Secret Evenings in Pretty Beach

by Polly Babbington

  ‘Wow!’ Juliette exclaimed. ‘Talk about caught red-handed. He didn’t put a foot wrong, Lottie. You can’t argue with that!’

  Lottie looked back at Juliette glumly. ‘I know. I just can’t seem to shake off the feeling that I’m in too deep.’

  ‘What have you done about it, then?’

  ‘Nothing. But I’ve definitely put the brakes on. I guess I’ve been a bit distant too. I’ve hardly seen him since that night and I cancelled him helping at the next event and used the excuse that Phia was able to work for us that night.’

  Juliette finished her tea and put her handbag on her lap.

  ‘I really think you need to think about this a bit more. He’s not done anything to deserve you going cold on him.’

  ‘I know. I just need to think about it all for a bit longer and decide what I’m going to do.’

  Chapter 63

  Lottie walked into the room in the eaves at the bottom of the garden and looked around. Everything was in place. The tables were laid with vintage English bone china topped with gilt-edged wine glasses and antique silverware. The whole place was set and ready all for the Secret Evenings event ‘Supper by Candlelight overlooking the Sea.’

  In the centre of each table cut glass goblets spilled with old English roses from Lottie’s garden, glass water carafes stood to the side and each plate was laid with thick, old hand-embroidered napkins, and doused in rose petals.

  As she walked around the room checking every place setting, Phia who worked for Sallie’s wedding business came up the stairs carrying a stack of napkins and bread baskets.

  ‘Thanks for this, Phia. You’ve done really well,’ Lottie said.

  ‘No worries. I’m used to following Sallie’s tablescaping plans.’

  ‘I can see.’

  ‘What an amazing view. I’d forgotten how lovely it was up here on Strawberry Hill looking down out to sea,’ Phia said as she stopped and looked out the wide-open windows.

  ‘Yes. I know. It seems ridiculous now that a few months ago no one had even stepped into this building for years.’

  ‘You’ve certainly made up for it now and the guests are going to love it on this beautiful evening.’

  ‘I hope so.’

  Phia stood at the old antique dresser Lottie had saved from the skip and read down the menu and serving plan with her hands in the pocket of her apron.

  ‘This is a piece of cake compared to the weddings. So much more casual,’ Phia stated.

  ‘Yeah. Centre serving and little packages makes it easy in the kitchen too.’

  ‘I’ll even get time to have a ten-minute break by the looks of this. I can see Dimitri’s scheduled it in,’ Phia commented on the runsheet with a chuckle.

  ‘Hopefully. As long as we don’t get any strange guest requests or anyone nearly toppling over all the desserts.’

  ‘Well, I’ve seen it all at the weddings, Lottie, so nothing will surprise me I don’t think.’

  ***

  A few hours later ‘Supper by Candlelight overlooking the Sea’ was drawing to a close. Everything had gone fairly to plan except for a problem where a guest knocked over a bottle of wine covering their lap in it and one of the battery-lit candles had fallen from the candelabra overhead into the dessert of one of the women from the WI.

  Lottie was standing in the kitchen unloading the dishwasher when there was a tap on the door. She walked over and pulled it open to see Syd Sprinton from the Gardening Club standing there with a glass of wine.

  ‘Oh hi, Syd. How did you like it?’ Lottie asked.

  ‘Out of this world, my lovely. The wife’s happy too. Always a bonus in my book.’

  ‘Ha!’

  ‘Dimitri said you might have a moment for me to have a peek in the greenhouse.’

  ‘Absolutely,’ Lottie replied. ‘Follow me.’

  Lottie and Syd walked along the shingle path towards Lottie’s greenhouses.

  ‘You’re a lucky girl. These are beautiful,’ Syd observed as they stood outside the greenhouse nearest the house and Lottie opened the door.

  Stepping in Lottie’s favourite smell in the world hit their nostrils. Beautiful plants, soil, and night air mixed together to make one fabulous scent.

  Syd strolled along touching plants here and there, admired Lottie’s tomato plants and started to leaf through her vast seed collection at the end.

  ‘You’re not just a good gardener then, Lottie,’ Syd said. ‘You’re a very good cook too.’

  ‘So they say.’ Lottie chuckled.

  ‘My wife was enthralled. She was amazed at the setting.’

  ‘Yep. It’s come up really well. We’ve worked day and night on it, but it’s been worth it.’

  ‘If my wife is impressed you’re onto something. We’ve been married, golly, I don’t even remember! But we’ve been together for sixty-five years and counting.’

  ‘Amazing Syd. You need a medal for that, don’t you?’ Lottie joked.

  ‘Ahh. Well sometimes, but mostly not at all. I knew the first time I laid eyes on her in the playground at Pretty Beach Primary all those years ago and felt like I’d been sprinkled in gold.’

  Lottie clutched the side of the potting table and sat down heavily.

  Syd moved forward and touched Lottie on the arm. ‘Oh dear, are you alright, Lottie? You’ve come over all strange looking.’

  ‘I’m fine, Syd. There’s just something I need to do.’

