The other Nordic countries were occupied too—butby the Nazis. There, they knew from the few Icelanders who had managed to come home after being trapped in Denmark or Sweden, private citizens were starving and dying of cold, because the Germans took it all. All their resources, all their livelihoods. The people were left with nothing.
Here, it was the opposite. The Americans had brought prosperity with them. Money they were eager to spend in Icelandic shops, for starters. Then they opened exports of fish, bringing another influx of cash, and that trickled down to everyone. For the first time in their history, he and his neighbors not only had enough, they hadextra. Industry was booming. Cities and towns were growing. They’d gone from being the poorest country in Europe to one of the wealthiest, per capita.
It was a humbling thing, to be benefiting from the war that had been tearing so much of the world apart.
“I don’t know, Tatta.” Valdi’s voice snagged Anders’s attention, drawing his gaze to the publisher’s door, which stood open, displaying both the middle-aged man and his beautiful niece on opposite sides of his wide wooden desk. “Things are going to be hectic between now and Christmas. Having a child underfoot...”
A hole cleared in front of the coffeepot, but Anders edged forward only a few inches. None of his business,he knew that. But he couldn’t help but feel a little invested. Tatiana’s face always lit up so when she was speaking of her niece. He often asked about little Elea, just to see the way her eyes would go bright.
Surely Valdi wouldn’t deny his grandniece the company of family in the days before Christmas. Would he?
Tatiana’s back was to the door, but he could see the plea in the line of her shoulders, even before he heard it in her voice when next she spoke. “You know Elea won’t be any trouble though. She’ll stay at my desk and occupy herself with books or drawings or the schoolwork she’ll be bringing with her, since she’s missing the last ten days of class. I promise, you’ll scarcely know she’s here, but for the smiles she’ll inspire.”
Valdi’s lips were pressed together, his eyes declaring himself conflicted. “You know I want to help—but if you leave her at your desk while you’re overseeing the mailings, then she’ll be unchaperoned unless I put aside my work to watch her.”
“Helga and I could help.” The words were out of Anders’s mouth before he could think better of declaring to his boss that he’d been unabashedly eavesdropping. And his feet, fools that they were, were propelling him toward the open door. All for exactly what he’dbeen hoping—Tatiana spinning around, beaming a smile of gratitude at him.
Fool, without question. He knew very well that nothing would ever convince a woman like Tatiana to give him a second glance. He had only to stand beside his hulking older brothers with their strapping good looks to be reminded of all he wasn’t. Dalmar and Ulric and Ram had always had girls swooning—and had all been married for years at this point. He, on the other hand, could never keep a woman’s attention for more than five minutes.
Still, he could never help himself when it came to Tatiana. She was never stingy with her smiles and gave them to everyone, it was true, but he lived for the ones directed his way. Like the one currently cutting through the clouds like a ray of sunshine.
Her uncle, on the other hand, lifted his brows. “You think you or Helga will have time for babysitting, Anders?”
“I’m a few days ahead of schedule on the manuscript I’m editing. And there’s plenty of room for her in my outer office with Helga—and you know how she loves children, and she can outpace the rest of the Story Society anyway. She wouldn’t be a bother.” He offered asmile of his own. “And perhaps she’ll do me the favor of looking over my own work in progress. I could use the feedback of a few children and haven’t had the chance to show it to my own nieces and nephews yet.”
Because when he’d tried after dinner with the whole clan on Sunday, Ulric had told him to put his rubbish away so the children could go outside to play.
Tatiana drew in a happy gasp, hands clasped together before her heart. “Truly? She will be over the moon! Elea adores Helga.”
He let her pleasure warm him for a moment before looking past her to see what Valdi’s reaction might be.
Thankfully, the publisher was smiling too, though with a few more reservations in his eyes. “All right. We’ll give it a try. But if it doesn’t work out, she’ll have to stay with Beta during the days instead. Fair enough?”
Having met Valdi’s wife many times, he had no doubt she’d be eager to host little Elea if it came to that. But taking her to her aunt and uncle’s house and then picking her up again would steal the moments he knew Tatiana was hoping to spend with her niece.
She moved her smile from Anders to her uncle and back again. “Thank you. Both of you. You won’t regret it—I promise.”
Elea could be a little monster, and he still wouldn’t regret it. Anything that earned him that smile was something he’d do gladly. Feeling his face begin to heat in that way he hated, he merely nodded and ducked back into the coffee line.
TWO
11 DECEMBER 1944
Darkness had long ago fallen, bringing with it a biting cold wind off the water. That wasn’t enough to keep Tatiana inside though, not with the promise of her niece’s arrival any minute. She’d hurried home from work, changed from her stylish pumps into sturdy snow boots and a longer woolen skirt than she’d worn to the office, and come back outside to wait.
She stood in a circle of light from the streetlamp, grateful that the Americans had never succeeded in instituting the blackouts they’d at first demanded. Themayor had kept putting them off, insisting the threat to Iceland by the Luftwaffe was minimal, and it had proven true enough that their occupiers had let the subject drop. Tatiana paced around the circle of light, trying to keep her feet from going numb in the cold.
“Evening, Tatta,” her neighbor, Ofelia, said as she approached the entrance to their building. Her arms were full of grocery bags, so Tatiana leapt for the door to hold it for her.
“Hello, Ofelia.” Though her face was freezing, she had no trouble offering a smile for the woman who had adopted her as another granddaughter within a week of her moving in. “Find what you needed at the grocer’s?”
Ofelia made a face, sending a beautiful web of wrinkles fanning out from her eyes. “At this rate I’ll only have sugar enough for a batch or two of Christmas treats. And I’ve been saving it up so long!”
Tatiana had been saving her rations too, intending to give them to either Ofelia or Aunt Beta to use in their holiday baking... but that was before she knew Elea would be here. Now she was planning to bake some treats herself, and since she hadn’t ever mentioned her intentions to her neighbor or aunt... well, they’d understand, regardless. “I know. I’ve made a list of Elea’sfavorites, and I’ll let her pick which two or three we can make.”
“Sometimes I wonder if there will ever be a day when the rationing stops.” Ofelia smiled though as she lingered in the doorway, gaze on Tatiana. “Not that we have anything to complain about. There’s still fresh milk, potatoes, fish...”
“And paper,” Tatiana added with a grin of her own. Paper had never been rationed at all, which made books one of the few readily-available luxuries. And now that people had extra money to spend on them... well, business was booming at the Story Society.
