Dina sat in the boat and let the wind blow freely.
Leo! His skin burned into her, straight through her cape and clothing. Her body was a divining rod, a taut arc over a hidden mountain spring.
She wrapped the sheepskin tightly around her and talked with Johan and Mother Karen. She thanked Johan for the sermon. She praised Mother Karen for going to church even though she had not been feeling well lately.
Her gray eyes were two shining hollows. Leo met her gaze. Stared from one endless horizon to another.
Dina sat between Johan’s attentiveness and Leo, who protected her from the sea spray.
Chapter 17
He brought me to the banqueting house,
and his banner over me was love.
— The Song of Solomon 2 : 4
They could not hide that something was happening. No more than one could hide the seasons from people on their daily rounds outdoors.
Johan was the first to understand the glances between Leo and Dina. He recalled Dina’s curiosity about Leo’s plans when the Russian left Reinsnes after his first visit.
During Johan’s student days, the memory of his father’s wife had chafed at his thoughts. Like a naughty picture on a page of the Bible. She became like Oline’s cookie tins in childhood. High on the shelf and forbidden. The object of sinful thoughts.
Asleep and awake, he dreamed of her. Naked, gleaming white, with moonlight and cool drops of water trickling down her body. Standing hip-deep in the sea, with nubbly skin and bristling nipples. As he had seen her the night they went swimming before he left.
When he returned to Reinsnes, he was nine years older. And thought he was well prepared. Still, each time he saw her, he felt both pain and excitement. But Dina was his father’s possession before God and humanity. Even though Jacob was dead and gone. She had given birth to his stepbrother and managed their home like a mother.
Mother Karen was concerned when she saw the looks between Leo and Dina. But she was moved by them. She quickly settled things with the memory of her son. And became content with Dina’s having a living man.
True, she doubted this Russian possessed a fortune. She did not think he could manage an inn, or a store either.
But when she thought about it, Jacob had been a sailor before he came to Reinsnes…. Yes, she was already beginning to enjoy having someone in the house with whom she could discuss art and literature. Someone who spoke German and French and who had traveled all the way to the Mediterranean.
Niels was surprised and disconcerted when he saw the obvious attraction. For some reason, which he did not bother to analyze, it made him uneasy. As if love were a personal threat to him.
Anders watched in amazement. But he had difficulty believing the attraction would come to anything.
Stine remained calm and expectant and gave no sign of what she knew or thought. To her, Dina’s good humor and glittering restlessness were no cause for worry,
Oline, on the other hand, began loudly to extol the virtues of dear, departed Jacob one day when Leo came to the kitchen. He listened politely and interestedly. Nodded and asked for details about this hero, the former master of Reinsnes.
Oline talked at great length about Jacob’s strong points. His handsome face, his stamina that enabled him to dance all night, his concern for the servants and the poor. And, not least, his curly hair and youthful nature.
Without realizing it, Oline let herself be taken in by Leo’s willingness to listen. She was finally able to express thirty years of love. In the end, she wept her sorrow and longing against Leo’s breast and became inseparable from him.
Tomas returned four days after Christmas and found Leo singing sad Russian folk songs in the kitchen to cheer a distraught Oline. It made Tomas homeless.
He immediately began tormenting himself by spying. Listened for Dina’s cooing laughter in the evening when the doors between the kitchen and the parlors were open. Looked for tracks in the snow outside the summerhouse, because it was almost the night of the full moon. And he got heart-wrenching proof. Two large melted spots in the hoarfrost on the summerhouse bench. So close together they blended into one large spot. Two fur-clad bodies on the bench. Furs with openings in the front.
So she had taken the Russian to the summerhouse! Where she made her offering in the moonlight!
He also stole in front of the main house, at a good distance, to see how many figures were shadowed against the curtains in the master bedroom. But the heavy velvet drapes kept all their secrets. When he could not see any shadows, he tormented himself with the fact that there was so little light.
In his mind he saw Dinars white body in the other man’s embrace, the stove, the glowing candelabrum on the table by the mirror. And the image of the canopy bed so tormented him, night and day, that he scarcely touched the sumptuous Christmas foods.
Tomas began to avoid the kitchen, except at mealtime, when he was sure the Russian would be in the dining room.
As it happened, there were in fact two shadows in the master bedroom. She brought him there seven days after Christmas. Despite the danger of revealing everything to the whole house. To Johan. To Mother Karen!
The rutting instinct was like the leader of a pack of wolves. It was gray and invisible to others, perhaps, but to Dina, it had red jaws with sharp, pointed teeth and a pungent odor. And led to death and hunger and furious raging.
So she got out of bed and dressed again. Combed her hair and stole into the dark, windowless hallway. She gagged Jacob behind the linen cupboard and located the correct door. Pressed the shrill brass latch and slipped inside.
He sat waiting for her like a faithful bodyguard. True, he was not wearing boots or a shirt, just his trousers. As if he had been reading, with an ear cocked for the slightest signal.
