Free The Scent of Almonds: A Novella by Camilla Läckberg Page B

something wasn’t right. She tried to shake off her uneasiness, telling herself it must be due to an unpleasant dream, but the feeling remained. She sat up and listened. All she could hear was Harald snoring next to her in the bed and the thunder outside. She’d never known such terrible weather. Every once in a while it looked as if the storm might abate, only for it to get worse. She thought it must have been the thunder that woke her, but she wasn’t sure. She sensed it was something else.
    She lay down and tried to go back to sleep. But it was no use. She sat up again.
    Harald made a snuffling noise and turned onto his side. When he was sound asleep no storm in the world, no matter how loud, was going to wake him. Britten swung her legs off the bed and set her feet on the floor. She was wearing stockings, but she could still feel how cold the floor was under the soles of her feet.
    Worry about Matte suddenly struck her with such force that she almost felt ill. Her concern for her son was a constant in her life. It had started the moment he was born and had never ceased. What Lisette didn’t understand was that Britten felt just as worried for her as for Matte. And just as much love. But her feelings for her daughter had never been given full expression. Matte had required so much more attention than Lisette. And so much more effort.
    Britten sighed. Then she stood up and put on her cardigan. She could hear nothing to indicate that anyone else was awake. It was almost eerily quiet.
    Slowly she walked over to the door, not sure what she planned to do. Lisette had stretched out on the sofa in the library, and Britten didn’t want to wake her. She didn’t have the energy for any sort of discussion with her at the moment. Not when she was feeling so uneasy.
    Out in the corridor she made up her mind to look in on Matte. If he was asleep, she would merely stroke his hair, as she’d done so often when he was a boy. If he was awake, she’d have a brief chat with him, just to make sure that he was all right.
    Cautiously she pressed down the door handle to his room. Maybe she should have knocked first, but she was almost hoping to find him asleep. Britten wanted to sit on the edge of his bed and look at his face as he slept peacefully, to see how all the different faces that had come and gone over the years were mirrored in his adult face. Matte as a baby, as an inquisitive five-year-old, as an ever-curious ten-year-old, as a sulky teenager.
    She pulled open the door and stepped inside. And screamed.
    Vivi couldn’t sleep. She’d been lying in bed and staring at the ceiling for almost an hour. Gustav had dozed off in a matter of seconds, as usual. This was how things had always been. He fell asleep at once, while she lay awake for hours, staring into the dark. She hadn’t felt like taking a nap after lunch, but everyone else had disappeared, so she hadn’t had much choice.
    Someone was out in the corridor. Vivi propped herself up on her elbows to listen more closely, and after a few seconds she heard a door open. The scream that followed didn’t sound human. It sounded like an animal howling with pain, and the shock made her heart pound in her chest.
    ‘What? What the hell?’ Gustav jolted awake and sat up to stare wide-eyed around the room. ‘What the hell is going on?’ he asked, more alert now.
    ‘I don’t know,’ Vivi told him, jumping out of bed to pull on her dressing gown, which she’d hung on the bedpost. The scream went on and on, rising and falling, broken intermittently by loud sobs.
    Vivi opened the door and stepped out into the hall, followed closely by Gustav, clad only in an undershirt and boxer shorts. Doors were opening and everyone else emerged, looking equally dazed.
    ‘What’s happening?’ said Harald, heading towards them. At that moment he turned to look at Matte’s room and realized where the sound was coming from. He strode over to the door, yanked it open, and then staggered back. On