Page 85 of Christmas for the Village Midwife
Once the encounter was over and they’d walked away, she heaved a silent sigh of relief.
‘What wasthat?’ Alex whispered as they searched for a seat.
‘You saw it too then? I wondered if it was just me.’
‘Definitely not just you. If I was a boxing referee, I’d be reading them the Queensberry rules right now.’
Ottilie was further down the hall towards the front, waving them over.
Zoe saw her and waved back, tapping Alex. ‘There…I think Ottilie has saved us a seat.’
Ottilie and Heath had Flo with them as well as another couple Zoe had never seen before.
‘This is Heath’s mum and dad,’ Ottilie said. ‘Lori and Colin, this is Zoe and Alex.’
‘Pleased to meet you,’ Zoe said, while Alex shook hands, and then they took a seat. ‘It’s getting full, isn’t it?’
‘Always is,’ Flo said. ‘The only time I see all the heathens in church is today when there’s mulled wine afterwards.’
‘You don’t come to church either,’ Ottilie reminded her.
‘Only because my knees play up when I’m sitting in the cold.’
‘Right…’
‘I would,’ she said. ‘But this lot…Christmas Eve and when someone dies, that’s it.’
‘Well,’ Ottilie said with a smirk, ‘there’s a festive thought.’
Flo folded her hands on her lap. ‘Only saying what’s what. No point in talking if it’s not plain.’
‘I like a Christmas service,’ Lori said. ‘I think all the singing is magical, especially on Christmas Eve.’
‘You would,’ Flo said brusquely. Zoe tried not to smirk this time. She’d never met Heath’s mother, but she’d heard all about Flo’s thoughts on her.
‘Here’s Magnus and Geoff,’ Ottilie said. She waved, but Flo seemed as unimpressed by their arrival as by her daughter-in-law’s company.
‘That puffed up so-and-so,’ she huffed. ‘Done nothing but crow since he won the gingerbread prize. I can’t even go in the shop now.’
‘He hasn’t been that bad,’ Zoe said, but now she had to laugh at the look on Ottilie’s face. ‘All right, I admit he has been milking it a bit, but he’s been waiting a long time to win it, hasn’t he? And his entry was actually brilliant, so…Oh, here’s Corrine and Victor! Who’s that with them?’
Ottilie’s face lost two shades. ‘Melanie. Their daughter,’ she added.
‘I thought she’d left the village.’
‘She has, but she’s bound to come back to see her parents occasionally. And it is Christmas…’
‘I wouldn’t worry,’ Flo said with something that sounded a bit too much like triumph in her voice for Zoe’s liking. ‘I doubt she’ll be coming to talk to you, season of goodwill to all men or not.’
Victor and Corrine’s other daughter, Penny, followed them in with her husband Leon. Corrine sent a slightly awkward smile the group’s way, and Victor looked even more uncomfortable. It was a shame because they usually all got on so well, but Zoesupposed it was only natural things might be more difficult with the arrival of someone who’d parted from Ottilie on what some would call bad terms. Ottilie had always said she held no grudge, and neither did Victor or Corrine, but Melanie was an entirely different matter.
‘As long as Damien doesn’t turn up,’ Heath said in a low voice. ‘That would put the tin lid on things.’
‘Damien’s the ex, right?’ Zoe asked.
‘I doubt him or Fion would be that daft,’ Ottilie said, nodding to Zoe, though she looked uncertain all the same.
Lavender came in next with her husband, and as Zoe watched, she could see the tension between her and Emilia as soon as they saw one another.
