‘Only when she knows what she’s talking about. What time did Maisie have him?’
Zoe paused, trying to recall what she’d written down. She was certain it had been shortly after lunch, but she’d put in anotherfew hours of work after that and it had blurred the details in her mind. ‘About one thirty, I think.’
‘One thirty exactly?’
‘Thereabouts…’
Billie let out an impatient sigh. ‘I’ll ask her myself.’
‘Sorry,’ Zoe said with a sheepish smile. ‘Busy day. I can’t be expected to remember what time all my babies are born.’
‘But it’sMaisie!’
Billie and Maisie had been pregnant together, though Billie’s daughter Louisa was now two months old, and they’d been a support for one another through those months. In many ways, though Billie had lost her mum some years before and Maisie had hers, their situations were similar. Both lacked the sort of maternal guidance that a young woman might be in desperate need of, and both had turned to Zoe for the closest thing they could get to that. Zoe had seen the similarities straight away, recognising a common thread that might bond them despite their very different personalities, and she’d been right.
‘She’s fine – it went really well. Ezra is gorgeous and healthy. I’m going over tomorrow to make more checks and to do his jabs.’
‘Ugh…’ Billie screwed up her nose. ‘Those.I hated when Louisa had to have those – she proper screamed.’
‘But it didn’t last, and they have to have them.’
‘Yeah, I know. Doesn’t mean I had to like it. So can I come with you?’
‘I probably ought to do that visit by myself – it’s work, after all. But if you message Maisie, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind you visiting. Your dad could run you down…or Victor, for that matter, if Alex is busy. I bet Corrine’s desperate to see the baby; you could go together in Old Banger.’
‘I might,’ Billie said. ‘I thought it would be better to go with you, that’s all. It’s just… Maisie’s mum…’
‘Yes,’ Zoe agreed. There was no need for Billie to finish the sentence because Zoe understood the sentiment all too well. Most people in Thimblebury found Bridget challenging, and that was the very polite way to put it. But Zoe recalled the gift of biscuits and wondered if Bridget’s roughness was a kind of armour she wore. Perhaps she’d been hurt in the past, and perhaps it had made her assume the worst and try to fend off harm by landing the first blow.
‘But she doesn’t bother you.’
Zoe let out a short laugh. ‘Doesn’t bother me? Have you forgotten what happened at the quincentenary celebrations? She bothered me all right! It seems’ – Zoe got out the biscuits and showed them to Billie – ‘she’s my friend now. At least for the next twenty-four hours, until I turn up there tomorrow and remind her how annoying she finds me.’
‘She gave you those?’ Billie screwed up her face. ‘How old are they?’
‘I haven’t looked.’
Billie grabbed the box and turned it over to look for the best-before date. ‘They’re all right for a few months.’
‘I’m sure your dad will make short work of them, wherever they came from. If you’d have said to me she’d give me any sort of gift back when she confronted me at the village fete, I’d have laughed in your face.’ Zoe gave a wry smile. ‘She gave it me with both barrels that day.’
‘I wasn’t there,’ Billie reminded her.
‘That’s right, you weren’t. You were my knight in shining armour afterwards when I was being stalked by my ex.’
‘That was Grizzle,’ Billie corrected her, but Zoe could see that she was secretly pleased to have been the hero of the hour.
‘Speaking of Grizzle…’ Zoe glanced around the kitchen. Ordinarily, their shaggy, leggy dog would have been running excited circles at her arrival home. ‘Where is he?’
‘Dad’s out on the fields with him. He needed to check something and thought Griz could do with a run.’
‘Not that it ever calms him down any, but I’m sure they’re both having a good time.’
‘Dad’s always on the fields these days.’
‘I suppose he’s got a lot to do there and it’s on his mind. It’s a big moment for him.’
‘Oh yeah, the first customers! He’s so excited.’
