Page 81 of The Village Midwife
‘I’ll walk with you,’ he said.
‘OK. I’d like the company. I know it’s safe and everything out here, but sometimes it still spooks me in the dark. Like you don’t know what’s out there. Rabbits, I suppose. The odd sparrow.’
‘Or the ghost of a Bronze Age chieftain, come to take revenge on the people trespassing on his land,’ he said in a mysterious voice, and she laughed.
‘Or ghosts who want revenge on me for living here. Thanks – that made me feel better.’
‘Sorry. Let’s go with rabbits then.’
‘Let’s. Did you want me to regret letting you walk me home?’
‘I’d never want that.’ He sank his hands into his pockets as they began to follow the path. ‘Corrine and Victor are great, aren’t they?’
‘I love them both already. I’m so lucky to have them as landlords.’
‘So the house you’re in…it was their daughter’s, wasn’t it? Victor gifted her and her husband the land? I heard something about it. He had an affair with some girl who was staying in the village and they both ended up leaving. Do I have that right?’
‘Pretty much, apart from Melanie – their daughter – had an affair first, and the marriage was on the rocks before Fion arrived.’
He threw her a sideways glance. ‘You seem to know a lot about it. Is that what Corrine told you?’
‘Ottilie…I work with her at the surgery. Fion’s her sister. Well, half-sister. In the end, it was all amicable. Victor and Corrine didn’t blame Melanie’s husband. I think they’re sad shemoved away, but they get that she needed a fresh start, and living in Kestrel Cottage had too many memories for her. Lucky for me, eh?’
‘Lucky for me too,’ he said, and it was her turn to throw him a puzzled look, one that he didn’t see in the gloom. ‘I mean,’ he added quickly, ‘you’re a perfect neighbour for someone who has a very pregnant daughter who worries him to death all the time.’
‘You really worry that much?’
‘Of course I do! I don’t know what to do for her from one minute to the next. I thought we were doing all right until you pointed out that we don’t talk, and then I realised that I’m actually hopeless. It’s at times like these I miss Jennifer. Billie needs her mum.’
‘For what it’s worth, I think you’re doing a pretty decent job. The main thing is you’re trying. You want to be there for her, and you’re doing your best. Nobody can ask anything more than that.’
‘It doesn’t ever feel like enough.’
‘Trust me, if you asked Billie, I’m sure she’d say it is.’
‘You seem to be able to get through to her.’
‘I doubt that. As a midwife, perhaps. I’m not sure about anything else.’
‘I know you said it would be better for us to go shopping tomorrow without you, but I could really do with your help. It’s not about the cot, not really. I wish she’d open up. I’m a bloke, I get that, and she probably thinks I can’t handle pregnancy stuff, but I think she needs someone. She’d talk to you. She already does, more than she’s ever opened up to me, about Luis and about bringing up the baby by herself.’
Zoe let out a sigh. ‘Right, I’ll come then. But please mention it to Billie, and if she doesn’t seem keen, tell me. I’d rather not be there if she doesn’t want me to be.’
‘I will. Thanks. I won’t forget I owe you. I owe you about fifty favours, in fact, for all the times you’ve had my back since I got here.’ He paused before beginning again. ‘When I came over to your house and your ex was there…I didn’t make it awkward, did I?’
‘Why would you think that?’
‘I don’t know… a feeling. I got a weird vibe from him.’
‘That’s not unique to you – he gives that vibe to everyone.’ Zoe affected a careless laugh for him that she didn’t quite feel.
‘But I didn’t cause you any trouble?’
‘Of course you didn’t. We’re not together now, so who visits me has nothing to do with him.’
‘It’s not my place to say so, but I’m not sure he got that memo.’
‘It’s not,’ she said and then immediately regretted it. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean that. It’s just…with Ritchie it’s complicated. We have a lot of history that sort of keeps us together. Not as a couple, but we…we’re kind of bound together.’
