Chapter 6 #3
‘Oh dear,’ Magnus said. ‘I’m so sorry… I meant to ask Geoff to pick some up when he went to get stock, but…’
‘Honestly, it’s not a problem.’
‘We can get it online,’ Billie looked at Zoe with something like triumph. ‘I said we ought to order it online the other day, but you insisted we should get it in the village. It’ll be cheaper online.’
Zoe wondered if Magnus was a tiny bit offended by Billie’s comments, and though she would always advocate for shopping local and supporting their businesses, she couldn’t deny that she’d known Billie’s idea to make more sense than hers.
She’d thought that if they’d come down to the shop and been able to get what they’d wanted, it wouldn’t matter.
‘You don’t want us to fetch some next time we go to the wholesalers?’ Magnus asked.
‘No,’ Billie said firmly before Zoe was able to respond.
‘Thanks anyway,’ Zoe said lamely, wishing that sometimes Billie would try being just a little more tactful. ‘The Christmas decorations are looking lovely, by the way.’
Magnus seemed to cheer at this. ‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘Geoff always says I overdo things, but he’s such a minimalist. If I left it to him, you wouldn’t know it was Christmas at all.’
‘I don’t know about that, but your place always looks great,’ Zoe said. ‘I wish I was that good at putting things together. I’m afraid my taste is a tad boring.’
‘I’m sure it’s not.’ Magnus wafted away the praise. ‘How’s Alex, by the way?’
‘Like I said, busy. If there’s something going on, he’s getting involved… not the panto, of course, but almost everything else.’
‘I heard he was interested in the rewilding project they’re starting further down the valley. He wants to do some on his own land? I don’t remember who told me now… It could have been Ottilie.’
‘I expect so. We had drinks with her and Heath last week and it came up then. Heath was quite interested as well. It probably appeals to their rugged manly sensibilities or something. I can see why someone would be keen, but it’s not for me.’
‘Not for a lot of others either,’ Magnus said, and there was a sudden edge of warning to his tone that made Zoe stare for a moment. ‘I hate to say,’ Magnus continued, perhaps realising he’d been melodramatic, ‘but there’s some opposition to it.’
‘I heard that, but who on earth would oppose making the countryside look a bit more… well, countryside-ish? It’s just making it greener and nicer, as far as I can tell.’
‘I think so too, but you know how some people can be around here.’
‘Weird,’ Billie put in carelessly, and Zoe frowned at her. ‘I’m going to say it because neither of you will. Some people around here have spent too long in the same place, and they don’t know anything about the world.’
Magnus cleared his throat and then lowered his voice as he leaned closer to them.
‘Sometimes I have to agree. It’s something you have to get used to when you come from the outside.
People are very stuck in their ways – they like their traditions, and they like things to stay exactly the same.
Not everyone, of course,’ he added, his voice returning to its normal volume. ‘Only some.’
‘So what is the problem with the rewilding, exactly?’ Zoe asked. ‘Just so I can warn Alex.’
Magnus shrugged. ‘Oh, you know, some nonsense about grazing rights and farming and that sort of thing. As if there isn’t enough grass in the Lakes to feed armies of sheep whether they lose one little meadow or not.’
‘Except it’s more than a meadow,’ Billie said.
Zoe turned to her. ‘How do you know?’
‘Because I do. It’s loads of land. I agree they should do it; I’m just saying why all the farmers are getting annoyed. I think Dad should stay out of it, but he wouldn’t listen even if I told him because apparently I’m still a kid who doesn’t know jack about the world.’
‘Surely it’s not going to get nasty?’ Zoe gave a nervous laugh.
Billie adjusted the rain cover on the buggy, Louisa grinning up at her through the plastic. ‘Like I said, people are weird about stuff around here. Even Magnus agrees with me. I love Victor and Corrine, but they’re exactly like that – they don’t even have mobile phones.’
‘Victor’s the most progressive old man I know,’ Zoe insisted.
Billie gave a careless shrug. ‘I’m just saying I bet even he’s not happy about the rewilding.’
‘He loves things like that! He was as excited as your dad about the archaeology they found on the fields at Hilltop.’
‘Only because nobody had to dig up his land to find it.’
‘Nobody’s digging up his land for this.’
‘No, but his mates are all farmers, and loads of them have sheep, so it will affect them, and if they find out Victor is friends with my dad, who is getting stuck in, then they’ll have something to say to him about it.’
Zoe glanced at Magnus, who’d been following their exchange with interest. Perhaps a bit too much interest, sensing a mini drama unfolding.
