The Swedish Girl Read Free

faded, printed to one side of the doorway, tiny grilles beneath. She nodded, recognising the security entry system.
    ‘We’ll need a bigger space for all the names once I get some flatmates,’ she observed, looking at the blank space right at the top of the list. Then, pushing open the heavy wooden door, they entered the close. Eva took off her designer sunglasses and looked around.
    Inside was surprisingly light. A short corridor to the rear of the building ended with a glazed door, and the half landing above them had a long window that provided another source of daylight. Henrik Magnusson followed his daughter up the stone stairs, smiling as she exclaimed over the arrangements of carefully tended potted plants on each landing, the shining brasses and etched glass on the front doors on either side, the storm doors painted in cheerful shades of red. It was an old property, but one where the existing residents evidently took a pride in their homes. Henrik had asked the estate agent questions about the people who lived at number twenty-four and the man had been surprisingly knowledgeable about some of them. Several were retired people and others would be out at business during the day; there was a residents’ association and each of the owners had to pay their share of repairs to things like slates falling off the roof or damage to the stone steps. It was a far cry from the modern blocks that Henrik owned in his native Sweden, where factors took care of everything, charging the tenants sweetly for the privilege.
    ‘Here we are!’ Eva turned to her father with an excited grin as they reached the top storey and turned to the door on the right.
    ‘Go on then,’ Henrik told her. ‘Open up your new home.’
    There were two doors to the flat: a heavy storm door that Henrik hooked back into a latch on the wall and an old-fashioned inner door, framed in dark mahogany with opaque glass set in from waist height. Eva Magnusson turned the set of keys in her hand until she found the one that matched the Yale lock.
    The door opened noiselessly and she stepped over the threshold, marvelling at the spacious hall within and the adjacent staircase that wound its way upwards.
    Eva grinned over her shoulder. ‘It’s huge!’ she said, then laughed out loud, turning to one room after the other, exclaiming at their particular features.
    ‘Any place looks big when it’s empty.’ Henrik shrugged, but even he was impressed by the proportions of these apartments now that the previous owner’s furniture had been cleared out.
    ‘Wow! Look at this!’ Eva had reached the end of the hallway and was standing in the kitchen gazing upwards at a set of false beams, her blue eyes twinkling with delight.
    Henrik nodded. So. They had left them after all. The plants cascaded down from their hooks on the wooden beams, making the entire ceiling appear to be a hanging garden. The Swede had haggled and offered a bit extra but he had been given the impression that the owner wanted to take her late mother’s precious plants away. Perhaps, after all, there had been no room for them in her own home? Well, his daughter was happy with them as Henrik had known she would be.
    ‘We’ll need to find at least one tall young man to reach up and water them for you,’ Henrik joked.
    Eva made a face but it turned into a smile again almost immediately. ‘How many should I be sharing this with?’ she asked. ‘Another girl and a boy, maybe?’
    Henrik shook his head. ‘There is enough space for five of you,’ he said. ‘Three bedrooms on this floor and two upstairs. And,’ he shrugged again, ‘you can have it all girls if you like but I think a mix would be better.’
    Eva did not reply, simply nodding her agreement as she always did.
    They turned together as a train rattled past, momentarily shaking the kitchen windows. Eva walked across and looked out over the kitchen sink to where a line of trees marched away beyond the railway line. Looking down she