“He should have let you pack! Mason is always impatient. I see nothing has changed,” Mrs Klaus said, smacking her son’s shoulder. Even though he towered over the petite and full-figured woman, she clearly wasn’t afraid of him or his expression. “He got that scowl from his father.”

Klaus rolled his eyes. Lyla didn’t know how to respond to the mention of her late husband; for someone grieving, she seemed awfully happy. Then she reminded herself that not everyone grieved the same way.She’s probably just happy to have her son back.

“It’s certainly his trademark – he’s famous for it at the company,” she said teasingly.

Mrs Klaus took her arm. “You met at work?”

Mason tugged Lyla from his mother’s grasp, for which she was grateful. She wasn’t sure what their story was, especially if she wasn’t supposed to be in Yule.

“Can we save the interrogation for after dinner?” he asked. “As you can see, my fiancée is hardly dressed for the mountains.”

Fiancée?! What the fuck?Lyla gave a strangled gasp, and Klaus immediately squeezed her arm almost to the point of pain. She glared up at him, but turned the gasp into a cough.Whatever reason he has for this lie must be important.

But when she got him alone she was going to kill him.

“You got engaged?” Kevin said, waiting inside the door.

Too stunned to speak, Lyla gave what she hoped was a polite smile.

“How long have you been engaged?” Mrs Klaus pressed, and Lyla heard the sadness in her voice. The last thing she wanted was to bring her more pain after losing her husband.

“Not long,” she managed to croak.As in thirty bloody seconds! I said I’d come here as a friend – I was trying to be supportive, considerate of his loss. I should have known he would blindside me.

They walked through the door into a foyer and were greeted by a grand fireplace under a dark wooden staircase.

“You can call me Mum, if you like. Or ‘Mrs Klaus’, if that would make you more comfortable. No one calls me Edith,” she said, with a warm smile.

Mum.Lyla never thought she’d call someone by that title again. She didn’t think her voice would let her.

“Thank you, Mrs Klaus. It’s nice to finally meet you,” she said instead.We are supposed to be a couple… Realising she was going along with the lie, she figured the cold must have started to eat away at her brain cells.

Before she knew it, she was being led to the stairs. The bannisters were decorated with ivy and golden tinsel. She knew she should still be furious at Klaus for dropping her into whatever this was, but all she could think about was how she’d suddenly been transported into a fantastical Christmas dreamscape. The decorations were overboard but tasteful, which she hadn’t thought was possible.

“Let’s get you into a warm bath and some clothes. I can’t believe my son brought you to the mountains in so little. One would think he was trying to get you killed,” Mrs Klaus teased. Lyla wasn’t sure she was altogether wrong.

“I’d love to chat more, but the cold has really got to me,” she said apologetically, and Mrs Klaus gave her hand a gentle pat.

“Go and get yourself warm. Breakfast is at seven. Mason can show you to your room upstairs. His room has the best view; I’m sure you’ll be comfortable. We’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other once you’ve had a good night’s rest,” she said. Klaus was already nudging Lyla up the steps. “Oh, and if he’s an outside cat, it would be best to keep your furry friend inside. We wouldn’t want the wolves to get him.”

Wolves?Lyla gave Klaus a frightened look, but he only shrugged as though it were the most normal warning in the world.I think my dream is quickly becoming a nightmare.

“Thank you for letting me know. I’ll keep him in the room,” Lyla said, noticing that Kevin had disappeared without speaking to her. From what she had seen so far, they seemed like a pretty normal family, considering they hadn’t seen each other for a long time. She glanced at Klaus, wondering again why he had been so concerned about returning alone when they had received a warm welcome. She would have like to talk to Kevin, but he was a teenagerandKlaus’s brother, so she didn’t expect him to hang around and chit-chat.

Then again, once the joy of Klaus’s return was extinguished, issues might start to fester.

“I didn’t know I’d gain a fiancé in less than twelve hours. A little warning would have been nice,” she hissed at Klaus through a false smile once they were out of earshot.

“Just say we’re engaged for a few days. Everything will be fine. You’ll get to experience a Christmas like never before,” he whispered in her ear at the top of the stairs, wrapping an arm round her waist.

She wanted to shove him away, but knew his mother was probably watching. The thought made her want to jump into the fireplace.

“Why?” she demanded as soon as they were out of Mrs Klaus’s sight. “Why is me being here a crime?”

“Because you weren’t born here, and outsiders aren’t supposed to know about the village. They can never know this place truly exists, or it would mean the end of Yule.”

“More on that later. If I refuse – if I tell them we aren’t a couple– what’s the worst they can do?”

He waited to reply until they reached the end of a corridor decorated with soft white carpet and rich red wallpaper, embellished with raised floral details.