Finding Love at the Christmas Market
Page 23
‘I think so … because of you. Everything has changed because of you.’
He leans in and kisses me under the lantern light, as the snow falls on our faces. I feel I’ve come home.
‘Now, come and join us.’ He takes my hand. ‘We are putting up the tree and lighting it. Paps is cooking the Christmas dinner. He’ll be delighted to see you.’
I stop. ‘Are you sure? I don’t want to intrude on your time with your loved ones.’
He kisses me again.
‘You, frustrating and eccentric and totally not my type,’ he says, ‘are my loved one. And I hope to be yours.’
I smile widely, then kiss him, and he leads me into the shop with Fritz at my side.
‘Hey!’ says Noah, and throws his arms around me in a hug that takes me by surprise, but then I hug him back. ‘Come on, we’re decorating the tree,’ he says, as if me being here is the most natural thing in the world and he’s been waiting for me to come.
‘Happy Christmas,’ says Joseph, as if he’s been expecting me too. And I think maybe he has. ‘Have a seat. We saved you a place. Dinner won’t be long.’ He hands me a drink with a smile.
That evening, we decorate the tree, place the presents, mostly for Noah, around it. The fire is lit and candles give out a soft light as we eat melt-in-the-mouth roast goose, with apple and sausage stuffing, scented red cabbage and soft potato dumplings, followed by glorious, brandy-soaked fruit stollen. Finally, when we finish, still holding glasses of red wine, William says, ‘Okay, Noah, you can open a present. Maybe save some for the morning for when you go to your mum’s,’ but I think that’s fallen on deaf ears.
‘Yes!’ he says, and dives in.
‘This is from me and Grandpaps,’ says William, guiding him to the first gift. Noah rips it open and finds his own set of chef’s whites … only they’re black, like his dad’s, with his name and ‘Becker und Sohn’ embroidered on them. He beams and pulls them straight on. I have a feeling he may sleep in them.
Then William hands me a gift, in a box.
‘But I didn’t have time to …’
‘You have given me everything I wanted this Christmas by being here,’ he says. ‘Now open it.’
‘But how did you know I’d be here?’
‘I had a feeling.’
I open up the box to find a beautiful snow globe, with a house just like the bakery inside it. Home, I think, and hold it to my heart. I’m home.
FIFTY-THREE
The next day, after a lazy breakfast cooked by Noah and Joseph, we’re dressed in our best, and by lunchtime the town is alive. The clock-tower bell is ringing and everyone is spilling into the market square to meet friends, eat, drink and skate. Everyone is there.
I watch William and Noah skate, leaning on the barrier drinking warm glühwein. My phone rings. It’s a WhatsApp call from Pearl.
‘Merry Christmas!’ I hear, as I answer. They’re all there, waving, with paper hats on, holding glasses of beer and wine.
‘Merry Christmas!’ I say.
‘We miss you,’ says Pearl. ‘We had the most wonderful lunch. Turkey, all the trimmings, cooked by Maeve.’
‘And a lovely drop of sherry. I don’t know why no one has sherry any more,’ says Maeve, who is wearing Christmas sparkly glasses and a Santa hat.
‘We’ve had it nice and early so we’ve got time for a snooze and then the Queen’s Speech.’
‘And then a proper game of charades!’ says Norman.
In the background I can hear John’s CD playing.
‘So tell us … how’s things?’
‘Well, you may find you’ve got a new delivery driver for your ready meals soon.’
‘What?’ they shriek.
‘William needs help in the shop and, well, I thought I might stay on and help out.’ I beam. ‘After a bit of a holiday …’
‘Whoop!’ I hear them cheer. ‘And there’s no need to worry about a new delivery driver, love, we’ve got it covered here.’
‘Yes, we’re reopening the café! We’re all going to run it. Take it in turns and eat our meals together. There’ll be no more TV dinners for one!’
‘And we’ll bake our own cakes, although we might need some pointers,’ says Maeve.
‘You can Skype or WhatsApp me anytime. I happen to know a master baker.’
William skates up beside me and waves to the screen.
‘It’ll all be happening here in the lounge. No more hiding away behind closed doors, or computer screens for that matter. Life’s for living in the now,’ Pearl says.
‘Elsie would have loved that,’ I say, and we all nod.
‘To Elsie and Elsie’s Diner!’ says Pearl, and they all cheer.
‘Merry Christmas,’ William and I say. They chorus back and the line goes dead but I’m still beaming.
‘Mum!’ Noah shouts, waves in my direction and skates over, arms flailing.
‘Um …’ Suddenly I’m not sure what to say and my snow-globe bubble looks like it might burst.
