‘Grant!’ Virginia cut off Zoe’s rebuke as she took an incoming call. ‘Thanks for phoning back…’ She cupped a hand over her phone and looked at Alex as she rose from her chair. ‘Sorry, this is important…I’ll take it in the other room, if I may.’
Alex waved her away, and Zoe dropped into the seat she’d vacated to sit across from him. She could hear Virginia’s golden tones as she continued her conversation in the other room, andshe caught the odd word, but most of it was legal jargon that she wouldn’t understand even if she had been able to hear it clearly.
‘What can I do to help?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Alex said, his gaze going back to the letter again. From the way it was creased and crumpled, he’d been carrying it round for most of the day and looking at it with a regularity that was probably not healthy. ‘I’m just glad V is here.’
Zoe had reached to take his hand but at his statement drew back again. ‘There must be something I can do, something you might find useful.’
‘I can’t think of anything. I bet you’re tired – go and have a shower or something. I haven’t cooked.’
‘I’ll cook then. Will Virginia be staying to eat with us?’
‘I don’t know. We haven’t exactly had time to discuss food.’
‘Right…’ Zoe got up and went to the fridge. ‘Fine. I’ll make extra anyway, just in case. I’ll text Billie to see if she’s going to be back too.’
‘I doubt it. She said she’d eat with Corrine and Victor.’
‘How come?’
‘Said she thought she’d be in the way here.’
Billie had said it and apparently Alex hadn’t refuted her statement. So did that mean he agreed? Did that mean he also thought Zoe might be in the way? He’d already said she had nothing to offer by way of assistance, so did that mean he didn’t want her around while he and Virginia wrangled with the problem?
‘Maybe I should go over there. Corrine always makes loads. I could bring some back for you, if you’d rather not have me in the kitchen while you…’
‘Good idea. I’ll phone when V has gone.’
Zoe hovered at the worktop, uncertain what she’d wanted to hear but sure that she’d hoped for more of an argument against her suggestion. But as he turned to his phone and typedsomething into a website search, she realised that was all she was going to get.
Feeling useless and redundant, she went upstairs to get changed before she headed over to Daffodil Farm.
22
Corrine had a warm smile for Zoe when she got to Daffodil Farm, and it was almost enough to start her crying. The fragrant, happy kitchen was so far from the scene she’d left at Hilltop that it felt like the difference between heaven and hell. Melodramatic was the word Zoe would have used to describe her feelings, if she’d been in a more stable mood.
Billie was sitting at the table chatting with Fern, and Victor was carrying Louisa around, showing her things and explaining them to her as if she could understand. It was truly a lovely thing to watch, and Zoe couldn’t help but note that it was perhaps the first time Billie had allowed such a thing. She’d struggled after the birth to let anyone near Louisa, even her closest family. But she seemed perfectly relaxed as Victor took Louisa to the window and explained what grass was as the little girl stared out with wide eyes.
‘You’re daft,’ Corrine said to him as Zoe took a seat after greeting everyone. ‘She hasn’t got a clue what you’re yapping on about.’
‘She’ll be enjoying the attention anyway,’ Zoe said.
She glanced at Billie and recognised a knowing look they’d shared more than once over the past couple of weeks.
‘Isshestill there?’ Billie asked.
‘Yes. I left them looking at some websites. I was going to cook, but…’
‘We’ve got plenty here,’ Corrine said. ‘Billie’s been telling us about it – what a damn shame. Poor Alex is doing his best. People are always on the lookout for ways to make money nowadays, and they don’t care who they hurt to get it. It’s suing for this and suing for that. I keep saying to Victor I’m surprised someone hasn’t tried it with us yet. We had that one girl…do you remember, Victor? That girl who said Daisy had nipped her? What did she expect when she was trying to shove a bunch of thistles down her throat?’ Corrine stirred a pot on the stove, the rich smell of a casserole coming from within. ‘The parents were all for shutting us down…We didn’t hear from them in the end, but I had a few sleepless nights, I can tell you.’
She continued to regale them with close calls and complaints about their alpaca as she laid the table. It made Zoe realise their lives were far more complicated than anyone who saw them now would assume. Zoe had heard stories since she’d arrived and knew they’d had their fair share of drama even as recently as the year before – some of it involving Ottilie’s sister and their son-in-law.
‘Come and sit down now,’ she told Victor. ‘This is ready to serve.’ She looked at Billie. ‘Is Louisa able to eat a little of the gravy yet?’
‘No!’ Zoe said before anyone else could answer.
‘I don’t know,’ Corrine continued, unperturbed by the response. ‘I can’t keep up. We used to wean as soon as our babies started to get too hungry for the breast. And my mother used to put mashed potato in with my milk and feed it to me from the bottle. Imagine how that would go down now!’
