Page 23 of A Christmas Wish for the Village Midwife

‘Like what? Should I phone Mason to leave work? Will he have to book some time off? Should he ask for his paternity leave? What should I tell him?’

‘If he can go with you to the maternity unit, then brilliant. As for the rest, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t say. It might be that I’m wrong, and I hope that’s the case. I’d just rather you be there with a better-equipped team.’

‘You don’t think you’re wrong, do you?’

Zoe shook her head. ‘Like I said, I’ll phone ahead, and they’ll be expecting you. Will you be able to go now?’

Rachel got out her phone. ‘I’ll phone Mason. Work is pretty good with him, so it should be OK for him to take me.’ She paused, looking up from her screen. ‘Will it be all right? I’m not going to lose the baby, am I?’

‘I’m sure it will all work out,’ Zoe said. There was nothing else she could say. She’d seen this scenario play out all ways during the course of her career. Mostly, it went the way she thought it would, and in this instance, she felt there would be a good outcome, but there was always the outside chance that there wouldn’t. She wasn’t about to tell Rachel that, though.

Half an hour later, she’d sent Rachel off with her partner, called the maternity team with details of her worries and finally closed her office door to make her way to the kitchen for lunch.

‘You took your time,’ Lavender said. ‘I put you some soup out, but you might want to warm it in the microwave.’

‘Thanks.’ Zoe picked up the bowl. ‘I’ll do that.’

‘Running behind with an appointment?’ Shabana asked.

Zoe nodded. ‘Prem labour, I think. In fact, I know. She’s gone to the mat unit, so they’ll take care of her.’

‘I noticed her go off sharpish with Mason,’ Lavender said. ‘Wondered why she looked so stressed… I should have known.’

The microwave pinged, and Zoe took out her soup.

‘That’s never long enough,’ Lavender said.

‘Probably,’ Zoe replied, going to the table with the bowl anyway. ‘But I haven’t got much time, so I’m just going to have to eat it lukewarm.’

‘I could put off your first appointment of the afternoon if you need a minute.’

‘It’ll only make the rest of the clinic run behind. We’ve got that meeting after clinic, and I don’t want to get home any later than I will already if I can help it.’

‘I don’t suppose the master of the house would like that.’

Zoe paused, her spoon resting in her bowl. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Didn’t sound like nothing. Why would you say something like that?’

Lavender got up and took her own bowl to the sink. ‘Zoe, it was just a joke.’

Zoe picked up her spoon. Perhaps she was oversensitive these days. It was hard to tell; she only knew that things had been far from plain sailing for her over the previous months, and though she wanted to be settled and happy again, that simply wasn’t happening. ‘I’m sorry. It’s been a long morning. Tell me more about the panto. Do you know who’s planning to audition?’

‘Fliss and Charles,’ Lavender said.

‘Yes, you mentioned those two. Geoff?’

‘I can’t imagine he would miss out.’

‘Although it would hardly be an audition,’ Shabana put in. ‘As he’s married to the director, he can probably just cast himself, can’t he?’

‘He will too,’ Lavender agreed. ‘Your Billie would make a good Cinderella, you know.’

Zoe gave a wry smile. ‘She might look the part, but she’d never get involved in something like that in a million years.’

‘Ah, but you said that about the gingerbread contest, and then she won it!’