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

white lights overhead and lanterns on the ground. Katie the bride would arrive in an old 1920’s car from the hotel on the other side of Pretty Beach and enter the Orangery, and the groom would be waiting inside at the end near the tree with the celebrant. Following the actual ceremony, a simple celebration meal would be held for the sixty or so guests and following that the cutting of the huge wedding cake and tea.

Everyone had chipped in to help out - the Pretty Beach way again coming to the fore. Holly and Xian had helped with getting everything ready in the courtyard, Juliette had provided all the baubles for free and Nel had spent hours polishing panes of glass on the top of a ladder.

Chapter 43

Sallie climbed onto the bus and as she reached across to tap her card on the pad, she felt her tender breasts against her coat. Suddenly, it dawned on her that her period was late - in all the furore of Nina being in hospital, the planning for the competition plus the long journey across the Atlantic, she’d put getting pregnant to the back of her mind.

It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for her to have a late period. Since the stillbirth her periods had always been erratic and she’d told a doctor not long after that she was sure it had had something to do with what had happened but he’d said it was completely unrelated. She hadn’t quite believed him but she had got used to not knowing what was going to happen from one month to the next.

She opened up the calendar on her phone - yep, she was definitely late if her dates were correct, which didn’t really mean much because they were quite often upside down. If she was pregnant it had happened in Alaska and Ben had been right - a trip away, relaxation and the stay in the amazing cabin had possibly made it happen.

She looked out of the bus window as it sped along the coast and thought that she didn’t have any other signs at all though and she didn’t want to be hasty with a test. She’d wasted enough time and effort in the past with tests and after the last disappointment had decided that at least until Nina was out of hospital what would be would be. Plus, she didn’t want the euphoria of knowing and then the comedown, if it happened, of getting her period; it was like a double whammy when that happened - the joy of it being positive and then bam the disappointment a week later. No, she decided she would not do a test and would just wait a few weeks and see what happened. The referral had come through for after Christmas for the first fertility appointment, so she would focus her mind on that.

The bus pulled down through Strawberry Hill into Pretty Beach and along past the fisherman’s cottages. Sallie looked over to Nina’s cottage; everything looked ok from the outside belying what was going on inside.

Sallie had spent her whole life longingly looking at other people’s houses and over the years had often wondered when she’d looked at gorgeous old houses from the outside if it was all as rosy on the inside. She’d heard it often enough that you never knew what went on behind closed doors, but the closed doors she’d always looked at always seemed to be so perfect, so homely and so full of the life she’d never had. But what was going on behind the closed door of Nina’s little cottage at the moment was not nice at all.

As she sat there her mind jumbled with all sorts of thoughts and emotions, she felt a sudden pang of sadness about Nina - it was overwhelming what was happening and so unfair at Tillie’s young age. It reminded her how’d she’d felt in the hospital all those years ago and how then she’d thought that sometimes life had other ideas and took you on a journey you didn't know you were going to go on. In none of Nina’s heavily-planned, highly-edited spreadsheets had there been a section for her getting sick, going into hospital and having someone else have to look after Tillie. Although as Sallie sat there thinking about it all she suddenly realised that was exactly what Nina had done. Nina had very clearly thought about it and not only thought about it but actioned it and got the wheels in motion with the guardianship and had it very much secured.

There was one thing Nina couldn’t control though with money and planning and as Sallie went to get up from her seat on the bus and gathered her bag and coat she thought that no amount of money in the world, no amount of planning or forethought could change what was happening now. All they had was the knowledge of the doctors, the facilities of the hospital and time to wait and see what happened.

Chapter 44

With Lilly having worked every day for weeks juggling her uni assignments with nannying and Tillie undoubtedly missing Nina and a few teeth coming through, Sallie had told Lilly to take a few days off. Her and Ben were staying at Nina’s cottage so that Tillie’s routine was as least disturbed as possible. Sallie sat back on the sofa as Ben came down the stairs after putting Tillie to sleep.

‘Right, she’s gone off,’ he whispered. ‘Let’s hope she lasts all night - I’m shattered Sals, you?’

‘Yeah, totally and we haven’t even thought about dinner and I’m really hungry,’ Sallie said plumping up the cushions on Nina’s sofa and straightening the throw.

‘Why don’t I pop out and get us a take-away or I can do us some pasta?’ Ben suggested.

Sallie didn’t really care what she ate; she’d been on the go all day getting the boathouse cottage ready for a last-minute booking and doing a phone interview with a magazine who were