Chapter 18
Zoe threw off the covers on her side of the bed, cursing her hot flushes, but as she woke properly, she realised that this time the heat wasn’t coming from her. Alex was awake, cheeks red, eyes glazed as he looked at her.
‘I feel as if I’m being baked.’
‘You look it,’ she said, leaning across to put the back of her hand to his face. ‘You’ve caught the Thimblebury plague?’
‘Looks like it, unless this is something different – and I really hope not because the last thing we need is another lurgy added to the mix. One bug for everyone to go down with is bad enough.’
‘I suppose it was only a matter of time. I’m amazed I haven’t caught it yet – I’ve been in contact with enough people who have or have had it.’
‘I hope you don’t.’
‘So do I because then there would be nobody to run the house and keep an eye on everyone.’
‘I didn’t mean that. I only meant because I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.’
‘Oh, I suppose there’s that too.’ She swung her legs out of bed and stepped into a pair of slippers. ‘I’ll get you some paracetamol and a warm drink. Don’t go anywhere.’
‘I couldn’t if I wanted to; my legs wouldn’t carry me. I ache all over, and I’ve got that skin thing…’
Zoe frowned as she fastened her dressing gown. ‘Skin thing?’
‘You know, when every little touch feels like someone scraping a Brillo pad over you.’
‘Right, that. If it’s any consolation, the worst of it doesn’t seem to last long – at least it hasn’t for anyone I’ve spoken to. You might only have twenty-four, forty-eight hours of that, and then you’ll just have the stuffy nose and dry throat.’
‘That’s something to look forward to then,’ he said as he dragged the covers up to his chin.
‘You’re cold now?’
‘I don’t know what I am. Can you take the day off?’
‘It’s good to see you haven’t lost your sense of humour.’
‘It was worth a try. It would have been nice to have you around.’
‘I know, and I’m sorry. If I could, I’d be here, but I’ve got a full clinic today and home visits and some urgent referrals to make, so…’ She shrugged, and he closed his eyes, covers clutched right up to his chin.
‘I know; it’s all right. I didn’t really expect you’d be able to stay home.’
Zoe was frantically switching on her computer when Lavender knocked and came in to put a mug on the desk. ‘I made it ten minutes ago thinking you’d be in, so it might be a bit cold. You could bung it in the microwave if it is.’
‘Thanks. Alex has gone down with this virus everyone seems to have – that’s why I’m late. I had to make sure everyone had what they needed before I left this morning.’
‘I’m sure you didn’t move in to nurse everyone, but I bet they’re glad to have you right now.’
‘They will be, as long as I don’t get it next. That would be our luck the way things are at the moment.’
‘Oh?’ Lavender raised her eyebrows and looked as if she might be settling in to hear more, but even if she’d wanted to go into it, Zoe didn’t have time.
‘I appreciate the drink – I’ll gladly knock it back whether it’s cold or not.’
‘People pay good money to have it cold in coffee shops,’ Lavender said with a shrug as she turned to leave. ‘I don’t understand the appeal, but what do I know? By the way, it shouldn’t affect you too much, just the rest of us, but Emilia is off today too.’
‘Ill?’
Lavender nodded. ‘One of us had to get the bug sooner or later – we’ve had enough patients come through the doors with it that I’m surprised it took this long.’
‘God, that’s all we need.’
‘That’s what I said. Simon is in, though he’ll have a lot on, of course, and Fliss said she’d help out.’
‘Fliss? Can she do that? She’s retired.’
‘I don’t know, but I’m not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. As far as I’m concerned, she can do what she likes if it stops a load of irate patients phoning to complain about their cancelled appointment.’
‘I thought she said she never wanted to see the inside of a consulting room ever again.’
Lavender grinned. ‘What she says and what she really means are very different things. You didn’t get to know her as a colleague like I did. She moaned all the time about this job, but she loved it really. I bet she’s been bored away from it.’
‘She can’t have been bored travelling the world.’
‘No, but she’ll have missed working. She said she was ready to finish, but if Charles hadn’t had that last heart scare, I bet she would still have been here.’
Zoe was sure Lavender would know better than anyone, but whenever she’d spoken to Fliss about her retirement, she certainly hadn’t got the impression that their ex-GP regretted it.
