Page 40 of Christmas for the Village Midwife
‘It’s all right. You don’t owe anyone an apology for how you feel. I’m here if you want to get it off your chest.’
‘I know, and it’s so kind of you, especially when we haven’t seen one another for so long.’
‘That makes no difference. Old friend, new friend, absent-for-a-while friend…it’s still a friend.’
Georgia’s eyes filled with tears. ‘Look at me – all hormonal!’
‘I think you can be forgiven for that. I’m here now if you want to talk. You’re welcome to make good use of me.’
‘I would, but…’ Georgia’s gaze went to the door Brett had just left by.
Zoe nodded. ‘Maybe next time we can arrange to go out. If the weather improves, at any rate.’
‘I’d like that.’
‘Not far, of course. We could drive out somewhere, have lunch. Have you been far since you got here? There are some beautiful little towns, and right now they look even prettier with the snow and the Christmas decorations. In fact, Alex took me to Keswick not long ago for the light switch-on, and their decorations are amazing. If you’re up to it, we could have a few hours there, get some food, take a look around, maybe get coffee – nothing taxing, of course.’
Georgia gave an enthusiastic nod. ‘That sounds lovely. I’d like to see a lot more of the area.’
‘You haven’t done much exploring yet?’
‘None. Brett’s been for a few walks, but, like I said, I’d get too puffed out by that so I don’t go. And Em’s been too busy to take me out in the car. She’s got a lot to do, at the surgery, getting straight here…you know.’
‘Sounds like it’s been boring. There’s not much to do in Thimblebury itself other than walking. Hasn’t Brett fancied a day trip out?’
‘I don’t think he’s been in the mood for that sort of thing. He’s got a lot on his mind.’
Zoe was going to ask more about Brett’s worries when the sound of smashing glass reached them from another room. It was followed by Brett swearing. The colour drained from Georgia’s face, and the air was suddenly stiff with tension. He wasn’t even in the same room as them and yet Brett’s mood – whatever it was – overshadowed everything.
14
Someone had whacked the heating in the village hall up so high Zoe was currently stripped down to a T-shirt and was still sweating. What was it with this village and heating?
Ottilie had laughed when they’d been in the shop together and she’d asked the question, having endured yet another overheated day at the surgery, courtesy of Lavender, who’d insisted they had to keep the patients warm. And what with the mood Lavender had been in since her showdown with Emilia over the Christmas decorations, even Zoe realised it was wiser to suffer in silence than challenge her on it. There had been a freezing fog hanging over the hills for days, sure, but, as Magnus had pointed out, anyone would think the world had been plunged into a new ice age the way everyone had gone rushing to their thermostats. Zoe wasn’t often one to agree on things like that, but even she was beginning to think people needed to calm down. As people filed in for the gingerbread house competition, shedding coats and hats and scarves and instantly red-faced as the heat hit them, if Lucifer himself had wandered in wearing a pair of Speedos and asking for a bag of ice to cool down, she wouldn’t have been a bit surprised.
There were Christmas decorations that had clearly seen a fair few winters pinned to the walls and ceilings, while a lopsided plastic tree, propped up by planks of wood to stop it toppling over, was taking up an entire corner of the room. Lavender had complained about that too, the previous day, having been in to help put the decorations up in readiness for the event.
‘There’s money for a real one,’ she’d grumbled. ‘There’s money every year, and yet they get that motheaten thing out. I’m surprised it hasn’t had an asbestos warning slapped on it by the council, it’s so old. I told them I’d go and find one and chop it down myself if it meant I could bin that thing. I have nightmares about it every year until about February.’
Zoe was beginning to think Lavender might take Christmas just a bit too seriously. This had been confirmed earlier that week by Emilia – walking through reception to see a patient out – earning a glare from Lavender, who hadn’t forgiven her for not allowing her consultation room to be decorated. Either to her credit, or to her detriment, whichever way you wanted to look at it, Emilia hadn’t backed down, not even under the pressure of Lavender’s most burning glowers. And when Lavender had snuck in one night after surgery was done and plonked a mini tree on her desk, Emilia had come in the next morning, silently put it on the reception desk in front of Lavender and had then gone back to her office without another word. That had led to Lavender turning up the volume of the Christmas carols playing in reception that week so loud that in the end Mrs Icke had marched to the desk and complained that it was interfering with her hearing aids. So much for the time of peace and love and goodwill to all men.
Zoe turned her attention back to the hubbub in the hall. There were long tables running the length of one of the walls, and on each had been draped a different, Christmas-themed tablecloth. Not a one matched, and some didn’t fit the table theywere supposed to be covering. The tables weren’t exactly even either, and as she looked, Zoe could see Magnus and Geoff trying to stabilise a corner of the one they’d been allocated by shoving an empty folded crisp packet underneath the rogue leg.
As they arrived, other residents found their spot and began to set up. Or not, depending on how secretive and protective they were feeling about their creation.
Stacey, however, had no qualms whacking her gingerbread castle out and pointed to it with a grin. ‘Brilliant, eh? Like someone who’d never seen a house and someone who’d never made gingerbread wrote an instruction manual on how to make a gingerbread house and I accidentally used it.’
‘It’s not that bad,’ Geoff said.
Stacey laughed. ‘Oh, shut up, you moron! Of course it is – it’s horrible! I don’t know why I put myself through this every year.’
Still laughing to herself, she wandered off to the urn that was being manned by someone from the playgroup to get a cup of tea.
Magnus, on the other hand, once he and Geoff had secured their wonky table, kept his creation in a plastic storage box, and though he took the lid off and peered inside, he quickly put it back on and stood with his arms folded, scanning the competition as they unpacked around him. Geoff went to take the lid off again, and Magnus slapped his hand away.
‘It’s not time yet!’ Zoe heard him say. ‘Someone might knock it!’
Geoff let out a sigh loud enough for her to hear at the other side of the room and then followed Stacey to get a cup of tea of his own.
