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She must have made it while I was too busy to notice. I wasn’t a jewelry kind of woman, but that was brooches and necklaces and earrings. This was something else. This was perfect.

I held out my hand, and my throat grew thick as she tied the bracelet around my wrist. “Do you like it?” she asked, and her face held all that earnestness I adored the very most about her.

“I… I like it a lot,” I said, and I sounded like a toad with my croaky voice. She took my hand and squeezed it.

When our cups and the plates were empty, my uncle announced it was his bedtime.

“I’ll stay here for a little,” Alma said. “It’s Christmas Eve, after all.”

“Don’t let the dark elves get you on the way home,” he said with a chuckle, and Alma rolled her eyes.

He left and took Karin with him. The door was hardly closed before Alma went to the linen closet and lugged out the rest of her presents for Helena she had hidden in there. Lilja crawled onto my lap, and we watched Helena with her bounty. The bracelet clanked softly whenever I moved my arm. I liked that.

When Helena had opened every single one, she ran her hand over the blue velvet of the mantle and her eyes filled with tears. “I used to get yarn for my only Christmas present,” she said. “And I had to use it to knit stockings for my brothers.” She swiped her sleeve over her eyes. “It was always brown too. I don’t like brown. I don’t care if it’s practical or not.”

Alma took the mantle from her and pulled her close. “You’re with me now, sweetheart.” With a finger under her chin, Alma tilted her face up. “Always. All right?”

Helena, her eyes filling with tears once again, nodded, and Alma kissed her.

After helping each other carry the cups and plates to the kitchen, then leaving them for tomorrow, we went our separate ways, Lilja and me to my room, Helena and Alma to Helena’s chamber. Fumbling with the matches, I lit the candle before Lilja could undress because the night wasn’t over.

When the flame cast its flickering light around the room, the drawer with my jewelry box drew my eye. Should I just give her the heart? Stupidly, I hadn’t wrapped it, and suddenly that seemed like a great mistake. Who gave someone a Christmas present unwrapped? And one so significant at that.

I scrambled for a way to make it special still. I couldn’t just dump it into her hand. “I have a last present for you,” I said. “Close your eyes.”

She did, and I walked to the drawer and took the necklace from my jewelry box. Wrapping my fingers around her wrist, I drew her hand forward and placed it in her palm. “You can look now.”

She did, her gaze going to her hand. Her eyes grew wide, and she took a deep breath. “It’s just like…” She blinked, turning the pendant in her hand. “Selma, I… I love it.”

“I was hoping you would.”

She ran a finger over the heart’s smooth surface. “Where did you get it?”

“My uncle gave it to me years ago. He got it up north from some trader. Its origins are a bit of a mystery.” She nodded with her eyes on the amber still. It seemed to glow in the light from the candle. “It’s one of a kind. Rare, I’d say.”

She held it out. “Will you put it on me?”

“Now?”

“I’m going to sleep with it on. I’m never taking it off again.”

I took the necklace from her, and she turned. Brushing her hair away from her neck, I hung the chain around her throat and closed the clasp. She turned back around and wrapped her arms around me and held me tight. “Thank you,” she whispered into my neck.

I ran my hand through her hair. “Of course, my darling.”

She pulled away and looked up at me. “Shall we go to bed?”

“Yes.”

I blew out the candle, undressing and putting on my pajamas while at the other end of the room Lilja changed into her nightgown. I kept the bracelet on. I liked the smoothness of the beads against my wrist.

I waited until I heard her crawl into bed, then lay down next to her. She snuggled up against my side as she always did. I turned my head, and she kissed me.

Tonight, though… tonight her mouth lingered on mine. She parted her lips, and I did the same. The tips of our tongues met, and a fire ran through me, filling my limbs with the heat and want of desire. She placed her hand on my hip. The weight was light, but it felt like a mountain. “Can I touch you?”

“Yes.”

“Under your clothes as well?”