Page 26 of Christmas for the Village Midwife
‘You too.’ Simon offered his hand to shake. ‘Thanks for the presents.’
‘Merry Christmas,’ Ottilie called from the stove. ‘I don’t know if I’ll still be at work when you come again, so I’ll see you when I see you.’
‘Of course,’ he said. ‘In which case, all the best for your maternity leave…’
‘Next time,’ Lavender said, waving him off, ‘don’t bring us any more icky calendars!’ She locked the door and then went to fill a jug with water. ‘What is that, by the way?’ She looked over Ottilie’s shoulder. ‘It smells amazing!’
‘Thai green curry soup,’ Ottilie said. ‘I got the recipe from one of my new patients. Heath can’t get enough of it.’
‘I bet he can’t,’ Lavender said with a saucy laugh. ‘But what about the soup?’
Everyone started to laugh.
‘Right,’ Ottilie said. ‘If only I was in a state to oblige him. But he loves this soup, keeps asking me to make it, so I thought I’d try it out on you lot.’
‘Try it out on me as often as you want if it tastes as good as it smells. There’s bad news about the pud, though.’
Zoe laid the cutlery on the table. ‘Don’t we have any? I could go out and get some ice cream or something from the shop if?—’
‘No, we’ve got some.’ Lavender grinned. ‘But I’m sorry to inform you it’s gingerbread.’
A collective half groan, half laugh filled the kitchen. All apart from Emilia, who had come for a glass of water but had made it clear she had no intention of staying. It was a shame, Zoe thought, because she could see that Lavender had looked hopeful as she’d walked in, and if Emilia would share just one lunch with them, it would go a long way to her being readily accepted as part of the team. Right now, she was offered courtesy, but it didn’t really feel as if she was viewed as a colleague, and she kept such a distance that Zoe couldn’t see how that was ever going to happen.
‘I’m starting to hallucinate gingerbread,’ Ottilie said. ‘I dream about it, and not in a good way. Everywhere I go someone’s baking it, cooling it, building with it or icing it, asking me to taste it. It’s like the longest, most specific episode ofBake Offever!’
Lavender glanced at Emilia with something like thinly veiled distrust. ‘You’re sure you won’t stay to eat with us? There’s enough.’
Emilia stood at the doorway with her water. She’d paused, listening to the conversation, and Zoe wondered whether it was because she’d been tempted to stay and join in. But then she shook her head. ‘Thank you, but I don’t think so. I’ve got a lot to do; I’m going to get back to my desk and plough through it.’
Zoe could tell Lavender was itching to pass some sort of judgement over Emilia’s decision, probably a negative one, but she also clearly recognised her place in the hierarchy – such as one existed at Thimblebury surgery because Fliss had never been keen on that sort of thing. To her, colleagues were colleagues, and they were all equally as important when it came to keeping the surgery running. At this point, it was hard to tell how Emilia viewed it, but aside from her previous connection to Zoe, she hadn’t seemed keen to be anyone’s friend.
‘If you change your mind, we’ll be here,’ was all that Lavender said, adding that she’d take some gingerbread to her at coffee break that afternoon, seemingly intent on ignoring the fact that Emilia wanted to fast.
‘Thank you, but I don’t think I’d eat it,’ Emilia said before leaving them to it.
Lavender turned to the others with a sour look that left nobody in doubt that she was seriously struggling to keep her more extreme opinions to herself, and that were she able to air them, they’d be less than favourable.
‘Don’t worry,’ Simon said, reading it. ‘We’ve already had a conversation about the lunchtime close, and as I know how important it is to all of you – as, indeed, Fliss did – I’ve told her that nothing is going to change for the foreseeable future. We will carry on with our lunches as we always have if that’s what you all want.’
‘And she’s all right with that?’ Ottilie asked with obvious doubt.
‘Yes.’ Simon gave a brief nod before going back to his meal.
Ottilie, Zoe and Lavender exchanged a look. Whatever deal Simon felt he’d brokered, it was clear the other members of staff were thinking the same thing: how long would Emilia’s agreement last? If today had been anything to go by, not long. Zoe also dreaded a conversation with Lavender that she sawlooming on the horizon, one where Lavender asked Zoe to step in and use what influence she might have to change Emilia’s mind. The fact was, Zoe had none, but Lavender might take some convincing of that.
10
Zoe had only been inside Simon’s old house a couple of times, but it was still strange seeing someone else’s belongings in there. As she approached, she noticed that the garden was hidden beneath a blanket of snow that hadn’t yet melted, but the path to the front door had been cleared. It had gone from the roof apart from scattered patches. The houses either side had Christmas decorations in the windows and outside, draped from trees and shrubs, but Zoe noticed that there were none in Emilia’s. But she’d only recently arrived and perhaps making her house festive wasn’t on her list of priorities.
Inside, the place was cluttered – far more than was reasonable for one person. Simon had left furniture behind because it had never belonged to him in the first place – having been left for him by Charles, Fliss’s husband, when they’d rented it to Simon – and even if he’d owned it, he wouldn’t have needed to take it with him when he moved in with Stacey, who already had everything they might need. But even taking all that into consideration, the barely contained chaos that littered every surface and lined every wall suggested that either Emilia was a classic hoarder, or she had enough belongings to account fortwo or three people. Given the way Brett had been stressed out at the removal team, it was fair to assume that some of these things belonged to him and Georgia, which suggested they were planning to stay for an extended period of time. Hadn’t Emilia said something about their stay being open-ended, now that Zoe thought about it? She’d been cagey about the details. Why?
Added to the request to care for Georgia for the remainder of her pregnancy, it painted a picture of…uncertainty? Perhaps a couple who weren’t sure of their situation, both in the present and the near future.
If all thiswasgoing on, Georgia herself didn’t seem troubled by it as she opened the door to Zoe. She met her old friend with a broad, open smile.
‘Come in! I mean, come in if you can get in! We’re a bit upside down…’
She led Zoe into a cosy sitting room, made even cosier by the reduced floor space that Zoe would soon notice characterising the entire house. After more initial greetings and apologies for the mess, Zoe noticed they were alone in there. She hadn’t expected Brett or Emilia to stick around, but she’d thought they might have at least popped in to say hello on her arrival.