  Chapter 64

  From her seat at the front of the ferry, Lottie gazed out to the right. The last of the fading sunlight danced on top of the water and a serene pink, orange and gold sunset doused everything in its glow.

  Lottie touched her enormous lucky earrings, felt her stomach tense and her jaw tighten - not even the beautiful, ethereal sunset could calm her nerves.

  ‘What a view, eh? Can’t beat those colours. Nature’s gold right there in front of you,’ the deck hand said as he wound a rope and pointed over towards the lighthouse.

  ‘Yes. It almost seems to get better the older I get and I appreciate it more. I love that view of the lighthouse when the sun is going down,’ Lottie replied, taking her phone out of her bag and snapping a view of the amazing colours laid out in front of her.

  ‘For sure! Best view in the world. I’ve lived here all my life. And I ain’t going anywhere else anytime soon,’ the man said as the ferry chugged away from Pretty Beach wharf and started to make its way up the coast to Newport Reef.

  ‘Off out for the evening, are ya? Lovely night for it, my lovely.’

  ‘Not quite, but I’m hoping to have a lovely end to the night,’ Lottie replied with a smile.

  ‘Sounds interesting,’ the man winked.

  Lottie watched as he looked on his phone and checked it tallied with the number of passengers sitting on the ferry as Pretty Beach, topped by the burnt red sky, slowly began to fade away. The jetties on the left with the seaplanes bobbing up and down, the tiny little cottage next to the Boat House, the roof of the Orangery far over on the right and the Pavillion further along surrounded by boats with the funicular railway hugging the cliff behind. She watched it all get further and further away and nodded to herself. Just like the deck hand she thankfully wasn't going anywhere anytime soon either and just like him she never wanted to leave.

  Lottie checked her phone as the ferry made its way up the coast, and then watched as Newport Reef slowly came into view. She had no idea if her scheme was going to work, but she’d planned to surprise Connor as he came back from a job in Newport Reef.

  Since the conversation with Juliette, a discussion with Dimitri, and Syd Sprinton’s throwaway comment about being doused in gold, Lottie had been doing a whole lot of thinking about her relationship with Connor and what had been holding her back.

  Connor had definitely noticed her change since the classroom episode. He’d spotted that she had withdrawn from him and was keeping him just that little bit more at arm’s length. He’d even asked her a few times if there was something wro
ng. When she’d refused to stay over at his house for a third time, he’d actually pulled her aside and asked her if he had upset her in any way. But Lottie had brushed it off saying that she was just busy, tired, and slept better in her own bed. But they’d both silently acknowledged that wasn’t quite true.

  Salty sea air, the smell of wildflowers, seaweed, and fish filled Lottie’s senses as the ferry slowly hugged the coast and began to turn into Newport Reef. Ten minutes later and she was lining up behind the throng of people waiting to disembark. She tapped her travel card on the pad, gripped onto the railing and stepped onto the wharf.

  ‘Good luck, lovely, with whatever it is that you’re doing to do!’ The deck hand called out and Lottie smiled and waved in response.

  As she walked over the weathered boards of the wharf Lottie looked at all the people lined up for the ferry’s return journey back to Pretty beach. Her eyes scanned all the way down the line of people looking for a six foot two man with dark hair and blue eyes. Nothing. Her plan had gone wrong. Connor had told her the time of the ferry he was getting but maybe he’d changed his plans or been delayed on the job.

  Lottie sat down on a bench and watched the queue slowly whittle down to nothing, the last bell for the ferry sound and the vessel now rammed with passengers on their way home to Pretty Beach slowly pull away from the wharf.

  She looked at the time on her phone - she was quite happy to sit and watch the world go by as she waited for the next ferry to come in and see if Connor would be waiting for that. She got up, walked across the wharf, turned right so that she could face the water and sat on a bench facing out to sea.

  About ten minutes later, as she watched people slowly start to drift onto the wharf for the slow ferry service she nearly jumped out of her skin when someone tapped her on the shoulder.

  ‘I’d know that tiny woman with the huge earrings anywhere!’

  Lottie turned around and there he was. Gorgeous, tall, handsome, dark Connor. Her Connor. He flashed the eyes at her, leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.

  ‘Hi,’ Lottie said, her heart hammering in her chest as she looked at Connor who was holding a paper bag with a box full of fish and chips.

  ‘You didn’t say you were going to be in Newport Reef. We could have gone for dinner. I was going to get the earlier ferry, but the lunch they provided at the job was pathetic and I was starving so I stopped on the walk down the hill for fish and chips.’

  ‘I wasn’t going to be here.’

  ‘Sorry?’ Connor frowned as he sat down beside Lottie on the bench and put the fish and chips beside her bag. ‘You weren’t going to be here, but you are here now?’

  ‘Correct.’ Lottie nodded with a serious look on her face.

  ‘Right. Great, well you can share this with me and then we can stop at the pub on the way home, if you fancy that?’ Connor said as he went to pick up the fish and chips.

