The Farm (33 page)
The night before the wedding one of the courtiers, fearing the kingdom was about to be cursed by such a wicked act, helped the daughter escape into the enchanted forest. On the morning of the wedding the king found his daughter missing. He executed the courtier. He then sent his army out into the forest to search for her.
The daughter was sure to be found. She begged the enchanted forest for help. A mushroom answered her cry. If the princess promised to tend the forest the mushroom would help her. There was one condition. She must never have any contact with people again, devoting herself to the natural world. The princess agreed and the mushroom blew magic spores onto her face, turning her into an ugly troll. When the king’s army found her lurking behind a boulder they recoiled and continued their search elsewhere.
The princess troll spent many years tending to the forest and became friends with the birds and the wolves and the bears. Meanwhile her father’s kingdom fell into ruin. The king was turned mad by his quest to find his missing daughter. Eventually, with his castle crumbling, his treasury empty, the mad old king had no more servants to command or citizens to rule. He set out into the forest to find his daughter for himself. He spent months crawling through the moss, chewing on bark, until finally the king collapsed. He was on the brink of death.
The princess troll heard news of her father’s condition from the birds. She visited him but dared not approach too close. Seeing the troll’s yellow eyes among the trees, the king asked the troll to bury him so that his body would not be ripped apart by ravens and that he might, in death, at last know peace again. The princess troll’s heart was pure. She remembered her love for her father and thought she must grant him this final wish. However, as soon as she gave a nod of her head her promise was broken and she was transformed, returning to the lovely shape of a princess, more beautiful than ever before.
The sight of his daughter rejuvenated the sick king. He staggered to his feet, chasing after her. The princess called out for help. The wolves and the ravens and the bears answered her cry and ripped the king apart, each taking a piece of his body to the far corners of the forest to feast upon.
Afterwards, the princess bade sad farewell to her forest friends and returned to the castle. Order was returned. The princess married a handsome prince. In attendance at the wedding were the bears and the wolves. The castle roof was covered in birds. The enchanted forest turned its leaves gold in celebration.
The kingdom was restored to greatness again and the new queen ruled justly and lived happily ever after.
• • •
I
EXCUSED MYSELF FROM THE SEAT
and stood in the galley at the back of the aircraft. In Sweden I’d remained composed, refusing to dwell too deeply on the emotions embedded in my discoveries, concentrating on the procedure of gathering facts and the goal of presenting them to my mum in hospital. Yet as I read this story I couldn’t help but picture my mum sitting on my bed, her fingers lingering on this story before skipping over these pages, refusing to read them, afraid she might be unable to mask her feelings, afraid I might ask a question or catch a glimpse of the sadness that she’d spent much of her life concealing, not only from us, but also from herself. I should’ve read these stories for myself a long time ago and wondered if my mum had secretly wanted me to. She could easily have discarded the book but she’d kept it close, returning to this collection time and again, communicating its great importance while also refusing to reveal why. I thought upon the way in which we’d always shared in each other’s happiness, believing it would make the moment burn brighter and longer, but sadness can be shared too, perhaps sharing makes it burn briefer and less bright. If so, I had, at last, that to offer.
Mark picked us up at the airport. I explained to him that I’d quit my job. In the new year I was going to search for another career. Had the idea been outlandish Mark would’ve expressed reservations. He accepted the announcement without protest, suggesting to me that he’d been thinking along similar lines for some time. He asked:
‘What do you want to do?’
‘I need to find out.’
My dad was waiting at the hospital. He greeted Mia with a hug. I saw desperation in his face. I felt it in his body, too, when he hugged me – the loss of weight, the tension. Though he wanted to go straight through, I suggested we eat some lunch together. I didn’t want anyone to feel rushed. And I had one last matter to put to Mia.
We found an old-fashioned café near the hospital. They served our meal with a plate of ready-buttered slices of soft white bread and steel pots of tea brewed so strong that Anders actually laughed when it was poured. Aside from that welcome burst of lightness, no one spoke much. Weighing on my thoughts was the way in which danger had been such a particular part of my mum’s conception of events. It wasn’t just unhappiness. She’d perceived a young girl in jeopardy. There’d been a villain. Breaking the silence, I asked Mia again, had she ever been in danger of any kind? She shook her head. However, there was something she hadn’t told me. I suspected the reason was because she hadn’t told Anders.
I decided to take a chance, handing Mia the collection of troll stories, pointing out the one my mum had wanted her to read. A little perplexed, she began to read. She must have been close to my mum, because she cried upon finishing it. I promised that I’d never ask her again, repeating my question one final time:
‘Were you ever in danger?’
Mia nodded. Anders looked at her. This was news to him too. I asked:
‘What happened?’
‘The mayor was a creep. Everyone knew that. He’d make comments about my body, about my legs, my breasts. He’d go to the toilet and leave the door open, standing there, hoping I’d pass by. I told Håkan. I told Elise. She admitted the mayor was a dirty old man. But he was a supporter of Håkan. He’d do anything Håkan asked. So Håkan told me that I should dress less provocatively around him.’
I remembered the first time my mum had seen Mia and said:
‘At the summer grill, in May, you stripped down and went swimming, in front of all the guests.’
