Page 24

Sophie flushed with color as she took the lyric sheet from Tilly’s hands.

“The music itself is simple, look at the dots,” Tilly was saying. “The higher the dot is on the line, the higher the note you sing. There’s only three notes, so it’s not that difficult. Give it a try. Here, these are your three notes and you start on the top one, the highest.” She picked up her phone again.

Frowning down at the paper, Sophie did as she was told and found that it was easy, actually. And that maybe she didn’t sound too bad.

“Again,” said Tilly. “Listen to your part on the piano for a second.” She played it. “Now sing it again.”

And Sophie did. Paying less attention to the paper this time and more to the fact that Tilly was nodding along.

“Great,” Tilly said when she was done. She sniffed. “That Billy was right. You’re a decent singer.”

Sophie looked down at her scuffed sneakers. “Thanks.”

“I’m only speaking the truth,” said Tilly.

Sophie took a deep breath. “Thank you anyway,” she said. “And about earlier, I just…”

“It’s not a problem,” said Tilly. “It’s really not. I probably shouldn’t have asked.”

“It’s not that,” began Sophie.

From the hall, they heard the sound of Billy blowing a whistle. “Get back in here,” she shouted.

Before Sophie could say anything else, Tilly was walking away, back into the hall. With a sigh, she followed. Had she really blown all this so fast? And why was it so impossible to tell what Tilly was thinking?

“Alright, recite your words to me,” Billy said when they rejoined the rest of the group. “Let me see you’ve put the work in.”

“Actually, we can sing ours,” Tilly said primly.

If she hadn’t been busy being terrified, Sophie would have rolled her eyes. She should have guessed that Tilly was the kind of person who reminded the teacher that the class had homework.

“Good-o,” Billy said, moving to behind the piano. “Go on then.”

Which was when it occurred to Sophie that she wasn’t supposed to sing alone. She was supposed to sing with Tilly, and that the two of them hadn’t sung together at all.

“Trust me,” breathed Tilly.

Sophie swallowed, bit her lip, then nodded. For some reason she did trust her.

She opened her mouth and the first note came out and then Tilly did the same and suddenly… suddenly this was the easiest thing in the world. Suddenly their voices were twining together, and it was effortless, and Sophie was smiling as she sang. Doing this with Tilly rather than just alone made it so much less terrifying.

“Alright,” Billy said when they’d finished. “Not bad.” But Sophie knew that Billy didn’t offer praise easily, and that she had been just the tiniest bit impressed.

The rest of the practice rolled along until it was late and people were yawning and it was really time to go home. Finally, Billy released them.

Sophie grabbed her jacket and looked around, desperate to find Tilly. Desperate to explain herself, to make Tilly listen to her, to set things right. But Tilly was nowhere to be found.

Chapter Eleven

Tilly had had a sleepless night. She’d fled from choir practice just as soon as she was able, not wanting to have to face Sophie again. No was no, and she was fully comfortable with that. But she didn’t want to have to look at her for longer than she had to.

She could bite her tongue when she thought about touching her. When she thought about how warm and soft Sophie’s chest had felt, how her breath had filled her up. Tilly had barely been able to stand up straight. Yeah, she needed to not do that again. There was no point dancing up to the line. The line had been drawn; it was clear; she had to respect it.

The flip side of all of this was that she’d had plenty of time to think about work. So, once she was showered and dressed the next morning, she went down into the main house.

“This is a surprise,” Mila said. She was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt that already had an orange juice stain on it.

“You don’t mind, do you?” Tilly said, suddenly thinking she might be intruding. “Only you did say…”