Christmas at Lilac Cottage: (#1 White Cliff Bay)

by Martin, Holly

  ‘Dad, Josh is still terrified of you ever since you threw him to the ground. I imagine he’ll still be too scared to go near me on my wedding night. I really don’t think you have anything to worry about just yet.’

  Henry seemed placated slightly as he turned his attention back to the snow, the frown returning to his face.

  Bernard woke, stretched sleepily, kicking Henry in the face -which did nothing to detract his attention from the snow - fell off his lap and curled up in front of the fire.

  Penny sat up with some difficulty, planted a kiss on Daisy’s head and walked over to Henry, his eyes immediately on hers, aware of her every move. He pulled her onto his lap and she gently kissed his scowl.

  ‘What are you worried about?’

  He ran his hands over her stomach. ‘Everything, the snow coming down too heavily and us not being able to get out if we need to, what the roads will be like if we need to travel on them, whether we have everything we need here if we do get snowed in…’

  Penny kissed him softly on the mouth. ‘We’re going to be fine. There’s something else bothering you, you’ve been on edge all day.’

  The timer went off on the oven, indicating that the mince pies that Henry had made fresh earlier that day were cooked.

  Henry looked over to the oven anxiously and then back at Penny. ‘I’m worried you won’t like my mince pies.’

  Penny laughed as he scooted her off his lap, planting a quick kiss on her lips, and ran into the kitchen.

  Daisy groaned. ‘Dad’s mince pies are the worst. I never know how someone can go so drastically wrong with mince from a jar and roll-out puff pastry but he does, every single time.’

  ‘These ones are different,’ Henry called from the kitchen as he plated some pies up straight from the oven.

  ‘I think I’ll leave mine till later,’ Penny called although the delicious scents did smell tantalisingly good.

  ‘No, you have to at least try it, let me know if I’m on the right lines.’

  He came in with two plates, passed one to Daisy and then sank down on one knee to present his mince pie dramatically to Penny. Despite the huge quantities of food that she had eaten less than an hour before, she still reached for it keenly; it smelt wonderful.

  Just as she was about to pick it up, she noticed something sparkle from the top of it. Realising almost immediately that it was a diamond ring, her eyes snapped up to meet his.

  ‘Penny Meadows, I fell in love with you a little over a year ago over your delicious mince pies and I was wondering if today, over my probably not so delicious mince pie, you would do me the honour of agreeing to be my wife.’

  Penny stared at the ring, her heart thundering against her chest. It wasn’t that unexpected, she’d known they were heading this way almost from the first time they had kissed, but she hadn’t expected it to come today and certainly not over a mince pie.

  ‘Good god, Dad, it took you bloody long enough, I thought you were going to end up waiting until she popped out a whole football team of kids before you proposed.’

  ‘Well, I didn’t want to rush into anything,’ Henry said, not taking his eyes off Penny for a second. His mouth quirked up into a mischievous smile. ‘I had to make sure she was the right one.’

  Penny smiled.

  ‘I love you, Penny Meadows, I always have. Will you marry me?’

  Penny plucked the ring from the pie and sucked the mince off the bottom. It tasted disgusting, like burnt treacle. She slid the ring onto her finger.

  ‘I love you with everything I have, of course the answer is yes.’

  She leaned forward to kiss him and he wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight. Inside her belly, a little foot kicked out and she laughed against his lips. ‘I think your son approves too.’

  Henry laughed and knelt forward to kiss her oversized belly. ‘She said yes,’ he whispered.

  ‘He’s probably wondering what took you so long too,’ Daisy said from the sofa as she took a big bite of the pie with a huge smile on her face. The smile quickly fell off though as she shuddered with disgust. ‘Dad, this is gross.’

  ‘My work here is done.’

  Daisy stood up and came over to hug them both. ‘Congratulations. I’m really happy for you both.’

  Henry sat on the chair and pulled Penny onto his lap, stroking her large belly and admiring the ring.

  Daisy sat on the arm of the chair stroking her belly fondly too. Penny watched her wonderful little family as she played with the wooden star necklace that Henry had made for her. She remembered the wish she had made on the shooting star the year before and smiled knowing that every wish she’d ever made had finally come true.

