Margit Sandemo - The Ice People 18 - Behind the Facade

“Elisabet!” her mother exclaimed, shocked. “A young girl doesn’t spell out conditions! Will you please curtsey and say a nice thank you!”

Finally, Ulf regained his composure. “Elisabet’s suggestion is a very sensible one. What do you think, Vemund?”

He nodded. “It sounds like a good solution. I imagined a marriage of convenience, which is more usual. However, I should have realized that Elisabet is too much of an individualist to be moved about like a chess piece.”

His smile was both jolly and sarcastic but then he continued in a more serious tone of voice: “You must understand that not just anybody can take care of my relative; I must be extremely cautious in choosing the right person. It will require tact, intelligence, compassion, discretion and not least medical expertise. The woman who took care of her for some years wasn’t particularly well suited for the job but I couldn’t find anyone better. At the moment, she’s being cared for by somebody who’s totally useless. Miss Elisabet: I would never offend you by offering you an ordinary job that any night nurse could do. As a matter of fact, the task is quite complicated.”

“In other words, the job offer is a compliment?”

“Absolutely!”

“Then I’ll accept it as a compliment.”

“Elisabet, you shock me,” Mrs Tora said. “I thought I had brought you up to be humbler. Go to your room immediately!”

Elisabet sought moral support from her father but he did not want to contradict his wife in the presence of a visitor. He was confused and concerned because his only child might be about to leave home.

Elisabet protested at being sent to her room. “I promised Aunt Ingrid to come as soon as possible. Am I to break my promise?”

“Of course not,” Tora said irritably. “But you know I don’t like you visiting her. Ingrid can teach you many things that you don’t need to learn.”

Vemund Tark looked somewhat surprised.

Ulf smiled wryly. “Our Aunt Ingrid is an old witch.”

“That’s exactly what she is,” was Tora’s agitated reply. “Who was it who got two of our cows to lose their calves?”

“Certainly not her,” Ulf muttered. They had clearly discussed that matter many times before, but he did not want to argue with his wife.

“Now say goodbye and thank you to Mr Tark,” Tora said, as if she was speaking to an eight-year-old. “Thank him for his splendid offer. You can leave now. We’ll discuss your future without your presence.”

Elisabet walked politely up to Vemund, holding out her hand. “Thank you,” she murmured as she dropped a curtsey. The irritating shyness, which would appear when she least wanted it, prevented her from looking at him except for a brief moment, but she had time to register an inscrutable expression in his fascinating face. Then she ran out of the room.

Ingrid regarded young Elisabet, who had just told her everything at a breathless speed. Ingrid was seventy-three years old and she called herself a witch, which she was. A witch with style! In her there was nothing of the long-nosed, bent, shrewish old woman of the tales. Ingrid was still beautiful and she could probably still charm a man out of his wits; her eyes were a vivid yellow underneath her white hair, her slow smile could send shivers down the spine, and people whispered that strange things happened at Graastensholm. However, until recently Ingrid’s long marriage had been impeccable.

“Are you sure that this is what you want?” Ingrid asked. “To leave home for an unknown life?”

“Of course, I want it, Aunt Ingrid,” Elisabet replied passionately. “Do you think ...?”

“Don’t call me Aunt,” Ingrid said, pulling a face. “It’s the most ageing word, you make me feel ancient! And you’re a grown-up now!”

Elisabet smiled. “Do you think it’s fun drifting about at home, doing nothing? Mum scolds me for not doing anything but the moment I try to help with something, she’s on at me again. A lady of a manor doesn’t do this or that or the other. Manor! Would you say that Elistrand is a manor?”

“If I understand you correctly, it would seem that you’re not helping in the right places,” Ingrid said with a laugh. “I know how you feel. Even so, I’m not altogether sure that you’re doing the right thing. It’s so easy to make a mistake.”

Elisabet looked at her inquisitively. Then she exclaimed spontaneously: “Ingrid, can you tell my fortune?”

“Tell your fortune? Me? I’m not a soothsayer!”

“I’m sure you are.”

Ingrid’s glance turned dark. “I don’t always want to know what will happen.”

You can look into the future, Elisabet thought, but she wasn’t going to pester Ingrid. Instead, she began to talk about something else. “Ingrid, there’s something that’s very much on my mind. Great-grandfather Ulvhedin is bored absolutely stiff. Couldn’t he move up here, just for a while? He manages everything by himself and ...”

“Dearest Elisabet. There’s nothing I would rather have and we’ve spoken about it so often. But your mother ...”

“I know,” Elisabet sighed.

They looked at one another and burst out laughing. Ingrid placed her hand on Elisabet’s.

“Your mother is a splendid person and we all like her very much. Just see what she’s done to Elistrand. It’s a magnificent farm! But the problem is that she doesn’t fit in among the Ice People.”

“Can’t you say that you don’t like being on your own here? Wouldn’t she take that into consideration?”

Ingrid was in her own thoughts. “I’m not on my own here.”

“Well, then. What have you done with all your servants? And the farmhands?”

“I’ve only kept the ones who were strictly necessary. I need to save wherever I can.”

“How do you manage without them?”

“I don’t need them. I have the little ones!”

Elisabet shivered. She had certainly heard something about what went on at night at Graastensholm, and as she had walked through the hall a short while ago, she had felt that shadows were scrambling to get away and hide. But she had pushed it aside as imagination.

Ingrid went on: “Elisabet, my marriage was a very happy one. Nevertheless, I had to keep myself in check because I didn’t want my husband to discover the mystical talents I actually have. When he passed away a few years ago I grieved sincerely. But at the same time – in a particular way – it felt like getting out of a prison.”

“Because you could use your magical powers again? You’re clairvoyant, aren’t you?”

“Yes! And in order not to shock the most superstitious of my servants, I dismissed them – with brilliant references, of course – and only kept the three I could trust.”

“You receive help at night? From the little ones ...? But I thought that not all the shadows I saw were all that small, after all?”

“Hush,” Ingrid laughed, putting a finger to her lips. “One doesn’t talk about such things.”

“Mum thinks that you cast a spell over our cows.”

The old woman had a sad look in her eyes. “I would never allow a need for revenge to hurt innocent animals. I don’t think evil of your mother, Elisabet. Your mother just doesn’t understand me.”

“Great-grandfather would have a fantastic time here! He suppresses his gifts.”

“Yes, he and I could have lots of fun here,” Ingrid exclaimed. “There are so many things we could do. Elisabet, tomorrow I’ll have another word with your parents. I’ll tell them that I’m afraid of the loneliness and beg them to let me have Ulvhedin come and stay with me.”

She was lost in her emotional recollections. “Old Ulvhedin! We had such fun in my younger days!”

“I’ll do my best to coax my mother,” Elisabet promised. “I’ll tell her that you pace about restlessly in your solitude.”