  Lottie stopped him and put her hand on his arm. ‘The thing is Connor. I came here to see you. For a reason.’

  ‘Lottie, you’re being strange and you look a bit off-colour. Are you okay? I know you are a bit strange as a rule and I’ve got used to that now, but have you helped yourself to one of Sallie’s strawberry cocktails and it’s gone to your head?’ Connor chuckled.

  Lottie didn’t laugh in response and gripped Connor’s arm. ‘I came here to tell you something.’

  Connor stopped reaching for the fish and chips and looked right into Lottie’s eyes, and as Lottie looked up at him and was doused in gold her whole body began to shimmer.

  ‘You see, I came here Connor because I don’t know what you think, but the first moment I saw you on Strawberry Hill I fell in, and I fell in deep and, well, I just need you to know Connor, that I love you. And not just a little bit. Connor, I love you very, very much.’

  Connor slowly blinked, his face broke into a soft smile and he kissed Lottie gently on the lips.

  ‘Miss Vegetable Stroker. Asparagus, I love you much, much more.’

  Secret Places in Pretty Beach

  From the bestselling author of The Boat House Pretty Beach comes the next instalment in the tale of Lottie Cloudberry and her beautiful old house on Strawberry Hill Lane - love, life, hidden places and an unpleasant voice from the past.

  For Lottie Cloudberry everything is looking rosy. The new love of her life elite diving instructor Connor Bally is very much part of the furniture and her growing business is blooming at every turn.

  As Lottie settles into expanding her enterprise around Pretty Beach, snuggling up with her new man and delights in the fact that she’ll be able to keep her tumbledown house on Strawberry Hill Lane she wonders if life could get any better.

  But when a voice from the past pops up to haunt her Lottie Cloudberry is not quite as enamoured with everything and when someone starts to jeopardise her business Lottie realises that not all in Pretty Beach is quite as it looks.

  A warm, uplifting tale you’ll want to snuggle up with and get lost in the wonderful world of Pretty Beach.

  ***

  Secret Places is the second in the Lottie Cloudberry Pretty Beach books and book 8 in the Pretty Beach Series.

  Book 1 (Trilogy 1) The Boat House Pretty Beach (Sallie & Ben)

  Book 2 (Trilogy 1) Summer Weddings at Pretty Beach (Sallie & Ben)

  Book 3 (Trilogy 1) Winter at Pretty Beach (Sallie & Ben)

  Book 4 (Trilogy 2) A Pretty Beach Christmas(Juliette & Luke)

  Book 5 (Trilogy 2) A Pretty Beach Dream (Juliette & Luke)

  Book 6 (Trilogy 2) A Pretty Beach Wish (Juliette &b Luke)

  Book 7 Secret Evenings in Pretty Beach (Lottie & Connor)

  Book 8 Secret Places in Pretty Beach (Lottie & Connor)

  Book for Babbettes

  Find all my books here. X

  The Boat House Pretty Beach

  Summer Weddings at Pretty Beach

  Winter at Pretty Beach

  A Pretty Beach Christmas

  A Pretty Beach Dream

  A Pretty Beach Wish

  Secret Evenings in Pretty Beach

  Secret Places in Pretty Beach

  Hello!

  If this is the first Pretty Beach book you’ve read, welcome. So pleased to have you here.

  I really hope you love the world of Polly Babbington, also known as the deep and inner workings of my brain.

  If you’re one of my staggeringly loyal readers who from the moment my first book The Boat House Pretty Beach was published have supported me along the way a mahusive thank you to you - lovely to have you here again and I hope you enjoy this next book. Grab a cinnamon bun and a Special Drink, sit back and relax as we dive back into the glorious world of Pretty Beach.

  A bit more about Secret Evenings. For a very long time, I have wanted to go to a real-life what I call secret evening (at-home restaurant) and now I have. I’ve not only been to one, but I’ve also chosen the clandestine location, dreamt up the menu, decorated the venue and worked in the kitchen.

  The whole premise for Secret Evenings is because I absolutely adore being a guest in a home for dinner rather than going to a restaurant - no pomp and fuss (although a nice, sparkling white tablecloth and twinkling candles don’t go amiss) and just really simple home-cooked food shared around a table... that is how the story of Secret Evenings began.

  The idea for this book has been simmering for years and years and the more it developed the more my mind began to wander to all the fabulous locations around Pretty Beach that would make an event of that nature sing... and oh how they sang (and in the sequel Secret Places the locations get even more special).

  While I’m here I wanted to say a bit more about the location of Pretty Beach itself. I have been asked constantly if Pretty Beach is a real place. Well, very much yes, and also no. Pretty Beach is based on a real place, there is a funicular railway and there is definitely an old boathouse - I walk past it often on my walks by the sea and Holly is a real character with a shop. Some of it though in the books is the ficti
onal Pretty Beach existing in my head. I love it there.

  I really hope you enjoy Secret Evenings. I have to say I’ve adored getting to know Lottie Cloudberry and introducing her into the Pretty Beach series and let’s just say, there’s quite a bit more of her to come.

  Love

  Polly x