‘Oskar, I want you to listen to me,’ Alexander said. ‘If you intend to marry, then do it quietly. Take Amalie away from here and give them time to come to terms with the situation. A grandchild will change everything, once it’s born, and they’ll eventually soften to the idea.’
Amalie looked between the two brothers, her heart melting as they embraced. She’d been wrong to fear meeting Alexander—despite the parents who’d raised them, or perhaps in spite of it, they were both kind men with big hearts.
‘If you need money, anything at all, you let me know,’ Alexander said. ‘You know I’d never turn my back on you.’
She stood on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to his cheek. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered.
Oskar and his brother clasped hands, before Oskar put his arm around her and walked her to the door.
Less than an hour later, they sat on a park bench near his family’s home, her head to his shoulder as they watched a family picnic, the children running around with a kite that was soaring high in the sky.
‘I can’t ask you to do this for me,’ Amalie said. ‘They’re your family.’
‘You haven’t asked me,’ Oskar replied, touching his head to hers. ‘This is my decision, and one I want to make. You’re my family now, Amalie. You and our baby.’
‘Then what do we do now?’ she asked. ‘My father told me not to come home until I was married. He doesn’t want a scandal, and?—’
‘Amalie, I’m not sending you home,’ he said. ‘We have friends in London, and I want you to go there and wait for me. I’ll join you by the end of the month, but I need to get some things in order first.’
‘You want me to go ahead without you?’ She couldn’t disguise the tremble in her voice. ‘To another country?’
‘I need to know you’re safe and settled, and I think it’s best if we have a fresh start there. We can get married as soon as I join you, and I can arrange a transfer to a university there. I still want to finish my degree, and after that we can figure out what to do next.’
She breathed deeply. ‘If that’s what you want, then I’ll go. But promise you’ll come quickly. I don’t like the thought of being alone for long.’
She kept her head on his shoulder as he kissed her hair. ‘We’re going to have a wonderful life together, whether my parents approve or not,’ he murmured. ‘And my friends are lovely, I promise you they’ll welcome you with open arms. I’ll write to them today.’
Amalie had always been reluctant to believe in promises, but Oskar had given her no reason to doubt him. Everything he’d promised so far had come true.
And she knew that in that moment, she’d have agreed to move halfway around the world if Oskar had asked her to, if it meant they could be together.
20
PRESENT DAY
Charlotte had been silent almost the entire last hour of the journey to the hotel at Sognefjord, feigning tiredness from such a big week, but she knew that there was no way she could spend a whole weekend with Harrison and not tell him that she knew. But then she also didn’t want to be the one to bring it up, in case it ruined everything. It was a dilemma that was sending her crazy as she tried to figure out when the best time to bring it up would be.
There’s no good time to bring up the fact that his wife died. Which, now she thought about it, was probably why he hadn’t told her himself. When exactly could he have slipped that into their conversation, even if he’d wanted to?
But by the time they’d checked into their adjoining hotel rooms, it was Harrison knocking on her door, the look on his face telling her that he knew something was wrong. Clearly, she didn’t have a very good poker face.
‘Hey,’ he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. ‘I just wanted to check that everything was?—’
He stopped talking, clearly having noticed the pained expression on her face as she stared back at him.
‘I don’t know what to say,’ she blurted, hating that tears filled her eyes the moment she said it. She’d been so determined not to get upset or even say anything at all, and they’d barely had time to unpack before she was welling up.
‘They told you, didn’t they?’ Harrison said, running a hand through his hair and looking away as he took a step back. ‘I should have recognised that look in your eyes, I’ve seen it a thousand times before.’
‘I’m sorry, I?—’
‘You know what you said to me, that very first day we went exploring? You refused to let me pity you for what happened with your mum, you even told me off for a look I wasn’t even giving you.’
She closed her eyes for a moment. ‘I did.’
‘You know why I’ve loved being here?’ he asked. ‘It’s because no one gives me that look here. I ran from it, and now it’s caught up with me because someone told you my story before I was ready to share it myself.’
Charlotte forced herself to look at him then. ‘You know what, you’re right, it should have been you telling me. But I don’t pity you, Harrison, I just wish I’d known your pain, that’s all.’
