The Little Café in Copenhagen: Fall in love and escape the winter blues with this wonderfully heartwarming and feelgood novel

‘Does that worry you?’ she asked rather too astutely to my mind.

I nodded.

‘Here put my number into your phone. You can always call me if you need anything, but I know you will be fine. And while you’re here, you’re not on duty. My son wanted you to experience the real Denmark, to relax and enjoy our Danish hospitality. For you and your journalists to see for yourselves why we keep being voted the happiest country in the world. I need to finish a few things but we can chat.’

She wandered over to check on the only other customers in the café, a middle-aged couple in one corner and a teenage boy plugged into his iPhone at the bar by the window.

I sipped at my coffee as she delivered pewter mini buckets of flowers to each table along with handwritten menus displayed in little A5 photo frames.

‘Those are cute,’ I touched the delicate glass photo frame on my table.

‘Flea markets again in England. People there throw so many things away.’ She held out another pretty etched silver photo frame. ‘In Denmark, we don’t buy as many things but we keep them for a very long time. And we like to buy very good design and high quality.’ She pointed upwards.

‘Lights are a big thing in Denmark.’ Above us were three large waterfalls of glass but around the edges of the room were lamps of varying height. ‘You will find that a student might buy a very expensive Paul Henningsen lamp for thousands of Kroner because it is important to have nice things in our homes but not lots of nice things.’

The couple beckoned her over, asking to pay their bill and I took advantage of Eva’s absence to pull out my phone to check my emails which were still flooding in as usual. Despite being out of the office for a full week, there was no chance of putting an out of office message on my email. I was still expected to be on call for my other clients and any press enquiries as usual. So much for relaxing.

I answered a few before Eva came back. ‘Tell me a little about yourself.’

My mind went blank. What did you tell a complete stranger? I had no idea where to start.

‘Well, I live in London. I work for a PR agency and Lars has asked us to help launch his department store.’ I ground to a halt and shrugged as she waited expectantly, gentle eyes watching me.

‘Not married. No children?’

‘No.’

‘A boyfriend, perhaps.’

I shuddered, thinking of Josh. ‘No. Not at the moment.’

‘Ah, there was one.’

‘Yes but … well I don’t really have time for one.’ And the most recent had been a gobshite. I didn’t think that would translate. ‘Work is … well my main focus at the moment.’

She stroked the petals on the flowers on the table. ‘Yes, but there is more to life than work. For a pretty young woman like you. Friends, family.’ Her eyes twinkled as she pulled at a few dead leaves, her head cocked like a cheeky robin.

‘My family live just outside London. I see them, of course. I have two brothers.’ And what would they make of Copenhagen? John went on lads’ holidays, the gruesome details of which seemed to involve copious quantities of cheap lager, clubbing until dawn and sleeping indiscriminately with available women. Brandon had been saving forever to go to a Star Wars convention in California, although him ever getting there was about as likely as a trip to the moon and Dad, well, he hadn’t been on holiday since Mum had died.

‘My mum died when I was fourteen,’ I blurted out. I rarely told people that and surprised myself by telling Eva. There was just something about her though. She was so warm and friendly.

‘That’s very sad.’

‘Yes, well it was a long time ago,’ I said reaching for my phone but when I picked it up I was reluctant to look at the screen under Eva’s careful scrutiny.

‘That’s hard for a young girl.’

I chased down a few flakes of pastry with the tip of my finger and nibbled at them to avoid looking at her.

‘The café is lovely. How long have you been running it?’

Eva smiled. ‘For six years. I started it not long after I split up from Lars’ father.’

‘Oh, I’m sorry … I didn’t know.’

‘Like you say it was a long time ago and I’m much happier.’ Her mouth twisted ruefully. ‘Anders is not Danish, well, he is but he spent too long in the US and London. He’s a workaholic.’

I frowned not quite understanding.

