“My shower is broken, I only have cold water, I need to talk to him”, she said and swiftly slipped past Nanna and in to the adjoining dining room.
Sören was in his usual place at the head of the table, reading the paper for heaven´s sake, like they were some old married couple. He was in what she thought of as his blue ensemble. Dark-blue pin striped jacket, dark-blue slacks and blue shirt open at the neck, no tie. He never wore ties. All his clothes looked like they were tailor made, which they probably were. He was really tall and she doubted he could wear anything of the rack. He also had his hair slicked back in a style reminiscent of Michael Douglas in Wall Street. She hated that look on him. She much preferred it when he just let his hair hang loose around his face.
But Sören´s hair was not really the issue right now, was it? The two of them hadn´t noticed her come in, but they would now. Hand on hips she declared, “Good morning. I´m sorry to disturb you in the middle of breakfast but my heat pump is not working. I realize the two of you are still basking in the afterglow of what was undoubtedly an energetic fulfillment of your biological urges, but would you mind sending someone over to adjust the heat pump?”
Sören almost dropped his piece of toast and Blondie turned a very ugly crimson red.
He fixated Clarice with a very cool stare and with obviously barely contained anger and very controlled movements he rose from his chair and coming towards her spat out “Anna, this is one of my tenants, Clarice Carter. Clarice let me introduce Anna, a client and personal friend.”
After which he more or less dragged her out of the room with a very firm grip on one of her arms.
“Ouch, you´re hurting me. Let go of my arm“, she sqeaked.
He turned so he was facing her, “What the hell do you think you´re doing? Coming over here, marching in to my house, into my dining room and insulting one of my guests during breakfast? A guest who just happens to be a very important client too.”
“Do you sleep with all your clients? I´m surprised you still find time to run your business.”
“Who I do or do not sleep with is none of your business, Clarice. You are my tenant, not the lady of the manor and have no business speaking to me the way you do.”
“What way? Alright, alright, calm down. I only want warm water. That damn heat pump isn´t working again.”
“That´s a matter which you very well know you should be taking up with Magnus, not with me. He manages the estate and the houses. That is what I pay him for, that is his job. I have other things to attend to, like the little matter of running a busy company. Which is by the way Rettinge´s main source of income or do you think Rettinge survives on your and Tilda´s rent or the herb boutique or the ostrich farm? Those just barely cover the running costs, the consulting firm is what keeps this place going and you have probably just lost me a very lucrative client.”
“I didn´t just come here because of the shower, I also came here to tell you that I have caught Per Nielson peering through my bedroom window and not the first time, either. And what are you going to do about that? Because you haven´t been exactly forceful on that matter have you? No, you even let him into your house, what is that about?”
“Excuse me?” Sören asked tensely.
“Yes, I saw him leave your house two nights ago. How can you let that disgusting old man into your house? What do the two of you talk about while he´s here? Do you have an idle chat about each other´s days?”
She attempted to imitate Sören and put on a poncy voice, “So Per, old sport, how was your day? Oh, nothing special Sören, just the usual really. Tried to catch a glimpse of Clarice getting dressed in the morning, then I harassed my daughter a bit, then I annoyed the hell out of Alma at the örtagård, then I drank two bottles of vodka and went to bed. How about you Sören, old chap?”
Do I really sound like that, Sören wondered, that´s terrible. “I don´t sound like that and I would never use the words “old sport”, he answered feebly.
Clarice glared at him, “That´s hardly the point is it?”
“Well what is the point, I´ve lost track?”
“The point is that you really need to do something to get that man to stay away from Rettinge. This is your land, for God´s sake. And yes, I know about the allemansrätten, but he´s disturbing the peace so the freedom to roam hardly applies in his case, does it?”
“Did it occur to you, Clarice, that he was here because I was trying to reason with him peacefully? I tried to talk some sense into that thick head of his because believe it or not, I don´t actually like him hanging around Rettinge all the time, either.” I am such a good liar, Sören thought.
“Well your methods of diplomacy haven´t worked, because he´s here, right now, out there,” Clarice said accusingly.
“I shall have to use more drastic methods then, but basically all of this is just distracting from the fact that your behavior this morning was equally unacceptable and rude.”
She gave him a haughty look, “Right, but in contrast to Per Nielson I will comply to your wishes and won´t come round unannounced anymore in the future. You´re right and I´m wrong, I apologize. Don´t worry, stick insect in there will stay with the firm, she has that desperate look about her. Maybe you should shag her again before lunch, just to be on the safe side. And make her eat something before relief agencies start dropping survival packages on to your house.”
And she left not banging the door as he had expected but closing it very gently and quietly.
Chapter 8
Fuck, Sören thought. Per Nielson really was becoming something of a major problem and he would deal with him, there was no way around it. The man was disturbing every area of his life.
He hoped he hadn´t completely alienated Clarice now.
That little speech she had given when she had marched in to his dining room? The woman really did have a mouth like a razor blade. She was a rhetorical monster.
Next time he had to give a speech somewhere he´d have her write it for him. But really he had been angry with himself, because it had been stupid to bring Anna home and he had just come to that conclusion himself again, when Clarice had burst in.
Anna was attractive and fairly entertaining, but he would soon get bored with her and then things would become akward, especially since she was a client.
Christ, couldn´t Clarice have sounded just a bit upset that he had had a woman here over night? But no, she had calmly and indifferently delivered her little speech and asked him to repair her shower. He actually liked her moving around the place like she owned it, coming and going at her pleasure. And now she wouldn´t any longer, if she stayed at all. Maybe she was already over there packing up, about to disappear completely from his life. Now that he thought about it, she had also looked a little pale and sort of tired. Then again he would be more than happy to take care of her when she was ailing, if she would only let him. And that thing about Per Nilsson, that really was the tip of the iceberg. He hadn´t known the old man had now turned into a peeping Tom too. The image of Per Nielson watching Clarice do something private like getting dressed in the morning made his blood boil. Per had to go, somehow.
So Clarice had seen him leave the big house that night? That was bad. He could not tell her or anyone for that matter what Per had been doing here. He could never tell anyone.
It was his burden to bear and his alone.
He returned to the dining room where Anna was still seated drinking yet another cup of coffee. She had hardly eaten anything and he suspected that she was one of those women who survived solely on water, coffee and diet coke all day, since she had that starved, skin and bones look about her.
Sleeping with her had been like fucking a freaking skeleton. He was sure he had heard hear bones crack once or twice. No soft curves or fleshy spots