He pushed his hands into his pockets and walked down to the farm. When he reached the house, he stopped and looked up at Ninni’s house.

Damn, he thought. He’d never got to tell her his good news. Now he had to rethink everything.

Ninni stared at the door, not quite believing what she had done – that she had lied to Jack. She bit her lower lip. Frikk came up to her, whining and trying to push his nose into her hand.

She sank down and put her arms around his neck. ‘I’m not going to cry. I did this to myself, and I’m the one who can fix it. Let’s go home, Frikk. I can’t stay here now.’

She looked at the time. The next ferry would leave in half an hour. Plenty of time. Karl would have taken the previous one, and she wouldn’t risk meeting him on board.

She would ask Olav to put the boat back into the boathouse, but not until she was back on the mainland. She didn’t want anyone coming to the house when she was in this state. She would cry her eyes out, and probably beg Jack to stay.

‘Let’s pack,’ she said.

She ran upstairs and packed her backpack in five minutes. Then she walked through the house and pulled down the blinds. Her father would come at the weekends; he would look after everything.

The pile of Magni’s books on the table in the lounge stopped her. She had worked so hard to get them translated for him. Jack needed to see them.

With half an eye on the time, she sat down at the laptop and quickly wrote him a short letter. Then she copied everything over to a USB stick.

She put all of Magni’s books in a carrier bag before leaving, together with the stick. Then she locked the door and hurried towards the harbour, all the while not looking at Jack’s house. Just as the ferry docked, she popped into the shop and handed a surprised Alma the carrier bag.

‘Give this to Jack when you see him. I have to run. Something has happened and I have to go home. I’ll talk to you later,’ she said to Alma before she ran out again.

Once on board the ferry, she relaxed. She could see Alma coming out of the shop and waved at her. Alma waved back. I’ll call her tonight, she thought. As soon as I’m in control of myself again. I don’t want her to tell Jack anything.

Hopefully he would sell up and leave for London again.

Chapter 19

Ninni opened the door to the balcony. It was small, with barely enough space for a chair and a tiny table. The summer heat had dried out the lawn in front of the apartment building. No one in Bergen could remember the last time there had been sunshine almost every day for weeks.

The small apartment felt suffocating in the heat and she longed for the cool air on the island. And, if she was honest with herself, she also longed for Jack.