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

painted a deep bottle green, covered in ivy and climbing plants and the panes of glass in the doors were either missing or cracked and half falling out.

‘It’s like a secret garden down there,’ she said and both men peered down at the walled garden.

‘Gardening isn't my strong point Sals,’ Ben joked as they all looked at the work involved in the overhanging trees, the overgrown bushes and the weeds climbing up the old walls.

‘Mine either mate - my wife loves it though, thankfully, all I have to do is run around with the lawnmower every now and then,’ Shane said and chuckled.

‘That lawn wouldn't take you very long then.’ Ben joked as they looked at the long strip of knee-high grass.

They walked all the way back down through the flights of stairs back to the tiled entrance hallway.

‘We’ll take it,’ Sallie said as Shane proceeded to the front door.

They all laughed.

‘Great negotiation skills Sals,’ Ben said and Shane was smiling.

‘As I said - it's a bit of a funny one. They won’t go for an offer anyway. The daughter works on the rigs, some environmental qualification, highly regarded apparently - if they can’t get rid of it for a decent price, she's going back on the rigs to pay off the debts.’

They walked out, Shane closing the huge, wide Victorian door of the old place behind them, and they shook hands.

‘I'll let you know any good comparisons I can come up with and then I’ll negotiate with them on exactly what price they'd be happy with. You're going to need to do your figures though, on the damp and the outside - it’ll need scaffolding and all that so it’s not a small job.’

‘Thanks Shane, that would be great,’ Ben said and patted Shane on the back.

Shane walked back along the road and Sallie and Ben looked up at the blue-grey plaster falling off the top of the house and the yellow peeling paint on the windows.

‘I want her, Ben. I want her to be mine.’

Chapter 49

Jessica’s house was never quiet, there was always something going on and as Sallie approached the front door on the morning of the shoot for the Orangery it was exactly the same as any other time she’d been there.

As she stepped through the front door she could hear Camilla playing classical music in the study and she could see Caitlin sitting at the dining table with one of her friends with the television blaring in the background. As she unpeeled her gloves in the hallway David pulled up and parked on the driveway.

Sallie pulled off her scarf and put the basket she had with her to collect the holly and mistletoe from the garden down on the front porch. David walked in behind her, said hello and kissed her on the cheek.

‘How are you - haven't seen you for a while. I thought I might bump into you on the laneway, but haven’t seen you around.’ David said taking her coat and hanging it on the hooks by the front door.

‘I’ve been manic, what with Tillie and the Orangery, and of course, Nina. I think I just missed you the other day when I was in the fish and chip shop with Tillie.’

‘I bet you have. I only wish Nina could have more visitors - then, on the other hand, I suppose that's the whole point of it.’

‘Yep,’ Sallie let out a massive sigh, ‘I guess so. It’s all getting very real now without seeing any improvement.’

‘Definitely - who would have thought any of this would have happened?’ David said as he pulled off his boots.

‘I know.’ Sallie replied, nodding her head.

Camilla stepped out from the study and came over to say hello while Jessica made cups of tea and pulled out a cake tin from the cupboard.

‘My lovely wife has outdone herself with this one,’ Jessica said smiling and opening the cake tin - she brandished a heavily-iced coffee cake topped with walnuts.

‘That looks like my kind of cake,’ Sallie said, nodding enthusiastically that she would like a piece.

Jessica sliced off huge pieces of cake for them all, they picked up the tea and walked over to the sofas.

‘I meant to say, I saw the article in the paper about the competition at the Orangery and the podcast - Lucian sure knows how to work the public relations to get that sort of coverage,’ David said, taking a slice of the cake and biting into it.

‘He’s a juggernaut! No flies on that one, David - and it’s all come about because you first introduced us. Any press we’ve had is incidental too, we turned down a newspaper and have only done a couple of interviews. We decided his reach was enough.’

‘Yeah, you don’t get a following like that through luck I guess - he’s a grafter that one for sure.’ David replied.

‘He certainly is and he’s been so good since Nina went into hospital - he’s juggled everything wonderfully and if he could’ve done the styling and decorating side of it, he would have.’

‘We need to find him a new boyfriend next then,’ David said smiling.

‘We’ll have to get Xian and her special matchmaking skills on the case.’ Jessica suggested, smiling.

With that Jessica got up and said to Sallie, ‘Shall we go out and see what’s going on in the garden? The holly is massive this year, but not sure on the mistletoe. To be honest I haven’t been out there since that first snowstorm came through - way too cold.’

They got up, went to the front door, put on their coats and boots and trudged down the side of the house. The swimming pool cover was on, the Summer House all locked up from the cold and the outdoor furniture tightly covered.

Jessica pointed down over the lawn to a large, high reaching holly bush. Sallie looked down towards it and took the secateurs out of the basket.

‘Now, there was mistletoe right down the end there by the back fence.’ Jessica pointed