After supper, Peter hadn’t gone home. Instead they carried their mugs into Mathilda’s living room, the smell of cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg curling up from the steaming milk they made together.

  Tonight the cold pressed down on the cottage, leading Peter to the fireplace.

  ‘Some more wood, I think,’ he said, adding a few more logs. The flames picked up, flickering tongues into the air.

  ‘I feel like we should bundle up right in front of it,’ Lacey said. ‘Where’s this cold coming from?’

  Peter pulled the curtains aside, peering into the night. ‘Come look.’

  Lacey stepped away from the fire to join him at the window, peering out side by side.

  ‘The stars look so bright,’ she breathed. ‘They’re not always like that, are they?’

  The brightness seemed almost unnatural, much brighter even than they had been on the nights before.

  ‘No, they are unusually bright tonight. Skies this clear usually means a drop in temperature,’ he said. ‘I always imagined it was because there’s no cloud blanket to keep us warmer.’ He gave her a lopsided grin at his fancy.

  ‘Seems as good an explanation as any,’ she said, grinning back.

  He nodded, then continued. ‘See the moon?’

  It hung round and almost completely full in the sky, an almost-perfect silver disc.

  ‘And, can you see the halo?’ he asked, tracing a circle around it.

  Lacey looked again, more carefully. ‘I think so,’ she said. ‘It’s very faint, almost like the tiniest pale ring just starting to form around the moon.’

  ‘Yes.’ He studied the sky, a slight shadow of worry crossing his features. ‘Ring around the moon, snow comes soon,’ he half-murmured to himself. ‘Stormy weather might be heading our way,’ he explained for her benefit.

  ‘Where did you learn that?’ she asked.

  He smiled as if reliving a memory, turning away from the window and pulling Mathilda’s couch closer to the fire for them.

  ‘Blanket?’ he asked, picking up one from a neatly stacked pile in the corner of the room.

  She accepted, curling up into it on the couch in the cosy heat radiating from the fireplace. Taking another for himself, he also sat down. The cushions sank slightly with his weight, the dip drawing them closer. A part of her wondered at what was happening. Her and Peter, close enough to almost touch, cuddled up by themselves in front of a fire. This isn’t normal, the accountant in her said. And yet her heart knew that it was the most natural thing in the world. She lifted her mug for another sip of spiced milk.

  ‘When I was growing up,’ he began, ‘there was this old elf we all called Guard Eldric, even though his guarding days were long past. His wife was Granny Wenna, the village healer back then. Mathilda had just begun apprenticing under her, and I would sometimes walk with her to the healing hall. That’s how I first got to know Eldric. He was often there when I arrived, and we shared many a mug of hot chocolate together.

  ‘Gradually, I began joining him on his rounds. Even though he wasn’t a guard anymore, he would still roam the village, checking in on the “young ’uns” – that’s what he called the elves who minded the reindeer and worked around the village. And one day, without even realising it, I’d become his apprentice.

  ‘What I remember most about him was the way he cared. He didn’t just go through the motions to keep busy. He believed the work mattered. Keeping everyone safe, smoothing out dangerous edges, making sure the village was ready for whatever might come.

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  ‘He checked the weather several times a day. First thing in the morning, again in the afternoon, then just before nightfall. He always said that the sooner a storm was spotted, the more time there was to prepare. And he lived by it.’

  Peter stopped, taking a deep sip from his mug as he relived the days of old guard Eldric. Sensing more to come, Lacey patiently waited.

  ‘You know, he saw storms before anyone else did,’ he said quietly. ‘Sometimes I think he could see the ones inside people, too.’

  Lacey nodded, his words striking a chord inside her.

  ‘Anyway,’ he continued. ‘His duties included looking after Granny Wenna too. “Take your coat,” or “Soggy ground tonight – wear your boots,” was his way of making sure she was all right too.

  ‘If I can take care of the people in my life even half as well as he did,’ Peter finished softly, ‘then I’ll have been a successful guard.’

