Buried Angels

FJÄLLBACKA 1970

Inez was keen to please her mother. She knew that Laura always wanted the best for her daughter and sought to make sure that she would have a secure future. Yet Inez couldn’t help feeling a certain aversion as they sat on the good sofa in the drawing room. He was so old.

‘With time you’ll get to know each other,’ said Laura, giving her daughter a firm look. ‘Rune is a good and reliable man, and he’ll take care of you. You know that I’m in delicate health, and when I’m gone, you’ll have no one left. I don’t want you to be as alone as I have been.’

Mamma placed her dry hand on top of Inez’s. Inez could recall only a few occasions when she’d felt her mother’s touch.

‘I realize this may seem a bit sudden,’ said the man sitting across from them, eyeing Inez as if she were a prize-winning horse.

It may have been unkind of her to think that way, but Inez couldn’t help it. This was definitely sudden. Mamma had been in hospital for three days because of her heart, and when she came home, she had presented this plan: that Inez should marry Rune Elvander, who had been widowed a year earlier. Now that Nanna had died, the two women were all alone.

‘My dear wife said that I should find someone to help raise the children. And your mother tells me that you’re a clever girl,’ the man went on.

Inez had a vague sense that this was not how things were supposed to happen. It was the early seventies, after all, and women had much greater opportunities for determining their own lives. But she’d never been part of the real world; she had only shared in the perfect world that her mother had created. And there her mother’s word was law. If Laura decided that it would be best for Inez to marry a fifty-year-old widower with three children, she was not allowed to question that decision.

‘I’m planning to purchase the old summer camp out on Valö and establish a boarding school for boys. I need someone at my side who will help me accomplish this. Are you a good cook?’

Inez nodded. She had spent many hours in the kitchen with Nanna, who had taught her everything she knew.

‘All right, then it’s settled,’ said Laura. ‘Of course we ought to have a proper engagement period, so how about a quiet wedding around Midsummer?’

‘That sounds excellent,’ said Rune.

Inez didn’t speak. She was studying her future husband, noticing the wrinkles that had started to form around his eyes and the thin, resolute lips. Streaks of grey were visible in his dark hair, and his hairline was receding. So this was the man she was going to marry. She hadn’t yet met the children; she knew only that they were fifteen, twelve, and five years old. She hadn’t met many children in her life, but no doubt it would be fine. At least, that was what her mother claimed.