Page 46 of Love in Tune

Tash nodded, her mouth full. ‘Heavenly.’ She swallowed, narrowing her eyes at Honey. ‘As long as that’s all he’s doing for you. I’ve bust a gut finding you the perfect pianist.’ She grinned. ‘He’s good, isn’t he?’

With difficulty, Honey pulled Christian into focus in her mind. So much had happened in the intervening hours that it seemed days since she’d sat in the café with him.

‘He’s really nice,’ she said, noncommittally.

‘“Nice”?’ Nell said, picking up on Honey’s tone. ‘Nice doesn’t sound very impressive.’

‘No, nice is … good,’ Honey said, really wanting to change the subject, because all she could hear in her mind was Hal telling her that she was a nice girl and he wasn’t a very nice man. Actually, he hadn’t been wrong. Nice might be appropriate for Christian, but it wasn’t a word for men like Hal.

‘Looks like the cavalry are starting to arrive,’ Nell commented, and looking along the line Honey saw Titania’s middle-aged nieces had joined the end of the line, their splendid bosoms once more graffitied in honour of their aunt.

‘That plays hell with your numbers,’ Tash said. ‘How many people am I in charge of now?’

A frown creased Nell’s brow, and Honey stepped into the breach. ‘Just keep a close eye on the residents as planned, and a general eye on everybody else, okay?’ She nicked a muffin from the tray as Skinny Steve walked back down the line, drawing him aside for a second.

‘How’s it going in the kitchen?’

‘Pukka,’ Steve beamed, clearly channelling his inner Jamie Oliver.

‘Hal’s, like, all over it. These muffins?

Twenty minutes from scratch. He’s, like, a genius.

’ The upward inflection at the end of his sentence reminded Honey how young he was, and his words pressed home the fact that he held Hal in godlike esteem.

Someone had to. She smiled encouragingly, despite the fact that her opinion of Hal was far less clear cut.

She kind of agreed, and kind of violently disagreed.

It wasn’t an easy position to be in, and it made being anywhere near him almost impossible.

They’d barely spoken on the journey in that morning.

Honey would have sat at the other end of the bus from him to avoid any more awkwardness if she could have gotten away with it without seeming childish.

For a while last night she’d trusted him to take care of her, and then this morning she could only trust him to take care of other people.

But he was here, and looking down the line at the residents happily eating the muffins, she knew she ought to be grateful.

Skinny Steve was grateful enough for both of them.

‘Hal said he’ll help me get a job in a professional kitchen if I want,’ he said, his eyes shining.

Honey frowned, annoyed with Hal for widening Steve’s horizons beyond the home, even though she knew it was selfish of her. ‘Don’t even mention leaving right now,’ she smiled. ‘We need you here.’

‘I’ll stay while he does,’ Steve said, obviously still in hero-worship mode. ‘I can’t believe I’ve got him to myself.’

Yeah, don’t count on keeping him, Honey thought darkly. He’s only yours until he gets a better offer. She held her silence diplomatically as Steve meandered away back up the path towards the home, towards the kitchen, towards his idol.

‘Looks like you better tell Steve to up the numbers for lunch,’ Nell said, and Honey followed her gaze to the end of the line, to a group of seven teenagers in hoodies who’d been walking past and decided to join the protest.

She watched as one of them turned, lowered his hood, slid his phone into his pocket, and shook the hand of the nearest resident.

‘My granddad used to live here,’ he said. ‘He’d have hated to see it closed.’

They fell into easy conversation, and Honey made her way towards Lucille and Mimi at the other end of the line.

‘It’s all going rather well so far, isn’t it?’ Billy said, his roguish blue eyes full of mischief.

Honey nodded. ‘Seems to be.’

She glanced down at Mimi sitting on a chair beside him, her strapped-up ankle visible beneath the hem of her dress.

‘How are you holding up, Mimi?’ she asked.

‘I’d be better without this damned chair,’ Mimi scowled, too proud to admit that she needed any support.

‘Actually Mimi, I think the chair adds to the visual impact of the protest.’ Honey rubbed Mimi’s shoulder. ‘You’re obviously injured, but you haven’t let it stop you from coming out today. It shows everyone how much this means to you.’

Mimi sniffed, but her mollified expression told Honey that her words had helped soothe pride-ruffled feathers.

‘Protester number fifty just chained themselves up!’ Tash called from the other end of the railings, and a cheer of appreciation rippled along the line, along with the clank and rattle of cuffs against metal.

‘You better make that sixty,’ a familiar voice called out, and there, line dancing towards her, was Robin, his hair doing a dance all of its own choosing as he boot-scooted along the pavement.

Behind him trailed what could only be described as a rugby scrum of questionable-looking characters, all of them twice the size of the oddest pied piper in history.

‘Robin,’ Honey laughed, thrilled to see him. ‘How did you know?’

‘A little bird might have told me,’ he winked, and then winced at the shrill sound of a whistle.

