Margit Sandemo - The Ice People 28 - Ice and Fire

“Lovise! How adorable you are! You look like my brothers and sisters when they were little!”

“Absolutely not!” Tilda cut her short. “Lovise is the living image of her father!”

Belinda was holding the little girl in her arms and smiling at her. Perhaps it was the naive, genuinely loving expression in Belinda’s face that made the child calm down and examine her more closely. At any rate, those two completely forgot their surroundings as they gazed at one another, until Herbert Abrahamsen’s voice brought them back to reality.

He said to the maid, “Show Miss Belinda to her room: the one next to Lovise’s. You would probably like to freshen up before dinner, Belinda. The maid will show you round.”

When they had disappeared upstairs, the mother and son looked at one another.

“Goodness,” Tilda said contemptuously, for she had noticed how her son’s gaze roamed over the girl’s body and she wanted to demonstrate where she believed Belinda’s place to be in the hierarchy.

“She is all right. She’s sure to take good care of the child.”

“But what are you thinking? Do you intend to populate the world with idiots?”

“I don’t have to marry her. She doesn’t know that my original intention in visiting her family was to ask for her hand,” he said, lying out of his great respect for his mother. “Once I realized what a simpleton she is, I merely asked her to come here and care for Lovise, and that is what she is best suited for.”

He had no intention of mentioning the ignominious rejection he had received from the girl!

But the rejection had merely excited him even more. This was a woman who had to be conquered, a wild thing that had to be tamed. It was a rare phenomenon in his narrow world.

Bur Tilda was split between the prospect of getting feeble-minded grandchildren and the satisfaction of having a daughter-in-law whom she could order about.

“Didn’t Signe say something about Belinda having been damaged at birth?” she asked, expectantly. “Wasn’t there something about the mother having had a shock at the sight of a fool whom the midwife had brought along to assist her and that the child was therefore born retarded?”

“What? What are you implying?” Herbert asked irritably.

“The mother held back. She was afraid that the child would be affected by the sight of the assistant, so she tried to keep the child inside her. But whatever gave rise to the injury to Belinda, what the mother tried to do didn’t help. She was born a simpleton, whether it was because of seeing the fool or her mother’s attempt to postpone her birth. At any rate, it’s a birth defect and not hereditary.”

“I don’t know anything about that,” Herbert said even more irritably. He didn’t want to discuss it at all. He had no intention of marrying Belinda now. She had turned him down once so she was certainly never going to be his wife, no matter how much she begged and pleaded.

But he wouldn’t mind having a little fun with her. She had a fantastic figure and she was sweet and charming to look at as well. Not exactly like Signe, of course, but Herbert still felt a flaming desire for Belinda.

It wouldn’t do to make furious love to her. She was much too devoted to her deceased sister. How idiotic, really! But he would have to play by Belinda’s rules: “My beloved Signe,” and so on. He would have to go about it very carefully.

Before Herbert Abrahamsen’s first marriage some other events had taken place. He had known Signe’s family for many years, since they had been neighbours in Christiania. Her father, the merchant Lie, was, despite his many children, a solvent man with many good bank connections. And Herbert watched the oldest daughter, Signe, grow up to become a ravishing girl whom he desired more and more as the years went by.

His own father had died some years before, and his mother, to whom he had always been very close, had no one left but him. He had been very satisfied with that arrangement, and it didn’t prevent him from turning into a great seducer of women.

But then several things happened at once. He had accidentally impregnated a girl and had therefore had to disappear from Christiania. Elistrand was up for sale and he wanted to own that farm. He was wealthy, but not wealthy enough to be able to afford the farm. And that was where the merchant Lie could be of help ...

Of course, the merchant wasn’t willing to help him without receiving anything in return, and that was when the deal was made. Herbert got the fair Signe as his wife, the merchant signed a guarantee for the bank loan, and everybody was happy.

That is, Tilda had strained at the leash, but she had fallen for his explanation. He had to have an heir! And in order to get one he would have to take a wife. That was a law of nature they simply couldn’t get around.

But from the malicious look on his mother’s face, Herbert had understood that she intended to put the new lady of the house firmly in her place from the very first day!

But that was perfectly understandable. His mother had always been the one who decided everything in the family, even when his father was alive. Herbert was his mother’s boy in all respects and he didn’t mind that at all. He had slept in her bed right up to the age of twelve. With a shudder he recalled the one time when his father had stood up to his wife. His father had pounded the table with his fist in a rage, and from that day on Herbert had had to sleep in his own room. He still recalled how much it had hurt him. Idiotic Father! And his mother’s silent anger towards her husband: she had maintained a stubborn silence from that day on, but then his father hadn’t lived much longer after that.

Since then, Herbert had been able to be with his beloved mother as much as he wanted to. Of course, he wasn’t going to move back into her room: no, that delicate relationship was something his father had managed to ruin. And it was after his father’s death that Herbert discovered women and what they were made for. He became a lecher, pure and simple.

And he got the sweetest wife of all, Signe Lie.

He hadn’t anticipated that her sister Belinda would grow up to become such a gorgeous woman. She was simply delicious!

Her simple-mindedness was no hindrance. Taking her by storm would be no problem, as dumb as she was.

Chapter 3

Belinda sat on the edge of the bed to catch her breath. She had been at Elistrand now for four days and she had certainly been put to work!

She was really supposed to be a nanny, but it seemed that Tilda needed a lady’s maid as well. And Belinda was only too happy to help.

Belinda made an extra effort to do things as properly as possible. Of course, it was a shame about the beautiful bowl she had accidentally broken, and it was also to be regretted that she had put on the wrong sheets when changing the bedlinen in Mr Abrahamsen’s room, but she had promised never to do it again so they had forgiven her. Herbert Abrahamsen had even been so kind as to give her a conciliatory pat on the cheek as he laughed and said that it seemed she was one of those people who, if she had to make a choice, was always doomed to make the wrong one. Whereupon he had put his arm around her and given her a squeeze, which she hadn’t liked at all for it somehow felt unfair to Signe.

However, last night had been worse. His mother had been out paying a visit, and he had come into the nursery while she sat singing lullabies to Lovise. He had gone over to her by the child’s crib and said that she had a sweet voice, asking her to go on singing a little longer. But just those words had made it difficult for her to continue. She had to force herself and suddenly she couldn’t remember the words, but he had encouraged her, placing his arm around her to console her. But that had just made it all much worse; it was unpleasant and she didn’t know what to do. She had made an excuse about having to fetch some milk for the little girl and then she had waited outside until he left. He had a very stern look on his face.