Thomas Lindblad

Very nice chapter with a discrete but decisive turn of events in a way familiar to many of us, I think. I just joined this story but I enjoy it very much and look forward to catching up with the later chapters.

Thanks, very good to hear!

Thank you for your nice comments!

I am very sad. Father has passed away. I am writing this because Teacher William told me mourning becomes easier to handle if you write down what you are going through. It happened very fast. Father fell off his horse in the forest. He was unconscious when he came home on a stretcher. Two days later he died. He was thirty-nine years old. According to Mister Nils, the cause of the fall lay not with him or the horse. Father was a very good rider. Mister Nils thinks something broke down

In the year I was to reach the respectable age of thirty-eight, my contact with Carl Oscar grew more intensive. This had more to do with his age than mine. He was quite big for a boy of twelve years, just as tall as I had been at thirteen. All of a sudden, he wanted to pursue conversations in an adult tone with me. His choice in that respect was limited. Playmate Nisse was three years younger and suddenly deemed ‘too childish’, whereas William too rigidly stuck to his role as a teacher. Magdalen

William indeed changed quickly once he felt surrounded by friends who shared his secret. He deliberately kept his parents in the background. A vicar in the Lutheran Church in 1829 is not likely to have been very understanding vis-a-vis a son discovering he is gay. Göran is 37 and the father of sons. A fatherly understanding of William's situation comes more natural to him now (and he does not neglect his own personal needs).

I’m getting old,’ I complained towards the end of my thirty-seventh birthday. ‘Come on,’ Nils said decisively. ‘You’re as old as you feel.’ We were the last persons left in the Yellow Salon, seated in the comfortable sitting area with furniture in Empire style. It had been a festive evening. Carl Oscar and Stellan had made drawings for me and Carl Oscar had told me he had helped his little brother. William was by rare exception invited to join the family circle. He had given me a book

Very nice to hear! I always found the early nineteenth century a very exciting period in Swedish history. Swedish society was on the verge of transformation from the old feudal society to modernity. Indeed an often neglected period in teaching history at school.

I continued to maintain an intensive correspondence with Max. Halfway through the summer of 1828, he wrote me from Vienna. He was there because of a visit by King Ludwig of Bavaria to the Habsburg court. Apart from notes about ‘nice young men’, he passed on some gossip that he thought might interest me as a Swede. “You won’t guess who is screwing around here. A certain Prince Gustaf von Wasa who claims he should have become King of Sweden. He brags about being engaged to the daughter of the King

True. It can be construed as a subtle hint that the end of the story is drawing near. We'll see.

Carl Filip’s invitation surprised me. Due to circumstances, we had not met for two years and only maintained contact by occasional letters. “We would like to receive you at Toftegave after all this time,” he wrote. It was indeed a long time ago, twenty years to be exact, since I visited the fortress of the Tofte clan. More importantly, what should I understand under ‘we’? In the old days, that would mean the twins Carl Filip and Sofia. Did he now refer to himself and Stefan? My contact with Stef

Things became a lot more lively on the top floor of the manor after Stellan had outgrown cradle and crib, and moved into Carl Oscar’s room. They still differed too much in age to be able to play together, but Carl Oscar took pride in looking after his little brother. He taught him to walk more steadily and did a lot of talking with him. I hired a girl to serve as a nanny. Her name was Ulla and she was seventeen years old and very blond. Wisely, I had asked Nils to do the selection and he in turn

I hope so too. One must not forget that he and his likes at that time belonged to a highly privileged class in society where justice may turn out to be operating in a selective way .

Very true. He faces challenges of the most varied kind. But sad and depressing events may also evaporate as new things happen.

You are not alone in cherishing such hope.