‘It won’t be long,’ Zoe said, hoping she hadn’t sounded too preachy.
Billie took Louisa from Victor, who joined them at the table.
‘I bet you’d like to taste it, though,’ Victor cooed at the little girl as he picked up his spoon. ‘I bet the smell is making your little mouth water.’
‘Don’t be daft,’ Corrine said. ‘She doesn’t know any different. Beef stew, milk, rusks – I’m sure it’s all the same to her.’
‘She doesn’t have rusks yet either,’ Billie said. ‘She had a taste of banana – she loved it.’
‘Not on my advice,’ Zoe added with a wry look at Billie.
Fern stared at the other young woman.
‘Don’t look so shocked,’ Billie said. ‘I only let her have a lick of mine. She kept staring at it, and it’s not like I shoved the whole thing down her throat.’
Corrine put a bowl brimming with rich gravy and chunky vegetables in front of Zoe and gestured to a plate of crusty bread. ‘Help yourself, love. There’s plenty of bread in the crock, so don’t worry about depriving anyone else. You look as if you need it. Long day? I suppose it must be.’
‘Maisie messaged me,’ Billie said to Zoe as she bounced Louisa on her knee. ‘She told me you’d been over and had it out with her mum.’
Zoe shot a wary glance at Fern, but she was reading something on her phone and dipping her spoon into her stew at the same time and didn’t appear to be listening. ‘It wasn’t quite like that. I don’t think I’m Bridget’s favourite person right now, but I didn’t mean to cause a problem.’
‘That woman doesn’t much like anyone,’ Corrine said. ‘Come on now…’ She nodded at Zoe’s bowl. ‘Eat up. Do you want something to drink with that? A cup of tea? I have some lemonade I made yesterday in the fridge – that’ll get somevitamins inside you. You need more salt? Victor,pass Zoe the salt…Not that big slice; leave that for Zoe…’
Zoe looked up from her bowl. ‘Are you trying to fatten me up? I mean, I’m not complaining, but I’m starting to feel like one of the kids from the gingerbread house.’
Victor grinned as he offered Zoe the bread. ‘You’re not telling me this is the first time you’ve ever noticed Corrine is usually on a mission to make everyone eat as much as possible? It’s a personal offence if you haven’t licked the bowl clean at the end.’
‘I love it…’ Fern looked up now and reached for some more bread. ‘The best food I’ve ever had. So much better than the stumpy old turnips-and-potato dinner we used to get on Mondays at the commune. No meat, no gravy…so dry.’
‘Sounds disgusting,’ Billie said. ‘I don’t know how you stuck it for so long.’
‘They were nice,’ Fern said. ‘But nobody ate meat. We had to be vegan if we wanted to stay there.’
Zoe frowned. ‘They had chickens. So what were the chickens for?’
Fern shrugged. ‘I never asked, but we didn’t eat them.’
‘Not even the eggs?’ Victor asked, aghast.
Fern shook her head as she dunked a corner of bread into her bowl before sucking at it.
‘Well, I never…’
Victor looked as if he might never recover from this revelation as he went back to his dinner, muttering under his breath. For all her recent stress, Zoe almost burst out laughing.
‘I like to see people enjoy their food,’ Corrine said. ‘There’s nothing wrong with that. My old mum used to call it a love language. It’s how we show we care about someone.’
‘You must care about everyone in Thimblebury then,’ Victor said. ‘Because you’ve tried to feed the lot of them at some time or another.’
‘Honestly, you do talk some rot, Victor…’
Corrine bustled around, refilling the bread, fetching at least four different bottles from the fridge containing different drinks, offering all manner of condiments and taking Louisa for a time so Billie could eat, and Zoe wondered when she was going to sit down and have some of the stew she’d made. She was about to say so when Billie stood to take Louisa from her.
‘It’ll be cold, Corrine. I’ve had some; I can hold Louisa while I eat the rest, so have yours.’
Looking reluctant, Corrine gave in and did as Billie had asked. But she was soon tucking into her meal with as much enthusiasm as everyone else, and it was clear she’d been hungry but choosing to, as always, put everyone else first.
Zoe felt calm for the first time since she’d arrived home from work, but she couldn’t help letting her mind wander to the kitchen at Hilltop and wondering what was going on there. She’d just put her spoon down ready to send Alex a text when Corrine’s question distracted her.
