‘It’ll look lovely, though I will say you’ll probably find you’ll have to add in some more sparkly gold - in a big area like the Orangery the vintage ones can get lost especially in photos. You said you were going to be doing the marketing pics soon, I think you’ll need a load of shiny ones in there too.’
‘Yeah, okay, thanks that’s great advice, yes I can see your point - I suppose it will need something to make it all pop.’
‘Yup. I’ve got a load of baubles in the lock-up - I found this amazing supplier a few years ago - I mean a real collector wouldn’t go near them but they’re super cheap and super effective on achieving that vintage look without a huge budget. I’ll bring you a few boxes.’ Juliette said.
‘I don’t know how many I’m going to need - it’s actually vast in there because of the height and everything we’ve done needs to be quite big to have any impact. I went round there with Tillie and sat there and tried to work it out. I want to try and do a really full garland at the back running all the way around and then obviously there will be extras here and there. I was thinking about the chandeliers and hanging baskets with some of them in too.’
‘What about the trees? They will need loads to have any impact.’ Juliette asked
‘Possibly, but I’ve seen something I love - a completely bare tree but with thousands of cluster lights. Have you ever done anything like that?’
‘Oh yes, the naked tree. I love that look, you can play around with the lights until you get it right; be prepared though, you need three times as many lights as you think you will, possibly more. Looks lovely on the twinkling setting too. By the sounds of it you’re going to need a lot of baubles even if it’s just for the garland and the baskets,’ Juliette said as she adjusted one of the ring lights.
‘How much do you think a few boxes of the baubles will cost me then?’ Sallie asked.
‘You’re kidding me right, Sallie - you’re renting me this cottage for next to nothing and you think I’d charge you for a few hundred baubles?’
‘Ahh, there we go again, then, the Pretty Beach way,’ Sallie said, plonking herself down on the sofa.
‘Indeed - I’m starting to really quite like it, actually.’
Chapter 42
The weekend started with a beautiful sunny morning and icy cold wind which felt as if it was whipping through from Antarctica - not that Sallie knew if winds reaching Pretty Beach from Antarctica was really a thing or not, but it felt like Antarctic wind to her.
She walked out of the main hospital doors and took a big breath of the fresh air before she rushed back to Nina’s cottage where Lilly was looking after Tillie. Sallie had been very grateful that Lilly had some spare hours from uni as she’d been super busy with juggling the competition, the boathouse cottage and visiting Nina.
There had been no change with Nina - the only thing the doctors could say was that she was stable and after a multitude of tests they had more or less confirmed that it was some type of virus that Nina’s immune system, compromised with the asthma, had not been able to cope with.
Even though Nina was still in hospital things were at least stable, and after successfully sorting out finding a Christmas tree supplier, having found the perfect decor in Juliette’s lock-up and arranging most of the details for the couple they’d chosen to get married, Sallie had more time to visit the hospital. It was looking more positive than it had when she had first arrived home from Alaska.
They’d sorted through hundreds of applications for the competition, whittled it down to a few and in the end plumped for the couple from Yorkshire - Lucian had called the groom, Sam, who had been so over the moon that Lucian himself had started to cry.
Everything was a secret from the bride Katie that they’d won the competition; she didn't even know that he’d applied for it and as far as she was concerned Sam had won a weekend away at Pretty Beach on a competition he’d entered on his supermarket reward card.
As the days had ticked by, all the pieces of the puzzle were starting to fit together and Sallie and Lucian had slowly and methodically sorted out everything including the dress which Sallie had chatted to Sam on a video call about. She’d then sent the pictures of the dress onto Loretta from the bridal shop who had said it was quite straightforward and had passed them onto her place in Hong Kong. They’d waited for his measurements of Katie’s clothes which he’d secretly taken whilst she was at work.
Ben had been amazing from the moment he’d landed back in England, from caring for Tillie to helping with the Christmas trees and he’d been all over the planning for the catering for the wedding.
Sallie mentally checked things off as she walked towards the bus stop - she had to put the heating on a test-run to see how it coped over a whole day on full blast and Ben was going to spend the weekend repainting some of the edging of the panes at the front of the building which had peeled off in the first lot of snow.
The wedding itself involved a procession through the gates of the Orangery down the pathway which would be lit up with a canopy of white lights overhead and lanterns on the ground. Katie the bride would arrive in an old 1920’s car from the hotel on the other side of Pretty Beach and enter the Orangery, and the groom would be waiting inside at the end near the tree with the celebrant. Following the actual ceremony, a simple celebration meal would be held for the sixty or so guests and following that the cutting of the huge wedding cake and tea.
Everyone had chipped in to help out - the Pretty Beach way again coming to the fore. Holly and Xian had helped with getting everything ready in the courtyard, Juliette had provided all the baubles for free and Nel had spent hours polishing panes of glass on the top of a ladder.
Chapter 43
Sallie climbed onto the bus and as she reached across to tap her card on the pad, she felt her tender breasts against her coat. Suddenly, it dawned on her that her period was late - in all the furore of Nina being in hospital, the planning for the competition plus the long journey across the Atlantic, she’d put getting pregnant to the back of her mind.
