Winter at Pretty Beach

by Polly Babbington

  They sat down ready for the three-course dinner - it had been pre-booked so there was no choice, and Sallie and Ben had wondered what to expect, but had been told by people at the seaplane office that it was unforgettable.

  Sallie leant forward and whispered to Ben, ‘Remember when we went to that cafe in Paris and got the recipe for the chicken?’

  ‘That’s funny you should remember that - it reminded me of that too!’

  ‘Hopefully, it’s as good here,’ she said and nodded, crossed her fingers and held them up to him.

  The waiter brought a basket of freshly baked rolls up to the table in a basket wrapped up in a royal blue gingham napkin. He unwrapped it and placed the basket on the table. Next up, tiny crab cakes made with mashed potato and served with a grainy mustard did exactly the job they were meant to do and made them ready for the main lunch.

  Sallie dipped into the platter of salmon covered in the creamy white sauce and added it to her plate with the mashed potato and the salad. The starter had been delicious but this looked a little bit disappointing - salmon in a sauce and not a lot else going on on the plate other than too many pastel colours. Popping the salmon into her mouth her taste buds exploded with the flavour, the salmon was soft, firm and the freshest she’d ever tasted, if felt as if it had just jumped out of the sea. The accompanying sauce was creamy and simple, but delicious.

  ‘Ben!’ She exclaimed, nodding in appreciation.

  ‘I know, oh my, it’s so good.’ He said as he leant across the tablecloth and whispered back to her - ‘don’t tell me, you want me to ask for the recipe,’ he winked and laughed.

  ‘I bet it’s really simple - it's not as if there can be a very large or fabulous kitchen out the back there, can it? So it must be really easy to make.’

  ‘True, true. I imagine it’s the quality of the fish though rather than the actual recipe.’

  ‘Guess so - let’s just ask though shall we?’ Sallie said.

  ‘You mean, can you ask Ben, do you?’

  ‘Errr, yeah,’ she replied, laughing and giggling as she dipped into another serving of the salmon.

  ‘Okay, I’ll ask later.’

  They finished the meal with a warm, sponge pudding with treacle and liquor coffees which all definitely did the job of warming them up after the sightseeing out on deck.

  Sallie looked around at the tiny little restaurant full of customers rugged up in thick jumpers as gorgeous scenery floated by while they sat there with their full stomachs and happy faces. She felt so full and so content it was almost unreal and knew that she would remember this forever - her and Ben on a lovely trip.

  ‘You know what Ben? We should do this more often.’ She said, a far away look in her eyes.

  ‘Do what more often?’

  ‘Just getting away from it all. I mean I can’t think of anything worse than sitting in an all-inclusive resort all day with a Pina Colada but going somewhere like this you get to see a real part of the world, not some resort made for tourists on the side of a beach in Greece.’

  ‘Well, hopefully the seaplane business will mean I’ll be flying all over the place to do consulting if this all goes well and the word gets around.’

  ‘Hmm, yeah, where to next then? Remember Paris, I loved that, and we’ve still yet to go on Honeymoon.’

  ‘Well you will insist on buying properties, and you know, starting businesses, helping other people in their businesses and, errrm there was the small thing of the burn.’

  She sighed and chuckled, ‘Yes, it’s been a busy year.’

  ‘Certainly has, let’s look into it though - with that fast train getting us up to town it’s a no-brainer to get away for the weekend now.’

  ‘Right. When we get back we are planning our next trip - we’ll write it off as a business expense to research recipes.’ She joked.

  They both laughed, clinked their drinks and toasted finding new recipes and new lands.

  Chapter 34

  It had been a wonderful few days - a break that Sallie would never forget. They’d hiked up the side of mountains, had gorgeous meals in lovely little restaurants and spent an evening in the hot tub with a bottle of champagne watching the stars.

  Ben pulled into the parking space outside a roadside diner - cute little lace half curtains lined the windows of a squat beige building with a massive lit-up sign announcing Shelley-Anne’s Diner. A huge billboard nearly as big as the building itself, topped with cut-out flashing letters spelt out to anyone that passed ‘Great Food Sold Here’, gave details of the breakfast on offer.

  ‘So, according to everyone I’ve met so far this is the best place in town,’ Ben said peering dubiously out the window thinking it looked far from welcoming.

  ‘Well, I think it looks wonderful. Remember when we had that morning tea with croissants in France? It’ll be the American breakfast version of that.’

  ‘Hope so, I’m starving - I’ve never really understood the going out for breakfast thing. I’d rather a cup of tea and toast when I first get up and something an hour later - something like one of your fry-ups.’

  ‘You do that anyway, even when you’re going out for breakfast!’

  ‘True.’ Ben laughed; he’d already had two cups of tea and a bagel while Sallie had been in the shower.

  They got out of the car and opened the door to the diner. A shrill bell rang overhead and a fluorescent sign told them to wait to be seated by their server. A tiny, blonde woman with a red apron, heavily lined skin and a tight black, shiny collared shirt addressed them after studying the computer looking for a table.

  ‘Welcome to Shelley-Anne’s, y’all. I’ll take you to your table. Your server today will be Valerie-Joy.’ The woman said to them.

  Sallie and Ben followed the tiny woman through throngs of booths, filled with people and topped with flasks of coffee. They walked all the way to the end where she stopped at a small booth for four next to the window with the lace curtains and handed them a large black plastic folder menu inserted with pages of breakfasts.

  ‘Think y’all will find something in there to fill you up,’ she bounced off and Sallie opened the menu. There were so many different versions of breakfast she didn’t know where to start; row after row of different variations of breakfasts filled the pages.