‘A little bird with a big whistle, by any chance?’ Honey looked over to where Nell was good naturedly marshalling newcomers into place.

Robin nodded. ‘And these marvellous boys are my students,’ he said, emphasising the word ‘students’ in a conspiratorial, you get my drift kind of way.

‘Strictly speaking I’m supposed to conduct these sessions in the community hall to comply with their tags, but today my dance company is on tour, baby!

’ His voice dipped in the middle of his sentence to spare the parole gang from embarrassment, and then rose at the end to almost operatic levels.

He clicked his Cuban heels for good measure, and then pirouetted away towards Nell and her whistle.

Honey smiled at each of Robin’s charges as they filed past her, most probably just relieved to not be spending the day listening to country music and doing the grapevine.

Hope flared hot in Honey’s chest. This was happening. It was really happening, even better than she’d dared to hope.

Skinny Steve reappeared with more tea and biscuits to rally the troops, walking along the line and chatting amiably. Honey watched him, struck by the change in him since Hal had arrived. There was a confidence to him, a baby swagger learned from his new master. It suited him well.

‘Get off me!’

A braying, male, distinctly alarmed voice reached her from down the line, and frowning, she hurried down to find Tash snapping purple fluffy cuffs around Christopher’s wrist and chaining him up next to the line dancing ex-cons.

His eyes lasered in on Honey as she approached.

‘Honeysuckle Jones! Unfasten me this instant or you’re fired!’

A boo went up in the crowd, and Robin’s line dancers all glowered in a way that made it clear they’d really love to break their parole conditions.

Tash grinned and dangled the little keys between her thumb and forefinger in front of her face.

‘She can’t. I’ve got the keys.’ She gave them a little shake for effect, and then let them go right over the drain in the road.

They teetered for a second on one of the metal ridges, and she nudged them lightly with her toe until they slipped over and tumbled into the water beneath with a faint splosh.

The crowd were behind her every step of the way, laughing as she put her hands to her expertly made-up cheeks in fake shock. ‘Oops. Sorry.’

Honey took advantage of the fracas to slink back down to Lucille and Mimi at the far end.

‘Christopher just arrived,’ she said, with a worried grimace.

‘That’s all we need,’ Lucille said, her blue eyes clouding with apprehension. ‘Where is he?’

‘Tash just chained him to the railings down the other end.’

Billy hooted. ‘I love that young lady.’

‘I love you too, Billy Boy,’ Tash laughed, appearing beside Honey. ‘This is fun! I sort of recognised him when he hopped out of a taxi and had him in cuffs before he could even pay the driver.’

‘What if he calls his bosses?’ Honey dithered. If head office got wind of things they’d no doubt come down hard to shut the protest down before it grew any bigger. And going on the way things had gone so far, it was going to grow quite quickly.

‘Call them on what?’ Tash grinned. ‘This?’ She fished a mobile out of her pocket and shrugged casually.

‘It kind of fell out of his suit pocket when I was chaining him up.’ Honey knew Tash well enough to know that ‘fell out of his pocket’ was a loose interpretation of the truth.

The girl was a brilliant liability. ‘Don’t look so worried,’ she said, squeezing Honey’s shoulders.

‘I’ll keep it safe for him. He’s bloody lucky I didn’t drop it down the drain along with the handcuff keys. ’

Honey often wished she were as bold as Tash, or as efficient as Nell. They’d each brought their own unique skills today, and between them they seemed to be pulling things off.

‘You really should go and let the kitchen know how quickly the numbers are growing,’ Mimi said, her beady eyes on Honey.

‘I can do it,’ Tash volunteered, and Honey almost shoved her towards the home out of relief at not needing to see Hal.

Billy had other ideas though, grabbing Tash’s arm with his free hand as she moved past him.

‘My darling, I think I’ve got a frozen shoulder. Do you think you could give it the quickest of massages? You look like you’ve got the perfect hands for it.’

Tash flexed her fingers. ‘Go on then. These hands have had a lot of practice.’

Mimi, usually territorial over Billy, just smiled serenely. ‘The kitchen, Honeysuckle.’

Coerced, Honey sighed and picked her way along the path towards the home. Towards the kitchen. Towards Hal.

Inside, the Sunday staff had gathered, bewildered. Without anyone to care for they were rudderless, and they turned to Honey as she walked through the doors.

‘What are we supposed to do?’ Nikki asked, one of the carers who Honey knew vaguely.

‘Well, it’s up to you guys. You can stay in here, or you can go out there and make your voices heard. Your jobs are on the line here, as well as the residents’ home. You have a dog in this fight too.’

She left them there, straightening her shoulders as she heard their murmurs of assent, when the door swung shut behind her.

Maybe Tash was rubbing off on her after all.

Outside the kitchen door a moment or two later, she regulated her breathing and hoped like hell that she could keep the kick ass attitude in place, at least for the next five minutes.

Thank God Skinny Steve was in there too.

‘Safety in numbers’ had never felt a more appropriate phrase for the day.