by Kris Tualla
As an actor he was keenly aware of facial expressions, always noticing the subtleties that would make the difference between a good performance and a great one. Judging by what he saw, tonight had been very difficult for the young widow.
Dahl looked at Teigen. He remembered how much Tor and Teigen looked alike and was sure that his resemblance to her dead husband was a large part of her discomfort.
That would be disconcerting for anyone.
Dahl thought there was more going on behind those guarded gray-green eyes than only that, but he would rather ask her outright than guess wrongly. He didn’t know why it mattered to him so much, other than he didn’t want to be the cause of any more pain in her life.
*****
Kyle donned her cotton bathrobe and tiptoed out of her room. Thor slept soundly, but she hadn’t been able to fall asleep even though she was completely done in. She thought maybe a bite of something to eat or maybe another glass of wine might push her tired body into falling asleep when it was still broad daylight in Minnesota.
A small fire spilled a faint light into the hallway outside the Great Hall. Teigen explained that the old stone structure tended to be chilly even in summer, so a small fire was nearly always burning there. As she passed the door she saw Teigen’s long frame draped in a chair. Her brother-in-law held a glass in one hand and stared into the fire.
Kyle didn’t want to disturb him, but her slippers made a noise and he turned to look at her.
“Kyle? Did you need something?”
She walked forward. “I’m having trouble falling asleep. I was thinking another glass of wine might help.”
Teigen set his glass on the floor and motioned her forward. “I’ll get it. Come sit.”
Kyle sat in the chair that was at a right angle to Teigen’s. “Are you usually up late?”
“No.” He poured her wine. “I just have some things on my mind.”
She watched his face in the dim light as he carried the glass to her and reclaimed his seat. “I hope I haven’t done anything to concern you.”
Teigen’s brow twitched. “Not at all.”
“But my being here has made everyone think of Tor, hasn’t it?” She rubbed her fingertips against the cool wineglass. “I know I’ve been thinking about him a lot more now that I’m here.”
“That’s not your fault.” Teigen lifted his glass from the stone floor. “And I know when you look at me, you see him.”
Kyle nodded a little. “But the more I talk to you, the more I see the differences.”
“We are actually very different,” he said before lifting his glass to his lips.
Kyle took a drink of the buttery white wine. She wanted to tell Teigen what Tor had said about him and now seemed to be the perfect time for it.
“Tor told me about the last time you were together,” she began. “I think you need to hear what he said about you.”
Teigen snorted. “You mean when I told him his shoes were hard to fill?”
Kyle’s voice was soft, but it seemed to fill the hall. “He said you have no idea how hard he ran to stay ahead of you.”
Teigen’s head turned toward hers. “What?”
“He said you were school smart. You went to the university and got a degree in chemistry and became an upper-level school teacher.” Kyle smiled a little at the memory. “He really respected you a lot.”
Teigen was clearly shocked. “He never told me that.”
“He said all he ever did was train his way into an Olympics that never happened.”
“But by doing that he achieved something that very few people could!” Teigen was obviously trying to process what she was telling him. “And then he joined the Norwegian Army and went off to teach soldiers in America.”
“Think about it, Teigen,” Kyle said gently. “The reason Tor joined the Norwegian Army as soon as Norway was invaded was because every one of his competitive opportunities disappeared that same day.”
“He could have done other things,” Teigen objected.
Kyle shook her head. “I think it was the only path he believed was open to him at the time.”
Teigen downed the drink in his glass and got up to refill it. “I never thought of it that way. I thought he was just being impulsive. Maybe even selfish.”
Kyle sighed. “I can understand that. But I can also tell you that he had absolutely no idea what he was going to do once the war was over.”
Teigen reclaimed his chair. “He didn’t want to come back here? Take over Hansen Shipping?”
“I’m sorry to say it, but no.” Kyle tried to discern whether Teigen was offended by that, but she couldn’t tell. “He knew he wasn’t cut out for it, you know?”
“Yes. I do know.” Teigen took a gulp of his fresh drink.
Before Kyle could think about what that statement might mean Teigen asked, “Was he a good leader?”
“Pardon my language, brother-in-law, but he was a damn good leader and his men respected and loved him.” Kyle shifted in her seat. “Not only that, but there were dozens of world-class competitive skiers who joined the Tenth Mountain Division to train the soldiers, and they knew and respected Tor as well.”
Teigen quirked a smile. “He was always the popular one.”
Then he looked horrified, like he’d let something slip that he shouldn’t have. “I don’t mean—”
Kyle put up a hand to stop him. “I spent a year at his side, Teigen. I know exactly what you mean.”
He looked contrite. “I guess you would.”
“I also know what was truth and what were assumptions. Your brother wasn’t nearly as much of a ladies’ man as the ladies hoped.” Kyle chuckled a little. “He even kissed me in public once just to get the other WACs off his trail.”
Teigen wagged a finger at her. “I doubt that was the only reason, considering how things turned out.”
“Maybe not,” Kyle conceded. She took a drink to hide her warming face behind her wine glass.
“Selby told me about how Thor came to be.”
“Oh, no.” Kyle slapped her forehead.
