Page 67 of Love in Tune

Honey wanted to hug and shake Mimi all at the same time. ‘There really isn’t any need to make her choose, Mimi. You know Lucille loves you, and nothing will ever change that. Not husbands, or friends,’ Honey glanced at Billy, who’d thrown off his frilly apron and had hunkered down on Mimi’s other side, ‘nor brothers. But he’s so like you, Mimi. It took my breath away.’

A tear rolled down Mimi’s cheek, and the paramedic looked up, concerned.

‘Is that painful?’ he asked, pressing carefully in case he made her cry more. Mimi shook her head and dashed away the tear.

‘Okay, I think you’ve slightly sprained it,’ the paramedic said, placing Mimi’s ankle to the floor. ‘Try to go easy on it over the next couple of days, and remember to elevate it when you’re resting. Use an ice pack if it’s painful, and your usual preferred painkiller if it’s playing up, okay?’ He looked at Mimi with kind eyes. ‘I think it’d be for the best if you unchained yourself and took a couple of days off.’

Honey expected Mimi to refuse, but the older woman just nodded instead and fished a key out of the pocket of her cardigan, looking thoroughly dejected.

‘Let me help you,’ Honey said, unnerved by Mimi’s capitulation. Passing the shop keys to Billy she unfastened Mimi’s cuffs gently, massaging her wrist as she helped her to stand. Over the years, Honey had never needed to acknowledge the age difference in her friendship with Lucille and Mimi. Not so today. Mimi leaned heavily on her arm as they made their way slowly back up the path towards the home, oblivious to the cameras flashing behind them, or to Christopher appearing on the pavement to deliver an oily speech about cancelling the protest on health and safety grounds.

‘Well that’s that, then,’ Mimi said, resigned, so quietly Honey barely heard her. ‘I’ll go to my room please, Honey. I’m tired, and I need to lie down.’

Honey clicked Mimi’s door closed and headed instinctively for the kitchen. Her life suddenly felt as if it was bursting all of its dams; Tash and Nell trying to railroad her into yet more dating disasters, Mimi and Lucille at each other’s throats, the campaign to save the home in peril, and now Hal in the kitchen with Skinny Steve. Passing through the dining room, she came to a sudden halt and stared around her. It looked different, and it smelled delicious, as if she’d walked into a restaurant from the street.

The clock on the wall told her it was a little after two, and the array of food laid out told her that there was going to be a party soon. She could have cried with relief at the sight of tables pushed together under the window to form a buffet bar, neat white cloths covering the joins. The dining room door swung open from the kitchen and Lucille appeared, laden down with a covered platter of cheese and onion rolls.

‘Old Don’s favourite,’ she smiled weakly as she made room for them on the table. ‘How’s Mimi?’

‘She’s not too bad. The paramedic said it’s a mild sprain. I’ve just left her resting in her room.’

Lucille shook her head. ‘I should never have told her like that when she was chained up. I just thought it might be easier.’

‘Maybe you should go and have a chat now everything’s quietened down. It looks as if everything’s under control here.’

Lucille smiled, properly this time. ‘That man in there is marvellous,’ she sighed like a teenager, her hand fluttering near the neck of her spring green floral dress. ‘So charismatic.’

Another victim of the Benedict Hallam peculiar school of charm. ‘Go and see Mimi.’

As Lucille left through one door, Skinny Steve appeared from the kitchen with a large, ornate cake, and a heavy one too if the way his slight frame swaying with effort was anything to go by.

His face broke into a wide grin when he spotted her standing in the middle of the room. Depositing the cake quickly on the side table laid out in preparation for it, he opened his mouth and let out a silent yell and waved his hands around in excitement. If this were charades, Honey would have guessed at ‘Man overcome with excitement at meeting Bono’. And then she realised. It was ‘Man overcome with excitement at meeting Benedict Hallam’. Victim number two. Hal’s hit rate was impressive.

Steve jerked his thumb towards the kitchen.

‘He’s proper famous,’ he mouthed. ‘And he’s taught me how to make sausage rolls.’

Steve pointed at the evidence, a plate of golden gorgeousness on the table.

‘Looks like that isn’t all he’s taught you,’ Honey said, her gaze travelling over the plates of sandwiches and niceties on the table.

‘Where did the cake come from?’

Steve shrugged. ‘I don’t know,’ he stage-whispered, as shiny eyed as a five-year-old who’d just got his first bike for Christmas. ‘Hal made some calls and a van arrived with it ten minutes later. He’s, like, amazing.’ His expression turned suddenly serious. ‘But listen, Honey. You can’t tell anyone he’s here, okay? He’s undercover.’ Steve’s brow furrowed. ‘Do you think he might be making one of those programmes for the TV where the boss pretends to be somebody else?’

Loving Steve’s enthusiasm but doubting his sanity, Honey smiled. ‘I don’t think so, no, but his secret’s safe with me. Is he through there?’

Steve nodded furtively, and then ambled out of the dining room in the direction of the loo, leaving Honey looking at the door leading to the kitchen.

‘It’s beyond weird seeing you here,’ she said from the doorway, looking at Hal perched at the work surface, eating a bowl of soup.

‘It’s beyond weird being here,’ he said, seemingly unsurprised to hear her voice. ‘There’s soup in the pan if you haven’t had lunch.’

Honey ladled out a bowl of the creamy soup, sniffing the steam.

‘It’s just leek and potato. Steve made it.’

‘Skinny Steve made this?’

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