Chapter 18 #2
Zoe gave her head a firm shake. ‘Don’t you dare. I don’t want to hear that word. I’d rather you phone me to come and check than wait and worry. Always. So don’t ever feel you can’t call, no matter how silly you think the concern is. Tell me again when you last felt baby move.’
‘Last night… I suppose I don’t always take notice because it’s been a lot, so you sort of get used to it. But I’m sure I haven’t felt anything this morning since I got up.’
‘Is there anything you’ve done that might have caused it? I mean, you haven’t fallen or anything?’
‘Nothing. I washed up for Corrine, and I did some hoovering upstairs, but she didn’t even let me carry the hoover up there.’
Corrine hovered at the doorway as Zoe and Fern went over the events of the previous day and then that morning. ‘Can I get you a sandwich, Zoe?’ she asked. ‘I bet you haven’t managed to have lunch.’
‘No thanks.’ Zoe turned to give her a brief smile. ‘I’m going to call at Hilltop after I’ve finished here, so I’ll get something with Alex.’
Zoe asked Fern to lie down and lifted her smock top to gently feel around her bump. Then she got out a plastic, hand-held device and switched it on. ‘I need to have a good listen to baby’s heartbeat. We might be a while, so try to relax and be quiet for me. If you feel any movement, let me know.’
Fern took a deep breath to settle while Zoe held the listening part of the device to her bump. From out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Corrine slip out.
After ten minutes of silence, apart from the tiny, rhythmic beat coming from within Fern’s belly, Fern yelped.
‘There! It moved!’
Zoe looked up.
‘And again!’ Fern cried.
‘I’ll just have another listen to be sure, but all sounds OK here. And if baby is active again…’
Another few minutes passed and Zoe turned off the device.
‘I don’t have any immediate worries. I wonder if you being quite active this morning had something to do with it – a combination of you forgetting to notice what was going on in here, and baby being lulled into a longer sleep than normal because you were moving around a lot.
Can you keep a more accurate track for the next couple of days?
Maybe even write down when you feel movement, keep a little log of what time and what you were doing. ’
Fern nodded as she sat up and fastened her shirt. ‘I feel silly for phoning you now.’
Zoe wagged a finger with a smile. ‘What did I say? No worry is too small, and you should never feel silly for putting your baby’s well-being ahead of everything else.’
‘Everything’s all right, Corrine!’ Fern shouted.
A second later, Corrine was at the door. ‘That’s good to hear! Thank you so much for coming up, Zoe, love. Are you sure you won’t have that sandwich? I’ve just made some to take over to Victor, and there’s plenty spare.’
‘Honestly, I’d love to stay, but I need to check on Alex before I go back to work. He wasn’t well this morning.’
‘Oh dear. Nothing serious, I hope.’
‘I don’t think so.’ Zoe stood, and the moment she straightened up, the room began to tip.
Before she could do anything about it, she’d lost her balance and was crashing into a display cabinet filled with antique china.
She was aware of the sound as some of it broke, and the corner of the cabinet hitting her thigh, and the next thing she knew, she was on the floor, Corrine and Fern kneeling next to her.
‘Are you all right?’ Corrine asked.
Zoe pushed herself up to sit, though the room was spinning, and she was bathed in a sheen of sweat. ‘I’m fine…’ She glanced at the cabinet – still standing but some of the contents in bits on the bottom shelf. ‘Oh God… Corrine, I’m so sorry!’
‘Never mind that – it’s only old stuff.’ Corrine dismissed the damage with a wave of her hand. ‘You’re more important than some silly old cups and saucers.’
‘But there’s so much…’
Corrine and Fern helped Zoe onto the sofa.
‘I’ll get a glass of water,’ Fern said and rushed into the kitchen.
Corrine studied Zoe closely. ‘That was a funny turn, wasn’t it?’
Zoe nodded.
‘And not the first time, I’ll wager.’
Zoe winced at her neighbour’s shrewd expression. ‘Is it so obvious?’
‘You didn’t seem very surprised by it. Not very alarmed either.
So I reckon you’ve had one before. You don’t have to tell me anything, but I hope you’re getting whatever it is looked at.
I’d hate to think this was happening and you were ignoring it, love.
