Chapter 12
Shabana and Zoe arrived at the surgery at the same time to start their working day.
Lavender was already in reception, adding to a forest of tinsel that, the day before, had already looked as if it could suffocate them all if it got any bigger.
The radio was blasting out festive tunes, and Lavender wore a jumper bearing the knitted face of a reindeer with a giant red nose.
‘That’s my Whamageddon challenge knackered,’ Shabana said as she noted the strains of ‘Last Christmas’.
‘You didn’t really think you had a serious chance of keeping it going until the twenty-fifth, did you?’ Zoe replied with a wry sideways look. ‘Not working here, at any rate.’
Emilia came through, greeting Zoe and Shabana briskly and then turning to Lavender with a barely disguised look of exasperation.
She placed a sheet of paper onto the reception desk and cleared her throat loudly.
Lavender looked down from the top of the stepladder where she was fastening yet another glittery garland to the wall. ‘Could you chase these results?’
Lavender nodded. ‘Yeah. Put it on the pile in the tray.’
‘Could you do them as a matter of urgency?’
‘OK.’
Emilia paused for a second, taking in the desk.
Lavender’s work was on there, some half done, but it was also littered with drawing pins, more decorations and Christmas cards.
‘I’m not going to put it in the tray because it needs to be done immediately, and I’m not going to leave it on this desk because it will never be seen again. ’
Lavender let out an obvious sigh of irritation. She pinned another tack into the wall and then came down the ladder. At the bottom, she held out her hand, and Emilia handed over the sheet. ‘I’ll phone them now,’ Lavender said, going to the phone. ‘If it will make you happy.’
‘If by that you mean doing your actual job will make me happy, then no, it will not make me happy. It will make me content that I don’t have to sack you this week.’
Emilia marched back to her office, leaving Lavender pulling silly faces behind her back.
‘One of these days you’re going to push her too far,’ Zoe said.
‘See if I care.’ Lavender glanced at the sheet. ‘She’d never find another mug like me to do this job. She could sack me, but she’d be begging for me to come back within a week. And I’d say no, just to see her face.’
‘You’d never.’ Zoe shook her head with a knowing smile. ‘You love this place too much. You love us too much to see us all floundering without you.’
‘Oh, I’d help you lot, just not her.’
Both Zoe and Shabana laughed.
‘By the way,’ Lavender added as she dialled the number on the sheet of paper Emilia had just left, ‘Shab, we should have a leaving do for you rather than a work’s Christmas do, seeing as you couldn’t make that.
We could put the money Emilia and Simon agreed on to that instead.
You’re still finishing for your mat leave after we break up for Christmas? ’
‘I think so,’ Shabana said.
‘I thought we could ask Ottilie to come in and join us… Oh, hello, yes, is that the eye department…?’
Lavender gave them a look to say she’d catch them later, and Shabana turned to Zoe.
‘I feel terrible about the timing actually,’ she said as they left Lavender to her call and went towards their rooms. ‘I know Ottilie would have been coming back around then, but I feel as if my leaving is forcing her back to work before she’s ready. ’
‘Between you and me, I think she’s ready.
She doesn’t want to leave Anthony, of course, but she’s a nurse and a grafter by nature, and I think it’s also driving her mad being at home.
And Stacey will be looking after Anthony, so at least Ottilie has someone she absolutely trusts to care for him in her absence, and that’s got to be making her feel easier about returning to work. ’
‘So you think she’s all right?’
‘The only problem is the job-share arrangement because of course that can’t be put into place until you’re ready to come back, and that’s a good while yet.
But Simon has that in hand. I expect we’ll get another agency nurse for the next few months to help Ottilie.
I really wouldn’t worry about it. All you need to focus on is keeping well and getting ready for the birth. ’
‘I wish you could deliver for me.’
Zoe smiled. ‘But you’re under the consultant for a reason.
You need specialist care, and it’s good that they’re giving you that, especially if there’s a high risk of C section, and the consultant seems to think there is.
Don’t worry, you won’t get rid of me that easily.
Once you’re home, I’ll be popping in. I can’t wait to meet your little one. ’
‘Even if you have to drive all the way out to Cockermouth?’
‘That’s no bother at all for a friend, is it?’
Shabana gave a grateful smile. ‘Thanks, Zoe. I’d better get on.’
‘Me too. I’ll see you at lunch.’
Just as Zoe opened the door to her office, she heard Lavender’s voice in the hallway.
