The Piano Man Project Page 0,104

beside Old Don laughing at something he’d said. Looking around, Honey noticed other staff from inside too, some chained up, others milling amongst the residents. There was something about the whole event that had her permanently on the edge of tears, which was handy really, given that she felt like an emotional wreck. She was determined to keep her mind focused one hundred per cent on being out here doing her best, and not on the man inside providing sustenance for everyone. Making a success of this campaign had become crucial, because it was a battle she had at least some control over. Hal was his own man and needed to make his own decisions, but in her heart Honey already knew which way he was going to jump. He just needed to get there in his own time.

‘Honey my darling, over here!’ Billy called out, waving her over to the railings. Throwing his free arm around her shoulders, he turned her to face the flashes of what felt like dozens of cameras.

‘Smile for the cameras, darling,’ he said in her ear, and she bared her teeth in a rough approximation that probably looked more like a snarl than a smile but was the best she was capable of right now. Her tearstained cheeks would just add drama. Who knew heartbreak could be so helpful? She stilled, feeling a million miles away from the flashing bulbs. Was she heartbroken? To be heartbroken you needed to be in love, and she didn’t love Hal, not precisely. Did she? Just because she wanted to be with him whenever she wasn’t, and dreamed of him, and craved his touch, and loved the rare sound of his laughter, and held his happiness as more important than her own, and couldn’t stand the thought of him walking out of her life, it didn’t mean she loved him, did it? She’d felt all of those things for … thinking about it, she’d felt those things for no one else, ever.

‘Could you unfasten my cuffs for a few minutes, dear heart?’ Billy said close to her ear. ‘There’s a loudhailer in my room; I think we’re going to need it.’

Honey nodded, opening his cuffs with shaky fingers, turned mute and stupid by her private epiphany. She didn’t want to love Hal. He was the most difficult, recalcitrant of men, and he didn’t love her back. How damn inconvenient to love someone who was marrying someone else next summer.

Billy detoured to the kitchen, loudhailer in his hand, and found Skinny Steve and Hal building sandwich mountains.

‘I’ll take the first lot out,’ Steve said, walking cautiously and peering over the top of one of the huge platters. ‘Billy, have you met Hal? He’s our new chef, and he’s brilliant. Hal, this is Billy.’

And with that, Steve stepped out of the back door and left them to it.

‘Billy,’ Hal said, aware of the older man’s presence before Steve had made formal introductions. ‘Honey’s told me a lot about you.’

‘She hasn’t told me an awful lot about you, old bean, aside from the fact that you can’t see,’ Billy said. ‘Rotten luck, by the sounds of it.’

Hal swallowed, taken aback by Billy’s frankness. ‘That’s one way to put it,’ he said, dryly.

‘Happened to my brother,’ Billy went on.

‘It did?’

‘Not much more than a kid at the time. It didn’t stop him of course, still grew up to be the bane of my mother’s life. More trouble afterwards, if anything,’ Billy grinned at the memories. ‘Sink or swim. He was a swimmer.’

Hal sat down hard on the stool at the bench, wondering if he was a swimmer. He didn’t feel like one most days. He felt like a child in armbands frightened to loose hold of the side. He was surprised to feel Billy’s hand on his shoulder.

‘You’ll get there, son. Early days yet.’

Outside, a police cruiser had indeed turned up, alerted to the size of protest by the almost non-stop coverage on the local radio.

‘Who’s in charge here?’ the officer asked Tash, who’d just appeared from the shop with the staff radio in her hands and set it up on the ground so they could all listen to the coverage.

Tash led him over to Honey, who’d flopped into Billy’s empty chair beside Mimi and Lucille to catch her breath.

‘Are you in charge of this event?’ the officer asked, pulling a pad from his pocket and looking over it at Honey. She stood up and wiped her hands down her jeans and