Alex gave her a smile full of sympathy and left them, patting Billie on the arm as he went by.
Zoe looked up at her. ‘You’ll be all right?’
‘Yes, I’ll be all right. Stop stressing.’
‘I’ll have my phone?—’
‘On silent, right?’
‘While I’m in the church,’ Zoe acknowledged. ‘But once the service is done, I’ll keep an eye on it. Anything happens, you call straight away. Got it? No trying to be self-sufficient or sitting it out because you don’t want to bother me. Babies don’t wait, and they don’t care what else is happening.’
‘Yes, yes, got it. Dad’s said the same, but I’ve got like a whole week, and you said first babies are always late, so nothing is going to happen.’
‘I saidoftenlate, not always.’
‘Yeah, right, but often. Mostly. I read that. I’ll be fine.’
‘I know, even so…’
Billie rolled her eyes, but there was humour in it. ‘Don’t you ever clock off?’
‘I’ll start clocking off when unborn babies do. That goes double for when I’m very fond of their mums.’
Billie shook her head, her face transformed into a self-conscious smile. ‘The suit looks good, by the way. When you showed me on the hanger the other day, I thought…well, it looks better on.’
‘Be honest, though. Do you think it’s a bit?—’
‘Nanny McPhee?’
Zoe blinked and then started to laugh. ‘Thanks! Do you really think that’s what I look like?’
‘No, but your face was priceless. It looks good, like you mean business,’ she added with an encouraging smile. ‘It’ll be OK, you know.’
‘Thanks.’ Zoe raised her hand, fingers crossed. ‘I hope so.’
Looking at the churchyard now, bathed in fresh morning light, it was hard to imagine it in deep, muffled snow. But that was how it had been only weeks before, as Zoe had toiled inside the church to deliver Georgia’s baby, cut off from almost everywhere beyond Thimblebury. On that occasion, she’d been confident and practised, and yet with awareness as sharp as a blade that she alone had the knowledge and skills to keep Georgia and the baby safe.
That all seemed like a long time ago now. Today, snowdrops nodded in shaded corners and peeked out from the foundations of ancient gravestones, and crocuses pushed through the rough grass of verges. They couldn’t have asked for a prettier Valentine’s Day, and it heartened Zoe, who decided to try and see it as an auspicious start.
Alex gave her hand a reassuring squeeze as they walked the path to join the other guests. There were fewer than Zoe had anticipated but, on reflection, she oughtn’t to have been surprised. The wedding had been arranged with some haste, at a venue further from home, and perhaps a lot of potential guests had been put off by those things. And now that she thought back, Chantal had told her many people had declined their invitations – Zoe just hadn’t expected it to be so many.
‘How are you doing there?’
Zoe looked up and pushed a bright smile across her face. ‘You know…what you’d expect.’
‘Still battling with all those feelings swishing around inside?’
‘I suppose, but now that I’m here, I’m trying not to. I feel weirdly nervous for my dad, actually. I know it matters to him that it goes well, so it matters to me.’
‘I wouldn’t have expected anything else. If it helps, I feel weirdly nervous too.’
‘You?’
‘Well, I’ve got a lot of people to impress, haven’t I?’
‘Have you?’
‘Your family, for a start. I mean, the ones I haven’t met.’
