Their hotel was in the heart of the city at Vasaplan. The girls were so exhausted that Hannah ordered a seven-seater Uber on her app and occupied the middle row with Josie and Carina while Nico and Maria took the back. They edged through the traffic past massive reindeer made of a constellation of tiny lights and people hunching into their coats and tramping paths in the snow.

Maria fell asleep and descended into red-faced, kicking revolt when lifted from the car. In the hotel’s reception, Nico tried to calm her with cuddles and Hannah distracted Josie from what she termed her ‘dead feet’ by counting the glass balls suspended from the lofty ceiling. Carina, as she’d made the booking, went to check in.

By the time she returned, Maria had wound down into moaning wails and Josie had snapped at her to shut up. ‘Well, well!’ Carina clasped Josie’s hands and pulled her to her feet. ‘Two tired, grouchy girls. But, good news! In the family room is a whirlpool bath. Just the thing to cheer you up. And then we’ll have supper here in the hotel and watch TV together. It will be fun.’

It didn’t sound like a fun way to spend an evening in Stockholm to Hannah but Josie brightened and Maria wiped her nose on Nico’s coat and sat up.

Carina gave key cards to Hannah and Nico. ‘I’ll take the family room with the girls. I don’t spend enough time with Josie and I’d like to know little Maria better.’

Nico halted in his tracks. ‘Surely I’m taking the family room with the girls?’

Carina pulled off his black knitted hat and tousled his hair as if he was about ten. ‘Nico, I have paid for the rooms, so I decide. Take advantage of a night off and relax. You need it.’ She sounded as if she were telling him off. ‘Maria and Josie, you want to play in Farmor’s whirlpool bath and eat nice things in front of the TV, don’t you?’

Both girls answered, ‘Yes!’ and grabbed Carina’s hands. The overnight bags were collected from the luggage room and they took the lift. At the third floor, Carina and the girls wished Nico and Hannah a cheery goodbye and turned up the green-carpeted corridor as the doors swished shut. The lift slid smoothly onwards up to Floor Six.

Nico contemplated his empty hands. ‘I hardly know what to do.’ He grinned but Hannah wondered how often in the past few years he’d found himself without anyone to look after outside work hours. When the lift doors reopened they stepped out into another corridor, this one carpeted in beige, and found their rooms were opposite one another.

Nico glanced from one door to the other and smiled. ‘Would you have dinner with me? Or are you deserting me for a whirlpool bath too?’