he could do with a little kindness right now. God knows he won’t show any to himself. He’s picking at old wounds, trying to get her back.’
Bell hitched an eyebrow at her tone. Was she not a fan? ‘If it’s any consolation, I don’t think he’ll succeed. Hanna’s happy with Max.’
Nina gave a snort. ‘Sadly it’s not. God knows I never liked the woman, but he’s pinned his flag to that mast; he’s convinced she’s the happy ending and he’ll get her, you see if he doesn’t.’
Bell didn’t reply and they were quiet for a moment – Nina still blowing smoke rings, Bell burrowing her toes even deeper into the earth, the two of them like truants hiding from a teacher.
‘Still, you know what they say: where there’s life, there’s hope –’
Bell bit her lip. Her hope had long gone, been snuffed out like a candle in a storm.
‘– And perhaps I should just be grateful that he’s still here to make shitty choices.’ Nina blew a stream of smoke through flattened lips. ‘He died, you know, before he arrived at the hospital. He was in full cardiac arrest when they got to him . . . I’ll never know how they got him back.’
‘I didn’t know that,’ Bell murmured, feeling stricken by the thought. He had died? ‘My God.’
‘Mmm. And just when you think he got the happy ending and woke up, he discovered his son was calling another man Pappa, and found out that our father had died.’
‘Were they close?’
She nodded. ‘He was everything to Emil, and vice versa. Very much the favourite,’ she added with a shrug. ‘Everything he did was to make our father proud.’
‘That’s so sad.’
‘Sad’s what he is, though he hides it by being angry instead. Of course, he gets terribly cross with me always checking up on him. He doesn’t like it at all, says I’m fussing.’ Nina splayed her hands wide as if she couldn’t understand it. ‘Well, wouldn’t you?’
Bell smiled.
‘I should go.’ She took a final, deep drag of the beloved cigarette before grinding it out in the earth. She gathered her feet in and levered up to standing. ‘Just do me a favour, okay? Cut him some slack. He loves his boy and just wants to be a father again. God only knows, he’s an optimist in a glass that’s half empty. A foolhardy romantic with all the plans and only half the facts . . . It was nice meeting you, Bell.’
‘It – it was nice meeting you.’
Nina gave another of her amused barks. ‘Ha! Was it?’ She disappeared through the trees as quickly as she had come, Bell staring after her in puzzlement.
Only half the facts?
They left after lunch – a fresh but extravagant spread of crispbreads, eggs and smoked fish roe served on the terrace, the view down the garden somewhat blighted by the giant blue helicopter sitting dormant on the lawn. The gardener had spent all morning draping the flowerbeds with lightweight muslins and tethering them to the ground with tent pegs, in the hope of saving them from further decimation when the chopper inevitably took off again. Emil had noticed a pointedness in his endeavours as he stomped around, but Nina remained oblivious, and as she got up to depart there was a look of triumph about her.
‘Well, that was a very pleasant morning,’ she said, looking first at him and then at the children. ‘It’s good to see you cousins reunited at last. We have missed you, Linus.’
‘Thank you, Aunt Nina,’ his son replied obediently, looking terrified.
‘Ha! Such manners. He’s far too polite, you know,’ she said to Emil, kissing him on each cheek. ‘You’ll need to stamp that out of him.’ She shot him one of her sharp-eyed smiles.
‘Well, it’s lovely to see you, but next time, please ring.’ He stuffed his hands in his pockets lackadaisically. ‘We might have been out today and your trip would have been wasted –’
Nina laughed as though that idea was hysterical.
‘– And next time, come by boat. It’s obnoxious bringing that thing.’
‘It’s efficient, darling. I’ve got dinner in Copenhagen tonight, and I can’t spend an entire day travelling on the water just to check in on my baby brother, now, can I?’
‘You don’t need to check in on me,’ he said in a low voice.
Nina responded with a silent arched eyebrow, and he was aware of Bell looking on with apparent bemusement. He and his sister switched seamlessly between insults and affection with no friction at