Margit Sandemo - The Ice People 25 - The Angel

One evening, under cover of darkness, she sneaked over to Erland of Backa, who was on leave for a couple of weeks. On her knees, crying, she begged him: “Please, please have mercy on an unfortunate woman. I know you serve under my husband’s command. Please greet him from me and tell him that whatever he might hear, I’m totally innocent. Please be merciful!”

“Well ... er ...” began Erland, who was somewhat slow on the uptake. “But that’s not true!”

“I swear on the salvation of my soul!”

Erland, deadly serious, replied: “Someone saw you jumping up and down on that man – he was virtually raped!”

The lady turned pale and wrung her hands. “Oh, I entreat you! Can’t you tell my husband before he comes back that it wasn’t my fault?”

Erland said: “I never lie! However, I’ll ask your husband to be patient with you. Cows are impossible to control once they’re on heat until they have a bull with them. When womenfolk are keen to copulate, they must have a man. That is the rule of nature. Your husband has been away for a long time, so no wonder you’re itching. I’ll ask the captain to keep this at the back of his mind when he returns. I’ll prepare him for his wife’s embarrassment, and I’ll ask him to be nice to your young daughter because she didn’t ask to be conceived in such a miserable manner – in adultery in the stable hay.”

This made the officer’s wife want to clip Erland’s ears, though of course she couldn’t do that. Instead she humbled herself and said: “Thank you, Mr Backa!”

But if she ever had the opportunity, she was going to seek revenge for all his insulting words. A miserable standard-bearer, a smallholder, having the nerve to chastise her, the wife of a captain! This was ... this was unheard of!

Then she remembered her situation again, and the proof of her adultery lying in the cot at home, and walked away downcast and with her head bowed.

Erland’s intercession didn’t help much. The husband returned home like an angry bull. The little girl was allowed to stay, since Erland had asked him so nicely to be good to her and the captain didn’t have any children of his own. He found a good nurse to take care of the child but his wife was mercilessly kicked out. He didn’t want to have to look at her any more. He thought of all the humiliating times when he had had to beg to be allowed what was his marital right and had lain in a lifeless embrace listening to her sighs of self-sacrifice, waiting for him to finish. And then she had sex with the most shameless of men – with an itinerant journeyman!

When the lady crossed the avenue leading to Bergqvara Farm, on her way out of the parish with her most important belongings in a duffel bag, she saw a little girl leaning against a tree on the avenue. It was Tula, the estate manager’s granddaughter. Sadly, the captain’s wife thought of the daughter she had been forced to leave behind. Perhaps her own little girl would turn out to be just as sweet and chubby as Tula? And have just as open and innocent a look in her eyes? An adorable child. The loss was tearing at the captain’s wife. She bent her head even more.

Tula watched her leave. With an indifferent look, she followed the humiliated figure until she was out of sight. Then she skipped home along the avenue, two hops with each foot so that her golden curls danced. The very next moment, Tula had forgotten all about the officer’s wife.

Tula had another very good friend. This was her “other grandmother”, as she called Ebba of Knapahult.

Tula’s mother had told her that she had been brought up by Ebba, but that neither Ebba nor Siri was her real mother.

Tula’s real grandmother was Vibeke, but she had died many years ago.

Ebba no longer lived in Knapahult. She had married another man in the parish, where Tula would often visit her, which both of them enjoyed. Tula liked the way Grandmother Ebba talked: it was simple and straightforward, and sometimes coarse and racy. Ebba could tell an awful lot of stories.

They probably weren’t all quite true. Young Tula got to learn quite a bit about men and what they could get up to. Fortunately, nobody at home knew what Tula learned at Ebba’s house!

Tula thought that this business of men was very exciting. She had already seen quite a lot that she hadn’t understood at first but which was now explained to her. That men liked to touch women and girls in particular places. Tula mustn’t allow them to do that. This was what Ebba had told her without knowing what seeds of thoughts she was sowing in little Tula. When Tula was ten years old she stumbled on a couple making love in the forest. She quietly walked up to them and sat down next to them to see what they were doing. Whatever they were doing seemed both nice and troublesome. Tula didn’t understand it at all.

She didn’t know that the couple had gone up there, near the farm that belonged to Erland and Gunilla, because it was often deserted. The couple came from the other end of the parish and wanted to be as far away as possible from anyone they knew in order to have some time together in peace and quiet.

Suddenly the woman caught sight of young Tula and let out a hoarse, bird-like scream, struggling to get to her feet. Then the man also saw the little girl, who was sitting there gazing at them and politely observing what they were doing. Jumping up while trying to pull up his trousers, which were round his ankles, he stumbled and fell. The woman had gathered up her underwear and crawled quite a distance on her bare knees before she could get to her feet.

Nevertheless, Tula had gained a partial explanation of the mystery. It was in vain that the man covered his private parts because she had already seen them and knew what they could be used for now.

“Interesting,” she muttered as she trudged home. There was nobody there because her father was on military duty and Tula and her mother were staying with her grandfather. Now and then she liked to walk home on her own. So many strange thoughts were buzzing around in her head and were nobody else’s business. When she was on her own she could practise all sorts of little tricks and fumble her way, and thus find out how much witchcraft she had mastered and what was a dead end for her.

Tula found the key under the dark stone on the window-sill, unlocked the door and went inside.

The silence in the house seemed wonderful.

Then she thought about what she had seen. Her friend Amalia had hinted something about the grown-ups’ strange games but she had been giggling so much that Tula hadn’t understood a word. In fact, Amalia probably knew just as little as Tula herself. Tula took a candle and tried it on herself. But of course, it met opposition. “Ow,” she said throwing the candle away. “It hurts.” Then she locked the door after her and went off to Bergqvara Farm.

“Grown-ups are stupid,” she decided.

Then began a new phase in Tula’s life. She acquired an idol! The whole family journeyed to Skenäs in Södermanland for Anna Maria’s confirmation. There she met her cousins, Anna Maria and Eskil, who were almost the same age. They were only five years older than Tula, and, oh, they were such fun to play with! Anna Maria was quiet and shy but smiled so sweetly and gently, and she also seemed to admire the wild Eskil. Tula, for her part, thought the world of him! All the things he dared to do! All the things he said!

She followed him like a shadow. They climbed the tallest oak tree – Anna Maria and the other children there from her mother’s family didn’t dare to do that, but Tula climbed up, and laughed and waved from the treetop. The grown-ups were shocked and wanted to fetch a ladder to rescue Eskil and Tula, but before the ladder had arrived the children were down again. All the children huddled in a corner of the barn, whispering secrets to one another. Eskil was the obvious leader, and his opinions and suggestions were dizzying. Tula didn’t always know whether he was being serious – like when he suggested that they should set fire to the ladies’ toilet from underneath – but she knew that she must be careful not to do anything that would reveal her hidden talents.