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

They had just sat down at the kitchen table when a big, clumsy man with a benevolent face entered. He looked at Anna Maria with curiosity.

Klara brightened up. “This is my brother,” she explained. “Come in, come in. We’re just having a cup of coffee, the young Miss and I.”

So this was the Clump, the one who had been neglected and deceived. Yes, he was dragging one leg, which was clearly lame.

He thanked Klara for the invitation and sat down uneasily, with his hands in his lap. He said he was happy to see Klara in such good spirits. It had been several months since they had last seen one another.

“Yes, now I have someone to talk to who doesn’t laugh at me because my husband ran off,” Klara said dryly. “The young lady here is so easy to talk with, despite her being so cultivated and everything. Her family has served the Oxenstierna family! That’s a bit more refined than the miserly Brandt family!”

The Clump expressed proper admiration for Anna Maria’s fine connections. They mostly chatted about the weather, which looked as though it would get colder, until he said, “Yes, well, I grew curious about the young Miss. They said that she was so pretty to look at. Which is no lie,” he concluded, perfectly seriously, stealing a glance at Anna Maria.

She bowed her head. “I had no idea that anyone had taken any notice of me,” she muttered shyly. “I haven’t seen any of the miners except from a distance.”

“Ha, they talk of nothing else down the mine! The foreman is furious. He wishes the ‘confounded wench’ would go back where she came from!”

“Oh my!” Anna Maria cried out in fright. “That doesn’t sound good at all!”

The Clump realized that he had expressed himself clumsily and he tried, somewhat awkwardly, to remedy the damage. “Don’t worry about it, Miss. That’s the way Kol is. He has absolutely no refinement but he is a good person. Well, I’d better be going. If you two ladies need any help with anything just let me know. Anything at all!”

“Thank you, we know,” Klara answered in an affectionate, sisterly tone of voice. “How are you faring otherwise? My brother works as the cook for the workers, you see, Miss.”

“Oh, I can’t complain,” the Clump assured her. “But I’m so worried about my little girl ... I’m talking about my daughter, Miss Anna Maria. She is so little and delicate and sweet. Your husband, Klara, wasn’t very kind to his own children and I worry about how he’d behave towards a stepdaughter?”

“Indeed, that’s a good question,” Klara answered dryly.

Anna Maria lay awake in her uncomfortable bed in this strange and for her unusually humble house. She thought of all the good things she wanted to do for these people. Now she had taken the Clump’s burden on her shoulders as well. If only she could give him his daughter back!

Now don’t get too rash, Anna Maria Olsdatter, she told herself matter-of-factly. Who do you think you are? God himself? You may be one of the Ice People but you haven’t been endowed with special abilities. You are no Tengel the Good or Sol or Ingrid or Heike ...

If only Heike had been here! He would at least have done something for all these neglected people!

Anna Maria didn’t have much insight. She had lived a sheltered existence and didn’t know much about the lives of ordinary people. She didn’t understand that hundreds of thousands of Swedes and Norwegians lived in great poverty and that very few belonged to her privileged class. Anna Maria had seen only a tiny corner of the country, which was more than enough for her if she intended to carry through her crusade to improve their impoverished circumstances.

But after thinking it over, she realized that there was very little she could do, if anything.

And on that dejected note, she fell asleep.

On Friday, just before she finished the day’s lessons – still without slates or other materials, Adrian Brandt came to sit in on the class.

Anna Maria was frantic. For one thing she wasn’t sure if she was teaching in the correct manner; for another, she hadn’t expected him until the following day, and her own reaction took her completely by surprise. It wasn’t at all the way she had felt about him as a child. Anna Maria hadn’t met many men in her life. Her mother, Sara, had kept a close eye on her daughter, and in the last two years Anna Maria had done nothing but care for her mother and had seldom gone out. Adrian Brandt seemed even more appealing to her than before, now that she had grown used to his mature appearance and cultivated manners. He came from the same background as her, it was as though everything became easier when she saw him. She cared for all these people in Ytterheden and was happy in their company, but her heart ached with such tenderness and pity for them that she could hardly bear it. Adrian Brandt was a calm, confident man with a solid background. He did not awaken her sympathy in the same way. She looked to him for help and support.

She offered him her chair and he sat quietly in a corner and listened as she taught the children to read and write the word “bad” on the board. They hadn’t got any farther than that in the alphabet. Afterwards she read them a piece from one of her textbooks. A history book.

When the lesson was over and the children had gone outside to play for a little while, Adrian Brandt approached her. She was very much aware of the fact that he had constantly been observing her and not the children during the lesson.

“Well, Anna Maria, it certainly looks good!”

She looked down. “It will improve once we get the slates and counting frames for everyone.”

“Yes, I heard about those.”

Then he added, nonchalantly but with a barely concealed note of pride in his voice, “Incidentally, I can tell you that when I was on a small errand at the Parliament the minister told me he was very impressed with my initiative to start compulsory schooling here for the children. You know that it isn’t easy to get teachers to come out to the more remote regions of this big country. The minister was very amiable indeed.”

Anna Maria thought to herself that he wasn’t the one who had come up with the idea in the first place – but he was, of course, the one responsible for all the expenses, so in that sense he was right. Her speculations soon evaporated as she listened to his kind talk. She noticed that he covertly examined her in an almost pensive way.

“It’s wonderful to see that the children have taken such a liking to you,” he said absently.

“They have?” she said, brightening up. “Thank you, that’s very good to hear.”

He didn’t seem to have heard her response. He was deeply absorbed in his own thoughts. Then he suddenly asked, “Anna Maria, would you care to visit my mother and two sisters tomorrow night? They would like to meet you.”

“Yes ...” she answered, hesitantly.

“Yes, of course you already know Kerstin. You’ve met her before.”

“Yes, three or four times, at Aunt Birgitta’s house.”

“Well, will you come, then? At seven o’clock?”

Adrian Brandt looked so eager that she overcame her reluctance. “Yes, thank you.”

“I’ll come and fetch you, then. That way you won’t have to walk past the barracks alone, which can be rather unpleasant for a young girl.”

“Thank you!”

He stayed for a minute or two more to discuss the teaching. Now that he had the ministry’s approval he seemed more animated about the whole idea, even though the school was probably costing him a great deal of money. There seemed to be a rather feudalistic mentality in this little community. The mine owner was in charge of his employees and their families as well.

No, how could she have such unreasonable thoughts? Adrian Brandt was no bully – he seemed gentle and understanding. But he certainly knew what he wanted! He had managed to administer the fortune he had inherited from his father-in-law, and Klara had said that he had been a true bully! The new owner was a positive angel in comparison.