He looked different, Ninni thought. Her stomach did somersaults at the sight of him.

When he stepped off the boat she waited until he reached her.

‘Hi,’ he said with a smile.

Frikk sniffed at Jack and let him pet him. ‘And hi to you too.’

‘Hi. Did it go all right?’ She had no idea what it was he had to do in the bank, but it must have been important. He was wearing a suit. ‘You look elegant. Tie and everything.’ The same suit he had worn when he’d hit her with his car in Bergen.

Jack touched the tie. ‘Well, yes, it was just a visit to the bank, for the last of the formalities with Agnar’s estate,’ he said. ‘I’m now officially in charge of everything, including the house, the farm, the meat business and the sheep.’

Ninni nodded. ‘Does it feel strange?’

Jack put his hands in his pockets, creasing the jacket. ‘Of course it does. I still don’t understand why he left it all to me, and I never will now.’

Ninni took his hand. ‘You’re his son, no matter what the circumstances are. Agnar left it to you because of that. It mattered to him.’

‘Yes, but I didn’t matter enough for him to contact me,’ Jack said.

‘I’m sorry,’ Ninni said.

‘Enough of this. It doesn’t matter any more. I can’t change the past, anyway.’ He smiled and pointed at the large building on the end of the harbour. ‘Why don’t you tell me about this place instead?’

Ninni looked towards the building Jack was indicating. ‘That one?’

‘Yes, start with that.’

Ninni smiled. ‘It’s a sjøhus, a “sea house”. It was built during the time of the big herring fisheries, so it’s more a place for business than anything else.’

The old building was huge, with a sliding door on the side and what looked like a bay window jutting out from the top floor. Except it didn’t have a window but another pair of sliding doors and a crane sticking out in front instead. He frowned.

‘It looks as if it’s about to fall apart. Why is it still standing?’

‘It’s not falling apart. All it needs is a coat of paint. According to Jens, it has good bones. Whatever that means. We use it for celebrations – we had a wedding once, even a few christenings, and every Christmas it’s used for the island market and other festivities,’ she explained.

‘Can we take a look?’ Jack seemed interested.

Ninni pushed open the door and they went inside. Jack looked around and Ninni smiled. ‘Not so bad from in here, is it?’

‘It’s like finding a treasure right in front of your eyes.’ Jack said.

There were a few windows high up. Ninni took a few steps further in and started pointing. ‘Downstairs used to be the sales floor. Agents from the mainland would come and buy the herring from here. Upstairs, they would keep crates for the herring and salt to preserve it, and then they would haul up the fish from the fishing boats. There’s also an office up there, for the shipping office. A lot of the herring from here ended up in Hull or Newcastle.’