‘Port Manor? We’re staying there for the night of the wedding, too. It’s extravagant when Middledip’s two miles away but it’s so comfortable to have your own room and not be hanging about for taxis in the early hours.’ She felt a big smile take charge of her face at the thought of Rob’s wedding bringing her family together. She loved Sweden but she loved going home, too.

He smiled as they stepped out into the dark evening. ‘Sorry to rush.’ He gave her a quick, friendly hug and set off at a jog, throwing ‘See you soon,’ back over his shoulder.

After watching him vanish around a corner, Hannah pulled a jaunty blue knitted hat from her coat pocket. She’d worn her hair up at work but she took the clasp out now and enjoyed the end-of-day feeling of her scalp relaxing before she crammed the hat on. Her breath clouded the frosty air and she headed out of Gamla Stan and over the bridge, the pavements looking as if they’d been sprinkled with diamond dust. Below, the black water reflected a million lights, as if the winter night stars had fallen in.

She set off briskly, the wind grabbing at her hair, hands and feet soon half-numb with the cold, past department stores and parks, black waterways and old buildings, to the broad thoroughfare that was Nybrogatan. At the five-storey honey-coloured apartment block near the metro station she keyed in the door code and, eschewing the lift with its metal concertina door, ran upstairs to the first floor and let herself in. Albin wasn’t yet home, which was as she’d expected, and his lair of white leather and black granite felt emptily echoey. She wanted to introduce rich, vibrant fabrics to soften the monochrome minimalism but Albin refused to hear of it. It was his family’s apartment so his preference prevailed. They’d actually argued about bathroom towels recently.

Hannah felt as if she was looking down the wrong end of a telescope at the whirlwind romance they’d once shared. In the past few months he’d become distant, even cold. No longer was he the Albin who’d been fascinated by her down-to-earth ordinariness, laughing at her jokes, hungering for her body, sexting during the working day, and who had so wanted to make her happy that he’d made her business possible by signing the lease. She remembered the day; the way she’d thanked him and he’d whispered, ‘It will keep you in Sweden.’