‘Can I leave you in charge of flutes?’ asked Amelie, peeling off her apron. ‘Some of us need to go and get ready for a party.’
‘These are all chilled. The buckets are downstairs, along with the flutes, and I’ll leave the spare bottles outside on the terrace.’
‘Would you like me to check Kristian in, and then I’ll go straight up and change?’ asked Mina.
‘If you don’t mind. I need to find a nice shirt for Johannes,’ said Amelie with a steely glint in her eye.
‘What’s wrong with this one?’
Mina and Kristian left them discussing the matter.
Mina slipped her favourite dress from its hanger. The shirt-style, with buttons all way down the front, had a flared midi-length skirt, and felt feminine and floaty when she wore it. Vanity had elevated it to favourite because the rich blue silky fabric seemed to accentuate her eyes and turn them almost royal blue. Only her pensive smile as she studied herself in the mirror gave any hint of her feelings.
‘Showtime,’ she said to her reflection, gathered up her wrap in case it got colder later and her bag, and left the hotel room, grateful that Amelie had insisted that, with room to spare, she stay put for the time being. With a foolish gesture she stroked the door to what had once been Luke’s room and told herself off for being fanciful.
As soon as she came down the stairs to the café from the kitchen, Johannes handed her a glass of champagne. ‘This will calm your nerves,’ he said.
‘Thank you.’ She took the glass with a steady hand; her nerves had nothing to do with the opening.
‘You look beautiful,’ said Amelie, and raised her glass. ‘To Mina, for bringing everything together.’
To her surprise, Johannes kissed her on the cheek before adding a hearty, ‘To Mina.’ He actually looked a little emotional.
‘It looks wonderful, doesn’t it?’ she said, taking a sip of the champagne. ‘You know some great craftsmen.’
‘A team effort, but it would not have been possible without your enthusiasm and determination, Mina. You had the vision. Is it how you saw it?’ he asked.
‘Better.’ Mina sighed, utterly thrilled with how it all turned out. ‘I think I might cry.’
‘Don’t do that,liebling.’ Amelie hugged her which brought the tears closer. ‘This is a celebration. You can cry at the wedding. Which reminds me, do you think that you could make our wedding cake?’
Mina’s eyes widened and she threw her arms around her godmother. ‘I’d be honoured. Ooh, I’ve got loads of ideas for wedding cakes.’
Amelie patted her. ‘There’s plenty of time. Well, a few weeks.’
‘A few weeks!’
‘Don’t tell everyone, but we don’t want a lot of fuss, and why wait? We’re both old enough to know what we want. It will be a small wedding, only ten or so people, but we’ll have a party afterwards for everyone.’
‘A wedding cake.’ Ideas were already flooding into her head.
‘Why don’t you concentrate on today first?’ Amelie patted her cheek. ‘One thing at a time.’
‘You know me. Always onto the next thing.’
‘Well not today, this is your day too. Look its nearly time.’
In the way that she’d learned was typically Swiss, many of the invited guests, especially the older people, arrived at exactly one o’clock, with none of the fashionably-late rubbish that so often characterised things at home. Even though she knew by now to expect it, she was still surprised to see the orderly prompt queue waiting outside the new door, which had been painted forest-green to match the inside wall. In no time at all the café filled with noise, cheerful chatter bouncing off the walls. Claudia and Frank turned up with a beautiful potted plant and insisted on being given a guided tour of every inch of the kitchen, tasting room and café area.
‘You’ve done an amazing job. This is beautiful,’ exclaimed Claudia. ‘I can’t wait to bring our first tour here. We’ve planned a really interesting route so that we can stop here for lunch.’
Mina felt a little overcome by their support. ‘That’s so kind of you.’
‘It’s business,’ said Frank. ‘If we show our customers a good time and take them to nice places, they’ll recommend us to their friends and family. Word of mouth is one of the best ways of advertising.’ Then he winked. ‘And there is nothing like cake to keep tired hikers going.’
As she laughed with him, she noticed some newcomers arrive at the door. ‘Excuse me, I ought to go and say hello.’ Throughout the next hour, people kept arriving and Mina found her attention constantly straying to the door.
Kristian arrived with Jane, the Italian family popped in, and various villagers as well as guests from a neighbouring hotel.
