Page 71 of Christmas for the Village Midwife
‘What’s up?’ Georgia asked as she sat down. She looked more worried than Zoe had wanted her to be, and perhaps that had been a mistake too. ‘Is there a problem? I mean, I feel fine…’
‘It’s just…you’re very close to term now, and I wanted to know if you were OK. Like no headaches, bleeding…you know, that sort of thing. You’re feeling all right?’
‘Yes, I’d have told you straight away if I wasn’t. I wouldn’t mind hurrying things along now. I’ve read eating a hot curry will do that. Or is it an old wives’ tale, like eating pineapples, or the sex thing? Not that we’d be doing that at the moment…’
‘Actually, pineapples do have some effect, but I don’t think you should be trying to bring anything on just yet. Stress is another thing that might do it…You’re not too stressed?’
Georgia’s expression was hard to read. ‘As much as anyone is.’
‘And your plans after the baby is born? I only ask because it’s all a bit vague, and if I’m going to hand you over to another midwife out of the area, I probably need to know.’
‘Will you have to do that? If I’m here when the baby is born, that’s that, isn’t it?’
‘No, you’ll still have visits for a little while to check baby is thriving and you’re recovering properly.’
‘Oh, well…in that case, you might be doing that too.’
‘Might?’
‘I don’t know. It all depends.’
Zoe sat back and studied her. ‘I’m sorry, Georgia, but I’m worried about you. I feel as if things are going on that you’re not being honest about. At home, I mean. And that they might have an impact on you and the baby. Ordinarily, it would be none of my business – or rather, sometimes it would be, but that’s another story – but you’re my friend, Emilia is my colleague and I want to do right by you both. She asked me to care for you, and I want to do that, but I can’t do it properly unless you’re frank with me.’
There was a blankness in Georgia’s expression. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘Georgia, please…You’re my friend, and if nothing else, that should be enough. I’m not saying I can help or do anything to change your situation, but at least I’ll understand.’
‘You know most of it.’
‘Do I?’
‘Brett and I ran a business together. It went under, we lost everything and now we’re here.’
‘But why? Emilia said you were staying with her.’
‘You know we are.’
‘Permanently?’ Zoe asked. ‘Because Emilia asked me to take on your care, but she couldn’t say how long you’d be here andwhat the situation was with your previous midwife, whether you’d be going home or when. And then there’s Brett…’
‘He’s struggling,’ Georgia said.
‘I know – that much is obvious. I’m afraid that it might be obvious to lots of people in the village too. He came to the shop when Alex and I were visiting yesterday. Geoff told him they were closed, but he wouldn’t leave until he’d been able to buy a bottle of vodka – and Geoff said he buys a lot of alcohol.’
Georgia’s shoulders slumped. ‘I didn’t know that. I mean, I know he’s been getting through a lot of booze, but I didn’t know he’d gone out after it yesterday. I’ll talk to him.’
‘That’s not really what I’m asking of you. Come on now, Georgia – this is me you’re talking to, and we’re past pussyfooting around. Is this affecting you to the point where it might be a problem for your baby? For your future as a family? I’m never going to judge anyone because it’s not helpful, but I don’t want to see anyone’s baby – especially yours – grow up in a house with that much tension. If it’s this unmanageable now, when you do finally go home and it’s just you and Brett, what then? Will it be worse? You have Emilia there now to mitigate, but?—’
‘I don’t know! All right? I don’t know! Maybe we’ll never go home…We don’t even have one of our own right now! We lost everything, and all we have is a few pounds to our name. There…is that what you wanted to hear?’ Georgia’s eyes filled with tears.
Zoe felt awful for forcing the admission, but she stood by her belief that at least now she knew she could think of ways to support her friend, she could be better and more effective than she’d been so far.
‘We’re staying with Emilia because we don’t have anywhere else to go. At first it seemed like the perfect solution. She was lonely after her divorce, and she’d just moved to this new placewhere she didn’t have anyone, and we needed somewhere to live until we got back on our feet. Brett wasn’t happy, but he could see the sense in it. And we didn’t think it would be for long. Brett would get a job, and we’d find somewhere to rent, and we’d be on our way again. We’d be bruised and battered, but we’d recover, and things would get better and life would go on. The baby was the one bright spot on the horizon too, a reason for us to try so much harder to get back on track. But Brett hasn’t been able to get a job, and his mood has sunk lower and lower. He feels like a failure, living with his sister-in-law, no money to support us. I wanted to get a little job somewhere to tide us over – anything would have done – but he was dead against it. Not that it would have been easy – who’s going to employ a massively pregnant woman? I’d hoped I could get some casual work, something I could do from home, but Brett wasn’t even happy about that. I suppose it made him feel even worse, being supported by both me and Em and not being able to contribute anything.’
‘Is he drinking a lot?’
‘Enough,’ Georgia admitted. ‘Enough to worry me and annoy Emilia. She’s being as patient as she can be, but she’s got her own stuff going on too, so it’s hard. I think she’d like to put us both in a bag and shake us. That or throw us out.’
‘It doesn’t seem like she wants to do that. She’d have done it already, wouldn’t she?’
