Page 20 of A Christmas Wish for the Village Midwife

‘Then you can’t create a position for her, can you? She doesn’t want a fake job.’

‘It wouldn’t be a fake one. Yes, we don’t have a lot of bookings for next summer yet, and I’m a bit worried about that, but I suppose people might not think about holidays until after Christmas, right? So if it gets busy, I’m sure I could find Billie something. We talked about social media, didn’t we? And I thought she was up for that, but lately she seems less keen. Or at least, she hasn’t mentioned it…’

Zoe nodded, but she was in a rush and only half listening. ‘That’s great. I mean, I’m sure it would be, but I don’t know that she wants any job at all right now with Louisa still little, and… Alex, sorry, but I really have to go. You’ll have to talk to Billie if this is bothering you.’

As soon as Zoe closed the door and started to march to her car, chilled darts of rain bouncing from her hood, guilt began to nibble at her. Alex had wanted her opinion, but he’d certainly picked a bad moment to instigate a discussion. She consoled herself with the thought that Billie would be down for breakfast soon, so if the question of a job for her was really that important to him, Alex would talk to her then. She resolved to set some time aside this evening for him to talk to her properly, if he wanted to air his worries, no matter how late or how tired she might be.

Lavender almost leaped from her seat at the reception desk as Zoe walked in to start another week at work. ‘Are you going to audition for the Christmas panto?’

Zoe halted, mid-step. ‘Excuse me? Did you say panto? I was not expecting that question on a Monday morning!’

‘Haven’t you heard? Thimblebury’s doing a panto! Magnus is going to direct it… I mean, who else? I bet they’ll do it at their place, at the cinema in the back… It’s small, but I’m sure they’ll work around it… unless they use the church hall or the community centre. But they’re not much bigger, and the church hall is always freezing and the community centre is always too hot…’

Zoe stared at their surgery receptionist. Lavender was a huge fan of all things Christmas, and apparently the thought of a panto was so exciting that Zoe wondered whether she’d start to hyperventilate at any moment.

‘I might audition,’ Lavender added before letting go of a huge breath. ‘Probably won’t get anything, but I thought I might.’

‘What’s the panto?’ Zoe asked, finally able to get a word in. ‘Which one is he planning to do?’

‘Don’t know. I expect it will be Cinderella or something. I bet Magnus wants to be Widow Twankey.’

‘I thought you said he was directing it?’

‘Yes, but you can still be in it if you’re directing, can’t you? People do that all the time. It’s probably why he’s putting one on. Everyone knows he’s a frustrated thespian, and you know Magnus – he just loves being the centre of attention.’

‘What about Geoff? What’s he got to say about all this?’

‘Oh, Geoff is happy if Magnus is happy, so I expect he’ll go along with whatever he wants. So are you going to try out for it?’

‘God no! I can’t imagine anything more terrifying! I’m happy to help, like make props or something, but keep me out of the limelight, please. I didn’t think it would be your thing either. Will they even sell enough tickets?’

‘Of course! Everyone will be there! I can’t believe we’ve never put one on before, to be honest, because that lot down the road do one every year and it’s always sold out.’

‘Which lot?’

‘The am dram society at Snow Fell. Magnus used to be a member there, you know. He fell out with the director.’

‘Somehow that doesn’t surprise me. So who else is getting involved?’

‘I bet Fliss and Charles will. At least, they would have been all over it in years gone by.’

‘They might still. They’re not taking off for more travel again, are they? I mean, they’re planning to stay home a while now, until after Christmas at least?’

‘I’m not sure. I’ll ask when I go round tonight.’

‘I thought Fliss didn’t like getting involved in village stuff? She always said so.’

‘Depends what it is. And that was when she was the GP and people would be asking her about boils and whatnot whenever they saw her out. Well, that doesn’t happen now because they hassle Simon and Emilia instead. Charles would make a good Widow Twankey, actually… I ought to ask Magnus if he’s decided what panto he wants to do. I hope it’s Cinderella… I don’t mind if it’s Dick Wittington. I bet he’d love the costumes in Aladdin, but I think they’d be hard to make and a lot more expensive…’

‘Morning!’ Shabana, their nurse, now heavily pregnant, waddled in.

‘Morning, love!’ Lavender smiled. ‘How are you doing?’

‘Oh, you know, getting fatter and slower by the day. That maternity leave can’t come a day too soon.’

‘Won’t be long,’ Lavender said. ‘And we’ll have Ottilie back before you know it as well. I wonder if she wants to be in the panto…’

‘Panto?’ Shabana frowned, and Zoe shook her head.