She nodded. “I should get to bed. It’s Holly’s day off tomorrow and I have an early client.”
“I’ll walk home with you.”
“You don’t need to. It’s only ten minutes away.”
Jake shrugged. “I’m heading home anyway. Early start. But if you’d rather not be seen associating with me…”
She laughed lightly. “I’ll cope with the hardship. Just let me tell Immy I’m heading off.”
He watched her as she slipped over towards the bar, not even bothering to try and hide his stare. He was still half-pissed that she’d bought the farm ahead of him, but she was doing a decent job so far, from what he could see. She wasn’t a proper townie.
There was a brief interchange between her and her sister, a couple of laughs before Imogen’s attention turned to him and she gave him a cute little wave across the room. Jake wondered if Lainey had told her about what had happened in the peach bathroom, and if she had, what exactly she’d said.
Lainey headed back to him, picking up her jacket from the back of the chair where Zack was sitting, him and Sorrell having managed to find a babysitter for a couple of hours.
They didn’t say anything as they headed outside into the night air. The weather was definitely on the turn into summer; soon the evenings would feel heady and the smell of barbecues and firepits would fill the air. Jonny would start to complain about small fires being left to get out of control by campers or teenagers out to have a good time in an area where there was little to do for their age, and they’d all remind him of what they’d been doing when they were young. In just another couple of months, schools would have broken up for the summer and the town would be filled with day trippers, campers and people escaping the town for the weekends. He loved Severton when it thrived, when people were there to experience the quirkiness of the place and enjoy it. He’d watched visitors as they listened in to one of Gran’s diatribes about the weather, when she was in full-on entertainment mode, seen their concealed laughter. He’d watched them stand, transfixed, when one of Severton’s pop up choirs had magically appeared from nowhere in the town square, to disappear after just a couple of tracks like it had all been a dream. The odd rituals and traditions of the town were celebrated all year, but in summer they drew more of a crowd, little slices of small-town history being recreated not for the tourists, but because it was part of their identity. He wondered what Lainey would make of it.
It was a good couple of minutes before he broke the silence.“How was your first Severton brawl?”
“Exactly as I thought it would be, except there were less people involved. I’d hoped for some mass-wrestling match.”
“That only happens on a Thursday in June.” He paused, slowing down his walk, his focus on a phone box a hundred or so metres away. “Can you see that?”
Lainey had stopped next to him, the scent of her perfume drifting towards him on the slight night time breeze. “Is that someone graffitiing?”
“Kind of.” He was spellbound. Someone – no one knew who – had been spray painting post boxes and telephone boxes in the town for the last couple of years, usually with scenes from a local event that had just occurred. After Sorrell had been trapped in the underground caves a few Christmasses ago, there had been several images painted recreating her rescue. Similarly with things like the well dressing and the may pole – a few days after they’d happened, an outdoor painting would go up and no one, not even Gran or the rest of the coven, had any idea who it was.
“Is this the person who’s been doing all the paintings?”
She sounded like someone who’d just seen a rare bird or an endangered animal wandering across town.
“Looks like it. No idea who it is.”
The person was bundled up in a waterproof coat that looked to be oversized. They wore a beanie hat and work boots, making gender difficult to tell, let alone age.
“I want to go and rugby tackle them to the ground and see who it is.” Jake kept his volume to a murmur. “Every time another image goes up, everyone starts to speculate who it could be.”
“Who do you think it is?” She was still watching the artist at work.
“No idea. I even suspected Alex at one point, although he can’t draw for shit.”
Lainey laughed quietly. “We should go. Leave them to it.”
“You’re right. Otherwise the temptation’s going to be too great.”
She linked her hand round his arm and pulled him away. He wasn’t anxious for her to let go.
As the streetlights disappeared – still the old-fashioned style lamps that had been well-maintained over the years – the stars became more obvious. It was a clear crisp night, not far off the next full moon when there’d be some sort of pagan celebration to keep things interested.
He started to talk to her about the Severton traditions, and told her the tale of the saint whose bones were embedded in the walls of the Severton church they were approaching. He lost himself telling her of Beltane, midsummer, with the fires and the food and the celebrations that lasted over a weekend.
“Is this why you’ve never moved away?” she said, as they walked down the shared driveway towards her house. “You love this town.”
Jake paused. “I moved away for university.”
“Because you had to.” She smiled at him, teasing.
They were facing each other now, standing at her back door, the soft whinny from a horse breaking the quiet of the night.
