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

it to the onion and cream mixture and stirred in herbs to the mixing bowl. Then she laid the cheese mixture onto the sheets of pastry and one by one rolled them up. This was a big batch, and she just about had time to deliver them before the storm really came in. She lined the rolls up on the baking tray, popped them into the oven and set a timer on her phone for twenty minutes.

Sallie walked over to the windows and looked out onto the beach - there was already debris washing up. A branch had blown down from one of the trees onto the roof of the boathouse cottage and one of the oars attached to the front rattled precariously in the wind. She had guests arriving for the week soon and the following three weekends after that were all booked, as was Christmas, so she kept her fingers crossed that the storm wouldn’t cause too much damage.

Next door, Ed from the kayak hire store, wrapped up in a vast yellow raincoat, wellington boots and a sheepskin hat was packing away everything outside on his jetty. She watched as he hurriedly tried to get everything in - it was a race to get it all packed away before the snowstorm really hit. She opened the French doors, walked out into the wind on the deck and called out to him. The wind took her voice away and he carried on oblivious. Walking back in she checked on the sausage rolls, grabbed her coat, put on her wellies, pulled open the barn door and gasped as wind whipped into her hair and icy air swirled around her head.

Slamming the door behind her, she ran across the pebbles and down to the left side of the Boat House, squeezed beside the marquee and climbed over the low fence onto Ed’s deck. She shouted out to him, her voice carrying into the wind.

‘Ed! Do you need some help?’ He looked up hearing her shouting and nodded in relief.

‘It’s come in so fast! I was up at Seafolly Bay at an appointment and then this! Then I got stuck in traffic. I need to get all this stuff inside. It’ll probably be alright but I’d rather not chance it,’ he yelled back over the noise of the wind and waves.

She started helping him lug stuff into the workshop and they stacked it all up next to the orderly piles of orange kayaks. Twenty minutes later, with crisp snowflakes swirling around them and the angry sea lashing at the side of the deck, they’d got most of it in. They stood in the doorway looking over to the beach and to the lighthouse beyond.

Ed grimaced. ‘Haven’t had one of these for years. The weather forecaster said it was going to be a cold one this year, but I didn’t see snow coming this early. The last big one was awful for Pretty Beach - took us ages to recover. I don’t suppose you were here then? No, no you weren’t. It took me years to get over that really, even with the insurance paying out on the equipment.’

Sallie thought to herself that she had felt the snow coming much earlier and replied, ‘No I wasn’t here then. Everyone’s been telling me it was a real mess the night after that last big storm though.’

‘It certainly was! I had so much junk wash up here, just clearing that up took the best part of a week. You better make sure you’ve got all your fuel in and your boilers working - the last time we had one of these it got really cold. We got snowed in and had a couple of power cuts.’ He moved the last of the oars inside the shed. ‘How’s it going with everything anyway? Have you been and checked Lucia’s place? Hopefully, that’ll be okay - it’s been there long enough.’

‘I went over there earlier, put things away and made sure it was all secure. There’s not much more I can do. I’m trying to think that it’s stood there all these years and weathered a few storms in its time so hopefully it’ll be okay.’

‘Think he built that one to last,’ Ed laughed and rubbed his eyes. ‘Thanks for this anyway, much appreciated - I’ll lock it all up and get going before the snow comes down more heavily. Text me if there are any problems if you don’t mind.’

‘Will do. Got to get back, I’ve got something in the oven.’ Sallie said, and jumped down off the deck, walking back up the side of the Boat House.

As she hurried along she thought about what Ed had said and the consequences of the storm and what it might mean for her. She grimaced at the thought of it - any damage to the Orangery was the last thing she needed at the moment. The Orangery was not losing money yet, but if it didn’t start to get on the treadmill of bookings and income it very much would be.

Chapter 5

Sallie got back to the Boat House, yanked off her green wellies and padded up the tiny internal stairs to the apartment in her socks. The glorious smells of baking hit her nostrils - whenever it snowed she made cheese rolls. It was a weird tradition that had started when she’d met her first husband; he’d loved them when it was cold outside and so she’d always made them for him when it got cold, and once they were divorced she’d carried on the tradition. She opened the oven, pulled the trays out, put them onto a cooling rack and sent a text to Nina.

On my way soon and then Ben and I will hunker down for the rest of the day. Anything you need from the shop on my way up?

A pint of milk if you wouldn't mind. Just in case this goes on for longer than we think. Then I won’t have to go