It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for her to have a late period. Since the stillbirth her periods had always been erratic and she’d told a doctor not long after that she was sure it had had something to do with what had happened but he’d said it was completely unrelated. She hadn’t quite believed him but she had got used to not knowing what was going to happen from one month to the next.
She opened up the calendar on her phone - yep, she was definitely late if her dates were correct, which didn’t really mean much because they were quite often upside down. If she was pregnant it had happened in Alaska and Ben had been right - a trip away, relaxation and the stay in the amazing cabin had possibly made it happen.
She looked out of the bus window as it sped along the coast and thought that she didn’t have any other signs at all though and she didn’t want to be hasty with a test. She’d wasted enough time and effort in the past with tests and after the last disappointment had decided that at least until Nina was out of hospital what would be would be. Plus, she didn’t want the euphoria of knowing and then the comedown, if it happened, of getting her period; it was like a double whammy when that happened - the joy of it being positive and then bam the disappointment a week later. No, she decided she would not do a test and would just wait a few weeks and see what happened. The referral had come through for after Christmas for the first fertility appointment, so she would focus her mind on that.
The bus pulled down through Strawberry Hill into Pretty Beach and along past the fisherman’s cottages. Sallie looked over to Nina’s cottage; everything looked ok from the outside belying what was going on inside.
Sallie had spent her whole life longingly looking at other people’s houses and over the years had often wondered when she’d looked at gorgeous old houses from the outside if it was all as rosy on the inside. She’d heard it often enough that you never knew what went on behind closed doors, but the closed doors she’d always looked at always seemed to b
e so perfect, so homely and so full of the life she’d never had. But what was going on behind the closed door of Nina’s little cottage at the moment was not nice at all.
As she sat there her mind jumbled with all sorts of thoughts and emotions, she felt a sudden pang of sadness about Nina - it was overwhelming what was happening and so unfair at Tillie’s young age. It reminded her how’d she’d felt in the hospital all those years ago and how then she’d thought that sometimes life had other ideas and took you on a journey you didn't know you were going to go on. In none of Nina’s heavily-planned, highly-edited spreadsheets had there been a section for her getting sick, going into hospital and having someone else have to look after Tillie. Although as Sallie sat there thinking about it all she suddenly realised that was exactly what Nina had done. Nina had very clearly thought about it and not only thought about it but actioned it and got the wheels in motion with the guardianship and had it very much secured.
There was one thing Nina couldn’t control though with money and planning and as Sallie went to get up from her seat on the bus and gathered her bag and coat she thought that no amount of money in the world, no amount of planning or forethought could change what was happening now. All they had was the knowledge of the doctors, the facilities of the hospital and time to wait and see what happened.
Chapter 44
With Lilly having worked every day for weeks juggling her uni assignments with nannying and Tillie undoubtedly missing Nina and a few teeth coming through, Sallie had told Lilly to take a few days off. Her and Ben were staying at Nina’s cottage so that Tillie’s routine was as least disturbed as possible. Sallie sat back on the sofa as Ben came down the stairs after putting Tillie to sleep.
‘Right, she’s gone off,’ he whispered. ‘Let’s hope she lasts all night - I’m shattered Sals, you?’
‘Yeah, totally and we haven’t even thought about dinner and I’m really hungry,’ Sallie said plumping up the cushions on Nina’s sofa and straightening the throw.
‘Why don’t I pop out and get us a take-away or I can do us some pasta?’ Ben suggested.
Sallie didn’t really care what she ate; she’d been on the go all day getting the boathouse cottage ready for a last-minute booking and doing a phone interview with a magazine who were covering the competition with Where the Heck is Pretty Beach?
‘Don’t mind - fish and chips, or Indian, or I wouldn’t mind a hot chicken from the Spar. In fact, Marmite on toast sounds attractive right now. Not the nicest of weather out there to go and get food though, is it?’
‘I’ll be okay wrapped up - could do with the walk and some air to be honest. This whole looking after Tillie thing has worn me out for the day.’
‘Okay, well you choose.’ She replied, leaning back onto the sofa and turning on the television.
‘What about Thai? You love the beef curry - we haven’t had that for ages.’
‘God no, I don’t fancy that at all,’ Sallie replied, sticking her tongue out.
‘Really, that’s the first time I’ve heard you say that since I’ve known you - you normally rub your hands together when I mention Thai food,’ Ben said, frowning.
‘I don’t know, it’s just any kind of meat is turning my stomach at the moment, the thought of it makes me want to throw up - maybe I’m turning veggie.’
Ben silently put on his coat, walked out to the small hallway, pulled on his boots and ever so quietly shut the front door. Sallie put her feet up on the coffee table and turned on the news, scrolling through her phone at the same time. She’d not heard any further developments from the hospital so they were all hoping that things were on the up - Nina had certainly not got any worse when she’d been in to visit at lunchtime.
Just as she was thinking about her to do list for the next day and how she was going to fit it all in while juggling it with looking after Tillie, a message came in from Lucian.
