Maddy’s Christmas Wedding (Little Duck Pond Cafe #37)

CHAPTER NINETEEN

After our lake plunge, Katja and I joined the other two in the sauna. And then after about ten minutes, Katja looked at me expectantly. ‘Coming, Fen?’

I grinned at her. ‘For another plunge? Absolutely!’

We ended up doing the sauna-plunge thing three times, rounding it off with a warm-up session in the sauna. And we didn’t lord it over Jaz even once. Well, maybe we did. Just a little bit. (Quite a lot, actually.)

Afterwards, dressed in warm clothes, we made our way over to the little cottage where dinner was waiting for us, joining two older couples who were also on the trip and had also decided against doing the plunge.

The dinner that had been prepared for us by Jovvna and Elssá was absolutely delicious. We started with a traditional Finnish dish of warm meatballs with a mouth-wateringly tart lingonberry sauce. On the menu for the main course was a speciality called suovas – or smoked reindeer meat – which Jaz ordered.

‘That’s an adventurous choice, Jaz,’ I pointed out with a sly grin, after we’d all ordered. ‘Are you making up for the fact that you were anything but adventurous when it came to the lake plunge?’

She grinned sheepishly. ‘Haha. Touché. Yes, I suppose I deserved that, Fen.’

Chuckling, we all toasted each other with our glasses of gl?gi, a deliciously warming mulled wine, delicately spiced – according to the menu – with cinnamon, orange, cardamom and vanilla.

While Jaz had ordered the suovas, the rest of us had seen the delicious-looking traditional fish dish being served to the other guests when we arrived, so we’d ordered with our eyes and gone for that: a fish called Arctic char, which Jovvna told us tasted somewhere between trout and salmon. It was baked in foil with sliced lemons and herbs, and served with delicious waxy potatoes cooked with dill, and an intriguing-looking green vegetable that looked more like a herb, and which had a taste rather like mushrooms.

Jaz asked about the vegetable and Jovvna smiled and said it was known as ‘reindeer moss’, and was actually a lichen that reindeer fed on. We were rather surprised by that but agreed it tasted good. Then came dessert in the form of a gorgeously gooey chocolate cake called kladdkaka, which we tucked into silently, the only sound at our table for a while being the occasional murmur of deep appreciation.

‘We should have a Finnish day at the café some time,’ Katja suggested.

Jaz nodded. ‘The customers would love this cake.’ She took a final mouthful of the rich chocolate concoction, put down her fork and sat back with a happy sigh. ‘I really need the recipe.’ She grinned across at me. ‘I mean, obviously, I’m never going to make it myself. You know how bad I am at baking. But you could make it, Fen.’

I nodded eagerly. ‘I’d love to. I’ll have a Finnish night at mine when we get back and you’re all invited. Plus everyone who couldn’t make this trip.’

‘That would be nice.’ Katja nodded. ‘It’s such a shame they missed out on all of this. Ooh, I can’t wait to see the glass igloo we’ll be staying in tomorrow night.’

‘I know,’ I agreed. ‘It’ll be magical – especially if we manage to catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights while lying in bed. Imagine if we did!’

‘It’s the night-time sledging with huskies I’m looking forward to more than anything,’ said Jaz. ‘I only hope Maddy comes with us this time and doesn’t cry off at the last moment, like she did today.’

Laurel glanced at her watch. ‘The taxi should be here to take us back to the chalet soon.’ She nodded at the bottles of gl?gi displayed on the counter nearby. ‘Why don’t we buy some gl?gi for Maddy? If she’s awake, we can have a nightcap together.’

Everyone agreed it was a good idea, although when we arrived back, the place was in darkness. I went upstairs and listened at Maddy’s door but it was clear she must be sleeping. Maybe there was no mystery at all. She might just have been really tired. Wedding preparations, while exciting, could be exhausting as well, but hopefully she’d be feeling much better tomorrow after a good long rest.

Maddy had mentioned a few times that she longed to see the Northern Lights, so she surely wouldn’t miss the husky sledging trip the following evening. That could be our last chance to see in real life the magnificent light-show we’d only ever seen in photographs.

Maybe we’d get to the bottom of what was going on with Maddy then . . .

*****

Maddy seemed a little perkier the following morning, laughing heartily and teasing Jaz when she confessed to chickening out of the lake plunge.

I listened with a smile, feeling relieved. This was Maddy’s hen party. It was a memory people cherished for the rest of their lives, so it was important that she had a great time.

Speaking of great times, things back at home seemed to be continuing perfectly swimmingly without me, and I was trying hard not to mind. (It was great that Rob was coping so well on his own. Of course it was. I’d have been quite worried about him if the chaos I’d been expecting had materialised.)

Once more, Rob had somehow managed to get the twins dressed and hair brushed by seven o’clock their time, which was when we’d agreed to have our Facetime call. What’s more, it had snowed in the UK overnight and they were all standing in the back garden, muffled up in their coats and wellies so they could show me.