  The End

  Letter from Holly

  Thank you so much for reading Christmas at Lilac Cottage, I had so much fun creating this story and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

  One of the best parts of writing comes from seeing the reaction from readers. Did it make you smile or laugh, did it make you cry, hopefully happy tears? Did you fall in love with Henry and Penny? Did you like the gorgeous town of White Cliff Bay? If you enjoyed the story, I would absolutely love it if you could leave a short review. Getting feedback from readers is amazing and it also helps to persuade other readers to pick up one of my books for the first time.

  To keep up to date with the latest news on my new releases, just click on the link below to sign up for a newsletter. I promise to only contact you when I have a new book out and I’ll never share your email with anyone else.

  Holly Martin New Releases Email

  I have two books out this Christmas set in the town of White Cliff Bay, so if you enjoyed this book I hope you will love Snowflakes on Silver Cove too.

  Thank you for reading and I hope you have a wonderful cosy Christmas.

  Love Holly x

  @hollymartin00

  hollymartinauthor

  hollymartinwriter.wordpress.com

  Also by Holly Martin

  The Guestbook

  One Hundred Proposals

  One Hundred Christmas Proposals

  Fairytale Beginnings

  WHITE CLIFF BAY SERIES

  Christmas at Lilac Cottage (White Cliff Bay Book 1)

  Snowflakes on Silver Cove (White Cliff Bay Book 2)

  HOLLY WRITING AS AMELIA THORNE

  Tied Up with Love

  Beneath the Moon and the Stars

  FOR YOUNG ADULTS

  The Sentinel

  The Prophecies

  Acknowledgments

  To my family, my mom, my biggest fan, who reads every word I have written a hundred times over and loves it every single time, my dad, my brother Lee and my sister-in-law Julie, for your support, love, encouragement and endless excitement for my stories.

  For my twinnie, the gorgeous Aven Ellis for just being my wonderful friend, for your endless support, for cheering me on and for keeping me entertained with wonderful stories and pictures of hot men. Although we have never met, you are my best friend and I love you dearly.

  Huge thank you to my wonderful, incredible friends Kirsty Maclennan, Megan Milliken and Victoria Stone for the endless support and love. You are amazing.

  To my friends Gareth and Mandie, for your support, patience and enthusiasm. My lovely friends Jac, Verity and Jodie who listen to me talk about my books endlessly and get excited about it every single time.

  For Sharon Sant for just being there always and your wonderful friendship.

  To my wonderful agent Madeleine Milburn for just been amazing and fighting my corner and for your unending patience with my constant questions.

  To my editor Claire for helping to make this book so much better, for putting up with all my crazy throughout the whole process, for replying to every single email and for listening to me freak out with complete and utter patience. Thank you to Kim Nash for the tireless promoting, tweeting and general cheerleading. Thank you to all the other wonderful people at Bookouture; Oliver R
hodes, the editing team and the wonderful designers who created this absolutely gorgeous cover.

  To Oliver Mallinson and the RNLI for helping me with the details of the lifeboat rescue.

  To Clair at Global Ice Sculptures & Ice Styling for answering all my questions about ice carving, it was the most fascinating morning listening to you explain the process and watching the carvings being done.

  To the CASG, the best writing group in the world, you wonderful talented supportive bunch of authors, I feel very blessed to know you all, you guys are the very best.

  To the wonderful Bookouture authors for all your encouragement and support.

  And some other gorgeous people who have encouraged, supported, promoted, got excited or just listened; Rebecca Pugh, Lisa Dickenson, Sharon Wilden, Kelly Rufus, Simona Elena, Erin McEwan, Katey Beeden, Maryline, Jo Hughes, Dawn Crooks, Laura Delve, Jill Stratton, Tay Pickering, Emma Poulloura, Aga Klar, Catriona Merryweather, Lynsey James, Lindsay Hill, Ana, Alba Forcadell, Dawn Brierley, Sophie Hedley, Cesca Major, Rachael Lucas, Kat Black, Helen Redfern, Katy Gough, Emily Kerr, Jaimie Admans, Kate Gordon, Pernille Hughes, Louise Wykes, Paris Baker, Silke Auwers, The Blossom Twins, Daniel Riding, Pat Elliott, Shaun, Mark Rumsey, James Brown, Arron Davenport.

  To all those involved in the blog tour. To anyone who has read my book and taken the time to tell me you’ve enjoyed it or wrote a review, thank you so much.

  Thank you, I love you all.

  Published by Bookouture - an imprint of StoryFire Ltd.

  23 Sussex Road, Ickenham, UB10 8PN, United Kingdom

  www.bookouture.com

  Copyright © Holly Martin 2015

  Holly Martin has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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