CHAPTER 5 The Quarrel

      Ralf rose to his feet. “I’ll go after him. We mustn’t leave him alone. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. Besides, I left Einar and Harald and old Thorkell searching the tide-line, and they may have found poor Kersten by now.”

      “But Pa!” Hilde cried. “What about Bjørn’s story? Don’t you believe it?”

      “No, Hilde, I don’t.” Ralf paused and looked down at her. “Even Bjørn’s not really sure, is he? Oh, I believe he found Kersten on the skerry. But he talks about sunstroke. That can do strange things to a man–make him see things that aren’t there. Most likely, what he told his brother was true, and she’d been stranded there after a wreck. Those waters are dangerous.”

      Halfway out of the door he stopped, and added sternly, “And don’t go repeating that story of Bjørn’s, either. No good encouraging him to hope. We’d all like to think that Kersten’s still alive, I know, but it’s best to face up to things. Drowned men and women don’t come back.”

      “Leave the door open!” Gudrun called after him, as the sunshine streamed in. “Let’s have some daylight in here!”

      Hilde looked at Peer, sitting at the table with his head in his hands. She reached out to touch his shoulder, but changed her mind and carried Eirik outside into the yard. She put him down to crawl about.

      The sky was pale blue, with a high layer of fine-combed clouds, and a lower level of clean white puffballs blowing briskly over the top of Troll Fell. Hilde filled her lungs with fresh air and gazed around at the well-loved fields and skyline. Only one thing had changed since last year: the new mound on the rising ground above the farm, where old Grandfather Eirik had been laid to rest. “Where he can keep an eye on us all,” Ralf had said gruffly. “Where he can get a good view of everything that’s going on!”