Devil´s Ravine by Margit Sandemo

Author:Margit Sandemo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jentas A/S
Published: 2019-10-25T00:00:00+00:00

On that cold winter night, Arv Grip and the prefect stood on the steps of Bergqvara, taking their leave. The silhouette of the castle ruin rose ominously into the sky.

Count Posse said: “Snow is in the air. It’s appropriate for Christmas because it strikes the right note.”

The others stood leaning against the parapet. They didn’t want to leave. The punch had been so good and they were still quite chatty.

“The wolves are howling at the moon,” the prefect said.

“I doubt it,” Arv replied. “It’s a long time since we’ve had wolves here. It was a dog.”

“Or perhaps it’s the demons in the Devil’s Ravine,” Count Posse suggested.

All three laughed.

“The worst thing is that people around here really believe all that,” the prefect said.

“Let them! They love to delve into ghost and horror stories,” Count Posse said.

The prefect smiled. “When the talk became a bit too much of a good thing, I took six men with me and went into the forest just to put an end to the superstitious nonsense. We found absolutely nothing. Of course, people said that we didn’t look in the right place.”

Arv said: “The Norda Farm was robbed.”

“Probably by vagrant scum.”

“What about that person who was found with his head broken?”

“It’s just neighbours quarrelling. In that kind of situation, they blame it on the demons. They also say that Siri of Kvernbakken is in the so-called Devil’s Ravine. That on a quiet night you can hear her crying in the forest.”

Count Posse turned to Arv. “Wasn’t she the one you once fancied?”

“Now, now, ‘fancied’ is a bit much,” Arv replied, slightly embarrassed. “I thought that she was a fine, civilized woman and we got along well. That’s all there was to it. I’ll readily admit that it was a blow when she disappeared. But then, so it was for all of us.”

The others murmured in agreement.

Arv continued: “You may remember, I was visiting my cousin Ingela in Vingåker. When I returned, Siri had been gone for two months and all my attempts to search for her proved futile. No, I was born under an unlucky star when it comes to the ones I love. They simply disappear.”

The Count and the prefect were silent. They felt ill at ease. They knew about Arv’s terrible loss in the past.

“Well, I’d better be on my way home,” Arv said, trying to sound jolly. They said goodnight to each other and left.

Arv looked up at the dark sky, which was heavy with snow. With every step he took, his feet crunched on frozen snow. He didn’t have Heike’s gift of sensing when something was about to happen. If Heike had been walking there he would have warned everyone, but the man with the sense of an animal was sitting in the cosy kitchen, chatting to Gunilla. He was becoming increasingly attached to her with every passing minute.

In Backa, Erland sat on the edge of his bed, thrashing the duvet with his sword in despair and dismay. In Knapahult, Karl was

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