Hannah had visited but pretended to be a Gold Room virgin to give Josie the pleasure of showing her down the stairs past the enormous vault doors. They took photos of each other with towering rune stones then wandered around glass cabinets that glowed with enough treasure for a thousand pirates.

‘See those big gold necklace collar thingies?’ Josie tugged Hannah’s sleeve. ‘They look like seven plain strands but if we take a photo and zoom in – look!’

‘Wow!’ breathed Hannah, impressed by the on-screen image. ‘Teeny tiny patterns all over. How on earth did they do that?’

‘They were Swedish,’ Josie said, as if that explained the unearthly skill required. Poring over the magnified image they could make out not only minute circles and scrolls gracing each strand but tiny figures, both human and other, carved into the solder joining the strands together. It prickled Hannah’s skin to think that fifteen or sixteen centuries ago this stunning piece of jewellery graced the neck of a Scandinavian chief.

Maria’s interest in gold waning, they approached the circular pool at the centre of the vault, leaning over the thick railings to gaze at coins shimmering like a gilded carpet of autumn leaves beneath the water. Sifting through the kronor in their pockets for coins, everyone made a wish. Josie was very secretive about hers, screwing up her entire face with the effort of wishing. Carina was pensive as she threw her coin, eyebrows knitting. Nico’s expression was hard to read, though the planes of his face were captured perfectly in the golden light, and he flipped his coin so that it spun high in the air before hitting the water with a tiny splash.

When it came to Hannah’s turn she found herself making one of those wishes that are half-formed in the back of your mind, a yearning you’ve hardly admitted to yourself. It concerned Nico.

Maria, unfamiliar with the concept of wishing, was happy to hurl coins into the water, clapping at the tinkling splash as they hit the surface. ‘More money, Mydad!’ she urged, and cleared the adults of their small change while they laughed at her beaming smile.

‘Let’s head for Skansen while it’s still light,’ Nico suggested. Skansen was on the island of Djurgården, which meant, literally, animal garden. A bus carried them to the main gate. As they bought tickets the snow stopped falling, though it still clung to every twig and rolled a white carpet over the paths that wound up through a rocky slope. Hannah had come to the vast open-air museum of Skansen for musical events but the rest hadn’t been sophisticated enough for Albin. However, Nico and Carina knew Skansen well enough to select a route without consulting the map.