Page 4 of Christmas for the Village Midwife (The Village Midwife #2)

At the surgery, Zoe knocked at the door of Ottilie’s office.

From within, she heard her colleague’s voice.

More than a colleague, actually. Zoe and Ottilie went way back, all the way to the days when they’d shared a student house, both training to go into the health service.

And with Ottilie’s baby due in eight weeks, Zoe was also honoured to be Ottilie’s midwife, which felt like the greatest and most important service she could give to repay her old friend for the kindness she’d shown when Zoe had needed it most. If not for Ottilie, who had seen what Zoe had needed and refused to give up on her, Zoe wouldn’t have the incredible life she’d started to build in Thimblebury.

‘Unless you have chocolate, you can bog off!’

Grinning, Zoe pushed open the door and put her head around it.

Her friend was pinning a glittery Christmas card to a board already well populated by other festive cards of all shapes and sizes.

Ottilie was popular in the village, but if anyone had been in doubt of that, the volume of cards here compared to what anyone else had in their rooms proved it.

‘Sorry, no chocolate. Got to watch that blood sugar, after all. I’ve come to do your check-up before clinic starts. ’

‘I’ve done it all.’

‘Blood pressure, urine?—’

‘Yes, yes…’ Ottilie wafted a hand. ‘It’s all fine. Baby is kicking – boy, is baby kicking! I feel fine. Fat but fine. So you can go and get on with something more useful than worrying about me.’

‘I wish all my mums were this easy.’ Zoe leaned on the door frame and folded her arms. ‘I’d work an hour a day and spend the rest of it watching reruns of House .’

‘God, not that! Haven’t you had enough of medical stuff by the time you go home?’

‘ House is not medical stuff…I mean, it is but not really. Anyway, I know you’ve got it all under control, but I think I ought to have a look myself, just to be certain. So come on – on the couch and let’s have a look at that beautiful bump.’

Ottilie rolled her eyes but did as she was asked anyway. She’d only recently begun to wear a looser-fitting uniform, her progress coming all at once, but despite this, Zoe remarked on how much the baby had grown since the last review.

‘It’s all those huge dinners Heath keeps making me eat,’ Ottilie said. ‘I’m sure I’m eating for five, not two. I keep telling him I’m not having quadruplets.’

Zoe let her hands gently trace the shape of Ottilie’s belly. ‘You’re blooming,’ she said. ‘Everything is progressing like a textbook pregnancy, as far as I can see. And if Heath wants to look after you, let him. You’ll have enough to do when the baby comes.’

‘Of course it’s a textbook pregnancy,’ Ottilie said wryly. ‘I’m the most sensible, predictable woman in Britain – what else would my pregnancy be but sensible and predictable? I’m sure it’s all very boring.’

‘You can keep it boring for me – that’s the way I like it. There…’ She pulled Ottilie’s tunic over her bump and stood back. ‘All done with plenty of time to grab a quick cup of tea before your first patient.’

‘I doubt that. It’s Mrs Icke, and she’ll have camped out overnight in her excitement to start complaining about every little thing that’s bothering her.’

‘Come to think of it, I did hear her voice when I came past reception.’

‘Great…you could have warned me.’

‘What, and have your blood pressure shoot up before we’d measured it?’

‘Oh, Fliss has already had a go at doing that.’

‘Why?’

‘She’s all grumpy about Simon being unavailable for clinic.’

‘She agreed to it.’

‘I know, but this is Fliss we’re talking about. She’s forgotten it’s her replacement he’s interviewing, and now she can only see how much extra she’s got to do in his absence.’

‘I’m sure she’ll see it’s worth it when things are sorted and she can finally retire properly.

Anyway, what does she expect when she lands her news on everyone out of the blue and it’s panic stations trying to find her replacement.

Simon will be lucky to find someone who can do such a short notice period. ’

‘Hmm, try telling her that today.’

‘No thanks. I think I’ll just keep my head down until it’s all over.’

‘I don’t blame you.’

‘By the way, have you given any more thought to your own finish date? Fliss isn’t the only one who’ll have to be replaced, and you don’t have long to go. Simon will also have to get cover for you while you’re on mat leave. I’m surprised he’s not more panicked about that.’

‘I think he’s preoccupied with Fliss’s replacement. I’ve got ages yet.’

‘You’ve got eight weeks until the birth, and even you can’t work until the end. You can’t keep putting it off.’

Ottilie waved a vague hand. ‘I’m not; I just haven’t had time to think about it. Anyway, Simon will be able to get agency cover for me. It’s not like what I do is rocket science.’

