Ingrid sticks the wallet inside her cardigan and is about to say that the priest came at the right moment, but realises that in fact he hasn’t, he has come too late, now as before.

Johannes Malmberget casts an eye over the people who have gathered outside the church, in groups dressed in black, their voices muted next to the house of God and they will grow louder the further they get from it and turn into frivolous laughter as soon as they are far enough away. He raises an arm to summon his sons, but they can’t see him. Ingrid has to shout, and they come trotting up as the old man says it was wonderful to hear Barbro today, what a voice.

“But she still doesn’t know the words, does she,” the priest says.

“No.”

“No, no, of course not.”

Ingrid hurries over to the others, who ask what she has been talking to the priest about. She isn’t sure herself yet, something to do with the christening, she says.

~

But back on Barrøy that evening, she takes Barbro for a walk through the gardens to the south and tells her about the money, she has counted it now, it is exactly the same amount as she received at the hospital, she spent all that on building materials for Karvika, on sheep, food and a plough, and much besides, but she doesn’t reveal the precise figure, instead she asks her aunt whether she thinks Suzanne has come to the island to hide.

The question takes Barbro by surprise.

Ingrid asks whether Fredrik has talked to her about his father – he is still tied to her apron strings after all – not to mention his stepfather or uncle.

Barbro says no and mutters that Suzanne hasn’t said anything, either.

Ingrid says he is German.

Barbro asks who is German.

The stepfather.

Barbro is still confused.

“She war fourteen whe’ she left,” she says hazily.

“It’s peace teim nu,” Ingrid says in a loud voice.

“That’s hva tha thinks,” Barbro says petulantly and asks if that is supposed to mean they should put up that stupid light again, the lighthouse.

Ingrid rolls her eyes and says, to calm her down, that it is also time to write the letter.

What letter?

To Lars, we’re going to be alone this winter, three women and one young boy who is starting school.

Barbro answers that the Finnmark lads are here, but the next moment she adopts a sheepish expression, which puts Ingrid on her guard.

She says perhaps we may be able to hold on to the Finnmark boys until past the haymaking season, if we’re lucky, what is on Barbro’s mind?

Barbro has to come out with it – the letter has already been written.

“Hva?!”