Page 31 of Christmas for the Village Midwife (The Village Midwife #2)

As Magnus had said, the shop was locked up and the lights were off.

Magnus and Geoff, Zoe had come to learn, were relaxed about their opening hours at the best of times.

They sometimes opened late and closed late, and sometimes they opened early and closed early.

Sometimes they opened late and closed early and sometimes they opened early and closed late.

Sometimes they opened on Sundays and sometimes they didn’t, and it was anyone’s guess if they did how long it might last. It had been a source of frustration when Zoe had first moved to the village, but she was used to it now.

She knocked on the door.

‘I doubt they’ll hear,’ Alex said. ‘Their place is at the back, unless…ah…’ He pointed to a doorbell fitted with a camera and gave a grin. ‘The wonders of modern life.’

‘Or…’ Zoe said, getting her phone out, ‘I could phone and say we’re here…’

‘Beat you!’ he said, pressing the button.

A tinny version of Geoff’s voice answered.

‘It’s me,’ Zoe said. ‘I’ve come to get my bracelet.’

‘Hello… right… just give me a minute!’

The microphone clicked off, and Zoe’s gaze went to the snow-covered lane.

It was then she noticed the figure trudging towards them, hands deep in his pockets and head down.

She gave Alex a subtle nudge and angled her head at the approaching man.

As he drew closer, he pulled off his hood and Zoe saw that her hunch was correct – it was Brett.

‘Afternoon,’ he said before turning to the darkened shop. A look of annoyance crossed his face. ‘They’re closed?’

‘Yes,’ Alex said.

‘Then what are you standing out here for?’ Brett asked, and there was a note of challenge in his voice that Zoe didn’t like. It seemed to rub Alex up the wrong way too because his previously open features hardened.

‘Social call,’ he said. ‘Is that all right?’

Zoe shot him a warning glance. She didn’t know what sort of mood Brett might be in, but what she was beginning to see of him told her he might be one of those people who could flip in an instant.

The last thing she wanted was a fight between them; she didn’t even want animosity because that would make her newly recovered friendship with Georgia that much harder to maintain.

Looking at him now, though she could see he was quite handsome, Zoe had to wonder what else Georgia saw in him.

The door opened before there was time for anything to escalate, and Zoe had never been so pleased to see Geoff.

‘Hello,’ he said to Zoe and Alex before turning to Brett with some confusion. ‘Have you all come for the bracelet…?’

‘I want to buy something,’ Brett said. ‘Can I come in?’

‘We’re closed,’ Geoff said. ‘Sorry.’

‘It won’t take a minute. You’ve opened the door, so why not let me in?’

‘I haven’t turned the tills or the card machine on. I could let you in, but you still can’t buy anything.’

‘I can’t even slap twenty quid on your counter and go on my way? I don’t need the change.’

Geoff hesitated but then let out a sigh.

‘If you can do that and it’s only one thing, then I suppose I could let you in.

’ He offered Zoe and Alex a look of apology, and then stepped back to let all three of them in.

‘Zoe and Alex, do you want to go through? The door is open, and Magnus is in the kitchen.’

Zoe nodded. She and Alex made their way slowly to the back of the shop, but then she noticed Alex trying to discreetly hang back. She sent him a silent question, but he simply shook his head and watched Brett.

Geoff had his arms folded as he watched Brett too, first as he went to the shelf where they kept their liquor and ran his gaze along it, and then as he turned back with a blank look. ‘I wanted the JD.’

‘We don’t have any, sorry.’

‘None? Not even in the stockroom?’

‘Completely sold out. All we have left is the Scottish whisky.’

Brett let out a sigh, went back to the shelf for a moment and then plucked off a bottle of vodka instead. ‘This’ll do.’ He pulled a twenty-pound note out of his pocket and held it out. ‘I don’t need the change.’

‘There wouldn’t be any,’ Geoff said. ‘I’m afraid that one is twenty-two.’

‘Seriously?’