‘Connie.’ Marta is beside me and smiles. She looks at her son and his father as William helps Noah to stay on his feet and nearly topples with him. ‘You made this happen. I realize I’ve been wrong keeping William and Noah apart. Thank you. You brought them together and we all need this. We would never have made it as a couple again. But as parents, we need to be there and we can make this work.’
I’m taken aback by her directness but also totally ecstatic. There’s no reading between the lines. We all know exactly where we stand. And I like that!
‘Merry Christmas, Marta.’
‘And you, Connie,’ she says, as she goes to meet Noah from the ice and wraps an arm around him. They hug Joseph and say goodbye, and she guides Noah off to his second Christmas with her family, everyone wearing big smiles. We watch them go, and as I turn around, William is smiling at me, just like the smile I woke up to this morning and will wake up to, I hope, every morning for the rest of my life.
‘Right, your turn!’ he says.
‘What?’
He holds up a pair of skates.
‘No, no!’ I shake my head.
‘Connie!’ I turn as I hear my name. It’s Heinrich!
‘Er, Heinrich! Hi!’
He takes me by surprise and hugs me, hard. Once he releases me from my face-plant in his anorak I see Klara standing beside him.
‘Hi,’ she says. ‘Merry Christmas.’ Her blonde hair is draped around her shoulders and she’s wearing a cream beret.
‘You remember Klara?’ Heinrich asks.
‘Of course! You work in the factory.’
‘Runs it, more like!’ Heinrich laughs. ‘And she’s going to keep running it, while I look for engineering jobs.’
‘Oh, Heinrich, not in the UK?’
He shakes his head. ‘No, I’m not going anywhere. I’m just going to do what I want to do. Maybe even start clockmaking.’ He takes Klara’s hand and leads her onto the ice where they skate in perfect unison hand in hand.
‘Come on, your turn,’ says William.
‘I tried it once. Hurt like hell when I fell,’ I plead.
‘Well, it’s a good thing I’ll be by your side if you fall again. Falling hurts far less when you’ve got someone at your side. Someone taught me that you never walk away from the ones you love. Falling hurts far less if you do it together. And getting back up again takes far less time.’
And with that, he hands me the skates. I put them on, and he takes my hand and leads me onto the ice and doesn’t leave my side … and as the bell in the clock tower chimes again, I finally have my own special Christmas memory. I have all the right ingredients, and alchemy. I have someone I love who loves me back. And as I turn to look at him, I catch the toe of his skate, making us both stumble, and flail, reaching out to steady each other as we start to fall. We manage to balance ourselves and then, once we’re straight, he leans in to kiss me. I slip and this time I do fall, but he’s there, smiling. I check my nose, and there’s no blood. He pul
ls me to my feet and into a kiss, and I hope this is how life will always be from now on, maybe not perfect, but just perfect for me.
Read on for recipes with all the festive flavour of the Christmas market
Lebkuchen (German gingerbread)
Gingerbread fresh from the oven smells just like Christmas! Try making your own, inspired by the recipe that William teaches Connie in Finding Love at the Christmas Market.
100g butter
250g honey
120g dark muscovado sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger paste or chopped ginger
½ tsp allspice
1 vanilla pod, seeds
2 whole eggs
2 tsp cocoa powder
440g plain flower
1 tsp baking powder
Method
In a small pot, over a low heat, melt the butter, sugar and honey. Stir regularly until the sugar has completely dissolved.
Meanwhile, mix together all the other ingredients in a big bowl.
Add the liquid honey/butter/sugar mix to the dry ingredients (you’ll either need a spoon and strong arms, or an electric mixer with a kneading-hook attachment).
Leave the dough to rest and cool for an hour at room temperature. Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees (160 if fan-assisted).
After the dough has cooled, roll it out to 1cm thickness and cut out your preferred shapes with a biscuit cutter. (If the dough is too sticky, place it in the fridge for a few minutes to firm up, or knead it with your hands and add a bit more flour.)
Place the biscuits on a tray lined with baking paper, and bake for approximately. 10 minutes (they will still be slightly soft to the touch; this is what you are aiming for!). Once cool, you can decorate with icing, or anything else you’d like!
The ultimate hot chocolate
Simple but luxurious, a delicious treat in a mug!
200g plain chocolate, broken into pieces
600ml milk
150ml single or double cream
Sugar, to taste
Optional garnishes: marshmallows, peppermint candy canes, grated cinnamon
Method
Put the chocolate in a pan with the milk over a gentle heat. Stir until all the chocolate has melted, then continue to heat until steaming. Remove and stir in the cream.
Divide the hot chocolate between 6 mugs, and add sugar and garnish to taste!
