‘For love,’ Kris interrupted. ‘And because they wouldn’t stop doorstepping us.’
‘Doorstepping?’ The press? Had they found out she was the Von Greyers’ nanny? One quick Google search had been enough to confirm that Hanna and Emil’s divorce was now all over the Swedish papers.
Their gazes collectively rose to a point beyond her shoulder, and she slowly turned. There, standing twenty metres away, was a man in a baseball cap – and beside him, a boy with a skateboard.
‘Oh my God!’ she cried, stepping back, her hands flying to her mouth at the sight of them here. All the way down here.
‘He literally wouldn’t stop calling,’ Tove murmured, watching her like she might fall. ‘I had to pick up for the sake of my sanity.’
In a flash, Bell understood where her friends had got the money for the tickets. She should have known they didn’t have the spare cash to fly across the world to see an old friend and a boat race.
‘You’re not mad, are you?’ Kris asked, seeing how she had paled. ‘We tried to brush him off at first by saying you were with Mats. He didn’t care. He said he had to see you and talk to you in person. So we truck a deal, but with conditions: he’s promised to stay out of the way if you don’t want to see him. He said we can bring the kid to see you every day and he’ll go sightseeing or something . . . Say you’re not mad.’
‘. . . No, I’m not mad,’ she whispered, seeing how tightly Emil was gripping Linus’s shoulder, holding him in place; how Linus was straining forward; both of them waiting for a cue . . . Her arms raised up reflexively, held out wide, and in the next instant, the boy had broken free, dropping even his beloved board, and was sprinting towards her.
‘Bell!’ He rushed into her arms, his own around her waist and his head against her heart. ‘I missed you.’
‘I missed you,’ she gasped, not able to believe this was happening, her hands squeezing him, running over his hair, checking he was real. ‘Oh my God, I missed you so much! You’re really here? I’m not . . . I’m not hallucinating?’
He looked back at her, nodding happily. ‘No! We flew for a day and a half to get here. We wanted to surprise you!’
‘Well, you did that, all right!’ she cried, half laughing, a sob of shock escaping her as she looked up to see Emil, closer now but still hanging back, holding his son’s skateboard. He had his baseball cap on, but no shades; she could see his eyes, those eyes . . .
‘So, are we good? Is this all good?’ Kris murmured, scanning the seemingly happy reunion. ‘Cos we can go to the hotel or we can stay here with you. For support. Back-up. Whatever you want.’
‘. . . It’s fine, this is good,’ she murmured, smiling down at Linus as he beamed back at her. A sunbeam that had landed in her arms.
‘Okay. Well, laters then, we’ll give you some time,’ he whispered, kissing her temple.
‘Later, alligator,’ Tove said, touching her arm lightly.
Bell looked back at Linus again, barely aware of her friends leaving. ‘You’ve grown! My God, I can’t believe how much you’ve grown! Just straighten up.’ She measured the top of his head against her jaw. ‘Oh my God, half a neck! You were down here when I saw you last!’
‘I know!’ he laughed excitedly. ‘Dad thinks I’m going to be taller than him.’
‘Well, I think he might be right.’
She glanced at Emil again, her heart beating fast. He was another few steps closer. He’d travelled halfway around the world, only to stop short the last six feet? Still, she couldn’t talk to him yet. Not yet. She needed time to recover, to process what was going on.
‘How was the voyage?’ Linus asked, helpfully bringing her attention back to him again.
‘Oh, long! Tiring! We’ve been resting since we got here. We did it in nine weeks in the end. As feared, we hit the doldrums in the ITCZ.’
‘The what?’
‘The Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone. Remember I told you about that once? It’s near the equator.’
‘Oh.’ Linus nodded thoughtfully, clearly drawing a blank. ‘Guess what!’
‘What?’
‘We flew economy. Dad’s never flown coach before. But Mamma made him. She said it was a condition for this holiday. And we watched films all