The Unlikely Allies Read Free Page A

dangerous-looking fjords. As they approached Oslo, Mallory peered eagerly ahead at the crowded harbor, filled with shipping vessels of all kinds. The winters in Norway were so dismally long and the northern days so short that as soon as the spring sunshine arrived, people made the most of their daylight hours. Anna had told her that from November on, the country was dark and wet; then the frost and snow would come, transforming the Nordic gloom into brilliant white under a cloudless blue sky. While she was in Africa, Mallory had looked forward to the snow and learning how to ski, but now the thought of winter was far from her mind.
    The ship pulled into the dock, and Mallory made her way down the gangplank with the other passengers, her eyes searching the crowd. She spotted a young woman about her own age with a young man standing beside her. The woman waved and called her name, and as Mallory stepped ontoNorwegian soil for the first time, a strange feeling enveloped her. I’m here at last. I’m really here!
    “Hello, Mallory. I’m Eva.”
    The young blond woman with blue eyes came forward with a broad welcoming smile. She wore a simple blue dress that picked up the color of her eyes, and an energy flowed from her that Mallory sensed at once.
    “This is my fiancé, Lars Klovstad,” she said in Norwegian.
    “Welcome to Norway,” Lars said in his deep voice. He was a tall, powerfully built man with sandy hair and light blue eyes.
    “I’m glad to meet you, Mr. Klovstad.”
    “Just call me Lars. We’re not very formal here. Your Norwegian is good.”
    “Anna and I have worked hard on it. I’m afraid my pronunciation may not be the best.”
    “Much better than my English,” Eva said with a laugh, her lively eyes sparkling. “We’re going to take you to the house where you’ll be staying for a while. Then we’ll go out and eat.”
    “The car is right over here,” Lars said. “Are you ready?”
    ****
    Mallory was delighted with the trip through Oslo. It was not a large city, she observed, but seemed expansive with its buildings spaced far apart. The center of Oslo was as busy as any other capital, and Eva pointed out the streets with pride. “This is Karl Johans Gate. Gate means street, of course. Most of the city’s important buildings are here.”
    They reached the end of the street where stood an impressive square white building, the Royal Palace. Masses of lilacs blossomed all around it, and their heady scent floated over the city.
    They passed the Parliament Building, where, as Eva explained, Norway’s national assembly met. Across from there stood the University of Oslo and the National Theatre.
    “I’ll be taking some classes there at the university this summer, if possible,” Mallory said.
    “Oh yes. That’s all been arranged.”
    “That’s the Oslo Cathedral over there,” Eva said, pointing, “and there’s the square with the fruit and flower market.”
    “That church was built in 1699,” Lars said, “and has been restored several times since then. You’ll have to visit it.”
    “Oh, what’s that?” Mallory asked as Lars expertly maneuvered the car down the busy street.
    “That’s Frogner Park, one of Oslo’s showplaces,” Eva said. “It has an open-air swimming pool and a magnificent rose garden.”
    “Do you like sculpture?” Lars asked.
    “I’ve only seen Masai sculpture.”
    “Well, Gustav Vigeland is the foremost Norwegian sculptor. There are nearly two hundred of his statues here in the park—many made of granite or iron, and some in bronze. He worked on them all of his life.”
    “I’d like to spend some time there and see them,” Mallory said.
    “Oh, we’ll have plenty of time to see the sights.”
    They drove into the residential area, where Mallory took in the late-nineteenth-century stone houses. As they made their way into the suburbs, Mallory looked first one way and then the other at the brightly painted wooden houses. It was all so different from