Page 41 of Christmas for the Village Midwife (The Village Midwife #2)

There was no other scent quite like it. Spicy, sweet and heady.

Zoe could smell the mulled wine before she could see it.

As a teenager visiting a Christmas market in Germany with her mum, she’d indulged far too much, but the temporary dislike that incident had brought on hadn’t lasted.

Now it was one of her favourite things about Christmas markets, or any other type of festive gathering, for that matter – as long as she remembered she had limits.

Easy to think, harder to do when it tasted so nice.

‘I’ll get it,’ Alex said. ‘You go and chat. People want you more than they want me.’

‘I don’t think that’s true, but if you say so.’

She let him go to join the polite queue that had formed at a long table where members of the WI were serving and went to find Corrine and Victor to give them their gifts.

Ottilie waved at her as she crossed the floor but seemed to be keeping a distance from where the owners of Daffodil Farm were talking to the vicar.

Wisely, probably, Zoe thought, because Melanie and Penny were at their side.

‘Hello, my love.’ Corrine gave Zoe a brief hug. ‘Did you enjoy the service?’

‘I did, very much.’

The vicar smiled at Zoe. ‘We haven’t been properly introduced yet, have we? I’ve meant to call at Kestrel Cottage to say hello, but with one thing and another…Well, never mind. Here we are. It’s good to meet you at long last, Zoe.’

‘You too,’ Zoe said. It was probably just as well he hadn’t turned up at Kestrel Cottage, not during the last few weeks, at least. There had been a lot going on there, and not much of it holy when Alex was involved. ‘The church looks pretty. Did you decorate it?’

‘Oh no, I have a team of able assistants who help me with all that. My lovely ladies – I don’t know what I’d do without them. I’ll pass on your praise. Have you had some refreshments?’

‘Not yet, but there’s some on the way to me.’

‘Good, good…wouldn’t want anyone to miss out. If you’ll excuse me’ – he nodded at them all – ‘I have some more meeting and greeting to do.’

‘No rest for the wicked, eh, Vicar?’ Victor said.

‘Indeed. It would be lovely to see you all at one of our regular services. Everyone is always welcome. Merry Christmas.’

‘And to you,’ Corrine said. ‘We’ll do our best to come down in the new year.’

He left them all with a gracious smile.

‘Can’t be all that long till he retires,’ Victor said, watching him go. ‘Seems like the village is getting old all at once, what with Dr Cheadle going.’

‘I won’t be retiring for a long time,’ Zoe said. ‘I doubt any of the rest of the team will be.’ She smiled at Melanie. ‘Hello…I’m Zoe. The new midwife. I just moved here a few months ago. I live in?—’

‘My old house. Yes, I know. You like it?’

‘It’s lovely.’

‘I was happy there. I used to love the view when it rained hard. Clouds over the hills, you know, so you couldn’t see the tops. Still…’ she sniffed, ‘I’m glad someone is enjoying it now I’ve gone.’

Zoe didn’t know how to reply and suddenly felt very guilty for living in what would have been Melanie’s house.

She supposed, in a way, it still was. It didn’t belong to Zoe at any rate, being only a tenant, though it had started to feel like home.

She shook the impending melancholy before it took hold.

‘By the way,’ she said, turning to Corrine and Victor, ‘I wanted to give you these before I forget.’ She handed them a gift each. ‘To thank you for being so lovely.’

‘Oh, love, we haven’t—’ Corrine began, but Zoe shook her head.

‘They’re only small. You do so much for me. I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate it.’

Corrine smiled. ‘Aww, thank you, my love. You’ll come over on Boxing Day, won’t you? I’ll be doing a bit of food, and you’d be welcome. Alex and Billie too, of course.’

‘I’m not sure what we’re planning but I’ll mention it to them.’

‘Tell him we always have too much food,’ Victor said. ‘If you came, you’d be doing us a favour.’

‘Thank you. I will.’

‘Look!’ Corrine nudged Victor. ‘There’s Ann! We’d better go and have a word. I don’t expect she’ll stay long if she’s left Darryl at home. Sorry, Zoe love…we’ll just have to…’

‘Of course! By the way,’ Zoe added, scanning the room, ‘you haven’t seen Georgia and Brett since the service, have you?’

‘They slipped out near the end,’ Corrine said. ‘Perhaps they decided not to come back.’

‘Slipped out?’

‘Stomped out, more like,’ Victor said, but Corrine shot him a look.

‘Shush,’ she said. ‘We didn’t ask for any of that. You weren’t even looking properly.’ She turned back to Zoe. ‘All three of them went – Georgia and her husband and the doctor. Sorry,’ she said again, her gaze going to the far side of the room, ‘we must catch…Ann! Ann, love!’

