Matte was the only person she’d been willing to invite here. She continued staring out at the water as her eyes filled with tears. She could still feel his arms wrapped around her, and his kisses on her skin. His smell, which had seemed so familiar and yet had changed – belonging to a grown man now, not a boy. She hadn’t known what the future might bring, what their reunion might mean in terms of how they would live their lives. But for a brief time their encounter had carried with it a possibility. It had opened a window and let a little light into the darkness in which she had lived for so long.

Nathalie wiped away the tears with the back of her hand. She couldn’t allow herself to surrender to the yearning and pain. She was already holding on to life with her bare knuckles, and she could not loosen her grip. Matte had gone, but Sam was still here. And she had to protect him. Nothing else – not even Matte – was more important. Protecting her son was her most important and sole task in life. Now that other people were on their way over here, she needed to focus on that.

Something had changed. They never let her be in peace. Anna could still feel someone’s body pressed close to hers. Someone was breathing next to her, radiating warmth and energy. She didn’t want to be touched. All she wanted was to disappear into the desolate but safe shadowland where she had now dwelled for so long. Everything outside was too painful; her skin and her soul had grown too sensitive after all the blows she had suffered. She simply couldn’t stand any more.

And they didn’t need her. She brought nothing but misfortune down upon everyone around her. Emma and Adrian had been subjected to things that no child should ever have to go through, and she found it unbearable to see the sorrow in Dan’s eyes over the loss of their son.

At first they seemed to understand. They had left her alone, allowed her to simply lie in bed. Sometimes they tried to talk to her, but they gave up so easily that she realized they felt the same way she did. That their grief had been caused by her, and that it would be best for everybody if she just stayed where she was.

With Erica’s last visit, however, something had changed. Anna had felt her sister’s body close to her own, felt Erica’s warmth dragging her out of the shadows, pulling her closer to life, trying to make her come back. Erica hadn’t said much. Her body spoke for her, making the warmth spread through joints that felt cold and frozen even though she was lying under a blanket. Anna had tried to resist it, concentrating on a dark point deep inside, a point that couldn’t be touched by a warm body.

When the warmth from Erica’s body disappeared, it was replaced by another. Dan’s body was the easiest to resist. His energy was filled with so much sorrow that it practically reinforced her own, and she didn’t have to make any real effort to stay in the shadows. The children’s energy was the most difficult to hold at bay. Emma’s soft little body pressed against her back, her arms reaching around her waist. Anna was forced to muster all her strength to fight against it. And then Adrian, smaller and less confident than Emma, but his energy was strongest of all. She didn’t have to open her eyes to know who had come in to lie down next to her. Despite lying on her side, unmoving, with her eyes fixed on the sky outside of the window, she knew whose warmth was pressing against her.

She wanted them to leave her alone and allow her to lie in bed undisturbed. The thought that she might not have enough strength to fight back made terror rise up inside of her.

Now Emma was here. Her body stirred slightly. She must have fallen asleep, because from the shadowland Anna could tell that her daughter’s breathing had changed, growing deeper. Then Emma changed position, pressed closer, like an animal seeking comfort. And Anna could feel herself being drawn from the shadows again, towards the energy that crept into every nook of her body. She needed to keep focusing on that point, the dark point inside of her.

The door to the room opened. Anna felt the bed sway as someone climbed on to it and curled up at her feet. Small arms wrapped tightly around her legs, as if they would never let go. Adrian’s warmth seeped into her, and it got harder and harder to stay in the shadows. She could resist the children one at a time, but not when they were both here, not when their energies combined to get even stronger. Slowly she felt herself losing her grip as she was pulled back towards what was in the room and in life.

With a deep sigh Anna turned over. She looked at her daughter’s slumbering face, those familiar features that she hadn’t been able to look at for so long. And for the first time she fell into a sound sleep, with one hand cupped over her daughter’s cheek, and with the tip of her nose pressed against Emma’s. Adrian had also fallen asleep, curled up at Anna’s feet like a puppy. His hold on her legs slowly loosened as he relaxed. And then they all slept.

Erica laughed until the tears ran down her face as they stepped aboard the boat.

‘Are you telling me that you took a bath in seaweed?’ She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and then laughed again, which prompted a fit of hiccupping when she saw the offended look on Patrik’s face.

‘So? Shouldn’t men be allowed to pamper themselves once in a while? From what you’ve told me, you’ve tried out plenty of strange things. I distinctly remember you saying not so long ago that you were smeared with mud and then rolled up in plastic wrap at some spa you went to.’ He backed the boat away from the dock at Badholmen.

‘Yes, but …’ Erica succumbed to another fit of giggles.

‘I think you’re displaying some rather outmoded prejudices here,’ said Patrik, glaring at her. ‘A seaweed bath is actually super healthy for men. It draws the toxins out of the body, and since men obviously have a harder time getting rid of that sort of stuff, we have an even greater need for the treatment.’

By now Erica was clutching her stomach, so helpless with laughter that she couldn’t speak. Patrik decided to ignore his wife and concentrate on steering the boat out of the harbour. Of course he was laying it on a bit thick to wind Erica up, but the truth was that he and his colleagues had really enjoyed the spa treatments they’d received at Badis.

At first he’d been extremely sceptical about getting into a bathtub filled with seaweed. Then he realized that it actually didn’t smell as bad as he’d imagined, and the water was nice and warm. When he sat in the tub and leaned forward while his back was massaged with bunches of seaweed that were rubbed against his skin, he was converted. And he couldn’t deny that his skin felt like new when he got out of the tub. Softer, smoother, and with a new glow. But when he tried to tell Erica about it, she’d started laughing hysterically. Even his mother, who had come over to babysit for Maja and the twins, had sniggered at his enthusiastic report.

The wind was picking up. He closed his eyes, feeling the gusts against his face. There weren’t many other boats out on the sea, but in only a few weeks there would be dozens of them heading in and out of the harbour.

Erica had finally stopped laughing, and her expression had turned serious. She put her arms around Patrik as he sat at the helm and leaned her head against his shoulder.

‘How did she sound when you phoned?’

‘Not exactly overjoyed,’ said Patrik. ‘She didn’t seem too keen on having visitors. But when I said that she was welcome to visit us on the mainland instead, if she preferred, she decided she’d rather have us come to the island.’

‘Did you tell her that I’d be coming with you?’ A swell made the wooden boat rise, and Erica wrapped her arms more firmly around Patrik’s waist.