‘I don’t follow.’
‘How do I get the ball rolling? With Billie, I mean.’
‘You’ve talked to her?’
‘That’s just it – she doesn’t seem to think there’s a problem. At least, not one she’ll admit to.’
‘Perhaps there isn’t one then.’
Zoe tried not to frown. Emilia, more than anyone, given her profession and the fact she’d had to deal with her brother-in-law Brett’s slide into alcoholism not so long ago, ought to know it wasn’t always as simple as that.
‘You seem convinced there is,’ Emilia added, perhaps reading correctly into Zoe’s pause.
‘As convinced as I can be. It’s not always easy to be sure, and I’m not trained in mental health. Not fully anyway. I only have my experience with previous mums to go on. And like you said, Billie’s too close, and I’m not sure it’s appropriate for me to be dealing with it.’
‘You’re still her midwife.’
‘I do wonder whether that was altogether appropriate, given my relationship with Alex. In reality, I’m only her midwife because we didn’t have anyone else. I’m not saying I want to shirk my responsibility, though. I am her midwife, and I want to help. But if she needs to speak to someone, I’m just not sure it can be me.’
‘I see. You’ve mentioned your concerns to Alex?’
‘Not yet. I’d rather not worry him until I’m sure there’s something to worry him about.’
‘Don’t you think it would be helpful to get his take? He knows Billie better than anyone, so surely he can see if there’s something off?’
‘I suppose so, but his head is full of practical things, like the house has to be perfectly ready. And there’s the camping field – he’s still trying to get that off the ground, and really he’s just so besotted with the idea of being a new grandad, I don’t think he wants to see problems…’
Emilia studied Zoe with a shrewd look. ‘I’m assuming you’d like me to see her?’
‘Yes, but not here. Could you come to the house? We’d have to think of some reason you needed to visit, and perhaps you could do some subtle digging. Have a chat with her about Louisa and try to figure out what’s going on?’
‘I’m sure she won’t see through our cunning ruse,’ Emilia said wryly. ‘But if you think it will help, then I can arrange to visit.’
‘Thanks – I’d really appreciate it.’
‘Perhaps I can get Georgia to come with William.’
‘Ah, like a baby mixer? Good idea!’
‘Come to think of it, might even be a good idea for Georgia to have the chat. Billie might open up more to someone who’s recently been through the same experience as her, and they did seem to bond at Christmas.’
‘But Georgia won’t know what to ask. She isn’t trained, and she might not know?—’
‘I’ll brief her on what to look out for. I’m sure I’d be able to pick up some clues when she reports back to me afterwards.’
Emilia made it sound like some kind of spy operation. Zoe supposed that in a strange way, it was a bit like that. She was surprised to hear her involve her sister so openly too, knowing what a breach of patient confidentiality it was. If the plan came to light, she and Zoe would both be in hot water. It seemed, however, that Emilia was fairly confident it wouldn’t.
‘If it’s not too much of a problem,’ she said, ‘I’d prefer for you to be there too.’
Emilia was silent for a moment. But then she gave a slight shrug. ‘Fine. How’s Wednesday evening?’
‘Amazing!’ Zoe said. ‘Thank you.’
‘Don’t thank me yet,’ Emilia said. ‘There are no guarantees we’ll get what we need like this.’
‘I know, but I feel better knowing we’re going to try.’
Zoe sat at her desk and started to work through her messages, feeling lighter now that she’d had Emilia’s promise to help. She’d told her mums it was OK to contact her with urgent concerns, even though she was on official annual leave, but none of them had. However, there were plenty of less urgent queries to go through by the looks of the emails and voicemails she had waiting.
