in above them, and even though she was pretty sure they’d reached the top of the ridge a while ago, they are still climbing.

‘Are your ears popping too?’ she ventures in the most neutral tone she can summon.

‘Mm.’ Agnes continues to stare at her phone.

After about five minutes they round a bend and reach a rectangular courtyard. The trees loom in from both the longer sides, the tops so close together that there are only a few metres of sky between them. A long shed leans against the trunks on the left, and at the far end there is a lovely old brick building, with a dark-coloured car parked outside. As they draw closer Anna can see that a section of the reddish-brown brick between the ground floor and the first floor has been painted white. It bears the year, 1896, followed by the words BEHOLD THE MOUNTAIN OF THE LORD in ornate lettering.

The setting and the house are even more beautiful than in the pictures, yet Anna suddenly feels nervous. A vague sense of disquiet that she can’t – or daren’t – define is making her stomach churn.

As they pull up Milo’s whimpering turns into an agitated outburst of barking. He scrabbles wildly at the car door, hurls himself at the window as if he’s trying to break the glass.

‘What’s wrong, sweetheart?’ Agnes attempts to pull him away, but the terrier is having none of it. He launches himself at the window once again, this time with an audible thud, leaving behind a big patch of saliva.