Page 100 of Christmas for the Village Midwife
Georgia looked up at him from beneath a curtain of red hair. ‘Promise you won’t go.’
‘I promise.’
Georgia let his hand drop and then took the one Zoe offered instead.
‘God, I need a drink!’ Brett said under his breath but not quietly enough.
‘It’s a drink that got us in this mess!’ Emilia snapped.
He scowled at her, and then the anger suddenly drained from him, and he sat heavily on a pew, watching as Zoe manoeuvred Georgia onto the blankets so she could examine her.
‘Is there any way we can make this area more private?’ Zoe asked.
Emilia nodded. ‘Give me a second…’
She dashed to speak to the vicar and then returned with another sheet.
‘Take the other end,’ she ordered Brett, who leaped to her assistance without a single word of remonstration at her tone.
They stretched it out between them to form a curtain that would shield Georgia from the rest of the people in the church.
‘Someone’s impatient to appear…’ Zoe said as she checked Georgia’s progress. She pulled one of the blankets over her legs. ‘Are you in a lot of pain?’
‘What do you think?’
‘Sorry. The natural way isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be, is it? There’s not a lot I can do for you now, but hopefully the paramedics will be here soon and they’ll have something. If you last that long…’ she added in a quieter voice. ‘Do you want to be on your feet again, or are you happier staying here?’
‘I want to walk…’ Georgia held out her hands. ‘It hurts less.’
‘Don’t get walking around. You can stand, though. Holding on to the balustrade there seemed to be working for you when I got here.’
‘Do you think that was working?’ Georgia started to laugh, but was immediately silenced by a shudder of pain that had her teeth clenched and her eyes screwed shut.
‘Contraction?’ Zoe asked.
Georgia nodded, her face glistening with sweat.
‘Can you remember when the last one was?’
‘I don’t know…’
‘Maybe ten, twelve minutes,’ Emilia said. She lowered her side of the sheet. ‘I’d say around that.’
‘You can drop the curtain for a minute, Brett,’ Zoe said. ‘We’re going to get Georgia onto her feet again.’
‘Right.’ He let Emilia take it and rushed to help Zoe.
Georgia looked up at him and started to cry.
‘Don’t,’ he said, kissing her head. ‘I can’t stand it. I’m sorry for before…what I said…it was the drink; it wasn’t me. I would never…’
‘But you said—’ Georgia sobbed.
‘I know,’ he cut in. ‘Please, don’t remind me of what I said. I’m a tosser. I don’t know what you see in me.’
‘That makes two of us,’ Emilia said, and this time Zoe gave her a sharp look. Surely she was smart enough to see that her barbed comments were hardly helping. She might feel like sharing her opinions on whatever had happened, and perhaps she was justified in doing so, but now wasn’t the time.
‘Come on…’ Zoe said. ‘Lean on us…’
