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Thomas Lindblad

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  1. Thanks for your insightful reflections! The actual investigation will start soon.
  2. Irene brought it up immediately at breakfast. ‘What a horrible course of events! Fire across the street, then a neighbour’s death in our garden. Do you think there’s a connection between the two?’ ‘How would you imagine that?’ Lars replied before consulting his mobile phone. ‘According to the local radio station, the fire at the square broke out at five to midnight. Fifteen minutes later Sander B. alerted us about it. Maybe he was already on the spot. Then he returned home with fire wounds
  3. Lars gave himself a nod of approval as he was enjoying the wide view from the balcony over an agglomeration of startups opposite the parking lot and some high-rise apartment buildings further away. It was upon his insistence that his ageing mother had moved from a townhouse without elevator in downtown Leiden to a convenient first-class apartment in a newly built condominium at the edge of the city center. He had helped her move house and now came again to see how she was coping. She was doing w
  4. L & L Investigations is a detective firm run by Lars Wrede, middle-aged and of Dutch-Swedish origin, together with his younger partner Lennart Torstensson. The firm is based in Stockholm but Lars in particular has strong links with the Netherlands from his youth. By coincidence they get a job to find out the truth behind a mysterious death in the Dutch university town Leiden. This brings them in contact with various aspects of Dutch society, including the experiences of gay young men.
  5. Thomas Lindblad

    Epilogue

    Thank you! I know it is a bit unconventional to end a story in this way, but I had a feeling I had provided a picture of how rich and varied his life had been. It is not by coincidence that the accident in chapter 27 reminds us about the accident at the beginning of chapter 1. Nor is it a coincidence that the story begins when Göran was thirteen years old and ends when his son has reached the same age.
  6. A familiar situation for those of the older generation, whether on an individual level or in something resembling a partnership. Depicted with a feeling for realistic detail and honest emotions. I'm getting to like Alex more by every chapter I read. Without perhaps realizing it himself, Neil requests more patience than Alex might be able or willing to provide.
  7. 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.
  8. Thomas Lindblad

    Epilogue

    Thanks, very good to hear!
  9. Thomas Lindblad

    Epilogue

    Thank you for your nice comments!
  10. 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
  11. 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
  12. 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).
  13. 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
  14. 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.
  15. 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
  16. True. It can be construed as a subtle hint that the end of the story is drawing near. We'll see.
  17. 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
  18. 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
  19. 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 .
  20. Very true. He faces challenges of the most varied kind. But sad and depressing events may also evaporate as new things happen.
  21. You are not alone in cherishing such hope.
  22. Good question. How can our Count continue his association with Stefan after getting such dramatic news? What attitude can he choose? He cannot continue as before as if nothing had happened nor can he break off the contact completely considering that it is embedded in a web of family relations. It is a dilemma. One of several challenges he faces.
  23. The death of Rutger left its mark on my daily life for a long time. I missed his frivolous nature, even his silly jokes. Above all his childish affection towards me. Christmas celebrations, half a year after the terrible event, fell through as Mother and Magdalena had to go to Öja to relieve Aunt Augusta from her loneliness. I stayed behind with my two boys and sat alone with Birger and my aunt Albertina on Christmas Eve. Fortunately, Nils came around to enjoy a good glass. He was the one who su
  24. Thomas Lindblad

    Chapter 31

    Thanks for a wonderful story! I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. Beautiful ending.
  25. History repeated itself in the Spring of 1824. While waiting, I again fell prey to the almost unbearable tension that instantly vanished as soon as I held a newly born little boy in my arms. The cradle was back in our bedroom and its inhabitant made his presence known in a loud voice. Carl Oscar came around looking out of curiosity and shyly asked if he could hold his little brother for a moment. Magdalena in the meantime again retired to Mother’s room in a depressed mood. The guests were t
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