Hugo stopped dead in his tracks as soon as he saw Amber standing on the porch to greet him. He looked uncertain, trying to peek around Amber in search of Emilia.
“Hej,” he said carefully.
“Hi. I’m so glad you could make it.” Amber stood to one side and gestured for him to enter the house.
He smiled hesitantly as he passed her and entered the entrance hall. Amber kicked off the untied boots she had borrowed from Emilia and waited while Hugo took off his boots, coat, scarf, and gloves.
“God Jul,” she said, trying to break the ice.
“God Jul,” he replied, still a little uncertain.
“Look, Hugo, I’m sorry about what happened the last time we met,” Amber started. She didn’t want there to be a negative atmosphere, on Christmas Day of all days. Well, Christmas Eve. Which was like Christmas Day in Sweden, apparently.
Their last meeting hadn’t gone so well, but they were going to be seeing a lot of each other and so she needed to iron things out.
“I’m the one who should apologise,” he said. “I shouldn’t have said anything, and I really shouldn’t have said what I did say.”
“It all worked out for the best, in the end,” she reassured him.
He hopped on one foot, keeping his one remaining boot off the clean floor.
“It did?” he asked. “Things are… good?”
“Yes, things are very good,” she said. “Even better now you’re here. Emilia has some things she wants to show you.”
He raised an eyebrow, but Amber didn’t say anything else. She walked past him and into the house.
“Are you sure I can’t help with anything?” she asked Emilia, who was busily tending to several saucepans and checking on things in the oven.
“I’m sure that you are no help in the kitchen at all,” Emilia chuckled at her own quip. “Where is Hugo?”
“Getting his boots off, give him a minute,” Amber admonished lightly. She knew Emilia was very excited to see him and to show off a few new additions to the house. It was clear that Emilia enjoyed proving herself to people. Whenever she did something new or something she considered brave she couldn’t wait to tell Amber or text Hugo.
Amber presumed that was due to Emilia not having much faith in herself, something that seemed to be slowly changing.
“Sorry, new boots.” Hugo entered the kitchen and swept Emilia into a big hug.
Amber felt a spark of jealousy but quickly pushed it back down. Hugo was Emilia’s best friend, she needed to get used to that. And the endless talking about Hugo. And the fact that they were apparently huggers.
Who hugged for a very long time.
She cleared her throat and Hugo sprang back.
Emilia didn’t seem to notice. She grabbed his hand and led him from the kitchen towards the living area.
“Look,” she instructed.
Hugo looked around in confusion until his eyes settled on the television screen. He looked at Emilia in surprise. “A TV? Nice!”
“Yes, I watch TV now,” she told him.
“Good, I have a lot of shows to recommend to you,” he replied. He turned to face Amber. “You are a very good influence on her.”
“That’s nothing,” Amber said. “Check your phone.”
He frowned but got his phone out of his pocket and stared at it blankly for a moment.
“Wi-fi?” He almost cried. He looked up at Amber. “She’s online?”
“She is right here,” Emilia said. Something caught her attention in the kitchen, and she hurried off to deal with it.
“She is online. She has an email address now,” Amber said.
He looked impressed. “You work fast. You’ve been here, what, three days?”
“Yes, but I didn’t do anything,” Amber admitted. “Emilia wanted to get a television and enable the wi-fi on the phone line. I just drove the car and helped her with the technical details.”
He regarded her for a few moments, a touch of a smile in his expression. He stepped closer to her.
“You will be good to her, yes?” he asked.
Amber tried to cover her smirk at the attempted cold glare he was giving her. Attempted because he looked terrified of her. She knew from Emilia that Hugo was very gentle and afraid of his own shadow. The fact that he was trying to intimidate Amber was quite amusing.
But also very sweet. He cared about Emilia, that much was abundantly clear.
“I assure you, I want what is best for Emilia,” she whispered back.
“What are you two whispering about?” Emilia asked from the kitchen area.
“I’m offering Hugo a drink,” Amber called back. She leaned in and whispered to him again, “I know how special Emilia is. Trust me, I’m going to do everything I can to make her happy.”
His frame loosened in relief, and he nodded. “Good, she deserves that.”
“Stop whispering,” Emilia demanded of both of them. “I know you’re talking about me, you know.”