I know what it’s like to be a young woman and too busy to spare time to take care of my health. ’
‘I am,’ Zoe said. The spinning of the room had slowed, but she was burning up.
‘Maybe you’ve caught the bug that’s going around,’ Fern said as she came in and put a glass of water into Zoe’s hand.
‘That might be it,’ Zoe said, recognising the look of scepticism in Corrine’s eyes. ‘I hope not; I don’t want to be giving it to my mums.’
‘Maybe you should stay home when you go back to Hilltop,’ Corrine said. ‘Get some rest – you obviously need it.’
Zoe nodded, though she had no intention of doing that. She only wanted Corrine to stop worrying.
As she sipped her water, she threw a rueful glance at the cabinet. ‘I feel terrible about the damage. There must be something I can do to make amends.’
‘Please don’t worry about it. There’s nothing valuable in there, and it really is time I had a clear-out anyway. You’ve accidentally decided what I’m keeping and what I’m getting rid of, that’s all.’
Zoe didn’t believe any of that for a second, but as bad as she felt about the damage, there was nothing she could do about it.
She resolved to get a good look at the things she’d broken before she left and scour the internet later to see if she could find replacements, but even as she did, it occurred to her that the pieces in Corrine’s cabinet might have had sentimental value too.
In which case, no replacement would do. The thought made Zoe feel even worse about what she’d done.
Once she’d finished her glass of water, she stood up, relieved to find she was now steady again and her temperature had dropped.
‘Will you be all right driving?’ Corrine asked as she walked with her to the door.
‘I feel much better now,’ Zoe said, though the same thought was nesting in the back of her own mind.
If she kept on having these moments, would she be able to continue driving?
And if she couldn’t drive, would she be able to work?
She tried not to let the notion overwhelm her because she was stressed enough as it was.
If these episodes were something to do with the diagnosis that she was currently striving to confirm and address, then perhaps they would pass once she could get some kind of treatment in place.
She had to hold on to that hope because her future looked vastly different and a lot sadder without it.
After reassuring Corrine and Fern once more, Zoe got into her car. She took a deep breath, sent a smile their way and then swallowed back tears as she drove over to Hilltop.
When she opened the door, she could hear laughter from upstairs.
It sounded like Alex, and it was almost certainly coming from his office.
Zoe held back a frown as she took off her coat.
She was still delicate from her recent mishap at Daffodil Farm, and so she took it steadily as she went upstairs to see.
He was sitting at his desk, laptop open, fully dressed and hair brushed, and a far cry from the state Zoe had left him in that morning. He and Virginia were on a video call.
At Zoe’s entrance, he swung round. ‘Oh… I wasn’t expecting you… Everything all right?’
‘I was about to ask you the same thing… I thought…’ She glanced at Virginia, who probably couldn’t see she was there but would be able to hear her. ‘I thought, as you were so ill this morning, I’d come to see how you were. But I can see you’re a lot better,’ she added stiffly.
‘You didn’t say you were ill,’ Virginia said.
‘Oh…’ He turned back to the screen. ‘There’s a bug going round. I didn’t feel well this morning.’
‘Ah, man flu,’ Virginia teased, and to Zoe’s annoyance, he laughed again.
‘I suppose that’ll be it.’
‘You should have said,’ Virginia added. ‘I’d have called back another day if you weren’t up to the meeting.’
‘It’s all right. I had some paracetamol, and I’m in full working order for as long as they last.’
Zoe paused, waiting for him to speak to her again, but when Virginia started to explain something and he became engrossed in it, she realised he wasn’t going to. So she shut the door, with more force than perhaps was polite, and went downstairs to get her things.
Billie was in the kitchen this time, trying to make a sandwich with one hand as she held Louisa, Grizzle at her heels. The dog came over to Zoe and licked her hand before going back to Billie and settling on the floor beside her.
‘You could put Louisa down for a minute,’ Zoe said.
Billie shrugged. ‘She’s being fussy today and I don’t have the patience.’
‘She’s probably still feeling under the weather,’ Zoe replied. ‘How are you?’
‘I’m under the weather too, but I’m better than I was. Dad looked rough this morning. He got a hot drink and then went back to bed. I haven’t seen him since.’
‘He’s out of bed now,’ Zoe said tersely.
‘Yeah, I heard him talking to Virginia.’