‘That’s not the Danish way. We do not live to work. I hoped when the children left that he would want to stop working so hard. We lived in London for many years and then when we came back to Copenhagen, I thought that he would slow down. That we would do more things together but he couldn’t let go. We had everything. A lovely house. Our children had grown up. It was time for us to be a couple but he is still in his office working and working and working. Life is short. Now I spend time with my friends.’ She rested her chin in her hands, exuding serenity and a confident sense of calm. She didn’t sound unhappy or regretful. ‘I have made a life here. Many of my customers have become friends. I have made something of my own but that I can share.’ Her face brightened. ‘I love to cook. Feed people. Look after them. I am very privileged to do this for the people of Copenhagen.’

I nodded. Each to their own. As far as I was concerned cooking was one massive chore, a necessary evil that entailed washing up and cleaning up and far too much of a waste of time. Thank God for the express supermarkets which made it much easier to do smash and grab style grocery shopping and buy ready-meals.

‘What sort of things do you like to cook?’ she asked.

Oops she’d taken the nodding as agreement. I froze and picked up my coffee gazing into it for inspiration.

‘Erm, well you know …’

She pinned me with a ‘gotcha’ grin which left me nowhere to go but fess up.

‘There’s never enough time. I work late and me and my flatmate are in at different times. There’s not much point in cooking for one.’

It was difficult to take offence at the amused disapproval in the quick shake of her head.

‘I think this trip to Copenhagen is just what you need, Katie.’

‘It’s Ka …’ I paused and changed my mind. The warmth in her voice softened my name reminding me of my mum. Suddenly there seemed a world of difference between a Kate and Katie.

Chapter 10 (#ulink_9c976cb6-a959-5f06-abec-bf1f3ea97253)

Being on a guided tour with everything organised for you was, I decided, a rare luxury. Our first walk took us to the Little Mermaid, considerably smaller than I was expecting – despite the clue in the name! Then on to the royal palace at Amalieburg, actually four palaces arranged around a square, with soldiers who looked remarkably like our own Queen’s guard in their traditional bearskins with dark navy tunics instead of our red ones. Mads got very excited when he spotted the Danish flag flying over one of the palaces, a sign that Margrethe, as if she were a neighbour rather than the Queen, was in residence.

He grinned. ‘Our royal family is very popular and Margrethe is famous for being an unrepentant die-hard smoker, even in public.’

Clearly with no sign of the queen popping out for a quick fag round the back of the recycling shed (the Danes are big on recycling), we gave up queen spotting and headed for lunch at Ida Davidsen, a family run restaurant concern ‘crazy for’ the typical Danish open sandwiches, smorrobrod.

Sophie made Mads say the word five times before she was happy with her own attempt. He explained that Danish pronunciation was very difficult for foreigners as the Danish alphabet has 29 letters, the ø, å, æ all being separate letters with a distinct and very subtle vowel sound that was very difficult for people to reproduce.

I fell into step next to her as we headed for lunch.

‘I’m so looking forward to this. Open sandwiches here are amazing. I can’t wait to try them.’ She paused and gave my arm squeeze. ‘Thank you so much Kate for inviting me. This is going to be such an amazing trip.’ She beamed at me so warmly I smiled back.

‘My pleasure. I’m so glad you could come. And you genuinely wanted to come.’ I glanced over my shoulder. ‘I had a devil of a job persuading some people.’

Everyone but Ben had been asking lots of questions. He’d spent more time on his phone and several times I’d caught him yawning as if bored. He could at least make some effort.

‘Really? I can’t believe that,’ said Sophie looking round at the others. ‘Who wouldn’t want to spend five days in Copenhagen instead of being at work? Although, it is a pretty mixed bunch you’ve ended up with. David’s lovely. I’ve been on a trip with him before. Easy going. You’ll have no trouble with him. Avril and Conrad, I’m not so sure. And Ben, I don’t know at all, but he’s a bit of a hottie, isn’t he?’ She waggled her fair eyebrows in a woeful attempt at lechery.