Corrine hurried away, Victor following, and then Melanie turned to talk to her sister, who was now chatting to Simon.

Zoe hadn’t expected to be best buddies with Victor and Corrine’s absent daughter, but she might have expected a minimal amount of courtesy.

On reflection, Melanie would know Zoe was friends with Ottilie, and perhaps she assumed any conversation would be awkward because of that.

Alex returned with their drinks.

‘You haven’t seen Georgia and Brett come back in, have you?’ she asked.

‘Didn’t know they’d gone anywhere.’ He gave her a stout-handled glass.

It bore the name of a German town and a date – Christmas 2001.

She turned to look at it, and then Alex showed her his.

It had a different town on it and was dated 2007.

‘I assume someone goes to the markets every year and brings one back. Either that or there was one hell of a niche jumble sale.’

Zoe laughed as she sipped her drink. ‘Oh, that’s nice!’ She gave it an approving look. ‘I could almost be in Berlin again.’

‘We ought to do that next year,’ he said. ‘Go to a Christmas market, I mean.’

She smiled, warmed by the wine and his faith that they’d be together in a year’s time, like it was a natural assumption to make. He was happy. She was happy too. ‘It’d be fun,’ she said. ‘I haven’t been to one in years. We should, yeah.’

Ottilie came over to them, a disappointingly ordinary mug in her hands containing hot chocolate. ‘God, I’m so jealous right now.’ She pointed at their wine. ‘Being pregnant is rubbish at Christmas. No mulled wine, no snowballs, no chocolate liqueurs…’

‘It’ll be worth it in a few weeks, though,’ Zoe said.

‘It will, but I intend to remind Fred or Freda of the sacrifices I made every time they play up. For their entire lives, probably.’

Zoe’s smile spread. ‘Speaking of pregnant ladies, I’ve still got Georgia’s present here, and I wanted to give it to her before she went home. Corrine said they went out before the service was over. I wonder if they’ve already gone home. They didn’t seem keen to stay…’

‘I didn’t see them leave,’ Ottilie said. ‘But I haven’t seen them since the service finished either. I suppose they must have.’

‘That’s annoying, but it can’t be helped.’ She turned to Alex. ‘I’ll have to call at the house before we go back to Hilltop. Unless they decide to make an appearance here after all.’ She turned back to Ottilie. ‘What are you planning tonight?’

‘After this? Bed, I expect. I’m worn out. All I want to do is sleep at the moment. When’s that spring-cleaning phase meant to start? I’d like some of that extra manic energy, please, because my floors are desperate for hoovering.’

‘You won’t be nesting for a couple of weeks yet, I’m afraid. You’ll have to get Heath or Flo to do it.’

‘I might as well not bother as ask either of them to do a decent job.’

‘Then you’ll have to be patient. It’ll come.’

‘I used to be good at patience, but it’s one thing I’ve lost, along with my energy and my waistline. Well, I would go and get myself with child.’

Zoe raised her eyebrows. ‘I don’t think you did that all by yourself.’

‘Hmm…’ Ottilie scanned the room. ‘Speaking of my co-conspirator, I’d better go and find him. He may need rescuing from his gran.’

‘Come and say goodbye before you go,’ Zoe said. ‘Don’t do a Georgia and sneak off.’

‘I don’t blame her,’ Ottilie replied. ‘I expect she’s feeling even more knackered than I am by now. I mean, she’s due in a week, isn’t she? Anyway, I’ll see you shortly.’

‘OK.’

As Ottilie left them, Zoe turned back to Alex to find him sending a message on his phone.

‘Billie,’ he said, looking up. ‘She wants to know what time we’re due back.’

‘She’s all right?’

‘I think so. Maybe fretting a bit about the weather.’

‘It can’t be that much worse than when we came down here earlier.’

‘I don’t know about that. She hasn’t actually said that’s what’s bothering her; I’m only guessing. It could be that she’s bored.’

‘Or desperate to open her Christmas Eve gift?’

‘That too,’ Alex said with a grin.

‘She pretends to be all cool and nonchalant, but she’s still your little girl at heart, isn’t she?’

‘Always,’ he said with such fondness it almost made Zoe envy Billie. Alex loved Zoe, and she was in no doubt of that, but Billie would always be the most important woman in his life. Zoe understood that, and she would never get in the way, but it was a fact she was going to have to get used to.

‘If it makes you feel better, we won’t stay for much longer. Let’s finish these drinks, pop over to Georgia’s with their presents and then we’ll go back up to Hilltop.’

‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘Not that I’m not enjoying this, but I’m getting to the point where I want to be home.’

‘Me too,’ Zoe said. ‘Very much so.’