Margit Sandemo: The Ice People 21 - Devil´s Ravine

“What was it you wanted to dress my wound with?” Gunilla asked softly.

“Nothing. I can see that your real wound is in your soul. That what you did to yourself was a desperate cry for help – although you might not be aware of it yourself. So I wanted to talk to you. Alone.”

Gunilla didn’t answer.

“Does your father treat your mother ... badly? I noticed that she had a black eye.”

Gunilla didn’t say anything, she just bent her head even more.

“Come on, Gunilla. Remember that I’m your friend! We’ve been friends for a long time, haven’t we? Have I ever let you down?”

“No,” she said quietly. Then she lifted her head. Her voice had a desperate note. “I don’t want Father to be angry with Mother. He mustn’t be, because I’ll just go to pieces!”

Arv said: “He has no right to beat somebody who hasn’t done anything wrong.”

Gunilla’s voice trembled. “Oh, but she has! But Father doesn’t know, which is what makes it so difficult. I want so much to defend Mother because she means well even if she doesn’t always behave sensibly. But, of course I know that she ... that she ... No, I can’t bring myself to say it!”

Arv said gently: “Your mother is still a very charming woman.” He could have added: that is, if you like the slightly vulgar, blowsy type, but he didn’t want to hurt Gunilla. Instead he said: “Your father’s getting on in years, isn’t he?”

“So you know that she ...” Gunilla began to say, almost breaking down in tears, but thought better of it. Arv said nothing about Ebba’s obvious attempts to seduce him on the very few occasions she had had the opportunity to do so. Completely in vain, incidentally.

“I’m just guessing,” Arv said quietly. “I certainly haven’t heard anybody talking about your mother. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. The important thing is whether Karl knows or not.”

“He doesn’t. I’m certain about that,” Gunilla said quickly. “If he did, he would kill her.”

For a moment, Arv looked serious. Then he continued in a sharper tone: “Most importantly, they’re misusing your confidence in them. Your fine little soul is being torn to pieces by the dilemma you’re in. You want to be loyal but both of them are behaving so badly that you don’t know what to believe. Do you want me to have a word with both of them?”

“Oh, no. Please don’t. I should never have said anything.”

“You haven’t said anything, so you’ve nothing to worry about. No, it’s Karl’s fault more than anybody else’s. I’ll make him stop beating your mother without him finding out who has gossiped. But perhaps you had better be on your way home, Gunilla. We’ve walked so slowly that we could have got there and back five times by now. Your parents mustn’t be worried about you.”

She was sad when she thanked him and said goodbye.

Arv gave her a sad smile. “It was nice talking to you. Take care and don’t allow the stupidity of the grown-ups to spoil your genuine and impulsive nature.”

He stood watching her as she walked back towards the forest.

Poor child. How could two such parents have produced such a wonderful daughter? Nature is capricious. He needed to have a serious talk with Karl of Knapahult. He shrank from the thought because Karl was a difficult man and Ebba, his wife, cheated on him blatantly.

How was Arv Grip to put her case?

In fact, he couldn’t have cared less about the parents. It was young, innocent Gunilla who didn’t have a mentor. And he wouldn’t mind being her mentor.

Gunilla had become a ray of sunshine in his lonely world. A child who didn’t deserve to have her spontaneity and charm destroyed.

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