Smoked sausage casserole
A warming meal that’s perfect for a cold day – or at any time of the year! Garlic bread or potatoes go well with this.
1 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 celery stick, finely chopped
2 red peppers, sliced
6 smoked pork sausages
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp chilli flakes
2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
400g tin cannellini beans, drained
2 tbsp breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley
Method
Brown the sausages on a high heat under the grill, while you prepare the vegetable base for the casserole. Make sure the sausages are browned all over.
Put the oil in a large heatproof casserole dish over a medium heat and add the onion, cooking for 5 minutes until starting to soften. Add the garlic, celery and peppers, stirring to mix. Cook for a further 5 minutes.
Add the sausages to the casserole dish, sprinkle in the spices and season well. Then add the tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Cover and continue simmering gently for 40 minutes, stirring every now and then.
Heat the grill to high and uncover the casserole. Add the beans, spinach and most of the parsley, and stir to mix. Scatter over the breadcrumbs and grill for 2-3 minutes until golden and crisp.
When golden brown, sprinkle over the remaining parsley and serve.
Acknowledgements
I loved writing this book. The research was fantastic. I had always wanted to visit a German Christmas market and on this research trip I got to visit not one, but three!
I firstly want to thank a lovely woman, Nicola Burgraff, whom I met some years ago at a writing retreat in Chez Castillon in France, for sowing this seed and sparking this idea off in my head.
And of course, my research companions Katie Fforde and Bernadine Kennedy. It wouldn’t have been half the hoot it was without my writing buddies there with me to try the glühwein, the sausages and to walk the markets with. Then, of course, there was the river cruise itself, along the Rhine with Titan Travel River Cruises. A glorious way to travel and see the countryside, the villages and Christmas trees and lights.
I need to give a big thank you to my daughter Ffi for becoming a bakery and patisserie student and giving me the background to this story. Ffi has grown in confidence and skills since she began her course at Cardiff and Vale College and I can’t thank her course leader, Linda Burns – otherwise referred to as Chef – enough. She is wonderfully encouraging and caring and I know her students thrive under her leadership … I know I would! Chef invited me into the kitchens for the day to watch and help out making gingerbread. I loved that day. I felt like I’d been wrapped up in a great big hug. Thank you for allowing me in, Chef, and for letting me get hands-on with gingerbread and make the gingerbread village. And to all the students on the Bakery and Patisserie course there who welcomed me in too and let me be part of that world for the day. I loved it! I wish all of you luck and success in this wonderful profession you have chosen. I’m so excited to see where you all go on to!
A huge thank you to Sally Williamson for guiding this book through the process and helping make it the best it could be. I have loved working with you. And the rest of the team at Transworld, Julia Teece and Hayley Barnes. And as always the fantastic VP, Vicky Palmer, for cheering loudly from the sidelines, and my wonderful agent David Headley for his support, guidance and friendship.
I hope you all enjoy your trip to the German Christmas markets and make your own Christmas memories while you’re there.
A place to heal broken hearts and find new beginnings …
Del and her husband Ollie moved to a beautiful village in Provence for a fresh start after years of infertility struggles. But six weeks after they arrive, they’re packing the removal van once more. As Del watches the van leave for England, she suddenly realizes exactly what will make her happier … a new life in France – without Ollie.
Now alone, all Del has is a crumbling farmhouse, a mortgage to pay and a few lavender plants. What on earth is she going to do? Discovering an old recipe book at the market run by the rather attractive Fabian, Del starts to bake. But can her new-found passion really help her let go of the past and lead to true happiness?
‘This book is pure joy’ Katie Fforde
‘A proper treat!’ Milly Johnson
Coming summer 2021
CHASING THE ITALIAN DREAM by Jo Thomas
Lucia Rossi-Llewellyn has worked hard for years as a lawyer in Wales, working towards a promotion she's expecting to come her way shortly. Taking a well-earned break at her grandparents' house in southern Italy, she instantly feels at home among the lemon trees in their local piazza.
But shocked at hearing her grandfather is retiring from the beloved family pizzeria and will need to sell, Lucia can't bear the thought of it changing hands - especially when she discovers her not-quite-ex-husband Giacomo wants to take it over!
So when she gets bad news from back home, it forces her to re-evaluate what she really wants from life. Is this Lucia's chance to finally follow her dream as a cook and carry on the family tradition?
Available to pre-order now!
THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING
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Transworld is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.
First published in Great Britain in 2020 by Corgi an imprint of Transworld Publishers
Copyright © Jo Thomas 2020
This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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Cover illustration © Harry Goldhawk
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ISBN: 978-1-473-57361-1
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