Page 36 of A Christmas Wish for the Village Midwife

Magnus cleared his throat and then lowered his voice as he leaned closer to them. ‘Sometimes I have to agree. It’s something you have to get used to when you come from the outside. People are very stuck in their ways – they like their traditions, and they like things to stay exactly the same. Not everyone, of course,’ he added, his voice returning to its normal volume. ‘Only some.’

‘So what is the problem with the rewilding, exactly?’ Zoe asked. ‘Just so I can warn Alex.’

Magnus shrugged. ‘Oh, you know, some nonsense about grazing rights and farming and that sort of thing. As if there isn’t enough grass in the Lakes to feed armies of sheep whether they lose one little meadow or not.’

‘Except it’s more than a meadow,’ Billie said.

Zoe turned to her. ‘How do you know?’

‘Because I do. It’s loads of land. I agree they should do it; I’m just saying why all the farmers are getting annoyed. I think Dad should stay out of it, but he wouldn’t listen even if I told him because apparently I’m still a kid who doesn’t know jack about the world.’

‘Surely it’s not going to get nasty?’ Zoe gave a nervous laugh.

Billie adjusted the rain cover on the buggy, Louisa grinning up at her through the plastic. ‘Like I said, people are weird about stuff around here. Even Magnus agrees with me. I love Victor and Corrine, but they’re exactly like that – they don’t even have mobile phones.’

‘Victor’s the most progressive old man I know,’ Zoe insisted.

Billie gave a careless shrug. ‘I’m just saying I bet even he’s not happy about the rewilding.’

‘He loves things like that! He was as excited as your dad about the archaeology they found on the fields at Hilltop.’

‘Only because nobody had to dig up his land to find it.’

‘Nobody’s digging up his land for this.’

‘No, but his mates are all farmers, and loads of them have sheep, so it will affect them, and if they find out Victor is friends with my dad, who is getting stuck in, then they’ll have something to say to him about it.’

Zoe glanced at Magnus, who’d been following their exchange with interest. Perhaps a bit too much interest, sensing a mini drama unfolding.

Zoe shook her head. ‘I had no idea you’d been following it so closely,’ she said to Billie.

‘I haven’t. It’s obvious.’

‘Is it?’

Billie let out a breath of impatience. ‘Louisa is going to want feeding soon, and I have to get back so I can order that milk so we don’t run out.’

‘Can we pop into the shop for a few things as we’re here?’

‘Whatever. You go in; I’ll wait outside with the pushchair. It’ll be easier, and I want to text Maisie.’

‘I won’t be long,’ Zoe said as she went in, a reassurance that barely elicited a look from Billie as she got out her phone and began to type. Perhaps, Zoe thought as she went to the freezer, she’d be able to get to the bottom of it on the way back to Hilltop. Then again, the mood Billie had been in for the last couple of weeks, perhaps not.

Any ambitions Zoe might have had to persuade Billie to open up on the walk home were thwarted by Louisa making her presence felt, niggling for a reason neither woman could work out and demanding to be taken from her buggy and carried most of the way back to Hilltop. With the attention firmly on her daughter, wrapped in a mini raincoat of her own and seemingly content to get drenched outside the protection of the buggy’s rain cover, Billie was too preoccupied to engage in anything meaningful – if she would even have opened up at all.

And when they got to the top of the path that led home, and Hilltop finally came into view, Zoe almost dropped the bag she’d been carrying. They both stopped, staring at the roof. Zoe didn’t know whether to laugh or cringe.

Billie came down very firmly on the side of cringing. ‘I think he’s had a meltdown. What the hell is that?’

‘What it looks like to me,’ Zoe said very deliberately, ‘is a huge plastic Santa Claus on his sleigh. With some reindeer. But I could be hallucinating. The bigger question is how in the hell did he get it up there? It’s a wonder he didn’t fall off the roof!’

‘Who’s to say he didn’t?’ Billie pushed the buggy with more urgency now, and though Zoe was sure all was well, the anxiety was contagious, and she would have to see Alex for herself, safe and sound, before she calmed down again.

As they walked up the path, the front door flew open, and he came out with a huge grin. ‘What do you reckon?’

‘I think it’s mental!’ Billie said, jigging Louisa up and down as she stared at it.

‘Good mental or bad mental?’ Alex asked. He looked far too pleased with himself, and as Zoe glanced from him to Billie and then back again, she couldn’t help but feel he was in for a shock. Because nothing in Billie’s expression was saying there was any kind of good mental in this scenario.