Page 113 of Christmas for the Village Midwife
‘Wordsworth Cottage!’ Zoe squeaked. ‘Oh yes!’
‘William?’ Georgia was silent for a moment before screwing her face up. ‘It’s a bit…ordinary.’
‘Why don’t you google to see who else there might be?’ Zoe said. ‘It might spark a bit of inspiration even if you don’t like anything you see.’
‘That’s not a bad idea,’ Brett said. ‘We’ll do that later when we have a minute, eh?’
Georgia nodded.
‘You’ll have to think of something soon,’ Emilia said, ‘because we can’t keep calling himthe babyfor ever.’
‘It’ll be unique,’ Brett said.
‘With good reason,’ Emilia shot back, and for the first time since they’d arrived, Zoe witnessed them share a genuine smile.
33
It was funny, but Zoe had to agree with Alex. While she wasn’t especially religious and never went to the Christmas Day service ordinarily, something about this one touched her in an oddly spiritual way. Perhaps it was the drama of the night before, the fact that she’d helped to bring a life into the world in this very building, or the deep sense of community that she’d simply never experienced anywhere before, but something was different. She felt safe and loved and part of something far bigger than a tiny village full of people who were all as different as they were the same.
It wasn’t until the service had ended, however, and people were drifting away that she noticed some absences. The vicar stood at the doors, issuing his blessings for the season and the coming year, and Zoe scanned the congregation as they waited their turn to speak to him.
‘I wonder where Victor and Corrine are,’ she said to Alex.
He shrugged. ‘I suppose they decided not to come.’
‘But…’ Zoe shook her head slightly. ‘I always thought they were regulars. I mean, not regulars all year, but I imaginedthey’d be here for special things like this. No Magnus and Geoff either.’
‘I don’t have them down as churchgoers.’
‘But they came yesterday.’
‘So, one is enough for them? I don’t know.’ Alex allowed his gaze to wander too. ‘See, not everyone is here anyway. No Ottilie and Heath, no Stacey and Simon…’
‘But I’m not surprised by them – I know they wouldn’t want to come anyway.’
He shrugged. ‘I don’t know what to say. We’ll see Corrine and Victor at their Boxing Day thing tomorrow, so I wouldn’t worry.’
‘I’m not. I just thought it was odd.’ Zoe let out a sigh. ‘I imagine this all means we’re going to be eating our lunch a lot later than we’d planned. I haven’t even got the turkey on yet.’
‘That doesn’t matter. We’ll eat when we eat.’
‘I know it doesn’t really, but I wanted our first Christmas to be perfect…’ She looked up at him. ‘It’s far from perfect. Everything’s gone wrong, and I know it can’t be helped, but it’s still not what I wanted for us.’
‘It’s only lunch.’ He stroked her hair with a warm smile. ‘And it’s not like we won’t eat it at all.’
‘My presents for you are crap too. I ran out of time, and I didn’t know what to get?—’
‘I don’t care about that. Having you with me is enough.’
‘And I look like crap. And the cottage looks like crap because I haven’t been there to get it ready. I mean, we did the tree and some other bits, but I was going to do some extra cleaning, and I haven’t had time, and I wanted to, you know, make it perfect.’
‘We don’t care if it’s perfect, and I bet it is anyway, but if it bothers you that much, then grab everything you need and come to ours. It doesn’t matter which house we spend the day in.’
‘But that means you’ll have to do the work and make the mess at yours, and I wanted it at mine so you could have a breakand be spoiled because I know Christmas can be hard for you. I wanted to make it lovely for you and Billie.’
‘You already have! Stop worrying!’
‘I’m not worrying; I’m just…disappointed. I wanted more for us.’