‘Hey, don’t knock yourself down. It’s going to take one hell of a nurse to cover what you do.’

‘I don’t know about that, but I remember what people around here are like when there’s any kind of change. They don’t like it one bit. I pity the poor nurse who covers for me, that’s for sure.’

‘Well,’ Zoe said as she went for the door. ‘You’re going to have to decide soon, or you’ll be having the baby on shift.’

‘Shut up…’ Ottilie said with a faint smile. ‘You sound like Heath. You worry about your other mums; I’ll be fine.’

Ten minutes later, Zoe was welcoming her first appointment of the day, Lara, who was ten weeks pregnant with her second child. It was their first meeting, and Lara had only confirmed the pregnancy a few days previously.

‘You’d think I’d be used to all this,’ she said as she sat down in Zoe’s consulting room. ‘But I don’t remember it being this hard with Rhys.’

‘Rhys is your little boy?’ Zoe asked.

‘Yes, he’s six now.’

‘I expect he’s the difference. You didn’t have all that extra work back when you were pregnant with him – there was just you to worry about. Is he active?’

‘And then some. Never sits still. I’m knackered, and I don’t know if it’s him or the baby. Honestly, if the new one is half as bad, I’ve got my work cut out. I think that’s why I kept putting off doing the test – I was dreading finding out because I knew things would get a lot harder.’

‘Were you trying?’

‘For a baby? Yes and no. We weren’t putting any special effort in, if you see what I mean, but I wasn’t trying not to get pregnant either. And I think it had been so long since Rhys I was wondering if I could get pregnant again – I mean, I’m thirty-six.’

Zoe smiled. ‘Hardly ancient.’

‘Yeah, I know, but they do say I’m an older mum, don’t they?

Anyway, with all that in mind, I didn’t take a lot of notice until I started to feel a bit off in the mornings, and then I started to go off coffee and I was like, oh, this seems familiar.

I don’t know, but Rhys seems to be worse since we told him about the pregnancy.

I think he’s playing up deliberately. He’s always been a handful, but he’s just being so naughty.

I had to go and see the head at school about him last week because he’d started giving his form teacher so much lip. ’

‘You’re sure there isn’t something else bothering him? You’ll know him better than anyone, of course, but have you asked him if there’s something bothering him?’

‘I asked him why he was being such a little shit, but my other half says that’s just showing him that playing up to get attention works. Anyway, I asked if he was upset about the baby, and I didn’t get an answer either way – he just started to cry. I suppose that’s my answer, isn’t it?’

‘I’m sure he’ll come round to being a big brother when the baby arrives.

I’d say give him plenty of attention and cuddles and maybe persuade your partner that’s going to be more productive than ignoring the issue.

Let Rhys know he’ll always be number one whatever happens. He probably just needs reassurance.’

Lara looked unconvinced but not half as unconvinced as Zoe herself often felt when handing out words of wisdom to women who already had children, when she, despite her professional qualifications, had none.

It was easy to regurgitate a training manual, but Zoe suspected that there was no substitute for lived experience, and she felt like a fraud for trying to hand out advice on a subject she had no lived experience of.

Not out of choice, but that didn’t change anything.

‘Are you all right?’ Zoe asked. ‘In yourself? I imagine the whole thing with Rhys is stressful, but are you managing with being pregnant again? You’re happy?’

‘Now I’m getting my head around it, I think I am. I’m sure in a few weeks I’ll be more excited.’

‘You know you can talk to me about anything any time you need to,’ Zoe said with a reassuring smile. ‘It doesn’t matter if I’m due to see you for a check-up or not. I’ll let you have my mobile number before you go.’

‘Thank you. I’ll try not to ring.’

‘Don’t worry about that. Anything else you want to ask?’

Lara paused in thought before she spoke again. ‘How much longer do I have to stay on the folic acid?’

‘Only a couple of weeks more. Are you struggling on it?’

‘Constipated like you wouldn’t believe. I’m pooing out bullets!

I’m surprised they don’t crack the toilet bowl when they hit.

That’s another thing that seems to be worse than it was the first time I was pregnant.

I don’t remember it being this bad with Rhys.

Can’t I come off it early? I’m desperate. ’

‘I know, but it would be better if you could hang on. Two more weeks can’t be that bad?’

‘You’re not the one sitting there for hours on end praying for a nugget to come out. I could have written a novel in the time I sit on that toilet every morning. I suppose I’ve come this far, so…’

‘Is there anything else?’

‘Mainly the folic acid, actually. I was hoping you’d say I could stop taking it.’