Page 132 of All I Want for Christmas

Darcy gasped again, falling still. ‘...You want me as your bridesmaid?’

‘Well, who else, dummy? You’re the closest thing to a sister that I’ve got.’

‘Oh, Frey.’ Darcy’s fingers pressed against her mouth.

‘So that’s a yes?’

‘Of course it’s a yes!’ They hugged again in the middle of the street, oblivious to the dog walkers and kindergarteners waddling past bundled up in boots and winter coats. ‘Oh Freja, I can’t believe this has happened, especially after the non-event last weekend.’

‘I know. When I tell you I wassoshocked...I’d put all thoughts of it out of my mind!’

‘How did he do it?’

‘We were in bed, just cuddling, and he asked. No showy proclamation.’

‘You mean no flash mob?’ Darcy asked with mock horror.

Freja grinned. ‘No.’

‘No petals on the bed?’

‘No petals.’

‘Please tell me there was a balloon.’

‘Not even. It was just quietly us being us, and it was perfect. Get this – he said hehadintended to ask me in Amsterdam, but he saw another other couple getting engaged in the spot where he’d intended to do it, and he thought it was too cliched.’

‘So you hadn’t got ahead of yourself after all, then?’

‘Apparently not.’

‘Show me the ring again,’ Darcy demanded. ‘I need to study it.’

Freja held her hand out as Darcy cooed over the glittering stone. ‘It’s stunning. That is a big diamond!’

‘I know.’

Darcy heard the note of worry in Freja’s voice and looked up to see her biting her lip. ‘You don’t think it’s a bit too fancy for me, do you?’

‘Too fancy?’

‘Yeah. You don’t think the diamond’s too big?’

‘Freja, there is no such thing as a diamond being too big! That concept does not exist. Why would you even say such a thing?’

‘I don’t know. I’m just quite a...humble girly. I guess I always anticipated having something more modest?’

Darcy opened her mouth, ready to argue again, but Freja’swords prompted a sudden shift in her brain, like a gear being levered into place. Suddenly everything made sense. The truth had unlocked and one newly revealed fact led on to another, exposing a past she had stared in the face.

She couldn’t believe it.

She had looked straight at it! Everything had been right there, in front of her – but she’d added two and two together and come to five.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Otto stood with her in silence, waiting, as she stared at the portrait on the easel. On his orders, the conservation team were taking a long coffee break as she stood motionless, allowing her mind to fall into a deep dive. For weeks now she had been recording the high and low points of Lilja’s life as if she were plotting a graph – only now did it acquire a three-dimensional shape.

‘You’re going to have to bear with me in this, Otto,’ she said quietly. ‘I’m still trying to join the dots. There’s a lot to go at...but if we can just talk it through...’

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