A Surprise Christmas Wedding by Phillipa Ashley

Author:Phillipa Ashley [Ashley, Phillipa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2020-10-05T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

Two weeks to the wedding

On the evening of the ball, Steph was staying over on the sofa bed at the Bothy while the twins were at a school friend’s sleepover party. While Steph had been getting dressed in the sitting room, Lottie did her make-up in her bedroom.

She was looking forward to her glamorous night off, but was also a little nervous of how things would go with Jay. Since he’d walked in on her with Connor the previous Friday it had definitely put a dampener on some of her excitement and she was sure it had affected Jay’s view of her. Over the past week, her communication with him had been confined to seeing him around the offices from time to time or passing him going in and out of the cottages. She could count the words they’d exchanged on the fingers of one hand.

They’d no real need to interact on a work basis, either, now the Edwardian evening was over. He’d spent all his time at the forest centre, which was natural considering it was peak tree-buying time. She’d been flat-out with the preparations for the ball, which felt as if it had arrived at lightning speed. Even so, she was sure that he had read something into Connor being in the cottage … though short of confronting him, she had no way of finding out. She really hoped the ball might be a way of rebuilding the bridges between them. Things had been going so well until Connor had landed back at the Bothy.

She heard the stairs creaking then her sister’s voice at the bedroom door.

‘What do you think? Not over the top?’

She whipped round, mascara wand in her hand. ‘Oh wow! You look amazing. It’s new, isn’t it? I thought you said you were wearing your LBD. Where did you get that from?’

‘There was a Christmas fair at school yesterday and one of the mums was running a designer pre-loved stall.’ Steph did a twirl, the sequins on the slinky purple dress shimmering in the lamplight. ‘It still had the price tag on it but she said there’s no way she’d fit into it.’

Lottie was pleased to see Steph looking brighter, and with a smile on her face glammed up ready for an evening out. Tonight almost felt like it had before Steph had been ill.

‘It’s completely fabulous and I love the hair.’

‘The salon worked wonders with it,’ Steph said.

‘Your dress looks great with those shoes we got in Kendal.’

Steph lifted the hem to show her silver sandals. ‘I don’t know how I’m going to dance the night away in them but who cares?’

‘You will be OK, won’t you?’ Lottie asked. ‘Don’t feel you have to boogie all night because of me. When you’re ready to come home, you will say?’

‘Of course I’ll say if I need to but at the moment, I’m raring to go …’ Steph hugged her. ‘I just want some normality for one night, even if at midnight, I’ll be like Cinderella and everything will go back to the way it really is.

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