‘By the way, while it’s in my head, I just wanted to tell you that my brother-in-law says they’re having a Santa sailing on his steamer on Ullswater. I thought your Billie might want to take Louisa. The kids love it.’
‘She’s a bit young for that,’ Zoe said doubtfully.
‘But Billie might enjoy it. It’s usually the case, when they’re little, isn’t it?
You still do things with them, but it’s about making memories for you more than them because they’re not going to remember it, but you will.
And Billie will have photos to show her when she’s older.
It’s her first Christmas, after all – you’ve got to make it nice, haven’t you? ’
Zoe paused at the door and then nodded brightly, recalling her commitment to do just that. ‘Thanks, Lav. I suppose you have. Maybe Billie will enjoy it; I’ll ask her what she thinks.’
‘And if you decide to go, give me a shout. I’ll see if I can get some VIP tickets for you.’
‘That would be lovely, thanks!’
Zoe went into her office and closed the door. She was still smiling as she sent a brief text to Alex to tell him about Lavender’s offer. He’d talked about wanting to do some nice things for Billie to cheer her up, and this sounded like it could be just the thing.
Zoe had hoped for more festive weather, but the freezing drizzle and the heavy grey skies were about as far from festive as it got.
She, Billie and Louisa were standing in a queue of families at the jetty on the lakeside, with children from Louisa’s age to much older – even teenagers laughing self-consciously and pretending they were only there to be random or to please their parents when it was obvious they were enjoying the chance to be little again – all waiting to board the Santa boat.
Billie was fussing over Louisa’s hat, pulling it tighter, only to have Louisa yank it loose again every time.
‘She won’t keep this on!’ Billie huffed. ‘And she’ll get cold!’
‘She’ll be all right once we get on board – it’ll be warmer inside the cabin.’
‘Even on the water?’
‘Of course. They’re not going to have everyone freezing on there. Ah…’ Zoe nodded at a man who was walking towards them. ‘That’s Lavender’s brother-in-law.’
‘Hello, Zoe!’
‘Hi, Patrick! How are you?’
‘Can’t complain, and nobody would listen if I did. Here you go…’ He handed Zoe some tickets, causing one or two of the people in the queue to regard them curiously.
‘It’s really good of you to do this – thank you so much. Here…’ Zoe got a box of chocolates from her bag and handed them to him. ‘It’s not much but a little something for you. Share them in the office or with the crew or whatever you want to do.’
‘As if I’d share them!’ he said, laughing, before turning to Billie. ‘Hello. And hello to you too,’ he added, smiling at Louisa. ‘She’s beautiful. So…’ he added to Zoe, angling his head at Billie, ‘you two are sisters?’
‘Patrick!’ Zoe smiled. ‘I can see what you’re trying to do there, and thank you for the compliment, but no, we’re not sisters. I’m about thirteen years older than Billie.’
‘She’s dating my dad,’ Billie said.
‘More than dating,’ Zoe replied. ‘We live together. All of us, at Hilltop Farm… Do you know it?’
Patrick shook his head. ‘Can’t say I do, but lucky Dad.’ He winked at Zoe from beneath his bushy black brows.
A murmur started to ripple down the queue, and Zoe looked to see that the gates to the jetty were being undone.
‘Time to board,’ Patrick said. ‘Have a good trip. Come and see me again, won’t you? I don’t mind having my day brightened every now and again.’
‘Thanks.’ Zoe held up the tickets. ‘You’re a star!’
Patrick left them and walked back to the shack at the lakeside he worked from.
Billie watched him with a look of deepest suspicion. ‘He fancies you,’ she said, glancing briefly at Zoe before turning her gaze back to him.
Zoe laughed. ‘Don’t be daft.’
‘And he’s old enough to be your dad.’
‘He doesn’t fancy me.’
‘What was all that “are you sisters?” stuff then? And the wink? And the free tickets?’
‘It’s just how his generation is. And he got us the tickets because Lavender asked him to, so I don’t think we should look a gift horse in the mouth.’
Billie seemed unconvinced but was then distracted once again at the sight of Louisa chewing on her hat. ‘For God’s sake, leave it on!’
The queue started to move, and a couple of minutes later they were on board. The cabin was festooned in tinsels and tacky friezes of cartoonish Christmas scenes, and there were tinny orchestral arrangements of well-known carols being piped in through a crackling sound system.
‘This feels like a sensory overload waiting to happen,’ Billie said as her gaze ran along the walls and then over the other families getting settled with their children.