A SURPRISE CHRISTMAS WEDDING
Phillipa Ashley
Copyright
Published by AVON
A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 2020
Copyright © Phillipa Ashley 2020
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2020
Cover illustration © Hannah George / Meiklejohn
Phillipa Ashley asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008371609
Ebook Edition © October 2020 ISBN: 9780008371616
Version: 2020-10-05
Dedication
For my family, with much love
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Acknowledgements
Keep Reading …
About the Author
Also by Phillipa Ashley
About the Publisher
Prologue
15 September
Porthmellow, Cornwall
‘Hold on! I won’t be a minute,’ Connor said, as he suddenly let go of Lottie’s hand.
She frowned. ‘Why? Where are you going?’
She reached for him but Connor was already yards away.
He came back and brushed her lips with his. ‘You’ll find out soon enough. Wait here on the harbour for me. Don’t worry, I won’t be long, Dotty Lottie.’
‘Don’t call me that!’ Lottie said, trying not to laugh.
Connor’s grin was unrepentant as he melted into crowds of holidaymakers thronging the harbourside of Porthmellow, leaving Lottie on the quayside.
She shook her head. Dotty Lottie was what some of the kids had called her at the Lakeland school she and Connor had both attended. He’d been four years above her and as a result they’d barely been aware of each other’s presence at the time, only meeting again through their work a few years before. Lottie was an events organiser at a hotel and Connor’s insurance firm had been one of their clients. However, she’d once unwisely confessed to him how much she hated the nickname and he’d used it ever since to wind her up and tease her – affectionately, of course.
Puzzling over his mysterious behaviour, Lottie wandered along the harbourside, while she waited for him to return. She was hardly alone, surrounded by hundreds of tourists enjoying the late September heatwave, but she had a curious feeling that she’d been cast adrift, like a cork bobbing in the sea.
Perhaps it was the unfamiliar surroundings, and the fact that she hadn’t known they were even coming to Cornwall until forty-eight hours previously, when Connor had parked the car outside a tiny holiday cottage on Porthmellow’s quayside.
Lottie could see its jaunty blue facade now, on the opposite side of the harbour, part of a row all painted in bubble-gum colours. The holiday cottage was such a contrast from the stone and slated houses of the Lakeland village where she and Connor lived. Langmere nestled on the shores of Derwentwater, encircled by the heather-clad fells and soaring peaks – equally pretty but with a subtler palette.
It struck her that in many ways, the tight-knit community of Porthmellow, with its houses huddled around the harbour – and the sense that everyone knew each other – reminded her of the Lakeland village she’d grown up in. The locals chattered outside the fish kiosk, just as they did outside the village shop and post office. Sail ropes clanked against masts just as they did on the yachts moored in the lakeside marina. But the contrast delighted her too. While the sea was steely blue topped with whitecaps, the lake’s dark surface reflected the fells like a mirror. That morning, she’d woken to the slap of waves on the harbour wall rather than the beck tumbling beside their Lakeland home.
It felt wonderful, but slightly disconcerting to have been whisked almost five hundred miles south at short notice, especially when she’d had no idea of their precise destination. Now she was here, she was keen to embrace every moment.
She breathed in, savouring the tang of sea air and fishing creels, rather than the scent of woodsmoke and fresh rain she was used to.
‘Hello!’ Connor tapped her shoulder.
Lottie twisted round. ‘You made me jump!’
‘Guilty conscience.’ With a smile, he joined her on the bench and crossed one leg over the other. He seemed extremely pleased with himself and he was grinning broadly.
‘You look like a dog with two tails.’
He waggled his eyebrows. ‘You should be so lucky.’
She groaned. ‘That’s a terrifying idea.’
‘Terrifying?’
‘Weird too. I don’t think I could handle it.’ She wrinkled her nose but was smiling.
‘Or them,’ he said, with what was meant to be a sexy grin. ‘Come on, let’s go back to the cottage.’
‘I’m not sure I want to after what you just said …’
But of course, she did want to go back to the cottage and knew exactly what he had in mind when they got there. Their unexpected week in Cornwall had certainly amped up the romance in their relationship – if the past couple of days was anything to go by. Although Lottie was now wondering where he’d been and what had happened to make Connor so smugly happy. Whatever it was, she was intrigued at this newly mysterious side to her partner.
He certainly didn’t relish surprises normally. His work as an actuary for an insurance company was a job that involved the
