Page 109 of The Village Midwife
‘Are you all right? How was the rest of your weekend? I thought you might call me, but I didn’t want to hassle you in case you wanted some alone time.’
‘I did, to be honest, and I feel better for it. I had a message from Ritchie. I’ll tell you about it later, see what your take is, but I have a feeling our efforts to stay friends might be scuppered.’
‘Well,’ Ottilie said, turning to go back to her own room, ‘I hate to say it, but I think that was always going to happen. Some men can be grown-up about these things, and then there’s Ritchie.’
Ottilie had invited Zoe to eat with her and Heath that evening. So had Fliss, and Stacey had sent her a text saying she was available to talk should Zoe need it. But all Zoe needed was herown company. Much as she appreciated everyone’s efforts, she was tired and she wanted time to think. She also realised that, no matter how much she wanted to avoid the issue, Ritchie’s threat to walk away from his end of the bargain over their old house was real, and she’d have to make plans for that eventuality. There was no time like the present to start doing that. If it came to pass, she wanted to be ready.
And so she headed home, rifled in her freezer for some minestrone soup Corrine had given her the previous week, and ate it with thick sliced bread, sitting at the table in silence as she scrolled through details for financial advisers on her phone. Ottilie had been right – Zoe should have seen this coming. If anyone was going to let her down, it was Ritchie.
After her meal, she emailed a couple of promising-looking candidates to query her circumstances and ask what they’d charge to sort out her affairs, and then she made a hot drink and settled in front of the television.
Half an hour into a medical thriller, her phone began to ring.
‘Hi, Billie,’ she said, reaching for the remote to turn the TV off. ‘Everything OK?’
‘I don’t know,’ Billie said. ‘I fell on the stairs. Do you think the baby will be all right?’
Zoe straightened up. ‘Want me to come over?’
‘Do you want to? Because if you don’t, I could come?—’
‘Absolutely not. I’m sure it’s all fine, but I’ll come to you anyway. Sit down, have a warm drink…get your dad to make it. Is he there?’
‘Yes, he’s here. Is that all right?’
‘Not a problem,’ Zoe said tightly. Every cell in her was screaming that it was a problem. Alex was the last person she wanted to see, but if he could be bigger than what happened between them over the weekend for Billie’s sake, then so could she. ‘Give me ten minutes and I’ll be with you.’
29
Alex opened the front door looking awkward. ‘I’m sorry we had to call you.’
‘Don’t be sorry – I told Billie to phone any time.’
‘But it’s late and you’re off duty,’ he continued as she followed him inside. I would have driven her to the hospital myself, but some joker has let down all my tyres.’
‘What?’
He didn’t look only nodded, his gaze on his feet. ‘Yes. Every one of them is flat, so it’s no accident.’
‘Who would do that?’
‘Not a clue. Maybe it’s someone in the village who isn’t very happy about my plans for Hilltop.’
‘Even so, it’s a bit childish. What did they think letting your tyres down was going to achieve? It’s a minor inconvenience, sure, but it’s hardly going to drive you away.’
‘It’s literally not going to drive me away,’ he said, and she thought she might have detected the merest whisper of a smile at a joke that was obviously too good to resist, even for him in the current circumstances. ‘Perhaps it’s the start of a wholecampaign of terror. This week flat tyres, next week horses’ heads.’
‘Ugh. Perhaps it’s the ghost of your Bronze Age chieftain telling you he doesn’t want you here.’
‘Again, you’d hope even a Bronze Age ghost had seen enough of the world by now to know that letting my tyres down is literally going to prevent me from going anywhere.’
Was this an attempt at some sort of reset? Zoe wondered. He seemed tense and slightly embarrassed by the situation they were now in, but she couldn’t help feeling he was trying to reconcile a little. Did he feel ashamed of his outburst at the quincentenary? Had it been a fit of anger that he’d since had time to reflect on and regret? Whatever the reason for his change of attitude, he needed her now – or rather, Billie did – and he knew he had to behave.
Billie was propped up on some pillows, her feet up on the sofa with a blanket. She looked as sheepish as Alex had done.
‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘I feel stupid.’
‘Don’t. You wouldn’t believe how often I get phone calls about my mums falling over. Pregnancy makes you a bit wobblier in all sorts of ways, and you do tend to be a bit less stable than normal. But…you also have an amazing built-in defence system. It takes more than you’d think to do harm. Did you fall forward onto your belly or backwards?’
