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

a huge fan of it myself, but that’s not bad. The trial runs were worth it. We reckon the secret is in the colour of the sugar.’

‘I think we’ll need to be keeping a close eye on that one - it’s quite potent and you know what these wedding guests can be like.’ Ollie said, shaking his head back and forth - he had become quite the expert on weddings since he’d been working for Sallie at the marquee.

‘I just thought exactly the same thing! It’ll always remind me of that guy who fell backwards off the chair in a heap. Remember that?’ Sallie giggled at the memory.

‘How can I forget? Then there was that bridesmaid with the vodka and the problem in the bathroom.’

‘I’d rather forget that actually, and having to clear it up,’ Sallie said, raising her eyes to the ceiling, walking round to the back of the bar and putting the glass in the washer.

‘Right, so we’re good to go out here. Text me if you need help.’

‘All good. Will do,’ Ollie replied and smiled at Phia as she walked in from the kitchen with a pile of clean trays and joined him behind the bar.

Sallie walked back into the Orangery, as Katie and Sam walked back along the aisle strewn with white petals and tiny lanterns. She slowly moved people over to the right side of the Orangery and led them through to the fernery Gin Room where Ollie and Phia quickly served drinks behind the bar and Lochie, dressed in the same butcher’s apron and shirt walked around with a tray of mulled wine.

Sallie, Ben, the caterers, and Holly worked quickly and quietly to get the chairs moved back out of the way - Sallie, Ben and Lucian had run through it quickly the week before and they’d followed exactly the same plan. The tables slid into place topped with their heavy white linen tablecloths around the tessellated floor, the chairs were put back into place and the centrepieces stood in the middle of the tables.

Sallie stood back, hands on her hips as Lucian walked back into the Orangery.

‘Darling! My gawd, thank goodness that’s done and without a hitch! It’s been fabulous. Wasn’t she beautiful?’

Sallie let out a huge sigh and hugged Lucian, ‘Ahhhh, you were brilliant Lucian.’

‘Who would have thought the car wouldn’t start? That wasn’t on my spreadsheet, was it?’ He giggled, and she laughed back at him.

‘I know, when I heard the tone in Ben’s voice, I knew we had a problem.’ Sallie said.

Ben joined in, ‘Sals, I was trying to remain calm - I must stress at that point I did not feel calm and nor did poor Marty. We had a beaming bride in a thin white dress, snowfall and a time schedule looming.’

‘Well, it all worked out in the end. Thank goodness for Holly.’

‘We’ll certainly remember it!’ Ben said, smiling.

‘Okay, let’s start getting these guests seated... we’re on the homerun now, guys,’ Sallie said, walking back across the Orangery and directing people to their seats.

Chapter 60

Sallie and Ben sat at one of the tables in the Orangery by the Christmas tree. All the guests had gone home, everything had been cleared up, all the dishwashers were loaded and on their second run and Katie and Sam, after thanking them profusely, had left.

Sallie finished her cup of tea, got up from the table, walked past the huge, sparkly Christmas tree, through the back of the fernery and into the kitchen area right at the back of the Orangery. She pulled out her handbag from the locked cupboard near the loos, rummaged around in the bottom and pulled out a creased chemist's paper bag and the cardboard box of the pregnancy test. It had been in the bottom of her bag for a while, and she’d kept meaning to put it in her drawer, but her bag had missed its usual monthly clear-out and had all sorts of weird and wonderful things accumulated in it - including one of Tillie’s spare bottles, a muslin, leftover baubles and a little pack of baby wipes.

It had been weeks now since her last period and even though it wasn’t unheard of for her to miss a period or be late she thought it was about time to find out what was going on. She'd said to herself that once the wedding competition was over, she would do the test if nothing had happened. She hadn’t quite envisaged that it would be right as the wedding finished, but as she’d sat there drinking a cup of tea after they’d cleared up and Ben had gone to take Holly’s car home she’d decided that there was no time like the present, got up and went to do the deed. It was like she’d put it to the back of her mind and then bang as soon as the wedding was over she couldn’t wait any longer to find out.

She had felt nothing unusual though apart from a heaviness in her breasts she’d first noticed when she’d got home from Alaska, though with everything that was going on, with Nina in hospital, the wedding competition and looking after Tillie she’d had a lot of other things on her mind. She’d gone to do the test a few times once she’d realised she was late, but at the last minute had changed her mind - not wanting to go through the disappointment that had followed the last few times.

She opened the door to the bathroom, did the test, popped it back in the foil wrapper and box, picked up her bag and walked back into the fernery. A beautiful, lingering aroma from the mulled wine and cinnamon sticks still filled the air and she bent down to the floor to pick up a tiny white pearl which must have fallen from Katie’s dress.

Just as she was walking back along the slate path through the fernery and had stepped into the Orangery, her phone buzzed in her bag. She