“Don’t worry about it. I don’t.”
Kyle considered her brother-in-law in the firelight. “I loved Tor with all my heart. You need to believe that.”
“I do,” he said in a sincere tone. “Why else would you have cried when you first saw me?”
Kyle stared into her wine glass watching the reflection of the flames shimmer through the golden liquid. “I wouldn’t be who I am today if I hadn’t met your brother. And as painful as it’s been without him, I wouldn’t change a minute of it.”
Teigen was quiet for a while and they sat in companionable silence with only the occasional pop of the fire making any sound.
“Will you marry again?” His murmured question sounded overly loud though he was hardly more than whispering.
Maybe.
“Tor told me to in his survivor’s letter. He told me to find a father for Thor.”
Teigen looked sideways at her. “Are you seeing anyone?”
Kyle huffed. “I’m a single mother who completed her bachelor’s degree in psychology in less than four years and is halfway through her master’s degree. I haven’t had time to date.”
“Do you want to marry again?” he pressed.
Kyle stared into the fire and considered the question.
She’d been so busy for the last five years she hadn’t had time to think about it. But with Thor starting school in a couple months, and expecting to finish her dissertation by Christmas, a lot of lonely free time was suddenly looming in front of her.
It would be nice to have a man in her house, she thought. And in her bed. And to start working on those siblings for Thor.
Could she fall in love again?
“I don’t want to live my life alone,” she admitted. “But God’s going to have to drop him right in my path, because I have absolutely no idea where to find him on my own.”
Teigen leaned over and held out his glass. He had
the oddest look on his face.
“Here’s to finding love,” he said.
“Again,” she clarified.
Kyle tapped her wine glass against his tumbler and then downed the remainder of its contents.
Chapter
Four
July 6, 1950
The next four days passed in a blur of adjustment. Having the sun set at eleven-thirty at night only to rise again four hours later was complicating Kyle’s distance-disrupted sleep patterns. Twice she apologetically succumbed to the need for an afternoon nap.
Kyle tried to make up for her fog by helping in the kitchen when Mrs. Nilssen would let her, though her knowledge of Norwegian cooking was clearly Americanized.
She also strove to keep a watchful eye on Thor and make sure he wasn’t getting on her hosts’ nerves. Thankfully he got along well with Torhild and followed her everywhere, indoors and out.
And during those first four days Kyle learned three things. The first was that Olina didn’t like her.
Kyle had only one explanation for the younger woman’s attitude, and that was the six-foot-three, sandy-haired actor with eyes as bright a blue as Tor’s had been. Dahl was a lead theater actor in part because he was gorgeous, that much was obvious.
She’s afraid Dahl will like me.
The concept surprised her. She’d never been the one others were envious of. At least she’d never been aware of it.
Olina seemed to think she’d hit the jackpot by being paired with Dahl as Jans Hansen’s godparents. She claimed the man every time Kyle approached by grabbing his hand or his arm or tucking her shoulder under his. Olina’s sights were set on nabbing the actor, and Kyle believed he knew it.
The second thing she learned was that the more Olina leaned in, the more Dahl was pulling away. If he’d been initially interested in Teigen’s cousin, that interest was clearly fading in the klieg light of Olina’s possessiveness.
Kyle hadn’t said or done anything that Olina could say was remotely flirtatious or derisive. The same could not be said for her.
“Did I offend you at supper last night?” Dahl asked when she emerged from her first night in Hansen Hall.
Kyle was surprised by the question. “When?”
“When I asked if you needed help getting Thor to bed.” He looked adorably contrite. “Olina said that I did, and I wanted to assure you I didn’t mean to be rude.”
Rude?
What game was she playing?
Kyle shook her head. “No. That was very kind of you. Why would she say—” Then she remembered her reaction to his offer and her cheeks flamed. “Oh! I was the rude one, I’m afraid. I’m so sorry.”
Dahl seemed confused by that, so Kyle hurried to explain. “Thor is five years old and I’ve been both mother and father to him ever since he was born. Your offer took me by surprise, is all.”
Dahl rubbed his chin, his fingers smoothing his short beard. “Of course you have. I should have known you could do it alone.”
“And I should have accepted the help,” she countered.
“Let’s make an agreement.” Dahl stuck out his hand and grinned. “If I offend you, you’ll tell me.”
“Only if you’ll do the same.” Kyle smiled into his eyes and shook his hand. His large, warm, and strong hand.
Stop it.
The third thing she learned was that Matilda Hansen really was as frail as she looked.
“When I met her during the war, after Teigen and I were married, she was suffering from lack of adequate nutrition,” Selby told her. “He spent three days building a pig pen deep in the woods under an outcropping of rock. And he hid a chicken coop inside the chapel.”
Kyle felt punched by her relatively easy war experience. Tor tried to tell her it was true, and now she was hearing it first hand. “Because the Nazis took everything?”
Selby nodded. “They were truly horrible men.”
“How did you survive?”
“When Dahl started the acting troupe, he had the blessing of the Germans because he was promising cultured entertainment for their officers.” She wrinkled her nose. “And when that traitor Quisling stepped up a year later, he jumped on board as well.”
