Page 54 of The Village Midwife
‘Humour me,’ Zoe cut in. ‘If the tables were turned, you’d be doing the same.’
‘I’ll be there for hours. What about clinic?’
‘Are you well enough to see patients right now?’
‘Not right at this minute, but?—’
‘So there’s no point in you being here anyway. You heard Fliss – she’s happy to work with Lavender to get the rest of your patients seen. Depending on what the hospital says, I’m sure you’ll be back in tomorrow, and you can catch up then.’
‘Fine.’ Ottilie rested her hands on the desk and laid her head on them. ‘Phone Heath. I don’t know how close to home he’ll be, though.’
‘If he’s too far out, I’ll get an ambulance.’
‘No!’ Ottilie’s head shot up again, and she grimaced, clutching at it. ‘Don’t do that to me.’
‘We’ll find some way to get you there. I’d rather be safe than sorry. I’ve got a home visit this afternoon, but I could always put her off and take you myself.’
The fact that Ottilie didn’t argue with this plan was proof enough to Zoe that she felt worse than she’d admit to. On a more positive note, the ghastly shade she’d been when Zoe had first come in was definitely clearing to a healthier colour. Pregnancy was a funny thing, and events that would have signalled serious illness to anyone else would often turn out to be a blip in a pregnant woman. The flipside of that was it paid to take everything seriously anyway – there was the well-being of more than one person at risk.
‘Have you got Heath’s number to hand?’ she asked.
Ottilie reached for her phone and unlocked it before handing it to Zoe. ‘It’ll likely be on my most recent calls. I’ll let you break the good news to him.’
Zoe dialled and was relieved to hear him answer within a few rings.
‘Hey, gorgeous, what did you want?’
‘Heath, it’s Zoe.’
His tone was immediately sharper. ‘Zoe…what’s wrong?’
‘There’s no need to panic, but are you free right now?’
‘I can be.’
‘How close by are you?’
‘I’m close enough. What’s happened?’
‘Ottilie’s not well, and I’d rather she got a full check-up at the hospital. Can you take her?’
‘To the maternity unit?’
‘Yes, I’ll phone ahead and let them know you’re coming.’
‘I’m on my way.’
‘I still say it’s a fuss about nothing.’ Ottilie took her phone back.
‘But you don’t really think that, otherwise you wouldn’t have let me call Heath.’
‘Only because…’ Ottilie’s voice shrank. ‘Only because I’ve never done this before and I don’t know what to expect. And I know you’re looking out for me because…’
‘You know I don’t want what happened to me to happen to you. It’s all right – you can say it. I don’t want anyone to go through that. I’m not so stupid that I think it will never happen to any of my expectant mums, but it’s still so hard to see when it does.’
‘That’s why you took Tegan’s loss so hard?’
‘It never gets easier. I remember one of the old midwives when I was training saying it didn’t get easier, but you learned to shut it out. I think I’d got to that point before I lost my own, and then…well, it became harder because I knew what it was like. When I hadn’t known I could treat it as part of the job, but after…Anyway…’ Zoe took a deep breath and pushed a smile across her face. ‘You’re going to be fine, so I don’t want you to worry.’