The two could not stay in the guest room. For the thin walls would betray them to Anders and Johan. But the master bedroom had empty rooms on both sides. She snuffed the candle between two fingers. Quickly, without licking her fingers first.
“Come!” she whispered.
As if everything had been planned, the man followed her.
Safely inside her bedroom, she turned the key with a sigh and led the tall man to the bed. He started to say something, but she formed a soundless “shhh” against his mouth.
Green eyes shone with laughter. Smiling seriously like a praying Buddha.
He closed his eyes a few times and bared his throat. She came so close, so close. But he did not reach for her at first.
Jacob’s canopy bed proved unsuitable, so they had to use the floor. But they had eiderdown quilts and sheets of the finest damask.
He satisfied his hunger playfully, but greedily. Laughed himself into her. Silently and lasciviously. Like an ancient mountain that strangles its echo so as not to startle the sun. Or like clouds drifting so as not to frighten night dew on the lingonberries or fledgling eagles in a mountain crevice.
She was a river that guided a boat with a strong, plowing hull. With a bow that could force its way through rocks and rapids. Her banks were omnivorous and abraded his sides.
Just before the last rapids, where the waterfalls would overpower him, the riverbed split open and he was carried to the bottom.
The sandbanks were a mere whisper. But the water thundered and roared, and her shores were equally voracious. He forced the boat up again, its keel in the air, its oars gone. But with strength and determination. A large animal leaped from the shore. Its bite was deep, and deadly.
Then he was in the waterfalls.
The canopy bed stood calmly in the middle of the floor, as if it realized its old age and weakened state.
It had never seen anything like this. And seemed to be giving its entire weight to the moment. Quietly and with rare consideration, the four posters and the solid headboard tried to dampen all that echoed in the room.
But the canopy bed did not keep Jacob at a distance. He came between them like a lonesome child. It was useless to chase him away.
/> Jacob stayed nearby until the animals began to stir noisily in the barn and the morning was a winter wall behind Bläflag Peak.
Days and nights were cold. The sky spilled its intestines. Sharp green northern light edged with red and blue villi. Undulating toward the black starry heavens.
The Prince Gustav was an unwanted sea lizard when it arrived.
Dina began to pace upstairs again.
Book Three
Chapter 1
One man gives freely, yet grows all the richer;
another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.
— Proverbs 11 : 24
The young sewing girl they had hired before Christmas remained at Reinsnes. It turned out she had nowhere to go when she finished her work.
Stine had found her weeping. The girl was wearing her winter wraps and holding her cardboard box tied with a rope. She had cleared away all the fuzz and spools of thread, swept her work space in the servants' quarters, and received her pay. Now it was time to leave
Stine would not reveal the details of the sad story. But one thing was certain. They could not chase the girl from the estate the night before Christmas Eve. The news would spread throughout the parish and bring no honor to Reinsnes.
She was given the task of cleaning the store and the office. The tobacco-stained floorboards were rough and hard to scrub. But she did not complain.
One day Dina walked past the pantry and heard the sewing girl chattering with Annette. she mentioned Niels.
“He shows up when I'm cleaning the office,” said the girl
“Don't be afraid; just give him a scolding. He's no gentleman,” said Annette.
Dina kept standing near the open door.
“Oh, I'm not afraid. But I don't like it. Of course, he's obviously not quite right in the head,” she said seriously.“Once he moved that heavy washstand back and forth like a crazy man.”
“The washstand!”
“Yes, the one in the office. On Christmas Eve, Oline told me to go and check the stove there. In case nobody had sense enough to realize you could have a fire any day on a farm where lightning struck the barn roof. And that's when I saw him! He'd pulled the curtains, but I saw him. He dragged the washstand, making such a racket! Bent down and looked at something in the corner for a while. Then he dragged the washstand back in place and lit his pipe. No sensible person would act like that!”
The February days had turned blue and sparkling.
She entered the office without knocking. Niels barely looked up from his papers to greet her. The room was warm. The stove gave a crackling sigh from its glowing throne in a corner.
“So you’re working on the weekend as usual?” she began.
“Yes; I thought I’d record these figures before Anders comes with new ones. There’s a lot to do…”
“I’m sure.”
She walked over to the solid desk and stood there with her arms crossed. He began to perspire. The unpleasant stickiness paralyzed his words and thoughts.
“What did I want to say … ? Oh, yes … I hear you’re thinking about America?”
He lowered his head imperceptibly. The graying hair at his temples bristled slightly. He sat in shirtsleeves and an unbuttoned vest. His neck was sinewy and thin, like his hands.
He was not an ugly man. His upper body was surprisingly strong and supple for a store manager. His straight nose and other facial features could have belonged to a nobleman.
“Who told you that?” he asked, and moistened his lips.
“That doesn’t matter. But I want to know if it’s true.”
“Was it you who took the map of America from the desk here?”
He had mustered the courage for an attack. And felt satisfied with that for a moment.
“No. Have you gotten a map? Things have gone that far? Where are you planning to go?”
