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

white crochet vintage-style shower curtain from the bath and sighed as a gush of hot water sprang from the old-fashioned copper rain shower above.

She stood there washing the grime and smells of the past twenty-four hours away and felt the warmth slowly return to every part of her body as the bathroom filled with steam. She poured black pepper body wash onto a cloth and scrubbed every part of her body, as bubbles slid away down the plug.

Pressing the large copper handle towards the wall, the pipes gave their familiar creak and groan as she climbed out of the shower, wrapped herself in a towel and tied a turban onto her wet hair. Her phone started ringing, she propped it in between her ear and her shoulder and started rubbing moisturiser into her face.

‘Hi, you’re back - what a welcome home eh,’ Holly said.

‘I can’t believe it, Holly. I’ve just been up there, she looks terrible. It was all so surreal.’

‘It’s awful - Rory’s home now, his rotation at St. Louise’s is done so at least he’s here, we, I mean you, or whoever, can chat to him too...’ she trailed off. ‘He’s very good - it’ll be better to have someone in the know around.’

‘Ahh, that’s good. I suppose there’s not a whole lot anyone can do though, is there?’

‘Not really. As much as I’ve told Rory it seems it’s all a bit of an unknown equation.’

Sallie took a deep breath in and sighed. ‘It seemed as much with the little I was told at the hospital - they didn’t really seem to be able to tell me much at all and obviously, at this point, I wasn’t going to ask too many questions.’

‘The worry is the baby though,’ Holly said, sighing down the other end of the phone.

‘I know - at least I’m back now and at least we have Lilly. My God she deserves a medal - she’s been amazing - so young too, but she seems to have a wise old head on her shoulders that one.’

‘Yes, I’ve heard - Pete has been brilliant too. He said that Lilly has just got on without any fuss and that is exactly what you need in a situation like this.’ Holly replied.

‘Indeed - it could have gone very differently with the childcare aspect. After all the reservations I had about Pete too - I feel a bit bad about that now.’

‘So, what are you going to do? Have Tillie at yours, or stay there until Nina’s back home?’ Holly asked as Sallie propped the phone up, put it on speaker, unravelled the towel from her head and started to comb her hair.

‘I don’t know - to be quite honest Holly I’ve not really thought about it too much. I spent the flight home making sure everything is ready for the Orangery competition to leave me relatively free to work around Lilly’s schedule and her hours. I should be able to look after Ottilie and get the last few bits done for the Orangery in between. Pete’s going to help out too.’

‘Sounds very busy - and in this weather too! Apparently, another storm’s on the way, not as bad as the last one, but you never know - you’ve a lot on your plate Sallie. Let me know what I can do.’

‘Will do. Look I need to go, sorry, I want to speak to Ben before I collapse and fall asleep,’ Sallie said, finishing the call and promising Holly she would pop into the bakery the next day.

Later, after speaking to Ben, making herself something to eat and sitting down in front of the fire in her pyjamas she sighed to herself and spoke out loud.

‘What a day.’

Chapter 39

Pete Mulhoney always seemed large and loud, but in the sitting room of Nina’s cottage bouncing Tillie on his lap, he seemed even bigger, even louder than he usually did. Sallie looked past him out to the huge puddles on the terrace and lashing sleet hitting the windows.

‘Well, one thing’s for certain, I won’t be taking her out for a walk in this.’ Sallie said, indicating the weather.

‘There’s a rain cover for the pram - I saw it in the back of the car when I was putting it in the garage the other day.’ Pete replied.

‘I’ll need more than a rain cover Pete! It’s sleeting out there, the pavements will be treacherous.’

‘It’s not too bad - but, yeah, take your point. It’s meant to brighten up for a patch this afternoon,’ he replied looking at the weather app on his phone.

‘I’ll see how I go and if I can I’ll pop up to the Orangery later if the sleet stops - if I time it with the afternoon nap she should drop off in the pram and then I can pop her in the corner and start going through a few things I need to do for the competition. And I guess the naming ceremony will be off now, won’t it?’

‘It sure will - even if Nina’s out of hospital by then, I can’t see her being up for anything like a naming celebration,’ Pete replied, a grave look on his face. ‘It takes months, even longer to recover from a stay in hospital like that.’

‘I know.’ Sallie nodded her head in agreement.

‘It’s so funny, life, isn’t it? Well, not funny but you know what I mean. One minute and it can all be changed in an instant. I was only sitting here on this very sofa last week - Tillie was upstairs asleep and we’d put out a new food for the birds and saw the most beautiful Robin come in and documented it right there in that logbook and now boom, Nina’s in hospital... it doesn’t seem real.’ He indicated to a thick, beautifully bound book sitting right in the middle of the coffee table.

‘Not real and not right - being on her own and with Tillie so tiny.’

‘Yup, said the same thing to my son - ain’t