  For a moment they sat in silence, the reminiscence of Eldric sinking in.

  ‘Seeing the storms in people,’ Lacey said. ‘That’s a useful talent, especially for a guard. I wish had that ability.’

  She raised her mug to her lips for another sip. ‘When I was young, I had this friend. She certainly had some storms inside her, that I wish I had been wise enough to see. Or maybe I did.

  ‘I could feel something in her, something wild and adventurous. But instead of being cautious, I embraced it. My life was lonely, even with all the other kids around. Most of them weren’t my age – too young or too old – and when Cassie came, it felt like a gift from above.

  ‘Finally, I too had a best friend. Someone to have adventures with, someone to share my secrets.’

  Even as she spoke, she could feel the emotions roiling inside her. She curled her fingers around the cooling mug, smoothing out the feelings threatening to burst out.

  ‘Well, let’s just say it didn’t end well,’ she ended, noticing her fingers clench and forcing them to relax.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘And your parents? Did they see anything about her to warn you?’

  Lacey shook her head, feeling the familiar sadness.

  ‘My parents gave me up when I was very young. I spent most of my life living in the group home where I was raised with other orphans and kids in care.’

  She looked at him, expecting the familiar sympathy she saw whenever someone learned of her past. It was there in his gaze too, but mixed with something else. A genuine sorrow, alongside understanding. As always, he saw more than most.

  ‘That sounds like a hard childhood,’ he said. ‘You must’ve needed a lot of strength and resilience.’

  ‘That’s true,’ she said. ‘And a wisdom I wished I had developed sooner.’

  ‘Don’t we all,’ he said.

  She could feel her body relaxing. She had spoken one of the deepest truths about herself out loud, and he was still there. They were together, savouring the heat from the fire.

  It was almost surprising to realise that somehow they had shifted closer towards each other. That too felt right. On a very deep level, Lacey felt safe. Safer than she had for almost as long as she could remember. She could relax a little bit. In this moment a stray number wasn’t a dangerous incongruency. It was something she could observe, accept, and lightly nudge back into place later.

  He smiled lightly, reaching out to wipe a tendril of hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear. Though his hand felt almost as large as her face, his touch was tender, flitting over her skin. His fingertips were a bit rough, but warm with his heat. For a moment, nothing else existed.

  A light from outside brightened the room momentarily, breaking the spell. Peter shifted his gaze towards the window, where the Lodestar had just flashed its midnight flare.

  He shifted, slowly untangling himself from his blanket. His movements were slow, as if he regretted breaking the moment as much as Lacey did.

  ‘I’d better get home,’ he said. ‘Tomorrow we have to start prepping the reindeer for Santa’s sleigh ride on Christmas Eve.’

  Knowing his duty called didn’t help the ache unfolding in Lacey’s chest. Please don’t leave, she wanted to say, the familiar soreness curling tighter in her chest. But she was a grown up woman who could stand on her own two feet. She walked him to the kitchen vestibule, and stood with him as he pulled on his outer gear.

  ‘Thank you, for tonight’s supper,’ she said, the awkwardness returning. He seemed to understand, knowing she was actually saying thank you for so much more.

  He hesitated at the door, for a single heartbeat. Then said, ‘Good night, Lacey.’

  She slowly closed the door behind him as he set out into the dark under the now-white halo of the moon. His absence felt like a physical loss, and she took a deep breath steeling herself against it. She needed… something. A counterweight. A comfort. And most of all, a reminder.

  Then she realised the shape of the feeling and knew exactly what she needed. She almost ran up the stairs, not having to inform her feet of where to go.

  In her room, the jar with the snowflake candycane was still hidden at the back of the closet. Gently she pulled it out, lifting it up to stare into its subtle glow. She knew what it wanted. Walking to her window, she was just in time to see Peter disappearing round the corner of the lane. She placed the jar right in the spot where his silhouette left her view. The snowflake candycane gave a soft pulse, almost unnoticeable.

  But Lacey knew that here, under the magical Lodestar, its strength would grow.

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