Geoff nodded, and then Brett got out his wallet and looked inside. ‘Can I owe you the two? I’ll bring it when I’m next in.’

‘I’d rather—’ Geoff began, but Alex sidled up to him.

‘I’ve got it,’ he said. Brett scowled at him, but Alex simply painted on a casual smile. ‘Give it to me whenever you see me next – save Geoff being out of pocket. Or get Georgia to give it to Zoe. That’s got to be easier, right?’

Brett didn’t look happy, but, it seemed, he weighed up the situation, decided he’d got what he wanted and then headed for the door. ‘Thanks,’ he mumbled before letting it slam behind him.

‘Wow!’ Alex said to Geoff after allowing enough time for Brett to be out of earshot. ‘Someone got out of bed on the wrong side this morning.’ He fiddled in his pocket for some change, but Geoff shook his head.

‘I don’t want your money. It doesn’t matter; it’s only two pounds. I made a point with him because he’d already asked us to open up as a favour…’

‘And then doesn’t even have enough money,’ Zoe finished for him.

‘You’ve got that look again,’ Alex told her.

She nodded. ‘I’m sure I must have.’ She wanted to ask Geoff if Brett came in often like that to buy alcohol, and whether he was always so rude about it, but she didn’t think it was her place.

She wondered what the afternoon held for Georgia and Emilia, whether he was planning to drain the bottle of vodka he’d just bought straight away, and whether she might be reading more into the situation than she ought to.

‘Come through,’ Geoff said, interrupting her thoughts.

Perhaps it was for the best, because her thoughts were not going to a good place.

Magnus was in the kitchen making filtered coffee. Considering they’d had something of a wild party the previous night, the kitchen was remarkably clean and organised, though Magnus showed the unmistakable signs of someone who hadn’t had much sleep.

‘Hello, you two. You’re just in time for coffee if you’d like some. It’s Columbian, very nice. Or I can make tea if you prefer.’

‘Are you very much in need of coffee after last night?’ Zoe asked.

Magnus grinned. ‘Geoff has already worked his hangover magic on me. Now I’m only tired, but I have so much to do I’m making coffee to wake up. How are you both feeling?’

‘Surprisingly well,’ Alex said. ‘We both woke up feeling fine, but, as Zoe pointed out earlier, we had that big walk up the hill in the snow, and it probably sobered us up a bit.’

‘I’m not sure it’s the cure I’d want,’ Geoff said, going to a drawer and taking out Zoe’s bracelet. He handed it to her.

‘Thank you so much for keeping it safe.’ Zoe put it around her wrist and fiddled for a moment with the fastening. She frowned and showed it to Alex. ‘That’ll be why it came off –the catch is broken. See, the hinge there…’

‘I’ll fix it later,’ he said. ‘I’ve got some little tools somewhere that will do that.’

‘Really?’ She smiled as she slipped it into her bag. ‘There’s no end to your hidden talents, is there?’

‘I try,’ he said with a soppy grin.

‘We need to buy some Jack Daniels next time we go to get stock,’ Geoff said to Magnus as he sat at the island and beckoned Zoe and Alex to do the same.

‘It’ll be after Christmas now,’ Magnus replied.

‘I might go tomorrow.’

‘We said we weren’t going to do that. We said whatever we have in now will have to be enough.

We’re closed for two days, and most will go out of the village to get what they want for Christmas.

We’re not going just for that.’ He poured coffee into four cups.

‘I can’t believe we sold out of what we had.

We barely sell a bottle of that a year.’

‘Yes, well…’ Geoff picked up his coffee, and now the alarm bells were clanging in Zoe’s head. ‘He had to buy vodka today.’

‘ Today ?’ Magnus paused. ‘What do you mean, today?’

‘Today. We had no Jack Daniels, and so he took some vodka instead. I daresay we might have to get a few bottles of that in too, just in case he gets a taste for it.’

‘He buys a lot?’ Zoe asked, and then it seemed Geoff realised the conversation he’d started with Magnus might not be one to have in front of her and Alex because he simply spooned sugar into his coffee without a reply.

