Winter at Pretty Beach by Polly Babbington (best affordable ebook reader TXT) 📗

all sorts of things to take into consideration - the fact that Nina had no one else, that Lilly was left to look after Ottilie and the time it would take Sallie to get back. Sallie had decided she wanted to get there sooner rather than later and they’d got straight onto the airline, changed the ticket easily and they’d returned to the cabin and she’d packed up all her stuff and got ready for the long trip home.

They stalked across the concourse to the check-in desk, hand-in-hand.

‘You’ll be there before you know it,’ Ben said, trying to calm her down. ‘Just try to get some sleep so that when you land you’ll be feeling okay - did you remember to put the sleeping tablets in?’

‘Yes, yes - but I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep Ben with worrying about this.’

‘I know, but you’ll be surprised and there is literally nothing you can do up there. You have to just remember what Pete said that they are saying at this stage; that it's just precautionary.’

‘I know, but ICU? Is that precautionary? I don’t know, it just all sounds very serious to me - look at me and the burn, they couldn’t wait to get rid of me really and here they are keeping her in.’

‘Hmm, yes - you don’t get admitted to hospital unless it’s serious.’ He squeezed her hand, ‘I’ll be back in a week too so we’ll both be there. Remember - if you want me to come home before that, I’ll do the same and jump on the next plane.’

Chapter 36

Sallie threw her bag over her shoulder, grabbed the suitcase and said thank you as she exited the door of the plane. It had been a long, tiring journey and she’d felt almost as if she was in a vortex - a vortex up in the sky surrounded by airline cabin staff serving her every whim. The luxuries of First Class had done nothing for her though - her mood was low.

Just after the second plane had taken off, on its way to London, a text had come in from Pete - Nina had been moved to another bed and there was no improvement at all. The doctors had said that it would only be a few days, but now they were saying they didn’t know how she was going to go.

She marched across the concourse down towards immigration, took her passport out of her bag and got in line. She handed her passport over to the officious looking man.

‘Occupation?’ He barked at her without looking up.

‘Event management,’ Sallie replied. She’d not been sure what to say when this had come up before - what was she? Property investor, holiday property manager, wedding planner? She knew one thing for sure - it was better than any other job she’d had before.

He slid the passport back to her and said nothing. She took it as instruction that all was good and quickly walked past the plastic screen and hurried towards the signs - it was early and fairly empty and she silently said thank you that she had taken the decision to travel with only hand luggage.

Sailing through customs, she walked quickly out into the arrivals area keeping an eye out for the board with her name - and there he was, the same chauffeur, Jim, who had driven her to the airport for the outgoing trip.

‘Mrs Chalmers, welcome back to our beautiful country.’

‘Thank you. I have to say I’m glad to be back.’

‘Yes. The other Mrs Chalmers told me you’ve had a bit of bad news and need to get back quickly. I’ll do as best I can to get you to the station as fast as I can - you’re in luck today, the traffic is not too bad.’ He held out his hand for her case and she gratefully handed it over and strode quickly along beside him to the waiting car.

In just under half an hour they’d arrived at the taxi area at the train station and Sallie rushed out of the car to make a train with five minutes to spare. She ran over the concourse, following Jim’s instructions for the platform, clutching the ticket he’d printed off in her hand and sailed through the barriers onto the platform.

She boarded the train, sighed in relief that she’d made it and looked around for a seat away from noisy children, annoying commuters, anyone with music on and generally anyone who might irritate her. The long journey, the concern about Nina and the time difference was not putting her in the jolliest of moods.

She sat down heavily, tucking the tote bag between her feet and got out her planner - there was loads to organise for the Orangery and loads that could go wrong. As long as everything cross-referenced on her planner, her spreadsheets and Lucian’s workflow with the social media it should be straight-forward enough, but she hadn’t factored into the equation, at any point in the plan that she could quite possibly be in charge of a tiny baby - it wasn’t quite the thing you would normally put into a business plan.

Sallie flicked through the planner quickly - she’d bought it on a whim when she’d seen it reduced in the supermarket and loved how it had helped to put down on paper the digital version online. As she flicked through it some of the little stickers in it had made her laugh to herself though - a tiny sticker with ‘Live Life to the Fullest’ wasn’t really going to help with something like the situation she’d found herself in after her second divorce. And ‘You are Enough’ made her stomach turn over it was so nauseating - she’d never felt enough when she’d been in the dreadful job she had before she came to Pretty Beach and sticking ‘You are Enough’ in your planner on a Tuesday morning when you were going nowhere fast was not her idea of being