Page 110 of A Helpin g Hand for the Village Nurse

‘No. Should I have done?’

‘It’s just that Stacey can’t find her.’

‘Nobody has seen her for at least half an hour,’ Stacey added. ‘So we’re going to nip back to mine to see if she’s gone home.’

‘I’ll come with you.’ Heath put his drink down on the closest table.

‘There’s no need,’ Ottilie began, but he put a hand up to stop her.

‘To be honest, I could do with a break. I’ll enjoy the walk; it’ll clear my head.’

Ottilie nodded. ‘OK then. It shouldn’t take long anyway.’

They marched quickly down Thimblebury’s deserted lanes. Some of the houses had lights on in the windows, but many were in darkness, their owners at the party. None of them were exactly worried, but there was a strange sort of expectation hanging in the air between the three of them, as if they all sensed something unexpected might be waiting for them.

‘She wasn’t well this morning,’ Stacey said into a lull. ‘But she said it wasn’t anything to worry about.’

‘I’m sure she just got tired,’ Ottilie said. ‘That’s understandable.’

Stacey’s house was in darkness, the log burner unlit and the rooms cold.

‘This is…’ Stacey yanked off her wig and tossed it onto the sofa. ‘Where the hell is she?’

‘Maybe she never left the party,’ Ottilie said.

Stacey swore under her breath and hurried out. Ottilie was about to follow when Heath stopped her.

‘You hear that?’

Ottilie strained to listen and heard it too – a sort of muffled groaning cry. ‘Upstairs…’

She took to the stairs and he followed her.

The top floor was in darkness just like the ground floor, but Ottilie could hear the sound more clearly now. She knocked on the door where it seemed to be coming from. ‘Chloe…?’

There was no reply, only a louder groan.

Ottilie pushed open the door to find Chloe writhing in bed, clearly in pain. The curtains were open so that the light from the street was dimly illuminating her racked features. Ottilie reached for the lamp and switched it on, and Chloe seemed to finally notice she was no longer alone.

‘I don’t know what to do,’ she sobbed.

Heath looked at Ottilie. ‘Is she having the baby?’

‘I think she might be. It’s a bit sudden, though. Not saying labour can’t be sudden, but first babies, from what little I know, don’t come this quickly. Unless…Stacey said she’d been ill this morning. She might well have been in a slow labour all day and not said anything. I mean, we all know how in denial she’s been over the whole thing – probably wanted to ignore the contractions and hoped they’d go away.’

‘I’ll go and get Stacey,’ Heath said, running out of the bedroom.

Ottilie sat on the bed and smoothed Chloe’s hair from her face. Wearing her cheerleader costume she looked even younger than she was, and Ottilie’s heart ached for her. This was going to be hard, and she could see Chloe was suffering already.

‘It’s OK,’ she whispered. ‘Your mum’s coming.’

As she waited she called an ambulance. They were a way from the hospital and it might take a while to arrive, and even as she ended the call she was preparing herself for the fact that she might have to help Chloe give birth right here.

As if to reinforce her fears, Chloe squealed. Another contraction, it had to be, and Ottilie was now convinced Chloe was closer to the birth than they’d first thought.

A moment later a breathless Heath, followed by Stacey, burst in. The colour drained from Stacey’s face as she saw Chloe in the bed.

‘Chloe…’ Ottilie said gently, ‘you’re going to have to talk to me. You know about contractions, right? The midwife would have talked you through what was going to happen. So I need you to tell me how far apart they are. And you’re going to have to get ready – you might have to push here. I need to look at you…Can I take the covers off and turn you over?’

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