‘What the hell are you doing now?’ Bridget slammed the flamenco dancer onto the floor and leaped to her feet. ‘Are you soft in the head or something?’
‘I’m testing a theory.’ She paused, and as she watched Ezra sleep on, it seemed something clicked into place for Bridget, even if Maisie continued to look lost. Then, the debris of Zoe’s vandalism forgotten for her too, Bridget clapped her hands together, louder still. And when Ezra didn’t react once more, she turned to Zoe with a silent question.
Zoe shook her head. And then she turned to Maisie. ‘I think I’m going to arrange some tests for Ezra. It’s nothing to worry about; it’s?—’
‘He’s deaf!’ Bridget cut in. She started to bang on the coffee table, and once again, Ezra didn’t flinch. ‘See! Deaf as a post!’
‘I’m not saying that.’ Zoe noted the sudden look of horror on Maisie’s face. ‘We don’t know anything for sure – that’s why I want him to have tests. There might be another explanation.’
‘Deaf or daft then.’ Bridget folded her arms. ‘It’ll be one or the other. That’s just the sort of luck we have in this family.’
Zoe tried to hold back her frown but failed. ‘I don’t think we should be jumping to conclusions like that.’
‘Nah,’ Bridget said as she went back to her clearing. ‘You’re more for jumping into my shelves and knocking them all over the place. I’ll be sending you a bill for this broken stuff, you know. Some of these things are heirlooms – we can’t replace them.’
It was tempting to remark that nobody in their right mind would want to replace any of it, and some things were only heirlooms to a very niche set of people, but Zoe resisted it. She had more important things on her mind than doing battle with Maisie’s cantankerous mother.
In the end, Maisie did it for her.
‘Mum! What’s wrong with you? Ezra’s deaf and all you can do is moan about your stupid shelves!’
‘You heard her – she said you can’t jump to conclusions,’ Bridget fired back. ‘You don’t know if he’s deaf or not.’
Maisie looked as if she might pursue the argument but then seemed to decide it wasn’t worth the energy. She turned to Zoe, a silent plea in her wide eyes. She wanted Zoe to fix this, and she had faith that Zoe could. If it hadn’t been bad enough seeing Maisie cowed by her mother only minutes before, this was the extra push that threatened to send her over the edge.
During her career, though she’d always been sociable and friendly with her mums, she’d been careful to keep a line between that and actual attachment. It wasn’t wise to get too close – better midwives than her had repeated this mantra again and again over the years that Zoe had worked to hone her own skills. She’d been ignoring that rule far too often since she’d come to Thimblebury – with Ottilie, with Georgia, with Billie and Fern and Maisie…and now it was about to come back to bite her. She was far too emotionally involved here, and she was about to pay the price.
‘Zoe?’ Maisie’s voice was small, younger and more lost than it had ever sounded. ‘What do you think? You can tell me because…’ She let out a sigh. ‘Maybe I thought it already, but I didn’t want to. Sometimes, when there was a noise, I thought it would bother him, but it never did. I was going to say something, but I thought I was being daft.’
‘I don’t know, Maisie. I wish I could tell you it’s all right, but I don’t know. We need someone with more expertise than me to see him, and that’s why I’m going to refer him to a specialist. In the meantime, try not to worry. He’s strong and healthy and seems very happy living here, and if it does turn out he has some hearing problems, then I’m sure you’ll all find a way to work around the issues as he grows up. He can still have a full and active life, Maisie, even if he is deaf. You might have to change the way you do things as he grows, but it won’t hold him back.’
‘It will,’ Bridget said.
Zoe glared at her now, unable to keep it in. ‘That’s not helpful.’
‘What’s not helpful is you telling her things that aren’t true. Of course it will hold him back.’
‘Your attitude is what will hold him back,’ Zoe snapped. ‘I suggest you think about that over the next few days.’
Bridget at least had the decency to look a little ashamed at Zoe’s comment, and as she turned back to clearing up the broken bric-a-brac littering the floor around the bookshelves, Zoe collected the rest of her equipment. When she looked up, Maisie was watching Ezra sleep, a look of profound sadness on her face but also acceptance. Zoe could see she’d only had confirmed what she’d already suspected.
Mothers do always know.
Zoe cleared her throat, and Maisie looked up at her. ‘I need to get going because I’ve got another visit and I’m already running late. Are you going to be all right? I know it’s tough – I’vedropped this bombshell on you, and now I’m leaving you with it. I’ll be at the other end of the phone, whatever you need. I’m sure Billie will be too if you need to talk to someone other than me. I’ll put the referral in as soon as I get back, and I’ll ask them to expedite, and I’ll make sure I pop back to do some tests of my own.’
‘What’s expedite?’
‘It means I’ll ask them to get you a slot as soon as they can.’
‘Oh, right. Thanks.’
To her relief, nobody showed Zoe out. When she got to her car, she climbed in and took a moment to draw a deep breath, staring back at the house, hands clamped on to the steering wheel, filled with a sadness that she hadn’t wanted to show while she was in there. Poor Maisie had overcome so much already on her journey to motherhood. She’d been doing so well, growing in confidence and maturity, and now this. Zoe was as convinced as she could be that Ezra’s tests would show some kind of issue. She felt sure that Maisie would find a way to overcome the problems that might bring, but when she’d already worked so hard, there was no justice in the fact that she’d have to work even harder.
After a moment, she started the engine. She was about to pull away from the house when, from the corner of her eye, she noticed the phone she’d left on the passenger seat light up with the arrival of a text.
I think you were right about Louisa having the flu bug. Billie’s started to feel off today. Louisa is better, but her nose is running. Could you get more Calpol for her and some paracetamol for Billie on the way home?
No kiss. Alex always ended messages with a kiss. He was annoyed, or stressed, or both. Zoe had worked worse days than this, but she’d also worked far better ones too.
