Winter at Pretty Beach by Polly Babbington (inspirational books txt) 📕

worth his time nor his intelligence, but then when he had realised she was married to Ben, his attitude had completely changed. It made her blood boil; she had been on the end of his kind of attitude so many times in her life and experiencing it from a doctor who was supposed to be helping her made it all the more worse.

She ordered a cup of tea and a slice of carrot cake and as she was pulling her phone out of her bag, it started ringing with Nina calling.

‘Hi, how’d it go?’ Nina asked.

‘I’m so angry. It was that new doctor, Dr Vicarage. He was rude and dismissive, especially about my age.’

‘Oh dear, that’s the last thing you wanted to hear. I had the same from him,’ Nina replied and sighed, ‘I heard about him from one of the mums at baby group - he told her she’d need to lose a few pounds. Quite astonishing, really.’

‘I’m not surprised, he really did have quite an odd manner. That was, of course, until he ascertained that I was a Chalmers and he realised... then his tone completely changed,’ she said and relayed more of the story to Nina.

‘Which makes it all the more annoying - the fact that he knew he was being rude in the first place,’ Nina surmised.

‘Exactly. Anyway, I kept my cool and got what I wanted. I was so close to saying something, though. What annoys me is what if I was vulnerable and really needed help? He would be the last person anyone should approach.’

Nina agreed, they arranged to meet for a glass of wine in the pub later and she hung up as the tea and carrot cake arrived.

‘Ahh, thanks so much. I really need this!’ Sallie said as Ellie put the tea and cake on the table.

‘Tough day?’ Ellie said and perched on the arm of the sofa opposite.

‘Oh, nothing major. I’m just another one who has now been on the end of the new doctor - talk about rude!’

‘You and me both. He missed the module in the training on bedside manner.’ Ellie laughed and told her how he’d also been rude to her when she’d taken her daughter in with an ear infection and continued, ‘Don’t worry though, he won’t last long in a town like this, with an attitude like that.’

‘You know, I thought exactly the same. You have to keep the Pretty Beach locals well on your side or you’re toast.’

‘You learnt that quickly, Sallie,’ she said as she got up from the sofa and went to serve a customer.

Just as Sallie was about to take out her phone and check her emails Felicity opened the door to the cafe, and a blustery wind blew through the whole place.

‘Hey, stranger! I haven’t seen you for ages,’ Sallie looked up and exclaimed.

‘Tell me about it! I’ve been to LA again since I last saw you. Anyway, enough of me, how’s it all going?’

‘Sit down. I’ll order you a cup of tea. You won’t believe what we are going to do with the Orangery.’

‘Oh dear, this sounds ominous, will I need something stronger in the tea?’ Felicity laughed, took off her scarf and hat and sat down opposite Sallie who ordered more tea.

Sallie started to tell her about the podcast interview and then the idea for the competition and how it was all slowly starting to come together. It wouldn’t be long until they put it up on social media and started the ball rolling.

‘That’s a brilliant idea. Nothing like a competition to stir up some publicity, and a competition for a surprise wedding, in a beautiful Orangery... that’s gold. Well done, what a fantastic idea.’ Felicity stirred her cup of tea and smiled at Sallie.

‘Yep, I hope so. It would be fabulous if it really went viral, wouldn’t it?’

Chapter 24

Sallie was minutes away from finishing her video call with Loretta on how long it would take her contacts to turn around a dress when her phone pinged with a text from Ben.

I’ve arrived. All good so far. Can I just point out - it’s FREEZING. You’ll love it. BC

Miss you already, send me some pics.

She finished up the call with Loretta and opened up the shared drive with Lucian and started to look at the timelines. She could maybe squeeze in a trip if she got everything to line up on the travel side and everything sorted before she left. She’d had a sneaky little look at Alaska online and decided that if she could make it happen, she would. It looked amazing. She’d rarely been abroad so to be able to go was unbelievable to her.

Pictures started to ping onto her phone as she sat there at the kitchen table in the apartment - beautiful pictures of snowy peaks, the seaplanes parked in the water glistening in the sunshine, rustic timber cabins with little white roofs surrounded by beautiful pine trees. She’d taken one look at all that and decided that maybe she would take Ben up on the offer of a nice Business Class flight after all.

She’d worked out that the fast train to the airport, a flight to the USA and the onward flight to Alaska would be just about doable. She’d even thought ever-so-briefly about a little stop on the way, but had soon realised stopping in Seattle would probably make the whole trip too tiring and too long.

She’d had a few reservations about travelling on her own - not that she was scared, more that she didn’t have any experience of it. Ben had soon put her mind at rest though, telling her that it was no different to getting on the train or bus and when you were in Business Class it was really very comfortable - as long as you could get there on time and follow signs through the airport there wasn’t much else to do. She’d get on in London, transit through Seattle and half a day later,