‘Right. And then we run away.’
He laughed. A little weakly. ‘I wouldn’t blame you. This thing has got entirely too weird. You had no idea what you were signing up for.’
Lara shook her head. ‘I knew I was signing up for you. Mormor’s a part of that. Now.’ She squeezed his hand again before letting it drop. ‘Let’s do this.’
But, before they had a chance to knock, the door flew open in front of them.
‘Ah, there you are, älskling. I wondered when you would get here.’ She pulled Jannes in by the elbow and planted a kiss on his cheek.
‘We didn’t tell you we were coming.’
‘I announced your engagement in The Times without telling you. Of course you were coming.’
Jannes rolled his eyes. ‘So you’re not even going to deny it?’
She looked amazed. ‘Why would I deny it? It was a stroke of brilliance. I’m rather proud of it.’
‘It was manipulative and inappropriate—’ Jannes started.
‘And yet Lara seems to be wearing an engagement ring.’ Mormor interrupted him with a pointed look. ‘So it can’t have been that terrible an idea.’
Lara could see a muscle twitching in Jannes’s jaw as he struggled to keep calm. ‘We found out in a business meeting. You didn’t give us a choice but to play along.’
‘Oh, we always have a choice, älskling,’ Mormor said, walking down the hallway to the kitchen and speaking to them over her shoulder as she went. ‘And you two chose to be engaged. So, congratulations. I’m sure that you’re going to be very happy.’
Jannes leaned in the doorway of the kitchen while Mormor bustled around, making them all a drink. Lara looked from grandmother to grandson, amused by the clash of wills, or she would have been amused if she had been an innocent bystander rather than caught up in Mormor’s little scheme. ‘Mormor, you do know that the ring isn’t legally binding, yes? We’re going to break this off when the timing is right.’
She threw her hands in the air, and Jannes grabbed for the milk jug she was about to fill. ‘Yes, yes, well, you can explain all of that to the vicar if you want.’
‘Excuse me, the vicar? What vicar?’ Jannes slammed the jug down so hard on the worktop that Lara feared for its safety, but even with the roiling anxiety of the fake engagement it was impossible not to be charmed by the clearly well-rehearsed ballet of Mormor trying to make tea but getting distracted, and Jannes trying to minimise damage but only getting in the way.
‘The vicar from the Swedish church, of course,’ Mormor said, as if Jannes was the idiot for not knowing which vicar she was talking about. ‘Did you know you can’t get married in church until you’ve had the banns read three times? And I told the vicar to start this Sunday, but she absolutely insisted that she had to meet you first. I don’t see why she couldn’t just take my word for it, as I am your grandmother after all, and why she thinks that she would know better than—’
Jannes came to an absolute standstill. ‘Let me get this right,’ he said very slowly, choosing his words with care. ‘You spoke to the vicar and you tried to have our banns read? Without asking us?’
‘Yes, well, if you’re going to have the wedding there then you have to book it well in advance.’ Mormor carried on setting cups and saucers on a tray, either not noticing or not caring about the storm cloud expression on Jannes’s face. ‘There’s only one Swedish church in the whole of London, you know that. So unless you want this to be one of those depressingly long engagements—’
‘But we’re not getting married!’
Mormor finally stopped what she was doing, turned to look at him with narrowed eyes. She fixed Jannes with a look that could make flowers wilt. ‘Then why are you engaged?’
Jannes’s jaw clenched so hard that Lara worried that he might crack a tooth. She should probably intervene, but there wasn’t anything she could say that Jannes hadn’t already, and really it was quite amusing, seeing Jannes pushed so close to the breaking point.
‘Mormor. We are not engaged,’ Jannes ground out. ‘We are simply playing along because you’ve given us no choice. You can cancel the appointment with the vicar—’
‘No, well, I can’t do that.’
Jannes sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘I don’t think I even have the strength to ask why not.’
‘Well, because I’ve told all of my friends at church that you’re getting married there. I’d simply be too mortified.’
Which meant that word had probably spread across half the Swedish population of London. Which also meant that trying to deny it would probably spread just as fast, and hit the tabloids before the week was out.
‘Mormor, please.’
For the first time, the older woman’s expression softened, and she reached to cover his hand with hers.
‘Look, älskling, I’ve spent a long time watching you be unhappy without saying anything. And now I see how you two are together—’ she glanced across at Lara, who felt herself blush ‘—and I just think, give it a go! I can see how fond you both are of one another. And I know you like to pretend that there are reasons why you can’t do this. I’m never going to forgive your parents for the way they treated you. I thought I’d clear the way for you. Show you that it can be that simple if you just decide it’s what you both want.’