The Storm Sister (The Seven Sisters #2) (23 page)

‘Well, if Fru Erslev has sent him up here with her approval, then he must at least be a respected God-fearing man,’ said Berit, preparing a more lavish bowl of porridge for their
visitor, with a scoop of lingonberry preserve on top.

‘I feel it would be best if I went to speak to the pastor and his wife when we return home to Heddal next week,’ Anders said, and Berit nodded her approval.

‘Then he must give us time to think, and visit us again to discuss it,’ said Berit.

Anna didn’t dare speak, knowing her future hung in the balance and feeling unsure as to which way she wanted the scales to tip. She slipped away before her mother could assign her more
tasks, wanting to spend the day with the cows and think in peace and quiet. Humming to herself as she walked, she wondered why Herr Bayer was so interested in her when there were surely lots of
better singers in Christiania. She had only a few days left on the mountains before going back down to Heddal for the winter, and she was suddenly overwhelmed by the realisation that she might not
come back here at all next summer. Giving Rosa a hug and a kiss, Anna shut her eyes and sang again to stave off her tears.

Back home in Heddal a week later, Anders went to speak to Pastor Erslev and his wife, and was reassured about the professor’s character and credentials. It seemed that
Herr Bayer had taken other young girls under his wing and trained them into professional singers. One of whom, as Fru Erslev had rhapsodised, had even sung in the chorus at the Christiania
Theatre.

When Herr Bayer visited them shortly afterwards, Berit had fussed around the kitchen and prepared the finest joint of pork she had for the midday meal. After they had eaten, Anna was sent
outside to continue her usual tasks of feeding the chickens and filling the water troughs. She had hovered several times near the kitchen window, desperate to hear what those inside were saying,
but could catch nothing. Finally, Knut came to fetch her.

As she took off her coat, she saw that her parents were sitting companionably with Herr Bayer, drinking her father’s home-made beer. He greeted her with a jovial smile as she sat down at
the table with Knut.

‘So, Anna, your parents have agreed that you will come and live with me in Christiania for one year. I will be your mentor as well as your teacher and I have promised them that I will act
faithfully
in loco parentis.
What do you say to that, eh?’

Anna stared at him and didn’t answer, not wishing to sound ignorant, since she had absolutely no idea what ‘mentor’ or ‘
in loco parentis
’ meant.

‘Herr Bayer means that you will live with him in his apartment in Christiania and he will teach you to sing properly, introduce you to influential people, and ensure you are cared for as
if you were his own daughter,’ explained Berit, putting a comforting hand on Anna’s knee.

Seeing the bewildered expression on Anna’s face, Herr Bayer hastily sought to reassure her further. ‘As I have told your parents, the living arrangements will of course be of the
utmost propriety. My housekeeper, Frøken Olsdatter, also resides in my apartment and will be constantly on hand to chaperone you and take care of your needs. I have also presented your
parents with letters of introduction from my university and the music fraternity in Christiania. So there is nothing for you to fear, my dear young lady, I can assure you.’

‘I see.’ Anna concentrated on the mug of coffee her mother had passed to her and sipped it steadily.

‘Is this a plan that would please you, Anna?’ asked Herr Bayer.

‘I . . . think so.’

‘Herr Bayer is also prepared to cover all expenses for you,’ encouraged her father. ‘It is a wonderful opportunity, Anna. He believes you have great talent.’

‘I do indeed,’ confirmed Herr Bayer. ‘You have one of the purest voices I’ve ever heard. And you will also be educated, not just in music. You will learn other languages
and I will provide tutors to improve your reading and writing—’

‘Excuse me, Herr Bayer,’ Anna couldn’t help butting in, ‘but I am already proficient in both.’

‘Then that is a help and will mean we can get down to the business of training your voice faster than I’d expected. So, Anna, will you say yes?’

Anna desperately wanted to ask
why
: why did he want to pay her parents to spend his time nurturing both her and her voice, let alone have her to stay with him in his apartment? But as
no one else seemed to question it, she didn’t feel it was her place to do so either.

‘But Christiania is such a long way away and a year is such a long time . . .’ Anna’s voice trailed off as the enormity of what was being suggested suddenly hit her. Everything
she knew –
had
known – up until now would no longer be. She was a simple girl from a farm in Heddal, and even though she’d considered her life and future to be dull, the
leap she was being asked to make with only a few seconds’ consideration suddenly felt too much for her.

‘Well . . .’

Four pairs of eyes fell upon her.

‘I . . .’

‘Yes?’ asked her parents and Herr Bayer in unison.

‘When I’ve gone, please promise me that if Rosa dies, you won’t eat her.’

And with that, Anna Landvik promptly burst into tears.

After Herr Bayer’s departure, the Landvik home erupted into a hive of activity. Her mother began sewing Anna a valise in which she would carry her few possessions to
Christiania. Her two best skirts and blouses, plus her undergarments, were washed and mended with the utmost care, for, as Berit said, no daughter of hers would look like a common peasant amongst
those high-nosed city folk. Fru Erslev, the pastor’s wife, gave her a new prayer book with crisp white pages, reminding her to say grace every night and not to be seduced by the
‘heathen’ ways of the city. It had been arranged that Pastor Erslev was to meet her at Drammen and escort her on the train to Christiania, as he had an ecclesiastical meeting he was
travelling there to attend.

