“You know what, Emelie, my foot is feeling better, and I am rather tired, so I better get going.”
Emelie quickly got to her feet.
“Of course, you are tired, I’m sorry, I got completely captivated by your sweet story. I’ll go and give Andreas a ring and see if he can drive you or if I can borrow the moped” she said.
Andreas promised to come right away and Emelie put her arm around Jenny, helping her out to the porch to sit and wait there. The foot was already looking better, and Jenny assured her that it would be just fine, thanks to her care. Suddenly Emelie realised that Jenny might know something about the baking book.
“Speaking of the old days. Astrid was supposed to have had a book where she collected all her recipes and we have looked like crazy for it. My daughter, Linn, will be in charge of the café at the Christmas market and she would love to be able to serve cookies and cakes that are just as delicious as Astrid’s, but we can’t find it anywhere.”
Jenny shook her head.
“That will be a challenge, Astrid’s baking was marvelous, and she had a lots of time to perfect it. When she didn’t teach, she was always in the kitchen. That book was her most priced possession.”
She squinted at Emelie.
“She used to hide it under her mattress, against the planks of her bed.”
Emelie smiled as she felt the panic grow. The book was on the planks of Astrid’s bed, the same bed she had asked Andreas to toss! How would she ever be able to tell Linn that she had thrown away the precious book – even if she didn’t intend to? She was starting to wonder what Andreas had done with the beds? She was holding onto a small sliver of hope, because he had never actually confirmed that he had thrown them out. What if…” Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a moped outside.
“Jenny, Andreas is here now. Here, I’ll walk you outside,” Emelie said.
She offered Jenny her arm and the old lady took it, carefully trying out to put her left foot next to her right.
“I feel better already, I’ll be back on the mountain in a jiffy, just you wait and see.”
Emelie helped Jenny down the stairs where Andreas took over, lifting her up on the platform. Emelie grabbed his arm.
“Can you come back here afterwards, I have something important to discuss with you”, she said. He stared at her in surprise but nodded before taking off with Jenny who was cheerfully waving to her from her seat.
Chapter 15
Half an hour later, Andreas was back in Emelie’s kitchen.
“What did you want to ask me about?”
He took off his cap, drying the sweat from his forehead. Emelie told him the story about the Christmas decorations and Astrid and finished by with telling him about the baking book. Andreas looked at her with tear-filled eyes.
“I didn’t know about Astrid and my grandfather, but there was always a certain chemistry between them. I’ve often wondered if Astrid could be an illegitimate child that my great grandfather had fathered, and if she could be my granddad’s sister, but I guess that wasn’t the case. Can you believe that she could forgive granddad, letting us into her home?”
He shook his head and slumped down onto one of her chairs. Emelie sat down across from him, taking his hands in hers.
“Everyone is talking about what a lovely person Astrid was, and this really proves it.”
He looked up at her, smiling sadly and wiping away a couple of tears from his cheek with his sleeve.
“You are right, love works in mysterious ways, huh?”
Emelie got a lump in her throat looking into his beautiful, teary eyes and she couldn’t say a word. Then he smiled at her.
“But what was it you said about the baking book?”
Emelie got up, leaning against the countertop.
“Yes, turns out that Astrid used to keep he baking book hidden on the planks under her mattress. I mean, in one of the old beds that I asked you to toss when we bought new ones. Does that mean that they are in the dump and that the baking book is lost forever? I don’t know how to tell Linn that we have thrown the book out…”
She looked desperately at Andreas who scratched his head.
“Yes, I did what you asked me to…”