‘That was my way of telling Håkan I’d wear whatever I wanted and wasn’t about to cover up because the mayor was a disgusting bastard or because Håkan told me to. The principle’s good, right? But the mayor was too stupid to understand it. He thought I was flirting with him. Later that summer, I was reading at my desk, late at night, and I looked up to see the mayor standing at my door. Håkan had been playing cards with some friends and he was driving one of them home because they’d drunk too much. Håkan was never drunk. Never. But he encouraged other people to get drunk. Anyway, Elise was out. Somehow the mayor and I were alone in the house. I’ve never been afraid of that man before, he just struck me as pathetic, but that night I was scared. He was leaning on the doorframe. I forced a smile and told the mayor I’d make him some coffee. I wasn’t sure he was going to let me out of the room because he didn’t move so I took his hand, pretending to be playful, pulling him out of the room, because I knew on some level he thought I wanted him and it would only be when I made it clear that I didn’t that he’d become dangerous. I told him we could both have a drink, not coffee, something alcoholic, and he said that sounded nice. As soon as he put a foot on the stairs I turned and ran. The door to my room didn’t lock but the bathroom door did and I slammed it shut and bolted the door, shouting out that I didn’t feel well and I was going to take a bath, he could help himself to coffee or whatever he wanted. He didn’t say anything. But I could hear his footsteps come towards me – I could hear him on the landing. I wondered if he was going to kick the door down, it wasn’t a sturdy door and the lock was just a latch. I saw the handle turn, I saw him push against the latch. I waited, holding a pair of nail scissors. He must have stood there for five minutes. Then he walked away. But I didn’t leave the bathroom. I stayed in there until Håkan came home.’
The mayor was the fourth name on my mum’s list of suspects.
Anders took Mia’s hand, asking softly:
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘Because you would’ve tried to kill him.’
I added:
‘Mia, when you talk to my mum, can you start with this?’
My mum’s ward was entered through two secure doors, the severity of her condition expressed by the heavy clunk of locks opening and closing. My dad had persuaded the doctors to delay using the drip, holding out until I returned. It was agreed that Mia should go in alone since we didn’t want my mum feeling ambushed. Mia was happy with this arrangement, showing great strength, apparently unfazed by her surroundings or by the patients wandering the corridors. She was a remarkable young woman. Anders kissed her. A nurse escorted Mia into the visiting room.
I took off my watch to stop myself counting the minutes. I was seated next to Mark, who was seated beside my dad, seated beside Anders, the four of us side by side, none of us able to read a newspaper, or check our phones, none of us able to pass the time except by staring at the floor or the walls. Every now and then the nurse would update us. She’d check through the viewing window in the door, reporting back that Mia and my mum were seated close together, holding hands, deep in conversation. They hadn’t moved from this position. When the nurse returned for the fifth time, she addressed us as though we were a single family:
‘Your mum wants a word.’
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tom Rob Smith graduated from Cambridge University in 2001 and lives in London. Born in 1979 to a Swedish mother and an English father, his bestselling novels in the
Child 44
trilogy were international publishing sensations. Among its many honours,
Child 44
won the International Thriller Writer Award for Best First Novel, the Galaxy Book Award for Best New Writer, the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award, and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and the inaugural Desmond Elliott Prize. The forthcoming film adaptation of
Child 44
stars Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Gary Oldman and Vincent Cassel.
Tom Rob Smith
CHILD 44
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING TOM HARDY, NOOMI RAPACE, and GARY OLDMAN
Moscow, 1953. Under Stalin’s terrifying regime there is no such thing as crime, and who dares disagree? Secret police officer Leo Demidov has spent his career arresting anyone who steps out of line. Suddenly his world is turned upside down when he uncovers evidence of a killer at large. Now, with only his wife at his side, Leo must risk both their lives, to save the lives of others.
AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER IN OVER 35 LANGUAGES
OVER 2 MILLION COPIES SOLD
NOMINATED FOR 17 INTERNATIONAL AWARDS, WINNER OF 7
TOP 100 THRILLERS OF ALL TIME – NPR
Paperback ISBN 978-0-85720-408-0
Ebook ISBN 978-1-84739-808-6
Tom Rob Smith
THE SECRET SPEECH
FROM THE AUTHOR OF INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
CHILD 44
THE MULTI-MILLION SELLING TRILOGY CONTINUES . . .
Moscow, 1965: a society trying to recover from a time when the police were corrupt and the innocent arrested as criminals.
Detective Leo Demidov, former Secret Police Officer, is forced to ask whether the wrongs of the past can ever be forgiven. Trying to solve a series of brutal murders that grip the capital, he must decide if this is savagery or justice.
Quickly it becomes apparent that Leo himself – and his family – are in danger from someone intent on revenge. Desperate to save those he loves, he is offered salvation from an unexpected source – and at a terrible price.
Paperback ISBN 978-0-85720-409-7
Ebook ISBN 978-1-84737-715-9
Tom Rob Smith
AGENT 6
THE HEART-RACING ADVENTURE THAT BEGAN IN
CHILD 44
AND
THE SECRET SPEECH
REACHES ITS EPIC CONCLUSION
Moscow, 1965. When Leo Demidov’s worst fears are realised and a tragic murder destroys everything he loves, he demands only one thing: that he is allowed to find the killer who has struck at the heart of his family.
Crippled by grief, his request denied, Leo sees no other option than to take matters into his own hands, even though he is thousands of miles from the crime scene.
In a thrilling story that takes us from the backstreets of 1960’s New York to the mountains of Afghanistan in the ’80s, Leo will stop at nothing as he hunts down the one person who knows the truth: Agent 6.
Paperback ISBN 978-1-84739-674-7
Ebook ISBN 978-1-84737-976-4