As for Anna herself, she found she barely had a spare moment to sit down and think through her decision. Whenever she felt niggling doubts creep in, she did her best to push them aside. Her
mother had told her that Lars was coming to see her tomorrow and she felt her heart knocking painfully against her chest as she recalled her parents’ whispered discussions about their
marriage. It seemed that whatever lay in her future, whether it was here in Heddal or in Christiania, other people were making the decisions for her.

‘Lars has arrived,’ said Berit the next morning, as though she thought that Anna herself had not been listening anxiously for the sound of his boots stamping off
the mud from the September rain. ‘I will open the door. Why don’t you receive him in the parlour?’

Anna nodded, knowing that the parlour was the ‘serious’ room. It housed the settle, their one piece of upholstered furniture, as well as a glass-fronted cabinet containing a mix of
plates and small ornaments that her mother thought good enough to put on display. It had also housed the coffins of three of her grandparents when they had departed this world. As she walked along
the narrow corridor towards it, Anna reflected that during her lifetime, the room had very rarely accommodated anyone that actually breathed. And as she opened the door, a puff of stale and
closeted air escaped.

The conversation she was about to have presumably warranted these sober surroundings and she stood wondering exactly where she should place herself for when Lars entered. Hearing the heavy
footsteps along the passage, Anna quickly moved to sit down on the settle, the cushions atop it almost as hard as the planks of pine that supported them.

There was a knock on the door and Anna had a sudden urge to giggle. Never before had anyone requested her permission to enter a room that wasn’t her bedroom.

‘Yes?’ she replied.

The door opened and her mother’s round face appeared. ‘Lars is here.’

Anna watched as he entered the room. He had made an effort to brush down his thick blond hair and was wearing his best cream shirt and black breeches that he usually only wore to church, plus a
waistcoat she hadn’t seen before – midnight blue in colour, which Anna thought went well with his eyes. She supposed he was really quite handsome, but then, she also thought that about
Knut, her own brother. And she certainly wouldn’t want to marry
him.

The two of them hadn’t seen each other since Lars had handed her
Peer Gynt
, and she swallowed nervously as she remembered his hand holding hers. She stood up to greet him.
‘Hello, Lars.’

‘Would you like some coffee, Lars?’ Berit asked him from the doorway.

‘N-no, thank you, Fru Landvik.’

‘Well then,’ her mother said after a pause, ‘I’ll leave you alone to talk.’

‘Would you like to sit down?’ Anna asked Lars once Berit had left.

‘Yes,’ he said and did so.

Anna perched awkwardly at the other end of the settle, her hands knotting in her lap.

‘Anna’ – Lars cleared his throat – ‘do you know why I’m here?’

‘Because you’re always here?’ she offered, and he gave a soft laugh at her response, breaking the tension a little.

‘Yes, I suppose I am. How has your summer been?’

‘Like every summer before it and none the worse for that.’

‘But surely this summer has been a special one for you?’ he persisted.

‘You mean because of Herr Bayer? The man from Christiania?’

‘Yes, Fru Erslev has been telling everyone. She’s very proud of you . . . and so am I,’ he added. ‘I think you are probably the most famous person in the whole of
Telemark county. Apart from Herr Ibsen, of course. So you will go?’

‘Well, Far and Mor think it’s a wonderful opportunity for me. They tell me I’m honoured to have a man such as Herr Bayer willing to help me.’

‘Indeed, they are right. But I’d like to know if
you
want to go?’

Anna pondered this.

‘I think I must,’ she said. ‘It would be very rude to refuse, don’t you agree? Especially as he travelled for a whole day up the hills to hear me sing.’

‘Yes, I suppose it would.’ Lars looked beyond her to the wall fashioned out of heavy pine logs and stared at the picture of Lake Skisjøen that hung there. There was a long
silence, which Anna didn’t know whether to break or not. Finally, Lars turned his attention back to her.

‘Anna.’

‘Yes, Lars?’

He took a deep breath and she noticed that he gripped the side of the armrest of the settle to stop his hand from shaking. ‘Before you left for the summer, I talked with your father about
the possibility of asking for your hand in . . . marriage. We agreed I would sell him my family’s land and that we would farm it together. Did you know of any of this?’

‘I’ve overheard my parents talking about it,’ she confessed.

‘Before Herr Bayer came, what was your opinion of the plan?’

‘You mean about Far buying the land?’

‘No’ – Lars allowed himself an ironic smile – ‘I meant about marrying me.’

‘Well, to be truthful, I didn’t think that you did want to marry me. You’ve never mentioned it.’

Lars looked at her in surprise. ‘Anna, surely you must have had some idea of my feelings for you? For most of last winter, I was here night after night helping you with your
letters.’

‘But Lars, you’ve
always
been here, ever since I was small. You’re . . . like my brother.’

A flash of pain crossed his face. ‘The point is, Anna, I love you.’

She looked at Lars in amazement. She had assumed that he would see any proposed union as a matter of convenience, especially as she was hardly a catch, what with her limited domestic abilities.
After all, from what she’d seen in her short life, most marriages seemed to be based on this premise. But now Lars had told her that he loved her . . . which was something different all
together.

‘That is most kind of you, Lars. To love me, I mean.’

‘It is not “kind” Anna, it is . . .’ He broke off, looking lost and confused. In the long silence, Anna contemplated how quiet their supper conversation would be if they
did marry. Lars would likely concentrate on his food, and that really wouldn’t be a good thing.