That said, the news that she’d be able to bail them out today was welcome, and like Lavender, Zoe wasn’t about to question the mechanics of it.
The news that Emilia was ill, however, meant that Zoe probably wouldn’t be able to go and visit Georgia.
She let out a long sigh as Lavender left her office.
It seemed she was destined to be thwarted at every turn.
In many ways, there was so much going on outside of her problems it was a good thing.
It had been difficult to focus on her worries, and she’d had plenty of distractions to stop her spiralling, but if she didn’t face her diagnosis head-on soon, she might struggle later down the line to come to terms with it.
Distraction now was only storing up trouble for later.
She’d have loved to talk it over with Ottilie or Georgia, but they were both out of action.
And now Alex was ill too; plus he had so many other things to worry about that she didn’t feel it was right to add to his burden.
She couldn’t talk to Billie; she didn’t feel she knew Stacey well enough, even though she felt sure she would be a good listener.
Which left… who? Her mum? Past experience told Zoe that, although she loved her mum dearly, she wouldn’t hear the right sort of reassurances from her.
More often than not, a chat with her mum – who tended to focus on the negative side in even the most positive of scenarios – would leave Zoe feeling worse than before.
And she certainly couldn’t talk to her dad or her brother, who would find such a conversation toe-curlingly embarrassing.
Her dad’s new wife, Chantal, was a possibility, but being heavily pregnant, she was preoccupied with issues of her own.
Besides, how could Zoe have a conversation about the possibility she might never conceive again while looking at the very obvious evidence that her dad and his new wife were about to have their own child?
It was enough to destroy people stronger than Zoe.
She’d be happy for them when the time came, but right now, it wasn’t something she could deal with in the same breath as her own loss.
It was shortly after she’d seen out her last appointment of the morning that Corrine phoned.
‘Hello…’ Zoe retook her seat. She’d just collected her things to go and join the others in the kitchen for lunch and was on her way out the door as the call had lit up her phone. Corrine didn’t phone often, and never during the working day, so the sight of it creased Zoe’s brow with concern.
‘I’m so sorry to disturb you—’
‘You’re not,’ Zoe said. ‘I was about to go for lunch.’
‘It’s Fern. She didn’t want me to phone, but I’m ever so worried.’
‘What is it?’
‘She hasn’t felt the baby moving since last night.’
‘Right… could you ask her to have a warm bath? Fill it up and lie in there for a while… that often does the trick.’
‘I’ve already done that, and she had one, but still nothing.’
Zoe’s frown deepened as she glanced at the clock. ‘I’ll come up.’
‘Thank you. I wouldn’t ask, only…’
‘I’ve got time, and it’s no bother.’
Zoe ended the call and collected her equipment. Her stomach was growling, but it would have to wait.
As she walked to her car, she decided that the trip to Daffodil Farm might actually do her a favour.
It was only a short distance back to Hilltop, and as she was up there anyway, it would be the perfect opportunity to pop in and check on Alex, Billie and Louisa after all.
If they needed anything, she’d be able to get it before she went back to work.
Fern was sitting on the sofa in Corrine’s living room.
Zoe gave the room a swift once-over. It was strange that in all the times she’d visited Daffodil Farm, she’d only stepped in here once before, and that was only for the briefest of moments.
Corrine, who was all about food and drink and ease of atmosphere, entertained most of her guests in the kitchen because that, to her, was where all the food and drink and ease of atmosphere was to be found.
Her living room was a surprisingly stuffy place, with a boxy television that she and Victor might watch for an hour or so in the evening from a chintzy sofa, when every other chore was done, before they went to bed ridiculously early compared to the rest of the population to start ridiculously early again the following day.
That was the life they loved, but it was easy to see that most of that life happened in other rooms.
Fern sat up at Zoe’s entrance and offered an apologetic smile.
The doubt in her eyes told Zoe that she hadn’t wanted to make a fuss, but she was scared enough to ignore those impulses.
It was good to see, however, that since she’d left the commune where she’d been living when Zoe had first met her, Fern’s cheeks were rosier, her long hair shinier and thicker, and her clothes – though still fairly bohemian – no longer looked as if they needed a hot date with a good repair shop.
Zoe wondered if Corrine had mended them or whether Fern had bought new ones – though Zoe knew she wasn’t flush, so the former seemed far more likely.
‘I’m sorry…’ she began.