He looked up at their arrival. ‘Hi. How was dinner at Daffodil Farm?’
‘It was good,’ Billie said carefully. ‘Corrine sent some for you. It’s here…’ She showed him a pot covered with a teacloth.
‘That’s nice of her – I’ll have it tomorrow. We ordered a takeaway.’
‘You should have seen the delivery driver’s face when he arrived.’ Virginia laughed. ‘I had to give him such a big tip for coming all the way up here – he wasn’t happy about it.’
Zoe could see the remains of their meal piled up in the sink. She took the stew from Billie and put it in the fridge.
‘Daffodil Farm,’ Virginia continued. ‘It’s like a name from a fairy tale. I bet it’s so cute.’
‘It’s a working farm,’ Zoe said. ‘I don’t know if cute is the word you want.’
‘But it’s homely,’ Alex said. He looked at Virginia. ‘I should take you over to meet Corrine and Victor – you’d love them.’
‘Are you…?’ Zoe shared an uncertain glance with Billie. ‘Virginia, have you got that huge drive home tonight?’
‘It’s far too late for that. Alex has offered me a bed here. He did play a terrible prank on me and told me he’d put me on the camping field. I wasn’t falling for that – he knows me better than to ask me to sleep anywhere that doesn’t have a floor and running water.’
‘The pods do have floors,’ Billie said, but Virginia only laughed again.
‘You know what I mean.’ She looked at Zoe. ‘I don’t suppose you have some make-up remover and a tub of moisturiser I could steal? I couldn’t possibly go to bed with a full face – the breakout a couple of days from now would be hideous.’
‘It’s only cheap stuff.’
‘It’ll be better than nothing.’
For a moment, Zoe considered the possibility of replacing the face cream in her jar with something else. Wallpaper paste? She was sure there was a tub of it in the stables where Alex kept his equipment. She’d show Virginia a breakout.
‘I’ll leave it in the bathroom for you,’ she said, trying to shake the thought; even she recognised how mean it was. ‘Don’t worryabout getting it back to me. I’ve got a spare in the bedroom – I’ll use that.’
‘Thanks, Zo,’ Alex said, and she couldn’t decide if she wanted to acknowledge his gratitude or punch him in the face because it wasn’t on her behalf.
‘That’s all right. Is the bed made up?’
‘Yes. I did it before we’d had a few drinks…decided it was better not to leave it until I was too drunk, and I didn’t think it was fair to wait for you to come home and do it.’
‘That’s big of you,’ Billie said from the sink where she was getting a glass of water, Louisa cradled in one arm. ‘Because it’s totally Zoe’s job to do all the chores usually, isn’t it?’
Alex frowned, and perhaps to break the sudden tension, Virginia laughed again.
‘Well said. It’s good to see a strong feminist stance. We have to stick together, don’t we?’
Billie shot Virginia such a withering look that Zoe was shocked their guest didn’t turn to dust under its ferocity. ‘I’m going to put Louisa down, and then I’m going to bed.’
‘She likes you really,’ Alex said awkwardly once she was out of earshot.
Virginia raised a disbelieving eyebrow.
‘She does…at least, she will. She was like that with you at first, wasn’t she, Zoe?’
‘It was slightly more complicated than that,’ Zoe reminded him.
‘Yes, I suppose it was, but still…’
‘It sounds like a very sad situation,’ Virginia said. ‘You are talking about her pregnancy, I presume?’
Zoe stared at him. He’d told Virginia about Billie’s problems? She wondered how Billie might feel about that if she found out. He might have known Virginia a long time, and she might have been going out of her way to help them, but to Zoe, it seemed likehe was willing to share far too much personal information with her. What might he have told her about Zoe?
