‘Right, and you don’t? At least I’m not miserable,’ she said.

Jack ignored that. But she took a bite of the apple and kept reading. He smiled and started taking things out of the bags. He was cooking for the family today, and they had high expectations.

Holly leaned over and grabbed a plastic bag from the table. It was vaguely familiar. Jack looked at the carrier bag and frowned. ‘Where did that come from?’

‘I found it in the suitcase. How have you not cleared it out since you returned from your little island?’

‘There was nothing in there that I needed,’ Jack said.

Truth was, he had taken out toiletries and clothes, then shoved the whole thing in the closet when he’d come home, too depressed to look at it. But he would never admit that to his baby sister.

‘I forgot about this,’ he said.

‘Liar.’ Holly tapped at it with her pencil. ‘What is it?’

‘I don’t know. I never looked inside,’ he said slowly.

Holly smiled. ‘Aren’t you curious? Don’t be such a chicken, Jack. Open it.’

‘Stop your nagging.’ He wasn’t sure what to expect when he saw Magni’s exercise books in there. In the bottom of the bag he discovered an envelope with a USB stick.

‘Hand me my computer, Holly,’ he said and pointed at the end of the table.

Holly grabbed it and handed it to him. She looked worried now. ‘Is it something bad?’

Jack shook his head. ‘I doubt it,’ he said and put in the stick.

A row of documents popped up on the screen. Eleven in all – one for each of the exercise books he had asked Ninni to translate. The last document was simply called Letter. He hesitated a moment before curiosity won and he opened the document.

Dear Jack, I’m sorry it had to end like this. I hope it doesn’t ruin the island for you. I finished translating Magni’s books. I’m sure she would have loved for you to read them. Love, Ninni

No, not love, Jack thought while he opened the first document. He tried not to think about her too much.

‘I’ll be damned,’ he muttered, reading the text.

‘What is it?’ Holly tried to look over his shoulder.

Jack smiled. The contents were a curious mixture of a diary, recipes and descriptions of both the farm and Agnar. ‘These are one of the diaries my grandmother wrote. Ninni translated them for me.’

Holly smiled. ‘That’s nice,’ she said and went back to her books.

Jack sank down on one of the chairs and started reading. He had no idea what to expect.

In the older books, from when Agnar was a boy, every year, on Agnar’s birthday, Magni described how much he had grown, how he was getting on at school and the work he did on the farm. Small things, daily chores, but important to her.

And then there were the other things. Recipes for meals she made. So many different ways of preparing fish. Christmas dishes. No wonder Agnar made “fenalår” and cured ham; his mother taught him how.