  Valerie-Joy approached their table, took a pencil from behind her ear, pulled sets of cutlery wrapped in heavy napkins from her apron and asked them how they liked their coffee. Ben replied that he’d like a white coffee.

  ‘Oh my! You have the cutest accent,’ Valerie-Joy exclaimed. She broke into a wide grin, filled up their mugs with coffee from her jug and took their order.

  Ten minutes later and two huge plates arrived - a thick stack of pancakes for Sallie, country fried links, eggs and grits for Ben.

  ‘There’s enough for me and the rest of the diner here, possibly for the whole town,’ Sallie whispered over to Ben who sat there looking at the huge pile of food in front of him.

  Having made a good dent in the breakfast, washed it down with coffee and Valerie-Joy asking if they wanted dessert they sat in the little red plastic booth in a food coma discussing the competition and the entry from the trainee vet and his nurse bride. Sallie showed Ben the picture of the would-be bride sitting on a wall in the Yorkshire Dales with a flock of sheep behind her, legs dangling out in front, bright red lipstick and an enormous smile.

  ‘She looks amazing for what she’s been through,’ Ben observed as he looked at the picture on Sallie’s phone.

  ‘I know. Bless her. What a terrible ordeal and then to have her dad pass away before she could get him to walk her down the aisle.’

  ‘Have you had any other good entries yet?’ He asked, handing her back the phone.

  ‘Hundreds. It’s been overwhelming. Lucian’s had to pass it onto an offshore assistant. There’s a couple from Spain and one from Australia who also look good, but I don’t know, I think it would be nice to go with these two in Yorkshire - a vet and a nurse. They’ll s
pend their lives helping other people and it would be lovely to give back to them.’

  ‘Very true,’ Ben replied, ‘Looks like you’ve already got your answer then. I think their story was made for it.’

  ‘Maybe...’ Sallie replied.

  Just as she put her phone back in her bag it buzzed with a message. She put in the passcode and opened the messages, read it and gasped.

  ‘What? What’s happened?’ Ben leant over the table and touched her arm.

  ‘It’s a message from Pete - Nina is being admitted to hospital!’

  ‘What? You only messaged her last night, didn’t you?’

  ‘Yep. She seemed fine. Just said she was feeling a bit wheezy again that was all,’ Sallie replied, looking up. ‘Oh my. What’s going to happen to Tillie? I may need to change my flights.’

  Chapter 35

  Ben pulled the car into the airport car park, jumped out of the back and took Sallie’s suitcase and tote bag from the boot. They started walking towards the airport check-in desks as driving rain started to soak through their coats.

  The news from home had not improved. Nina had been admitted to hospital and according to Pete was not doing that well at all.

  It had been a few days since the initial text in the diner where they were having breakfast and initially everyone had been telling Sallie and Ben that it was okay, that it was just precautionary and according to the doctors Nina would be out in a day or so. Nina had texted her telling her not to worry, everything was under control and Lilly was there for Ottilie to hold the fort. They’d been doing some tests the results of which hadn’t seemed too serious.

  Then, all of a sudden, two days before Sallie was meant to be flying home while Sallie and Ben were on a scenic trip on the railroad another text had come in from Pete and then another from Holly. Pete had asked her to call him right away. She’d taken one look at the text and phoned him.

  ‘Yeah, hello Sallie. Look I don’t want to worry you but she’s gone downhill quite fast overnight. I just came in to visit seeing as she hasn’t really got anyone else here and, well, you know the situation with her mum and they couldn’t let me in. She’s being moved to Intensive Care. I thought you would want to know as soon as...’

  Sallie had gone white and relayed the whole thing to Ben, asking him what he thought she should do. There were 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 positive.

  She opened the timeline on her phone and tallied it up with what was written on the planner - everything had a goal and then each goal was broken down into what needed to be done to complete that task. Once it was laid out in front of her, Sallie sighed in relief - all the early planning and organisation had paid off. All she really needed to do was turn the Orangery into a Christmas scene and proces
s bookings if and when they came in as a result of the competition coverage and she was sure she could manage that if she needed to look after Tillie at the same time.

  She sat back and sipped on the coffee she’d bought from the catering carriage, its bitter aftertaste sticking in her mouth, and ran her pen down through the dates. Yes, all was set.

  As she was checking through one of Lucian’s spreadsheets a message pinged from him.

  Darling, I hope you’re okay? Don’t worry - I’ve got everything covered this end. The only thing you need to do is the decorating.

  Just been cross-checking all my lists - I’ll have to let go of some of the social media plans but the main thing is to make sure the place is dressed up for Christmas - after all it is a Christmas wedding.

  Indeed! Don’t worry about social media anyway - as long as you keep it fairly updated it will still be ok.

  Yep, I thought the same. I’m just going to go through the decor plans and look for anything I’ve missed. Then there’s the tree to sort.

  OK. All good darling. Don’t worry about anything - sort out that little baby and lovely Nina and the rest of it will be taken care of by moi!

  Thank you. You’ve taken such a load off my mind. Thank goodness you’re organised and on top of everything.

  I aim to please darling. Text me tomorrow when you’re back in the land of the living and know what you’re doing. I have a recording in the morning but that’s all. Let’s meet for a cup of tea and go through everything if you’ve got time.

  Will do.

  Sallie flipped through the documents on her phone until she arrived at ‘Christmas Decor’ and went through it. She started going through each one and looking at the corresponding boards on Pinterest and envisaging in her head how it would look and more importantly how it would look on camera. She very quickly realised she’d overlooked something very big. It was quite simple - with the size of the Orangery, the arrival of the bride and the logistics of how the room was laid out inside, she would be needing more than one tree.