Chapter 9

“Are you sure that any of these dresses will fit me, Gronwynk?” Jennifer asked of the chief house elf, “I am so much shorter than ... those two.”

“Miss Jennifer,” Gronwynk answered, to the reinforcing nods of approval of a host of small seamstresses on hand to do the alterations by hand, “Mrs Hilde and Miss Beata were only trying to spite you and put you off. That Mrs Hilde has never really fitted in here. We all think that Mr Young Nick settled for his Prussian bride rather than wait for his intended, and he has been a right old grump ever since.”

“Yeah,” piped up one of the other elves, “the grumpiest Santa of all, is Mr Young Nick.” Then, as she was pushed and shoved by some of the other elves for her disloyalty, added insistently, “well, he is!”

“Did you know that Bernadette was a widow only five years later, when her husband died?” Gronwynk asked.

“Bernadette?”

“The French nurse who was chosen by Fate as his soulmate. Because of the war, she married one of her patients who she mended as best she could. His injuries during the war were much more mental than physical, and the doctors and nurses were simply ill-equipped to cope with those added problems. She was only 28, about your age, Miss Jennifer,” Gronwynk continued, “Mr Young Nick should have waited, like Junior waited patiently for you. No, Miss Jennifer, you are Junior’s choice just as much as Fate’s, always has been and we all think you’re beautiful, don’t we girls?”

“Yes!” they all chorused.

“O ... K,” Jennifer looked around at all the shiny rosy-cheeked elf faces smiling warmly up at her, and said, “I’ll try this emerald green silk number then, shall I?”

“Good choice,” said Gronwynk, with tape measure in hand, as one elf helped her climb on the shoulders of an even thicker-set elf, whose pointy ears flapped as she adjusted her balance, “this’ll only take a jiffy.”

Santa and Junior returned from the Christmas Eve run around the globe within a few minutes of each other, with Young Nick home fractionally first. The greeting between Young Nick and Hilde was cool, thought Jennifer, and it was immediately clear that Santa knew Beata well, as he gave her a much warmer greeting than the one he grudgingly imparted to Jennifer. They stood around in the entrance hall waiting for Junior, with Gronwynk and other elves bringing warm coats for them to wear. Santa moaned about how the reindeers had misbehaved on the trip, and recounted the odd difficulty they had had going around. Through the open door, Jennifer could see lots of sleighs return to the other lodges dotted about the frozen landscape. Then one incoming sleigh headed straight for them and landed in a flurry of ice crystals and a cacophony of tinkling sleigh bells.

Jennifer ran forward, before Hilde or Beata could move. Junior jumped down and immediately held his arms out for Jennifer to fall into. They kissed after their long separation and all her anxieties instantly melted away.

“Wow!” Junior said, “I have been looking forward to this moment all night, and it’s an even better welcome than I expected.”

He waved to the others standing in the doorway, “I am just going to see to the reindeer, we’ll be along to breakfast shortly. Oh, Mother, Gramps and Grandma are coming to breakfast.”

With that they turned and, arm in arm, followed the sleigh, which was being led away by an elf stable lad.

“Oh, you are such a sight for sore eyes, Junior!” Jennifer said, “it’s been a very long night.”

“I saw Beata standing with the others just now. Has Mother been a real bitch towards you?”

“Well, a little bit maybe. She made it clear that Beata is still her first choice for your intended. So you already know her?”

“I ‘know’ just about everyone, Jen, and yes, Mother introduced me to Beata, as her choice of mate, at the feast with the Easter Bunny.”

“There’s really an...” Jennifer shook her head, realizing that she had to learn to reevaluate a lot of the legends she had long regarded as fanciful nonsense. “So, you ran away from home after being introduced to this beautiful young girl Beata, and not because I was suddenly free of Scott?”

By this time they reached the stables and a jolly pair of grinning elves closed the stable doors behind the conversing couple and winked to each other.

“Ah, I think confession time is finally upon us, Jen,” he started, removing his heavy red coat against the sudden warmth of the stable.

Jennifer undid the buttons to her coat, revealing the emerald green dress, with extra tiny emeralds and jade beads sewn into the silk on silver threads by the amazing elf seamstresses.

“Oh, Jen, you in that dress, you look lovely, come here.”

Their lips met and they melted into one another again. Jennifer thought she could get used to this, almost losing herself in that kiss. At the same time as being energised, she was relaxed, limp but with good feelings, and filled with confidence and an inner vigour, a life source of magic energy. She pushed him away, with both reluctance and a little reassertion of maintaining her dignity.