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

down to the end, rubbing her hands together to warm up her hands, ‘I’ll go down and have a look, you get what holly you want from there.’

Sallie looked up at the holly bush laden with berries; it was so abundant and so green it looked like it wasn’t real. She started snipping off branches and laying them carefully in her basket. Jessica came walking back across the lawn in her wellies with bundles of mistletoe, white berries hanging off it.

‘Will this do?’ She asked, holding up the huge bunch of greenery.

‘Do? God yes! Thank you. This and what I’ve managed to get from Holly’s has saved me a fortune.’

‘Funny, I think the same every year when I see how much it is in White Cottage Flowers when I walk past on my way to work - all I do is go outside, pick a load, shove it in a vase and it looks like Christmas in a jar,’ Jessica said, chuckling.

‘I know - it’s going to look great on the tables and really easy too. All I’ll need to do is go round and plonk it in and then if you don’t mind I’ll be back just before the actual wedding for a fresh lot.’

‘Even better,’ Jessica replied as she placed the mistletoe in Sallie’s basket.

‘What’s going to happen with Nina? It’s really getting extremely concerning now, isn’t it?’ Jessica asked as they trudged back up through the cold wet grass on the lawn.

‘I just don’t know. I mean what can you do when the doctors don’t really know? Even Rory is none the wiser.’

Chapter 50

Sallie sat on the bench on the decking at the end of the wharf waiting for the Pretty Beach ferry to swing around the headland into view. Wearing a thick puffy jacket, huge grey cashmere scarf, black jeans and little black ankle boots to try and insulate herself from the weather.

The last few days had been spent organising, sorting and juggling looking after Tillie with going to visit Nina, and when Tillie had gone to sleep for the night Sallie had almost collapsed herself, just managing to stay awake to have a bath and eat her dinner.

The only thing that had kept her from falling in a heap was Ben - as ever, he had been marvellous, always one of life’s doers, he just got on with stuff, no questions asked - it was so nice to have someone like him around and she was still pinching herself just about every single day that she was married to him. She still found the whole thing astounding - being married to a dashing pilot who just so happened to be a millionaire had been so far away from her life of drudge in Freshlea it was hard to wrap her head around.

Holly clipped down the road, large designer bag over her shoulder and taking her ferry card out of her bag kissed Sallie on the cheek.

‘Are you sure you want to come? You’re going to hang around and wait for me outside? Sallie asked.

‘Yep, give you a bit of company. I could do with a few hours off anyway.’ Holly replied.

Sallie and Holly stepped over the gangplank of the ferry, proceeded to Sallie’s favourite spot upstairs and sat looking out to the sea and at the lighthouse beyond. The ferry pulled away and as it chugged around to Pearl Beach and then stopped at all the little coves and beaches all the way to Newport Reef Sallie and Holly sat there chatting about Nina and when, how and if this would all end.

The ferry pulled into Newport, they hopped off and started walking up the hill. Cold sea air whistled in off the ocean, an ambulance with its lights flashing raced past and people hurried along eager to get in out of the cold.

They took Sallie’s usual route that had now become all too horribly familiar. Then getting to the hospital foyer Sallie left Holly and walked into the lift, up to the ward, checked in at the front and slipped into Nina’s room to sit with her.

Nina rarely responded much at all, but something told Sallie that she knew she was there, every now and then there had been a tiny bit of pressure in Sallie’s hand, a flicker of the eyelids, and sometimes as Sallie had chatted away with her daily reports on Ottilie Sallie had even seen the tiniest hint of a smile cross Nina’s lips.

Sallie sat by the chair, telling Nina about the new baby rice Tillie had tried, gave her a long drawn-out explanation of the decorations in the Orangery and her concerns over the heating and told her all about the bride and groom they’d found for the competition.

Once she’d finished chatting and looked at the clock she slowly and quietly got up from the bed, slipped out of the room and tiptoed down the corridor. As she got to the station at the front she saw one of the regular nurses, Amelia.

‘Hi, how are you?’ Amelia asked, stopping the tapping on her keyboard and looking up from the computer screen.

‘I’m okay, thanks,’ Sallie replied, smiling.

‘You look tired - hope you’re looking after yourself.’ Amelia said.

‘I am tired and I’ve just realised I didn’t have any breakfast really this morning, it was all a bit of a rush and I felt a bit odd so I didn’t bother, I just had a cup of tea.’ Sallie said, adjusting her bag on her shoulder.

‘You need one of the muffins from the cafe downstairs It may be unbelievable for me to be recommending a hospital cafe, but if you go to the tiny little one at the back, not the main place in the foyer, it’s run by a lovely little family and the wife makes the most amazing homemade cakes - all the staff go in there.’ Amelia suggested.

‘You know, I think I might actually do that. I’ve got a bit of time before the bus, I was going to