‘Yeah!’ Five of the children spun around and raced for the white door.
But Astrid lingered, her blue eyes on Ezz. ‘Will you come too?’
‘Unfortunately,’ Ezz began, ready to reiterate her need to work.
‘Do come,’ Mats butted in. ‘It’s a nice day. We’d love your company, wouldn’t we, Astrid?’
‘Yes!’ Astrid performed a pirouette, as if that underlined how much.
Glancing out of her window at the high blue wintersky, Ezz was tempted to join in the stroll across the park, feeling sorely in need of daylight. She’d count it as an early lunch hour. And, she realised, being wanted was balm on a heart bruised by Valentina so pointedly rejecting her. What Mats had done was tactless but inadvertent. Valentina backing out of their Christmas plans had seemed uncharacteristically calculated to hurt. Ezz couldn’t remember another occasion when Valentina had been vindictive. ‘OK, thanks.’
It was twenty minutes before Mats and the children bundled back into reception in outdoor clothes. Ezz had changed into boots and needed only to grab her coat and scarf.
Outside, Alvin paused at the top of the stairs and squinted at the innocently blue sky, demanding suspiciously, ‘Will it rain stones again?’ Evidently, Ezz’s presence had reminded him of the hailstones on the beach.
She laughed, putting out a steadying hand in case he showed signs of toppling from the top step. ‘Not today. But snow’s forecast again soon.’
Mats must have been out earlier as the garden cart waited at the foot of the steps, laden with a bale of hay and a bucket of feed. He popped the two smallest children, Alvin and Liam, into the cart too. ‘Hold tight.’ He pushed the cart, keeping an eye on his human cargo, and gave the kids a beginner’s guide to pony care, probably the result of Sheena’s coaching. ‘The hay’s called forage and I’m to break it into piles, at least one more than there are animals, so they won’t fight. Same with piles of bucket feed. If snow does come, I need to at least double the forage because they won’t have grass. I’m to check their water twice a day in case it freezes, and I mustn’t groom the animals because they need their winter coats thick and oily.’
Paying scant heed, the children on foot paired up, Emil jogging along with his brother Filip and Astrid and Walter galloping like horses. The headland dropped away, revealing boats on the Sound of Sleat, the water glittering in the sharp winter light. ‘Boats, boats,’ Alvin shouted, waving as if the people on board two fishing vessels might see him and wave back. Little Liam, beside him in the cart, did the same. Ezz wasn’t sure if he spoke English as much as the others as she hadn’t heard him say much of anything. He seemed content just to gambol along with his brother and cousins.
It was a beautiful walk down the drive and over the bridge and then the grass to the paddock. Mats said, ‘I rode as a child, but Maja was best. Jonas and I liked ice hockey in winter or brännboll in summer. That’s a bit like rounders.’
She liked hearing about his youth. ‘Were you fast? You look like a runner.’
The look he sent her made her think he appreciated her noticing. ‘Yes, I played left wing in ice hockey. Anyone playing for the offence has to be quick.’
Rather than list her own childhood pursuits, Ezz said, ‘I was surprised to hear that Josefin’s gone.’
‘It was a bit sudden.’ He shrugged. ‘But I can understand her getting homesick for Sweden once she knew her son would be there.’
Walter galloped back to them, Astrid panting beside him as if galloping was a bit much but she wanted to keep up with her cousin. ‘Is Haggis the biggest pony? Or Scotch?’
Ezz couldn’t really tell, so she hazarded, ‘Mary might be bigger than either if she didn’t sag in the middle.’
Astrid giggled.
‘Filip, Emil, slow down, please,’ Mats called to the twoeldest boys forging ahead. ‘Don’t frighten the animals.’ Mary and Clive, as was their custom, hung over the gate to watch them arrive. Or, more likely, watch the arrival of a cartful of food.
Mats’ attention was on the safety of the children. ‘Please stay outside the gate while I put out the hay and the buckets. You could easily get knocked over by a pony eager for lunch. You four older children can sit on the gate, and Alvin and Liam stand up in the cart, so you can all see.’
The children arranged themselves exactly as asked except Walter. It took Ezz all her time to dissuade him from jumping down and following Mats around the field. ‘Don’t you ever sit still?’ she asked, holding on to the back of his coat.
He gave it some thought before answering with a solemn, ‘No.’
Emil grinned at Ezz. He was as dark as his parents Jonas and Ebba. ‘His dad, Uncle Nils, says Walter has no fear. He dislocated his shoulder trying to fly downstairs, and he broke his ankle when he jumped into the paddling pool from a tree.’
‘I think your Uncle Nils is right,’ she commented, wondering how the quiet, serious Nils had ended up with such a madcap son.
Once the animals had their heads down eating, Mats told the children they could come in, but not run around or get near any hind legs. ‘Particularly Clive Donkey, because he has his ears back, which is threatening.’ That was the signal for Walter to run directly at Clive, but Mats was ready for him and swooped him up and posted him back over the gate. ‘Stay there until you calm down,’ he said easily.
Walter gazed angelically up at him. ‘I’m calm now.’ Ezz had to smother a snort of laughter. Walter was obviously an imp, but so funny and loveable. She caught herself wondering whether Thea’s baby would be a boy or a girl, but then it felt like a jinx, so she just wished for it to be healthy.
After a few minutes she checked her watch. Mats was holding Alvin and Liam a cautious distance from Scotch, who was waffling his nose in their direction as if wondering if they had more food. She called to him, ‘I need to get back now.’
He looked disappointed, but she just called her goodbyes, remembering all the children’s names. Walter shouted after her, ‘You could ride one of these horses home.’
‘Maybe another time.’ As if she’d mess up her suit and overcoat on the back of a disreputably shaggy pony.
