A Winter's Wedding Read Online Free PDF Page A

for you.’
    ‘You’re so sensible, Emily.’
    ‘I know, it’s a gift,’ Emily said sarcastically. She wished she could be more carefree sometimes.
    ‘And also a curse. Am I right?’ Arabella said. She was nothing if not perceptive.
    ‘Yes, sometimes it is a curse,’ Emily admitted.
    ‘Look, I’ll try and get some sleep now. And when you’ve dropped off your Zen-box things to the charity shop tomorrow, will you call me? And I’ll meet you at the McDonald’s near your flat.’
    ‘Do you really mean that?’ Emily was incredulous. ‘McDonald’s? As in fried food?’
    ‘Yes, I fancy a dirty great double cheeseburger with pickles and fries and a strawberry milkshake. Sometimes I get tired of rabbit food and white meat and all the things that are supposed to help me conceive. I just want a good old burger dripping grease and melted cheese all down my chin.’
    ‘I know what you mean. I had a massive pizza tonight. Listen, Arabella, you must get some sleep now. I think a good night’s sleep would do you the power of good. See you tomorrow, then?’
    ‘Yes, call me when you get back from the charity shop. Yes?’
    ‘Okay. Goodnight, Arabella.’
    ‘Goodnight, Emily. And thanks for listening. It means a lot.’
    ‘Don’t mention it. What are friends for?’
    Emily stayed sitting up in bed for a while afterwards. She knew she would never get to sleep now that she was thinking about Arabella. And she was hungry again too. The pizza must have increased her appetite, she thought to herself. Pulling on warm socks and her fleece, she padded into the kitchen to prepare baked beans on toast. She might as well go back to her usual diet before she got a hankering for the fancy stuff. David and Arabella Harrington might be able to afford the finer things in life. But she definitely couldn’t. Not when she still had a cancelled wedding to pay for. An absolute fortune spent on a Vera Wang dress and all the trimmings – and all she’d got for her trouble was an anxiety attack in the church porch.
    Oh the shame of it …

3. Donations Urgently Required
    It was Christmas Eve. It was still snowing. People were beginning to tire of the beauty of their all-white cityscape and instead spent a lot of time moaning about frozen pipes, slippery pathways and the soaring cost of heating bills. Emily’s attic apartment felt as cold as the North Pole, and the accumulated snow on the skylights was blocking out almost all the daylight from her bedroom. Still, she was determined to press on with her de-cluttering project. And maybe somebody in the neighbourhood would be glad of her cast-offs this Christmas. Emily picked up the first box and took a deep breath.
    ‘Never mind my fake Zen theory,’ she said to herself. ‘If Arabella ever finds out I gave all this stuff away, she’ll never speak to me again.’
    But what was the use of having a pasta maker the size of a mangle, and a complicated coffee maker, and all of these lovely high-heeled shoes if she was never going to use any of them?
    ‘Come on, then. Let’s do it,’ she said, pulling the door closed behind her and going carefully down the dimly lit stairs. ‘I dare say Arabella has more on her mind than what I do in my spare time. With luck she’s forgotten about most of these gifts, anyway.’
    The snow on the path outside had been pounded to a slush-coloured blanket. The parking spaces for the flats were just off the main road and, luckily, all the principal roads in Emily’s neighbourhood had been gritted. She said a brief hello to the owner of the hair salon next door.
    ‘Merry Christmas, you lot.’
    ‘Merry Christmas, Emily. How are you?’
    ‘I’m great. The salon looks even more gorgeous with that tree in the window.’
    ‘Thanks. See you soon?’
    ‘You bet.’
    The Rock & Fairy had become a bit of a fashion destination ever since it had opened for business a year earlier. And quite a few A-list celebrities had been seen gracing the black leather chairs.