Page 107 of The Village Midwife
No kiss at the end of the message? Presumably he was smarting at her rejection, but even so, his sudden demand was a petty way to lash out. She wasn’t in the mood to mess around with him and so she typed her reply.
I don’t have time to sell it. If you need the money so badly, you’ll have to do it.
I’m busy looking for work and a new flat, so no. If you don’t want to sell it, you’ll have to move back in and buy me out.
Nice try, Zoe thought. She wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing it, but she’d been counting on the money she’d make selling her half of their old house to him. She wasn’t destitute, but she was using a large chunk of her wages on rent, and after other essentials, there wasn’t a huge amount left to simply enjoy life with. And while to some extent she had sympathy with his plight, she wasn’t about to do everything for him. If he needed to sell the house, then he’d have to do it. Zoe was staying put in Thimblebury, so moving back wasn’t an option. It was time he grew up and took some responsibility.
Zoe locked her phone and tossed it onto the bed. So much for staying friends. Right now, he was her least favourite person in the world.
Trying to put the day’s events from her mind, she went to find her book, knowing that she probably wouldn’t be able to concentrate on it but desperate to try all the same.
Zoe hadn’t been expecting much from her Monday morning, but she surrendered herself to whatever might be coming and started her working day with as much stoicism as she could muster. Before the first appointment of her day was due toarrive, she made coffee for everyone, calling into Fliss’s room with her cup last of all.
‘Ah, Zoe…’ Fliss greeted her briskly. ‘Over the weekend’s trauma?’
‘I think so,’ Zoe said carefully.
‘You only think so?’ Fliss took the drink Zoe had made with a grateful nod. ‘You’re not still smarting about Bridget Jenkins, are you?’
‘Maisie’s mum? No, I’m not. What’s the point? I’ve had worse than that; she just caught me off guard.’
‘Good, but I can still have a word with her if you like.’
Zoe shook her head vehemently. ‘What about you? Did you enjoy the rest of the event? I hear some people were a bit upset about you announcing your retirement.’
Fliss gave a short bark of a laugh. ‘Things don’t change much around here, and that’s the way most like it, so I wouldn’t have expected anything less. But like I said to Ottilie when she first arrived and everyone was complaining that she wasn’t Gwen – the nurse we had before Ottilie – they have shorter memories than they think. Ottilie’s been here, what…? Two years or so, and it’s as if Gwen never existed. It’ll be the same when my replacement settles in.’
‘I don’t know about that.’
‘They can take it or leave it either way because it’s not a choice; it’s a fact. Don’t you worry – my wine tour of Europe is already in the planning stage as we speak. I intend to be away for a very long time and drink an inordinate amount of wine along the way.’
Zoe smiled. ‘That sounds nice. Can I come with you?’
‘You’d never keep up.’
‘Probably not.’
‘Right then. Onwards and upwards, eh?’
Fliss turned to her monitor, and Zoe took that to mean she wanted to get on.
When she finally sat at her own desk, Lavender phoned from reception.
‘Have you got time to see someone who isn’t booked in?’ she asked in a mysterious voice that all at once hinted at mischief but also at some attempt to remain professional in the face of whoever was standing in front of her asking to see Zoe.
‘Is it urgent?’ Zoe asked. ‘I’ve got a full clinic today.’
‘I wouldn’t say urgent…’ She held the phone away, and Zoe could hear her ask whoever it was in muffled tones whether itwasurgent, but couldn’t hear their reply.
‘She feels bad,’ Lavender reported back, and now there was definite humour in her tone.
‘Bad like she’s ill or just bad?’ Zoe paused and then shook her head. ‘Never mind; I’ll come through.’
She didn’t know who to expect, but she realised it should have been obvious. Maisie Jenkins was nervously twisting her fingers around one another as she stood waiting at the reception desk.
‘Hello,’ Zoe said, offering a reassuring smile. ‘Everything OK?’
Zoe had a few ideas about why Maisie might have come, and most of them were connected in some way with the altercation between her and Maisie’s mum, Bridget.