Darling - we just hit a record number of downloads on the first wedding episode and check out the social media post - it’s going nuts. Darling this is brilliant!
Sallie switched over the app and the Where the Heck is Pretty Beach? account - a picture of the Orangery Sallie had taken in the first snowstorm was up there and the followers were going mad for it.
That’s great Lucian - I bet I’m going to see an influx of new followers. Thank you.
Hopefully darling - I’m about to upload the content - I’ll stick the video in Stories also. It’s the snow on the Orangery that’s doing it, those pictures are divine. You still want me in charge of it while you’re looking after the baby?
Absolutely thanks - so grateful for one less thing to think about.
Darling, my pleasure - see you Saturday for the shoot.
Sallie and Ben had been working hard on the Orangery for the first pre-wedding Christmas themed shoot. It was all part of Lucian’s Content Plan and although he’d done everything he could do to alleviate Sallie’s part in everything since Nina had been admitted to hospital, he couldn't, with any stretch of the imagination, do the styling of the Orangery - really no one else could.
Sallie was just grateful that it was the off-season for Ben Chalmers Seaplanes and since he had been back from Alaska he had been pretty much on hand to do anything and everything to help.
With the decorations, they’d sat down and formulated a plan of attack according to her rough sketches of how she wanted the Orangery styled for Christmas and for the Christmas wedding. They had worked on it bit by bit every day until it had, what felt like painstakingly slowly, all fallen into place.
She heard Ben quietly open the front door, shortly followed by the aroma of Indian food. He walked through the small door to the sitting room.
‘I take it you went with the Indian?’ She smiled looking up from her phone.
‘Yep, I got two minutes away and could smell it from down the road - decision made.’
He brought in plates, knives and forks and the food and they sat there talking about their jobs for the next day and the arrival of the tree.
‘Well, we’re all set for tomorrow then,’ he said, tearing off a piece of naan bread.
‘Yeah - Lucian just messaged, the snow pics of the Orangery are already generating loads of interest on social media so the pressure really is on to make the place into a Christmas dream now. Goodness, Ben, what have I taken on?’
‘Hmm, I vaguely remember someone mentioning something like that to you when you were first talking about this idea. Someone who said it sounded like an awful lot to take on.’ He laughed.
‘I don’t remember that all Ben, I don’t know what you are talking about,’ she joked back. ‘I do know that this has to look spot on, we have to get this right.’
‘Yikes, no pressure then - you tell me what to do and I’ll do it, you know I have no idea about all the styling side of it and all that.’
‘Don’t worry,’ she replied, ‘I’ve got a very long list of jobs for you to do.’
Chapter 45
The Orangery had always been of interest in Pretty Beach, with its glass panes and domed roof, but since Sallie had got her hands on it, the place was now looking gorgeous. The base was constructed with old brick, the pane surrounds made of metal and the glass panes had that special old look and patina that money could simply no longer buy.
The courtyard outside was now stripped of every weed and thistle, and after much deliberation and research with Ben, Sallie had decided that the cheapest and easiest way to improve the cracked concrete that someone had poured all the way down the middle was to cover all the way up to the beds with white pea gravel.
After trawling through courtyard makeovers online Sallie had quickly worked out that the colour and the size of the gravel would make or break both the look and the budget, and not where the stone had come from or whether it had been dug from a quarry in Italy.
She’d ordered a small white gravel, they’d spent days in wellies shovelling rubble into a skip clearing the whole area and Ben had used old railway sl
eepers to edge what was left behind ready for the delivery of the gravel. Tonnes of the stones had arrived one Sunday morning on the back of a dumper truck, which had pulled up outside the Orangery, reversed through the double gates and proceeded to pour vast amounts of the small white stones onto the courtyard.
A day or so later, after lining the area with an industrial weed mat and hours and hours of shovelling buckets and buckets of the tiny white stones around, they had aching bones, blistered hands and white dust in every orifice, but also a levelled courtyard hiding the ugly concrete underneath. Once the pea gravel had been washed down and it had rained a few times the whole area looked clean, unified and glinted in the sunshine leading the eye up to the beautiful old door of the Orangery.
It had been a gamble that had paid off very well; the whole area now looking like an entrance rather than a whole lot of nothing, and complete with huge grey pots full of bay trees and shrubs dotted here and there it looked a lot more like the high-end establishments Sallie’s wedding business had to compete with and another one of the headaches with the Orangery had been solved.
***
Ben reversed the car, Sallie undid her seatbelt and hopped out to open the double gates and he reversed in. The back of the car was full of boxes of baubles. Ben turned the car off, pressed the button to open the boot and they started to methodically pull out the boxes full of decor.
Sallie opened the door to the Orangery - the earthy, citrus botanical smell she had come to love in the Orangery hit her nose, but as she stepped in she shivered, it was not warm. The central heating was doing a good enough job to keep the real chill off but if they were going to spend the day in there it would need to be warmer. No wedding guest dressed up in their wedding finery would last more than about five minutes unless it was a whole lot warmer.
Winter at Pretty Beach Page 15