Kyle hated that she was so ignorant about what happened here. “And that meant what, exactly?”
“That meant we stayed in hotels that catered to the Germans, so there was always enough food and heat, and the accommodations were very comfortable.” Selby looked a little guilty. “The townspeople weren’t always sure what to think about us. Especially—well, never mind. Have you seen the photographs yet?”
That shift piqued Kyle’s interest. There was some kind of story there.
Later.
“The family photographs? No. But I’m dying to.”
Half an hour later, Kyle was sitting next to Matilda on the sofa in a room lined with tall bookcases. From what Kyle could tell, they were mostly filled with ancient books.
Selby sat on Matilda’s other side. “Wait until you see these. The resemblance is amazing.”
Matilda opened the thick leather-wrapped cover of the square album. She pointed to the sepia-colored photo mounted on the first black cardboard page.
“These are my parents, Alfhild and Sigurd Bakke. Olina’s grandparents. This was taken on their wedding day.”
Kyle looked at the young woman with loose waist length hair streaming from under a huge crown-like headdress. The breast piece on Alfhild’s vest was richly embroidered and Kyle could only guess at the colors.
“She looks so young,” Kyle said.
“She was eighteen.” Matilda sighed. “This was taken nearly seventy years ago.”
Matilda turned the thick page. “These are Nikolai’s parents. It was taken about the same time.”
Another earnest young couple stared, unsmiling, from the old brown photograph in an elaborate pressed matte.
Kyle smiled at her mother-in-law. “I can see the resemblance between Nikolai and his father.”
Matilda nodded. “The family has very strong genes.”
She turned another page. “This is our wedding portrait from nineteen eleven.”
The sepia tone remained the same, but Matilda wore a gown that was contemporary for the age. “I wore my bunad at the wedding, but I was a modern girl and wanted to be photographed in a modern gown.”
She chuckled sadly. “I wish I had a photograph of that instead. You girls would be amazed at my bridal crown. It was huge. I was marrying a Hansen, after all.”
Selby and Kyle’s gazes met over Matilda’s head and smiled. They both knew what marrying a Hansen was like.
“And here are the boys.”
The faces of Tor and Teigen, taken in nineteen-nineteen when the brothers were six and four, were not only similar to each other, but Kyle could have inserted a snapshot of Thor in his father’s place and no one would be the wiser.
“Oh my Lord,” she breathed. “I can’t believe it…”
Matilda touched the photo reverently. “What a pair they were.”
Selby looked at Kyle again. “He is the image of his father, isn’t he?”
Kyle nodded. “Do you have any more?”
Matilda turned the page. “Here they are in upper-school. I believe that was Tor’s final year, so nineteen-thirty-one.”
Kyle stared at her husband in the shiny black-and-white modern photo. She saw the man he was becoming so clearly that it actually hurt her chest.
“He had so much ahead of him then, didn’t he?”
Matilda wiped a tear and turned the page. Stuffed between the pages were a dozen yellowing newspaper clippings. “This is when he was competing.”
Kyle lifted the articles and scanned them. “Could I have one of them?” she asked. “For Thor?”
“Take several,” Matilda answered. “He needs to know his father.”
Kyle laid her hand over Matilda’s thin bony one. “Thank you so much.”
“Thank you, Kyle. If it wasn’t for you and Thor, we wouldn�
��t have anything of him left.”
*****
Olina was gone.
The collected Hansens waved at the departing car as Dahl drove her to the train station. Teigen looked down at Selby, wondering if she was thinking what he was. But the christening was yesterday, the deed was done. It was too late to change anything.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Selby said as she led him away from the house. “It should have been Kyle, not Olina.”
How did she know?
“I do like Kyle.” He glanced back to make sure they were out of earshot. “And I don’t remember Olina being such a pill.”
“I don’t either,” Selby admitted. “But she’s twenty-nine now. The war interrupted her courting years and then handed her a much smaller platter of choices.”
Teigen grinned. “Very poetically put.”
Selby elbowed him. “I’m serious. I think she’s getting desperate.”
“And that’s why she was so annoying whenever Kyle was around?” he suggested. “Olina saw her as competition?”
Selby laughed. “There’s no competition.”
Teigen found that comment disappointing. “So you think Dahl’s happy with Olina?”
“Good God, no!” Selby stopped walking and faced him. “Watch. He’ll be sniffing around Kyle as long as he’s here. In fact, I predict it starts as soon as he gets back.”
“Dahl and Kyle.” Teigen nodded thoughtfully. “I was wondering if it was my imagination. Or maybe just wishful thinking.”
Selby tilted her head and smiled impishly. “Wishful thinking, eh?”
Teigen shrugged. “We’ll have to wait and see of course, but if they do connect then we’re assured she won’t marry an American and fade away from us.”
Selby’s expression softened. “Keeping her and Thor close, means keeping Tor close.”
Teigen ran a knuckle down his wife’s cheek. “Is that silly?”
“No. Not at all.” She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “It makes perfect sense.”
Teigen started walking again, still holding Selby’s hand. “If the two of them do hit it off, and she’ll have him, it will make my own decision so much easier.”