Amber had never experienced Christmas in any country other than Britain, so it was a bit of a culture shock to be celebrating Christmas on the twenty-fourth of December, with no turkey, listening to two Swedes singing something that resembled a pirate’s sea shanty to her ears.
“So, Santa doesn’t come down the chimney here?” Amber asked once they finished singing and drinking some foul-looking liquid which she’d declined based on a quick sniff test.
“No, he comes to your house,” Hugo said.
“How does he get in?” Amber asked.
“Through the door,” Emilia replied. “And he comes during the day, so the children see him.”
Amber lowered her wine glass and placed her hand over Emilia’s. “Sweetheart, I don’t know how to tell you this… but Santa isn’t real.”
Emilia gasped playfully. “Don’t say such things, you know that Santa is real. And his name is Tomten.”
“People dress up as him,” Hugo explained as he played with the decorative floral centrepiece. “I dress up and visit my niece.”
“That’s really weird,” Amber said.
“And a strange man who breaks into children’s houses in the middle of the night while they are sleeping is perfectly normal, I suppose?” Emilia asked.
Amber opened her mouth to reply but realised she had nothing to say. She’d always just accepted that Santa was a magical old man who delivered presents, somehow squeezing down the chimney and stealing food and booze from the mantelpiece before leaving gifts and going to the next house. Now that she thought about it, that seemed very strange and dark. Maybe the Swedish way was better.
“You both have to eat more,” Emilia instructed.
Hugo abandoned the centrepiece and stood up. He grabbed his dinner plate and hurried over to the kitchen where enough food to feed twenty people sat in a buffet style.
“I’m going to need a little bit of digesting time,” Amber said.
“Okay, but you must try the herring.”
“I’m not trying the herring.” Amber shook her head. It was another thing that had failed the sniff test.
“What if I offered you a kiss?” Emilia asked teasingly.
“I don’t want to kiss a herring.” Amber winked.
“You are impossible.” Emilia smiled as she snatched up her dinner plate and went to the kitchen for second helpings.
“When are you going home, Amber?” Hugo asked.
“I don’t know yet,” she admitted.
They hadn’t spoken about it. Since she had arrived they had studiously avoided the topic of when she would leave again. It was obvious that she would have to at some point, but with Christmas looming so close, neither wanted to consider spending the holidays without the other.
She noticed Emilia looking at her nervously.
“I don’t have to work and I’m having a great time here, so I’ll stay as long as I’m welcome,” she said, staring directly at Emilia as she did.
Emilia looked visibly relieved.
“Good. Maybe you can both come to Copenhagen with me for New Year’s Eve?” Hugo suggested.
“Yes, I think we’d like that,” Emilia said.
Hugo looked stunned, as if he had asked on a whim but assumed that the answer would be no. Amber filed away a mental note to speak to Emilia about it more later. While Emilia kept claiming that she was ‘braver now’, Amber didn’t want her to go too far too soon.
Things were still up in the air for both of them, they were still navigating what their new relationship meant. Discussions had taken place regarding Amber’s new status as the agent to the Lund collection, and agreements had been made. She’d take over the role with immediate effect after Christmas was over and they could speak with Magnus.
Amber had a hundred ideas for ways to rejuvenate the books, and plenty to speak about with Emilia when the time was right. In the meantime, she was far more interested in getting to know Emilia on a personal level.
They’d spoken about what they both were feeling, the consensus being that they were falling hard for one another. Amber couldn’t believe that she had been unable to find the perfect partner for her in the city of London but had found who she strongly believed to be the one in a small town in Sweden.
Fate, she kept telling herself. Or maybe a Christmas miracle.
“Eat more food,” Emilia whispered in her ear as she sat back down at the dining table.
“I will, I’m just preoccupied,” Amber admitted.
“By?”
“Realising how lucky I am,” she said. “And how this is the best Christmas ever.”
Emilia leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips. It was much tamer than the kiss they had shared before Hugo’s arrival, Amber noted with a grin.
“You say the sweetest things,” Emilia told her.
Amber picked up her wine glass and gestured for Emilia to do the same.
“To us,” Amber toasted.
“Merry Christmas,” Emilia said.
“God Jul,” Amber replied, and they clinked their glasses together.