Page 36 of A Helpin g Hand for the Village Nurse

‘Oh!’ Magnus hurried towards the entrance. ‘Stacey!’ he called as he went.

Ottilie looked to see her at the window, waving to be let in. Chloe wasn’t with her, and Ottilie was almost glad about that. Chloe had seemed like quite a negative girl when they’d met briefly in the waiting room of the surgery, and although Ottilie understood she was having a rough time with a pregnancy she hadn’t wanted, it wasn’t what Ottilie needed right now. Stacey, if Ottilie recalled her information correctly, was Geoff’s sister, and looking at her after meeting him, she could see the resemblance. Stacey seemed more upbeat, like her brother.

‘Hello!’ she said, beaming at everyone in the room as Magnus showed her in. She held a bottle out to Geoff. ‘Brought wine.’

‘Oh, you needn’t have – we’ve got loads.’

‘I know, but I can’t turn up empty-handed.’

‘That’s what Ottilie said.’ Geoff smiled. ‘Thank you; we’ll have it later.’

‘This is all very civilised,’ Ottilie said. ‘It might be the first time I’ve sat in a cinema with wine and dips. It’s usually watered-down Fanta and some crusty popcorn.’

‘There’s no point in having your own cinema if you can’t make it as swanky as you like,’ Geoff said.

‘Magnus says you built it.’ Ottilie accepted the glass she’d been offered. ‘That’s pretty amazing.’

‘Well, when I say built it,’ Magnus put in, ‘I mean he gave the specs to a builder, who put it all together.’

‘Perhaps dreamed it is a better way of putting it,’ Geoff said. ‘And if you can dream it, you can always find someone to build it, if you know where to look.’

Geoff handed Stacey a glass of sangria.

‘So’ – she turned to Ottilie after a nod of acknowledgement to her brother – ‘how are you settling in?’

‘Good, I think. There are things I’m still not used to – silence outside at night for a start. Where I lived before there was traffic noise pretty much twenty-four-seven. The most I get here is the odd sheep bleating.’

‘It’s quiet, that’s for sure,’ Stacey agreed. ‘Too quiet, if you ask my Chloe.’

‘You can’t blame her. I suppose at her age she wants nightclubs and bars and excitement.’

‘Oh, I think she’s had enough excitement for one year,’ Stacey said, shooting her brother a wry look. ‘I think all the excitement is what got her in her current predicament.’

‘How is she coping with that?’ Ottilie asked. ‘She didn’t seem too happy last time I saw you.’

‘She was having a bad day. She’s up and down – some days she can cope, some days she can’t. I think some days she pretends it’s not happening, and others she’s terrified.’

‘But she wants to keep the baby?’

‘That changes, depending what day you catch her. But I’ve said all along that if she can’t cope, I’ll take over. There’s no way I’m letting that baby be taken from our family, and I think if it happened, Chloe would live to regret it.’

‘Totally,’ Geoff agreed. ‘We’ll all rally around her if we need to. I’m looking forward to babysitting quite honestly.’ He looked at Magnus and smiled. ‘I think we both are, aren’t we?’

‘I can’t wait!’ Magnus took the cling film from a bowl of tzatziki Ottilie had made. ‘It’ll be brilliant.’

‘I’m sure Chloe won’t be standing in your way,’ Stacey said. ‘I’m sure she’ll let you babysit every night, if you want to. But I do think she needs to get used to the idea of motherhood, because there won’t always be a queue of people to take the baby off her hands.’

‘But it sounds like she’s going to have a good support network,’ Ottilie said. ‘And if I can get the mother and baby group up and running again, that will be another outlet that I hope will help.’

‘I’m not sure she’d go, if I’m honest,’ Stacey said doubtfully. ‘She’s not really a mixer in that way. I think she’d find the idea of sitting with other mums a bit…’

‘Uncool?’ Magnus offered.

Stacey nodded. ‘Something like that.’

‘Well, it’s not even organised yet, so it’s something for her to think about. Perhaps she’ll change her mind when the baby comes and she feels it might be good to talk to women who are going through similar things.’

There was a tap at the window, and they looked round to see Florence there. Magnus went to let her in and returned a few moments later. She nodded acknowledgement to everyone in the room.

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