‘Fredriksberg fort, Nordnes?’

She nodded. ‘Mhm. Jakob and I went for evening strolls. We climbed up the fort wall, by the entrance to Nordnes park where it’s easiest to get up. It was such a hot, pale-blue May evening and on the ramparts … he got what he wanted.’

‘And afterwards?’

‘Afterwards it turned out that was all he wanted. He gave me the cold shoulder and Johnny came on hot and heavy…’

‘And stormed an open door?’

She chewed her top lip and nodded. ‘You might put it like that. And when I discovered I was in the club…’

‘You told Johnny it was his?’

She nodded again.

‘He was never very good at mental arithmetic, was he.’

She shook her head. ‘So we got married.’

‘And he didn’t even react when she was born?’

‘I said she was … premature.’

‘But you knew all the time whose daughter she was.’

‘Of course.’380

‘But you never told Jakob?’

‘Why would I?’

‘And he never asked?’

She glared at me. ‘You see, he wasn’t very good at counting either. Men in those years, in the late fifties, were fixated on these.’ She placed two hands under her big breasts.

‘But this was 1961,’ I said amiably.

She ignored me. ‘All they wanted was to paw and squeeze them as if they were … balloons … trophies. What you had up here didn’t’ – she tapped her forehead – ‘interest any of them. And as for what was down here’ – she discreetly indicated the part between her broad thighs – ‘that was just the trimmings. A kind of bonus. They got us in the family way out of pure distraction. Because this didn’t happen to only me.’

I nodded. ‘True. The fifties was the decade of unwanted pregnancies. In the years before people took care. And afterwards they were niftier with contraception.’

‘That’s right.’

‘But when did you tell Johnny?’

‘Years afterwards. That served him right.’

‘But when…?’

‘The bastard.’

I nodded. ‘But…?’

‘You can imagine how many rugs he’d cut over the years. The Harpers didn’t exactly tune their harps in nuns’ convents. But when he came back that summer … They’d been on a ten-day tour up in the fjords and he came back with the clap. I told him to pack his things and sling his hook. I gave him what for. I told him he wasn’t going to stain any more of my sheets, and by the way Jakob was Ruth’s dad.’381

‘And how did he take it?’

‘As I’d hoped. Like a kick in the nuts. I hit him where it hurt most – in his manhood. He hadn’t been the first. Jakob had got there before him. And it was because of Jakob’s child he’d had to marry me.’

‘And when did this happen? In 1975, I imagine?’

She nodded in surprise. ‘1975. End of August.’

I sighed heavily. ‘And then we’re into awful October. Why didn’t you tell me what really happened last time I was here?’