Page 108 of Love in Tune

‘There’s nothing down here,’ Honey said, and then stopped walking when a silent, shadowed figure at the end of the garden lit lanterns to guide them, or perhaps lure them, across.

‘Okay. That was mildly spooky,’ Honey conceded. ‘What’s his next trick?’

It turned out to be a treat rather than a trick. Tiny white fairy lights flickered into life in the trees in the corner, throwing enough light to reveal the fact that there was a low-slung old shed nestled beneath the branches.

‘He’s throwing a party in the shed?’ Honey murmured, perplexed as they drew nearer. The shadowy figure appeared on the path beside them. Billy, or highwayman Billy, given his attire and eye mask.

‘Ladies,’ he said, inclining his head cordially at Mimi and Lucille, who released Honey from their arm locks and inclined their witches’ hats formally to Billy.

‘You look divine, my darling,’ he said, and even the mask didn’t hide the way he looked Honey up and down. She rolled her eyes as he held out his arm, and then sighed and stepped forward to allow him to lead her into his decidedly weird shed party. She was going to need a stiff drink when she got home; the residents were showing every sign of losing their marbles.

As she stepped inside the shed, Honey automatically ducked in case of spider webs. She needn’t have worried. This wasn’t her grandfather’s dusty shed of her childhood memories. This was … this was a saloon shed, or a 1930s dining car from a vintage movie. Tinkling piano music played in the background, and someone stood behind an impromptu bar fashioned from an old sideboard. Honey had to look twice to realise that the glamorous witch’s red waves weren’t a wig.

‘Tash!’ she said, letting go of Billy’s arm and almost running the few steps across to the bar.

‘Drink, madam?’ Tash said, remaining in character, aside from a barely there wink as she pushed a glass of green-tinted fizz into Honey’s hand.

‘Your table’s ready when you are,’ someone said at her elbow, and she turned to find her zombie waitress for the evening impeccably turned out in a black dress and white frilled apron. The bolt threaded through Nell’s slender neck and the blacked-out eyes were perfectly done. She’d have looked mildly terrifying, had it not been for the fact that she was beaming.

‘Nell, what’s going on?’ Honey said, grabbing her arm.

Nell consulted her bare wrist. ‘You’re right on time, madam. This way please.’

She led Honey to a small dining table that had been laid for dinner with cut glass and gleaming cutlery.

Nell pulled out a chair and Honey took a seat, feeling as if she were having an out of body experience. Candles flickered all around the inside of the shed, and yet more fairy lights had been strung along the rafters.

‘I’ll be right back, madam,’ Nell murmured, and as she heard the door close Honey realised that everyone else had left too.

Jesus, this was odd. Had she drunk herself into a Halloween stupor and imagined all of this?

The music had stopped when Nell left, and as Honey sat there, almost too scared to move, it began again. Halting, simple notes, a pretty, old-fashioned tune that Honey couldn’t quite put her finger on. It was only when a bum note rang out that she realised that it wasn’t recorded. It was live. Someone was behind the old piano in the corner of the shed, and by the sounds of it, someone not all that competent at playing it.

She rose, playing her part, and walked slowly across the floor until she reached the piano. She wanted to look around the edge, but then she didn’t because she might not survive the disappointment.

The music stopped, her breathing stopped, and time stopped until he finally spoke.

‘Billy taught me.’

Hal.

He stood up and moved around the edge of the piano, and Honey placed her hands over her heart and just looked at him, filling her eyes, her head, her heart with him. She recognised the black shirt he wore as the one Billy had bought a few days back.

He’d learned to play that song on the piano just for her. The idea of it, the image of it, brought a lump to her throat.

‘Call off the search,’ she said softly, trying to understand what was happening. ‘Where did you go, Hal?’

He stepped closer, put a hand on her hip, and in return she laid her palm over his heart.

‘I didn’t go anywhere, Honey.’

‘You’ve been here the whole time?’

It seemed impossible that he’d been so close to her and she hadn’t known. He nodded.

‘I’m sorry for running out on you,’ he said, stroking his hand over her cheek. ‘I needed to think.’

‘You think too much,’ she whispered, as he drew her against his body and kissed her hair. ‘Did you come to any conclusions?’

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