Zoe shook her head. ‘I had no idea you’d been following it so closely,’ she said to Billie.
‘I haven’t. It’s obvious.’
‘Is it?’
Billie let out a breath of impatience. ‘Louisa is going to want feeding soon, and I have to get back so I can order that milk so we don’t run out.’
‘Can we pop into the shop for a few things as we’re here?’
‘Whatever. You go in; I’ll wait outside with the pushchair. It’ll be easier, and I want to text Maisie.’
‘I won’t be long,’ Zoe said as she went in, a reassurance that barely elicited a look from Billie as she got out her phone and began to type.
Perhaps, Zoe thought as she went to the freezer, she’d be able to get to the bottom of it on the way back to Hilltop.
Then again, the mood Billie had been in for the last couple of weeks, perhaps not.
Any ambitions Zoe might have had to persuade Billie to open up on the walk home were thwarted by Louisa making her presence felt, niggling for a reason neither woman could work out and demanding to be taken from her buggy and carried most of the way back to Hilltop.
With the attention firmly on her daughter, wrapped in a mini raincoat of her own and seemingly content to get drenched outside the protection of the buggy’s rain cover, Billie was too preoccupied to engage in anything meaningful – if she would even have opened up at all.
And when they got to the top of the path that led home, and Hilltop finally came into view, Zoe almost dropped the bag she’d been carrying. They both stopped, staring at the roof. Zoe didn’t know whether to laugh or cringe.
Billie came down very firmly on the side of cringing. ‘I think he’s had a meltdown. What the hell is that?’
‘What it looks like to me,’ Zoe said very deliberately, ‘is a huge plastic Santa Claus on his sleigh. With some reindeer. But I could be hallucinating. The bigger question is how in the hell did he get it up there? It’s a wonder he didn’t fall off the roof!’
‘Who’s to say he didn’t?’ Billie pushed the buggy with more urgency now, and though Zoe was sure all was well, the anxiety was contagious, and she would have to see Alex for herself, safe and sound, before she calmed down again.
As they walked up the path, the front door flew open, and he came out with a huge grin. ‘What do you reckon?’
‘I think it’s mental!’ Billie said, jigging Louisa up and down as she stared at it.
‘Good mental or bad mental?’ Alex asked. He looked far too pleased with himself, and as Zoe glanced from him to Billie and then back again, she couldn’t help but feel he was in for a shock. Because nothing in Billie’s expression was saying there was any kind of good mental in this scenario.
‘Just mental,’ Billie said. ‘Everyone will be able to see it for miles.’
‘That’s the point.’ Alex’s smile faltered. He turned to Zoe, perhaps hoping for some support. And she wanted to give it, but part of her was on Billie’s side here. It was drawing rather a lot of attention to the house. She wished he’d shared his plans with her before they’d left for their walk.
‘It’s a bit early,’ was all she could find to say. ‘It’s November.’
‘So? That’s when you put the decs up, isn’t it?’ he said.
Billie folded her arms. ‘You could have killed yourself up there! Why would you do that?’
‘I thought you’d like it!’
‘I don’t like you falling off the roof!’
Billie marched to the house and pushed past him, muttering swear words as she went, most of them about him and how stupid she thought he was.
Alex’s brow was now furrowed with deep lines. ‘Shit…’ He came from the house and looked up at his handiwork. ‘Own goal?’ he asked Zoe as she stood alongside him.
‘No,’ she said, deciding that nothing could be gained by making him feel worse, despite the fact that a tiny part of her agreed with Billie on this one.
It was foolish to get on the roof by himself, especially with nobody around to help if he’d fallen, but the deed had been done now, and he was clearly upset at the mistake he’d realised it had been.
And he’d only wanted to do something nice for them, after all.
‘Although, it doesn’t look very secure. One gust of wind and it will be off, flying through the air, and everyone around here will think Santa is real. ’
‘I could make money filming that and putting it online.’
‘I’m not sure how that works, but I’d certainly like to see people’s reactions.’ Zoe reached for his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
‘I didn’t think it through, as usual,’ he said ruefully. ‘I thought Billie would love it, you know, that it would make her feel like Christmas was all magical again, like she used to. And I thought she’d love it for Louisa.’
‘Louisa isn’t old enough to appreciate it.’
‘I know that, but still. I thought it might make a nice memory for us to share with her when she’s older.’
‘You’re a soppy old thing, aren’t you?’
‘Stupid, apparently.’ Alex let out a sigh, and Zoe could tell how hard he was trying to bottle up his disappointment in the way his surprise had backfired.