‘That’s amazing.’ I laughed. ‘I come all the way to Lapland for snow and I needn’t have bothered.’

‘If it keeps snowing, we’re going to make a snowman later. Aren’t we, kids?’

They’d both nodded sleepily, standing quietly like a pair of little angels in their blue coats and yellow wellies. If I’d been in charge, Liam’s coat would be open, Lottie would have pulled her hat off (she hated wearing hats) and they’d be charging about the garden getting into all sorts of slushy, snowy mischief!

‘I hope you’ll make a snowwoman as well!’

‘Of course we will,’ grinned Rob. ‘We might have to borrow that flowery wedding hat of yours, though.’

‘Don’t you dare!’

‘Only joking. Lottie’s Barbie wig will have to do.’

‘Brilliant. Well, take lots of photos, please, so I don’t feel too left out.’

‘We miss you. Don’t we, kids? What do we say to Mummy before she goes?’

‘We love you, Mummy,’ they both chanted together, and my heart melted as we ended the call.

I could now throw myself into enjoying the day ahead without any worries at all. Everything was perfectly fine back home, which was great.

Absolutely marvellous, in fact.

I couldn’t be happier . . .

*****

We decided to explore Santa Claus Village after breakfast. It was a short taxi ride from the centre of Rovaniemi and Jaz was keen to go to Santa’s ‘official main post office’ so she could send home cards for everyone with an Arctic Circle postmark.

She’d brought a letter to Santa that she’d written with Emma, and she also wanted to order a ‘letter from Santa’ that would – excitingly – be delivered to her daughter before Christmas.

The post office turned out to be a magical place smelling of Christmas spices and full of gifts, cards, sparkle and Christmas cheer, with jolly elves dressed in bright festive colours helping us at every turn.

Later, we called in at ‘Santa’s Pets’ and it was lovely to see reindeer and alpacas up close, after which we were all ready for a warming drink and something to eat. But finding a table proved difficult – the village was very popular with families and the cafés were obviously busy at lunchtimes – so we decided to head back into Rovaniemi instead.

There, a magical winter wonderland – the SnowGlow Winterpark – had opened for the Christmas season so we went in to explore and we managed to grab hot chocolates and some delicious traditional Finnish pastries called joulutorttu, meaning ‘Christmas star’. As the name suggested, the pastries were shaped like stars and made of layers of buttery puff pastry with a sweet centre. We ordered two kinds – some with plum jam and some with apple and cinnamon jam in the middle – and they were so yummy, we decided to buy a bag to take home for breakfast the following morning.

Maddy had gone a little quiet again, and then halfway through eating a pastry, her phone rang. She glanced at the name of the caller and stood up abruptly. ‘I’ll be back in a minute’, she said and walked out of the café.

We glanced at each other worriedly.

‘She looked too serious for it to be Jack,’ I murmured. ‘Unless something’s going on with them that we don’t know about. I might just go and see if she’s okay?’

Jaz nodded. ‘It’s hard because she’s obviously determined not to tell us what’s going on, but maybe she’ll talk to you, Fen, if it’s just the two of you?’

I nodded and got up. Hurrying out of the café, I looked around trying to spot Maddy but she was nowhere in sight. So I walked around the indoor winter wonderland and at last I saw her. Still on the phone to someone, she was standing at the edge of an activity area, looking at families having fun on mini snowmobiles.

As I drew closer, I could hear her saying, ‘Look, you need to stop blaming yourself, Marcus. Because it’s not your fault. No, really, it’s not! It’s just . . . well, I don’t know what it means going forward. What the hell do we do? But please don’t mention any of this to Jack if you see him. Okay? Promise me, Marcus. Don’t just go blurting it out. I need to tell him myself and then we can decide what we’re going to do . . . whether he wants to go ahead with it.’

Marcus was clearly replying because she was just listening now, with such a sad and defeated look on her face. Then she said, ‘We’ll talk some more when I get back, okay? But it goes without saying that I’d rather you didn’t mention this to anyone else? Not yet, anyway. I’m still trying to get my head around it.’

Marcus was talking on the other end, perhaps reassuring her that the ‘secret’ was safe with him.

‘Look, I know I can trust you, Marcus. You don’t need to convince me. You’ve got my back. You always do.’ Maddy seemed to be soothing him now.

Then she ended the call.

I stood there, my heart beating anxiously, not knowing what to do. I didn’t want Maddy thinking I’d overheard her private conversation, but there was something about the way she was standing so rigidly, a faraway look on her face as she stared out over the Christmas revellers in their mini snowmobiles, that made me want to rush over and comfort her.

What had happened with Marcus?

What wasn’t his fault?

I knew he was footing the bill for the three-course wedding breakfast and the champagne for the reception and that certainly wouldn’t be cheap. Maybe something had happened and Marcus could no longer afford to pay for it? But surely there were cheaper menus to choose from?

Why did Maddy think Rob might not want to ‘go ahead with it?’ (The wedding, presumably.)

It didn’t make any sense.