Margit Sandemo - The Ice People 24 - Deep in the Ground

Anna Maria thought the whole thing looked a little pathetic.

With an anxious sigh she began to make her way down the path into the valley. It would probably be best for her to go to the mining office or whatever that big, ugly building was called. The administration building?

That was much too fine a word for the grey-brown monstrosity standing in the middle of everything.

There was no church, she noticed. In general it seemed that the place lacked many things.

But now at least they were going to have a school. She wondered where it was going to be – there was nothing here but houses. And where was she to live?

At that very moment she spotted them. Until now they had been hidden by the cliffs. Now they were visible in all their abomination: two long blocks like barracks, in which the miners probably lived. She had never seen anything so ugly or depressing. Outside the doors lay rubbish and piles of something indefinable. She got the impression that there wasn’t much room inside. And alongside the houses stood what must be pedlars’ barrows. It all seemed fairly miserable.

What was it Birgitta had said? “If you wish to make a profit from a company you ought not to throw it away on charities or things that are unnecessarily sentimental. All unnecessary expenses are bad!”

Those were her words – certainly not Adrian’s, he was much more refined. He probably wasn’t even aware of the misery around the barracks since he so rarely went there.

But heavens, what a depressing village!

Anna Maria took heart and lugged her bag along the little path, which was probably called a road in this small out-of-the way settlement.

Her arrival had not gone unnoticed. Scrawny women stood in the doorways of the few houses. Their faces were empty and bleak. They were silent, but Anna Maria noticed the glances they exchanged across the street. She greeted them politely with a tremulous smile. At first she was met with stern, dismissive faces, then they each gave her a dignified nod. That was all.

Two children stood between the houses staring at her. They were shabbily dressed and didn’t look particularly healthy, either.

When Anna Maria finally managed to reach the biggest building, she breathed more easily. She knocked on the door that seemed to be the right one. No one answered. After looking around and not seeing any other doors, and only being met with the silent interest and stares from the front doors of those observing her, she opened the door and went inside.

It was a bare, disheartening room, and she soon decided that she must have been mistaken. This was not an office: it must be the back of something, though she wasn’t sure what. It looked like an empty storeroom, ugly, dirty and dilapidated. There were no doors leading anywhere and she was just about to go back outside when she heard voices on the other side of the wall.

A hard, dark voice said urgently, “I asked for a teacher, not a young lady!”

“It wasn’t easy to get anyone to come here,” answered a friendly, gentle voice, which Anna Maria recognized at once. It was Adrian’s voice. Her Adrian, whom she had dreamed about and kept as an exquisite, sacred secret deep within her soul all these years.

“And Miss Olsdatter is well educated,” he continued.

Thank you, Adrian, thank you for defending me!

But the other voice just answered brusquely: “Yes, well, we know all about these foolish virgins who venture into typical male communities as a last resort to avoid ending up as old spinsters!”

“Anna Maria Olsdatter is anything but old. And she comes from a very fine family.”

“Which makes it even worse. Is she going to get on her high horse? And how am I supposed to maintain control over my men if there’s a young woman here? Well, I’ll have to console myself with the fact that she must be as ugly as sin if she’s chosen to work in such a place. The men won’t stand for some uppity schoolmarm, it would be humiliating for them.”

“Now, now, Kol, you mustn’t judge her before we’ve seen her. I don’t remember much about Anna Maria because she was nothing but a skinny little girl the last time I saw her, though I do have a vague memory of a pair of longing eyes and an eternally devoted smile – and that she followed me everywhere. But there was nothing special about her, I must admit. She’s coming today, isn’t she?”

“Yes, and I don’t intend to arrange a welcoming committee. You yourself will have to see to that, Director!”

Whereupon a door was shut and a resigned sigh could be heard from the director.

Her Adrian. Who could barely remember her – other than as an insistent child!

And the other man – was his name Kol? That must be the foreman, the one who had asked for a teacher for the workers. He didn’t seem all that enthusiastic about having her here!

How strange, that when you have a goal you can reach it through willpower alone. But if the goal turns out to consist of absolutely nothing in the end, you suddenly feel all your fatigue and hunger. Anna Maria was completely empty inside and felt as though she were carrying a heavy burden of despondency and disappointment on her shoulders.

But the worst thing was the sense of loneliness. What did she have to look forward to in terms of a shared, human connection?

Chapter 2

But she couldn’t stay standing in this bare room for all eternity! Hesitantly, she went outside again and this time she received help. The woman in the nearest house signalled to her that she should go around the corner.

There was nothing there but a blank wall, but Anna Maria continued around the next corner and reached the other long side, where she found what was clearly the only entrance to the building. She walked in and saw that there was actually a sign that said “Mine Office”.

Anna Maria knocked and entered.

A man was sitting behind a writing desk that was so impressive that it seemed almost out of place in these poor surroundings. The room itself wasn’t much to write home about since it was built in a barracks. But this man, who seemed very worried at the moment, had clearly tried to do something about the arrangement. It wasn’t his fault that the attempt had failed!

It was Adrian Brandt! It certainly was, even though Anna Maria could barely recognize him at first. Six years filled with exaggerated, romantic notions of a person can completely distort one’s memory of them. But here he was – in reality and six years older than when she had last seen him.

He was still young, of course – that wasn’t where the transformation lay. Yet she did have difficulty recognizing him.

The ash-blond hair, the sad eyes as blue as the summer sky, the face – completely ordinary yet still attractive due to those eyes and an overall impression that was very appealing – it was all there, yet something was different.

When he caught sight of her the worried wrinkles in his brow evened out immediately and he became more like the noble, cheerful knight she remembered from her early youth. He got to his feet.

Anna Maria had been anxious about meeting him: she could feel that now. And the blunder of getting lost and then accidentally hearing that her presence wasn’t welcome had made her nervous. But Adrian Brandt looked very friendly, which put her mind at rest. Friendly – and surprised?

He approached her, his hand outstretched. Anna Maria accepted it. It was warm and firm. Before she could stop herself, she curtseyed to him. She was no more mature than that.

“Well, so here is Birgitta’s niece,” he said. “Little Anna Maria, yes, we’ve met before, haven’t we? You are very welcome! You are younger than I had expected, but still it will all work out: you have excellent exam results and fine references. Well, I am Adrian Brandt, as you probably remember, and I run this little ... pastime of mine.”