Page 95 of Christmas for the Village Midwife
‘I’m coming with you then.’
‘Don’t be daft! What about Billie?’
‘I’ll come too.’
‘Absolutely not!’ Zoe pulled the blanket aside and stood up. ‘There’s no way I’m putting you at risk on a night like this. You’re staying here, and I don’t care how much you argue because it won’t change.’
‘She’s right,’ Alex said.
Billie pouted, but she didn’t offer a reply.
And then Alex turned his common sense on Zoe. ‘How the hell are you going to get down to the church? Or have you forgotten how bad it was underfoot when we came up here earlier? It’s snowed more since then as well.’
‘I’ll walk.’
‘Youarejoking, right?’
‘We walked up here.’
‘Yes, and, again, I’d like to remind you how difficult it was.’
‘The car would never make it.’
He was thoughtful for a minute. ‘Victor might have snow chains or something. We might get down with those.’
‘There isn’t time for that.’
‘We’ll take our chances in the car as it is then. I’ll take it slowly. I’ve driven in snow before…’
Zoe wanted to argue. She didn’t want him to come with her because he didn’t really want to go, and he didn’t really want to leave Billie either. But she could see that if she was going, he was never going to let her go alone.
‘All right,’ she said finally. ‘I’ll go and get my coat.’
28
In the end, their discussions had been a waste of time. Alex’s car had barely made it out of the garage before it slid down an incline and into some shrubbery. There was no real damage, but as he tried to reverse out, all that happened was the wheels spun, smoke poured from the engine, and it got stuck deeper in the snow.
He pulled on the handbrake and turned to her. ‘That’s that then. We’re not taking the car, apparently.’
Zoe glanced out to see Billie watching them from the window of the house, arms wrapped tight around herself. ‘Apparently. So it’s walking or nothing.’
‘Let me phone Victor,’ he said, getting out of the driver’s side.
Zoe sat back in the car to stay out of the snow while Alex dialled the number for Daffodil Farm. After a brief wait, he ended the call and stuffed his phone back into his pocket.
‘Doesn’t sound like there’s anyone home.’
‘They might all have gone to spend the evening with Penny and Leon.’
‘Who knows? Unless they’ve gone up to check on the alpaca. I wouldn’t blame them for being worried about them in thisweather. I wish one of them would join the twenty-first century and get a mobile phone. I don’t know how anyone used to manage without them. I don’t have a number for Leon or Penny.’
‘Sorry, neither do I. I’ve never had all that much to do with them since I arrived, other than to say hello in passing. They tend to keep themselves to themselves.’
Alex got back into the car and tapped his phone on his chin for a moment as he pondered their predicament. At least, that was what Zoe hoped he was doing, rather than trying to find a way to tell her that she couldn’t go down to help Georgia, because nothing he could say would change her mind, and she didn’t want to have to fight him as well as the weather.
‘OK,’ he said finally. ‘We’re going to have to dig the car out and try again. Hang on here; I’ll go and get a shovel.’
While Alex went to find his equipment Zoe texted Emilia to find out how things were there and to explain their delay. Emilia replied immediately.