Magnus had no such reservations. ‘I don’t want to complain about business, but he drinks too much. Someone should tell him. I wonder if we should stop serving it to him.’

‘I don’t think that would be a very good idea,’ Alex said. ‘Not from what I saw today.’

If it was possible to combine the two, Magnus looked equal parts horrified and yet thrilled by the prospect of drama. ‘Do you think he may be violent?’

‘I don’t know about that, but it might get awkward for you. It’s not really up to you to police someone’s alcohol intake anyway, is it?’

‘If it was a pub, it would be,’ Zoe said.

‘Yes, but it’s not a pub,’ Alex replied patiently. ‘Yes, you could refuse to sell it, but I don’t know what grounds you could give. I think he’d kick off.’

‘We could stop selling alcohol for a while,’ Geoff said thoughtfully.

‘You really want to do that?’ Alex asked.

‘This is your livelihood – do you really want to make less money on a thing you know locals buy for the sake of one man? And at the end of the day, business is business. His money is the same as anyone else’s.

Like I said, it’s not up to you to look out for him. ’

‘I think it is,’ Zoe said.

Everyone turned to her.

‘It’s not just about whether he likes to get drunk or not, or whether he can afford it.

I think there’s a moral obligation here.

If he likes a drink, that’s OK, we all do.

But there’s a line, isn’t there? If someone likes a drink so much they’re hurting the people around them, then that’s crossing the line as far as I’m concerned. ’

‘But is it up to us to decide if he’s crossing the line or not?’ Alex asked.

‘It’s up to us to find out.’

‘And then what?’ Alex put down his cup and held Zoe in a challenging gaze.

For one moment, she wondered if they were about to have their first proper disagreement as a couple.

They’d argued before, and it had been horrible, but since they’d got together properly, it had been fairly harmonious.

‘I know you have your concerns, but, realistically, what are we meant to do about it? Georgia and Emilia don’t want people getting involved – that much is obvious from yesterday. ’

‘Yesterday?’ Magnus asked. ‘What happened yesterday?’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Alex said, turning to Magnus. ‘Sorry, but I don’t think it’s our place to say.’

‘Actually,’ Zoe said, a sudden idea occurring to her, ‘perhaps it is. Magnus and Geoff might have thoughts about it, and it may be that they decide to stop selling booze to him.’

‘Since when has that ever stopped an alcoholic getting booze?’ Alex asked. ‘He’ll just go somewhere else. If he wants it badly enough, he’ll find a way to get it.’

‘Nobody said he was an alcoholic,’ Zoe insisted. ‘He might not be yet; he might only have a drink problem.’

‘Same thing.’

‘It’s not. Alcohol dependency can be nipped in the bud before it becomes alcoholism.’

Alex arched an eyebrow. ‘Is this your professional opinion or wishful thinking?’

‘It’s neither; it’s fact, and don’t patronise me.’

‘I’m not. I…’ Alex paused, perhaps realising that tensions were building and it wasn’t the time or place to have an argument. Zoe wouldn’t have backed down if it had come to that, but she was glad Alex did.

‘I didn’t mean to patronise you. I know you’re worried – I went with you yesterday to check, remember? There’s only so much we can do, that’s all I meant. In the end, it’s up to him and Georgia to deal with whatever is going on.’

He was right, to a point, but that was the problem as far as Zoe could see. They couldn’t be sure anything was going on, and if it was, they couldn’t be sure Georgia was equipped to deal with it either.

‘I’m worried as her midwife,’ she said finally. ‘That’s my main concern.’

‘I get that,’ Alex said, and Zoe could see he’d backed away from the fight entirely now. ‘I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to sound flippant.’

When she looked around, she could see that both Magnus and Geoff were pretending not to follow the discussion, and she had to laugh. ‘Crisis over, you two. We’re not going to start a fight, so you can look at us again.’

Magnus grinned. ‘Thank goodness for that.’