But as they sit gorged, waiting for Suzanne to serve what she calls a compôte and the others call soup, it is a soup too, it is red, with sago and raisins, Ingrid’s eyes wander along the walls and stop at a painting of a sailing ship her father once staggered home with, and she bursts into tears, no sobs or any other sounds, only a stream of still water. No-one understands, not even she does, and Arne says that now Ingrid is thinking about Nelvy again.

Suzanne puts the tureen on the table, asks who Nelvy is and no-one answers.

She asks again and dishes out the soup and distributes bowls around the table. Ingrid gets up and places a hand on Arne’s shoulder, as though he were her son, then walks outside into a shower of rain and sits down in Bosom Acre with the first sheep, which she has christened Lea, after a woman in the Bible who lived in the shadow of her sister, but who was blessed with many more offspring than her, she sits with her face buried in wet fleece, until she walks away and dries her face and is able to join the others, who are still discussing the significance of the ship, their laughter isn’t even strained.

However, Ingrid’s mind is still on what Arne said about her thinking about Nelvy, because she had been, but most of all she had been thinking about the engineer from Leningrad, and suddenly she had the feeling that he must still be alive, this is what has shaken her to the core, along with the life inside her, she can feel the kicking, and from now on she won’t shed a single tear.

12

Reluctantly, Ingrid allows herself to be rowed over to the trading post by Arne. She sits on the aft thwart with a blanket over her shoulders, holding her belly. And this is a strange experience, as the Barrøyers never row anywhere without an objective, and neither those remaining nor the young man rowing knows the purpose of this trip. And they have Fredrik with them, as Arne won’t allow him to be alone with his brothers, he doesn’t get seasick, but he won’t row.

At the trading post they hear that the war really is over, and sure enough they are going to introduce a new currency, the world is rising from the ashes once again. The foreman is also new, a young man from the mainland with energetic, bristly hair, and eyes that are far too large, unless his face is too small, he says they should just bring along whatever they have in the way of eggs, fish, down, it is more important than ever now to keep the wheels turning.

And the prices?

There are some things that never change.