Having stuffed a jar of instant coffee into her backpack the previous day, seemed like the most clever thing she had ever done, in the morning. Nora could do without a proper breakfast, but after the first night spent in her new home, she needed a mug of hot, strong coffee before starting the first day of her new life.

The stream of memories which her return had triggered, morphed into a flood of dreams about her past at night, dreams about her grandmother, about the many happy moments she had spent in this place as a child and a teenager, and about her first love-- the unrequited, or at least not equally returned feeling, that had influenced all her following relationships more than she cared to admit... And now she was feeling even more tired than the night before.

She poured some boiling water into a mug with a thick layer of brown granules covering its bottom and stirred the black, steaming liquid, the aroma flaring up her nostrils helping her to keep her eyes open. Shivering, she pulled the blanket she had wrapped over her shoulders closer around her-- the fires had gone out and the cottage wasn't exactly warm. But there was no point in lighting them again as she planned to spend the morning out.

Nora carried her drink to the frosted floor-to-ceiling window, her mind clearing slowly from the leftover dreams, even as it started to fill with the first real happiness. She was really here. She had made her decision and now she mustn't look back and think about it anymore, she needed to look forward. Even though this place was so full of her past that memories seemed to lurk behind every corner, smile at her from the faces of its inhabitants, and her grandmother's spirit was present in the very fabric of her cottage, she didn't want to hide from them. They were precious; this place was her chance to start again.

Not everyone was so lucky as to have a possibility to rewind a part of their life they had not particularly enjoyed, and take a different route. She would make the best of it. Nothing could bring her grandmother back but in a way she had never left, she was still here for her. And if she ever met that boy she had loved years ago again, Nora resolved as she sipped her coffee, she would tell him about her long gone feelings. Somehow it seemed suddenly important that she should tell him now, what she had been too shy to admit openly before.

She would finally find a job she really liked, too. Nora always dreamed of becoming a guide in the castle... Why not do it now? she thought as her eyes caressed the elegant bright spires piercing through a thin cloud of white, icy fog. She would drop her CV in the castle on her way to Clelia's shop, she decided, taking her empty mug back into the kitchen and running up the stairs to get dressed. There was so much to do today-- buy some food, bring her luggage from Albert, get somewhere more wood for heating, and clean the house...

Soon she was slipping down the path towards the castle and the town beyond. The freezing air of the morning bathed in wintry sunshine that made the sky above her look glowing and cobalt blue, cleared her mind better than the coffee.

Unable to resist the temptation of a perfectly smooth, long, frozen puddle next to the castle's stables she took it at a run, the way she used to approach all frozen puddles as a young girl. But then, apparently, she hadn't been so clumsy... Nora laughed at herself as she landed on her bottom unceremoniously, half way through the frozen puddle, her long, wide, charcoal coat flaring around her like bat wings. She laughed some more when she realised that getting up would not be so easy-- her shoes, the same pair she used to wear in the city, were all wrong for puddle skating in the countryside.

She didn't see him coming, but the next moment he was standing above her, blocking out the sunshine, a large golden Labrador at his side, and the reindeer calf a few steps behind, the look in its dark eyes telling her that it would arch its eyebrows at her silliness if it could.

All sorts of animal noises trailed behind the three from the stables as the man offered Nora a hand to lift her up.

"Hi again." She said, smiling gratefully as he pulled her to her feet, trying to restore some order into her long blond hair tied in a ponytail, disturbed by her fall.

"You know, I believe I'm the best ice-skater far and wide. At least no one told me that I'm not. Not that I asked, but that doesn't mean anything, right? I offer you my services, to teach you..." he said in lieu of a greeting, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

"Hmm, well, thank you. I'll think about your offer." She replied noncommittally, barely suppressing a laugh. He looked so friendly, and a friend was exactly what she needed in this place. However, she had only just met him. Having remembered seeing him years ago did not count. "Do you work for the old Count? In the castle?" She asked, changing the subject.

He looked at her-- his eyes were unusual, a mosaic of warm browns and greens, Nora noticed-- as if something of what she had said surprised him, but decided not to comment on it. "Yes, I work in the castle. I'm a veterinarian too, so I spend just as much time here as there." The man said, even as the little reindeer nudged at the pocket of his dark green jacket, and he pulled out a bunch of carrots.

"May I see your animals?" Nora asked, surprised by her boldness, watching the reindeer munching the whole bunch of greens in seconds. But there was something so... She had no idea what it was about this man but he was so easy to be around, to talk to. And Nora had never seen the stables before, they did not use to be open to visitors.

"Of course, they love guests," he smiled, inviting her inside the stables with a flourish of his arm-- a small square yard paved with cobblestones surrounded on three sides by stone and wooden buildings in which all sorts of animals were sheltered.

Some roamed free among the buildings-- a flock of peacocks, their magnificent ink-blue tails brushing the bright stone floor of the yard, another golden Labrador jumping playfully at the one who had followed the doctor outside, a handful of cats of all possible colours, a couple of snow white sheep... There were owls, falcons and several other kinds of birds of prey in the stone rooms some of which had been turned into cages, an injured red fox licking its bandaged leg, a small, chocolate-brown roebuck, Snow-White and her dark mate waiting impatiently for the return of their offspring, and at least ten horses-- white, grey, black, speckled...

"Some of them, like the reindeer, came here as extravagant gifts to the Count," the man said, replying to her questions before she could ask them, looking at the animals fondly. "The birds of prey belong to the local group of falconers, they only spend the winter here. And the rest," he said, his eyes pausing on the injured fox, "will be returned to the forest, where they belong, as soon as they are well enough to hunt and find sufficient food to survive."

Nora nodded, speechless. The animals were beautiful, fascinating, the effort of this man, and his apparent love for them, admirable.

"I live just up the hill," she said after a long, silent stroll through the stables, walking back towards the entrance. "We just might bump into each other again soon."

"And you might accept my skating lessons," he grinned, grabbing her arm and steadying her promptly as she slipped on another frozen puddle, this one well hidden from view under a dusting of snow fallen off the roof.

She only smiled in reply before they exchanged a quick goodbye, and she headed down the hill, towards the castle. Nora turned around once for a reason she could not explain, and waved as she found him still looking at her, happy that he could not see her blush. Well, it was so cold that her cheeks were red from the frost anyway... but... why was he making her feel shy, she was nearly thirty, for goodness sake...

You're too old for this, she scolded herself as she reached the cobble-stoned lane leading to the castle, and later to the park and the town, realising that she still did not know his name.