Page 2 of Hidden in Memories
And yet Charlotte sees something else. She doesn’t care about the shabbiness or the general decay, the sense that time has left the hotel behind. Instead she sees it as it used to be during its golden age, when she was a child and her family spent every Christmas holiday here.
When she was a little girl, her body tingling with excitement and anticipation.
She remembers the almost ceremonial atmosphere as the night train from Stockholm pulled into the station on December 23 and they were collected by a horse-drawn sleigh. There was a huge Christmas tree in the elegant foyer when they arrived, and sparkling garlands hung from the ceiling.
Charlotte recalls the feeling on Christmas Eve as they walked up the imposing staircase to the restaurant. How the hem of her mother’s full-length velvet gown brushed each step, how beautiful she was with her red lips and her dark back-combed hair.
In Charlotte’s memory those Christmases at Storlien are still surrounded by a magical glow. For many years she has dreamed of building a new exclusive mountain hotel here, just like her father always talked about.
And now it is going to happen.
It took a great deal of persuasion to convince her business associate, Henry, to come on board with the project, but at long last she has a partner who is prepared to supply the necessary capital. For decades she has worked on realizing others’ projects in the property and financial sector, but now it is time to carry through her own plans. She is fifty-six years old, and she wants to build something that she will be remembered for.
Daddy would have been so proud, if only he could have been here.
She can see it now: the new main building, the wing housing a luxury spa, the panorama windows. The footprint will be twice as big. There will be exclusive suites and specialist restaurants offering top-class gastronomic experiences.
Storlien will spring back to life, and the guests will come flocking, just as they had when she was a child. When she is done, the mountain hotel will be the destination of choice for premium international visitors. Tourists from the Arab countries, from China—she has already begun sketching out a marketing strategy to attract them all.
She smiles to herself and heads for the car to return to Åre. She is spending the whole of Easter week at Copperhill Mountain Lodge, with the intention of doing some skiing when she isn’t working. It is only a forty-five minute drive from Storlien to Åre.
She has been preparing herself for so long; she has dreamed of this for years and years. It has taken countless hours of planning, meeting after meeting. She has had to cajole and threaten in order to secure all the necessary permissions. On Monday she has one last importantmeeting with the local council to finalize things, followed by a press conference at five o’clock in the afternoon.
Bengt Hedin, the council’s representative, will be there too, and Henry is flying up. Charlotte frowns. She must remember to call him this evening—she needs to keep him sweet.
As she slides in behind the wheel, she can’t help taking one last look at the building on the mountainside. If only Daddy were here to share her triumph, but he passed away some years ago, and her mother is in a home, suffering from advanced dementia.
Daddy will never be able to rejoice in Charlotte’s greatest success, even though she has spent her whole life proving her capability to him. However, she is looking forward to showing the plans to Filip, her beloved son, who has promised to come to Åre next week.
She can’t wait to see him.
Darling Filip.
She is doing this for his sake too. He is her only child, and she has raised him on her own since she divorced his father, Mats, when Filip was little.
Secretly she dreams of working with Filip, so that one day he can take over. Admittedly they have fought quite a lot over his failure to stick to any kind of study program, but she is hoping that a few days together in the mountains will make everything better.
He has just dropped out of yet another course, this time at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and the news made Charlotte both angry and upset. They had a huge quarrel a couple of weeks ago, and she said things that she deeply regrets.
Since then he has barely responded to her text messages.
All she wants is to support her son, but she finds it so hard to understand why he doesn’t make more of an effort.
Charlotte rests her hands on the wheel.
She hates to see Filip wasting his talents. He is intelligent and quick thinking. He could achieve so much if he would just take things seriously. Which is why she can’t keep quiet when she sees him playing computer games twenty-four seven.
At the same time, she hates the tension between them. She has never been afraid of conflict, but being at odds with your only child is another matter.
Filip means the world to her, she can’t bear his silent remoteness.
When he comes to Åre, she must try to fix their relationship. She has already made an attempt to compensate by inviting his sweet girlfriend, Emily, but that’s not enough to salve her guilty conscience.
It is warm inside the car, and Charlotte lowers the temperature. Her phone on the passenger seat buzzes, the display glowing in the darkness. It is a message from Bengt Hedin, the chair of the town council’s planning committee.
We need to talk about the land purchase. The opposition is asking questions and I don’t know if it’s going to go through.
Charlotte manages to hold back an angry exclamation. She has paid a great deal to secure Hedin’s support. He must realize it’s too late to back out now. He can’t change his mind just a few days before they go public.
