Jonas frowned anxiously. ‘Mats, what about Ezz?’
His gut felt as if someone was tightening his belt. ‘That’s difficult too. Inger ordered her around like a lackey.’
The silence grew. Finally, Grete changed seats, so she was sitting beside him, sliding an arm around his shoulders. ‘It was going to finish sooner or later,’ she said kindly. ‘Because Ezz lives here. You have Swedish children with a Swedish mother. You love your children too much to relocate to a Scottish island that takes so long to reach from Sweden.’
‘I know.’ But his throat was tight with something that felt like despair.
‘What a bitch Inger is,’ Maja said sadly. Nobody disagreed, not even Nils, who could usually find something nice to say about anyone.
It was after nine when Astrid and Alvin were finally in bed and Mats could usher Inger from their room and into the corridor. Pulling away, she danced along to the turret room, took two steps inside and gazed around in exaggerated dismay. ‘Oh. No one’s brought my cases up.’ She smiled expectantly.
He ignored her little pantomime. ‘What the fuck are you doing here?’ he demanded in a hiss designed not to be overheard. ‘What happened to your superyacht Christmas? Where’s Andreas? How dare you just turn up andtell the children that you’ve come for Christmas?’
Inger lifted her chin. ‘I told you. I had a major disagreement with Andreas.’
‘So major that you had to leave the yacht?’ He glared into her rebellious hazel eyes.
‘Precisely,’ she drawled, as if glad he’d finally caught on. ‘So major that I gave him back his ring.’ She waggled her naked finger, where once had nestled a rock of a diamond.‘Also, when I said you could have the children this year, I underestimated how much I’d miss them.’ She blinked sorrowfully.
‘I don’t doubt your love for Astrid and Alvin,’ he ground out. ‘But it comes at convenient times, depending on whether they interfere with your pleasure – like when you wanted to go on a cruise.’
Tremulously, she murmured, ‘That was a mistake.’
He stormed on in an angry whisper. ‘Now you’ve argued with Andreas, you barge into Rothach as if you were still part of the family.’
Her jaw dropped. ‘But … I’m the mother of your children. How can I not be part of the family?’
He glared into her face. ‘By divorcing me.’
Her bottom lip began to tremble. ‘That may have been a mistake too.’
‘Balls,’ he spat, and flung away from her. ‘You don’t want me back, and I don’t want you back.’
Inger’s lips rounded into an O of surprise.
He drew in a long, shaky breath. ‘You’d better stay in Josefin’s room. She’s gone home, so it’s been cleaned and made up.’
He manoeuvred around her to open the door before she could suggest that he give up the turret room, with the expensive, flamboyant fabrics and wallpaper she’d chosen.
‘I know Josefin’s gone home,’ she said, not making the least effort to leave the room they used to share. ‘She told me she was going. Just as she told me about your girlfriend.’
Fresh fury burned through him, but he managed to wipe it from his face before he turned back to her. ‘Good,’ he said, with false affability. ‘Then there can be nomisunderstanding. And as you plainly know who she is, if you talk to her again the way you talked to her tonight, I shall look for every opportunity to humiliate you in return.’
Her gaze slid away. ‘I have every right to monitor women you involve my children with—’
‘Bullshit,’ he cut in ruthlessly. ‘At least, yes, you do, but only what’s reasonable. Ezz has only ever been pleasant and friendly, and given the kids attention.’
Her nostrils flared. ‘Josefin made it sound as if they can’t get enough of her.’
He paused, hearing a note of jealousy in Inger’s voice. ‘Ah. That’s it. It’s not me you don’t want her to be fond of. It’s Astrid and Alvin. Well, I can see why that made you realise that you left them for too long.’ Then he bustled Inger along the corridor, before opening the door to Josefin’s room. ‘At this moment, I don’t like you much. And I’m not pleased with Josefin either, so next time the two of you have a cosy little chat, be sure to tell her so.’
Dimly, he was aware of Inger staring at him in shocked dismay. Feeling he’d said more than enough, he muttered, ‘I’ll get your suitcases.’
He brought them up but left them outside her closed door. He didn’t think he’d ever been so angry and disappointed in his life. It seethed inside him like black bile.
Everything Grete had said earlier about him having to part from Ezz soon had been true, but it was only now that their short time together was in danger of fizzling out that he realised how much he wished things could be different.
* * *
