The Cornish Cream Tea Christmas

Cressida McLaughlin

Contents (24)

THE CORNISH CREAM TEA CHRISTMAS

PART TWO

Let Jingle Buns Ring!

Cressida McLaughlin

Copyright

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

The News Building

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain in e-book format in 2020 by HarperCollinsPublishers

Cover design Caroline Young © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2020.

Cover illustration © May Van Millingen

Cressida McLaughlin 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: 9780008408718

Ebook Edition © October 2020 ISBN: 9780008408756

Version: 2020-09-09

Dedication

For Kate, Tim, Clara and Pete

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Dedication

Part Two: Let Jingle Buns Ring!

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Acknowledgements

Cressy’s Christmas away from home …

Keep Reading …

About the Author

Also by Cressida McLaughlin

About the Publisher

Part Two

Let Jingle Buns Ring!

Chapter One

Cornwall was angry about something. That was the first thought Hannah Swan had as she stepped out of the Seven Stars with Daniel Harper, Charlie Quilter and her new colleague, Noah Rosewall, and into the storm. They had enjoyed their evening in the pub, a celebration of sorts after Hannah and Noah had spent the week at Daniel’s clifftop hotel, Crystal Waters, preparing a report on how to enhance the hotel’s green credentials. Hannah was beginning to regret that she hadn’t had more time to get to know the Cornish village of Porthgolow, or her attractive, Cornwall-based co-worker, but now those thoughts were on hold because there was no room for anything else but the storm.

Porthgolow’s usually placid cove roared with the sound of wave after wave crashing onto the sand, as if they were fighting each other in their desperation to reach land. Hannah was worried about Gertie, the Cornish Cream Tea Bus, but a quick glance told her that the vintage Routemaster was far enough above the tideline to survive even an extreme assault. Charlie was also looking at her bus and Hannah wanted to say something reassuring, but the ferocity of the wind and rain made keeping their eyes open – let alone talking – difficult.