He gave her a distrustful glance. They were both standing now, one on each side of the desk. He steadied himself, his palms flat on the desk, and looked at her.
Then he straightened his back, so abruptly he almost tipped the inkstand.
“The map has disappeared! Completely! It was still here the night before Christmas Eve.”
He paused.
Dina looked at him without a word.
“No; America was just a thought …,” he said at last.
“It will be an expensive trip/’ she replied quietly,
“It’s just a thought, after all”
“You’ve probably arranged a loan from the bank? Maybe you need a guarantor?”
“I haven’t thought about that…”
Niels changed color and ran his hand through his hair a few times.
“Maybe you have the money yourself?”
“No, not really….”
Niels cursed himself for not having prepared for the situation. Learned his replies by heart.
It was always like that with Dina. She came like a large halibut, flailing in every direction, where you least expected it.
“There’s something I should have discussed with you before, Niels,” she said invitingly, seeming to change the subject.
“Yes?” he said, relieved.
“It’s the numbers. The ones that are there but I can’t find…. The extra numbers. That only appear when I count barrels, and goods we’ve loaded and unloaded. And when I talk with people about their debts and their credit. I’ve made quite a few notes. They’re nothing to show the sheriff and the judge, but I’ve discovered where the numbers are, Niels.”
He swallowed hard. Then he marshaled his anger and looked straight at her.
“This isn’t the first time you’ve accused me of tinkering with the books,” he hissed. Precisely three seconds too soon.
“No,” she almost whispered, gripping his arm. “But this time, I’m sure!”
“What proof do you have?” he snarled. Vaguely sensing that it was serious.
“I’ll keep that to myself for now, Niels.”
“Because you don’t have any proof. It’s nothing but spite. Spite and lies, the whole thing! Ever since that business with Stine’s child …”
“Niels’s child,” she corrected him.
“Call it what you wish. Anyway, ever since then, I’ve had no home at Reinsnes. And now you’re going to make the whole world think I’m a scoundrel! Where’s your proof?” he shrieked.
His face was pale in the lamplight, and his chin trembled.
“I’m sure you can understand that I don’t want to waste my proof by telling you. Before I know if you’ll do the right thing.”
“What do you mean?”
“Show me where the numbers are, in hard cash! Then we can make an agreement about the rest and about a guarantee for your trip to America.”
“I don’t have any money!”
“You do! What’s more, you’ve even cheated your own brother out of his rightful ten percent of the Bergen profits. You’ve used numbers that in no way agree with what Anders took south. That’s where you made your biggest mistake. You implicated your brother. So that in the worst case, he would appear the swindler. But you forget that I know you. Both of you!”
He raised his fist at her furiously and started around the desk.
“Sit down, Niels!” she said. “Would you rather I’d brought the sheriff and a police officer and laid everything on the table? Answer me!”
“No,” he said. Barely audibly. “But there’s no truth in what you say …”
“You bring those numbers to light, preferably as cash, and do it fast! Have you spent them, or buried them? Because they’re certainly not in any bank.”
“How can you say all this?” he asked.
She smiled. An ominous expression. Which sent chills through his whole body. He closed all the openings. As if he were afraid she would creep in his pores and destroy him from within.
Niels sat down again behind the desk. Involuntarily, his gaze wandered toward the washstand. His eyes were those of a little boy who r
eveals where he hid the wooden horse he took from his playmate.
“Have you buried them? Or do you have them under your mattress?”
“I don’t have anything!”
Then her eyes dug into him. Like an iron plow.
“I see. Well, you have until tonight. Otherwise I’ll send a message to the sheriff!” she said harshly. And turned to leave.
Then, on impulse, she whirled around.
Niels was looking at the washstand!
He realized he was being observed.
“I actually came to examine the books. So you can leave,” she said slowly. A cat. That suddenly extends her claws yet one more time.
He rose and was careful to walk erect as he left the room.
* * *
She locked the door after him and did not mind that he heard her do it. Then she rolled up her sleeves and went to work.
The large washstand with the heavy marble top would scarcely budge. Oak and marble. Solid indeed.
She leaned her weight against it.
Niels paced back and forth in the store while she stood with the tin box open and counted the money under the lamp.
The next morning, Dina set out to cross the mountain. With snow-shoes, for both herself and the horse, hanging on the pack saddle over her travel bags.
Just as she was passing the smithy, Niels came from the warehouse.
When he saw the tall woman on the horse heading toward the mountain, everything went black. He knew where she was going.
His insides had refused to function ever since he heard her rummaging in the office. It had come both ways, so suddenly he barely managed to get to the outhouse in time. Had to lean over one hole to vomit as he sat emptying his bowels over the other.
Several times the past evening he had started toward the master bedroom, to ask for mercy. But he could not do it.
The night was an empty hell, filled with dreams of ghosts and shipwrecks.
He got up in the morning, smothered his beard in foam, and shaved the gray stubble, as if that were the most important thing in the world.
Dina's Book Page 28