Arty shrugged. "You seem like you could use some company. And I don't mean the guitar-teaching kind."
"I have plenty of company. I have Gloria screeching at children and Annabelle turning up at my door with baked goods and half the village trying to adopt me into their committees. That's more than enough human interaction for a lifetime."
"If you say so."
They reached the edge of the car park. Arty's van was parked near the gates; Raven had walked from her cottage.
"I'm fine alone," Raven said firmly. "Better than fine. Alone is exactly what I came here for."
"Right." Arty pulled his keys from his pocket. "Well, good luck with that."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing at all." He grinned infuriatingly. "See you at the next rehearsal, Raven."
He climbed into his van and drove off, leaving Raven standing in the car park feeling oddly unsettled.
She pulled her jacket tighter and headed home, deliberately not thinking about sunshine smiles or the way Annabelle's whole face lit up when she was excited about something.
Nope.
Not thinking about that in the slightest.
Chapter Thirteen
The afternoon was going wonderfully, right up until it wasn't.
Annabelle had been teaching her Year Three class about habitats when there was a knock at the classroom door. She looked up, expecting Nina or perhaps Lily with a message, and instead found Raven standing in the doorway, guitar case slung over her shoulder.
"Oh," Annabelle felt her face light up. "You came!" Not that she hadn’t expected her to, just… well, here she was.
"You asked me to." Raven stepped inside, looking distinctly uncomfortable. "Said it would be easier to teach them here than trying to wrangle them all at a proper rehearsal."
The children had noticed. Twenty-eight heads swiveled in unison, twenty-eight pairs of eyes went wide, and then chaos erupted.
"It's Raven!"
"The famous one!"
"Miss, Miss, is she really teaching us a song?"
"Can I touch her guitar?"
"Settle down, settle down!" Annabelle clapped her hands, but she was smiling so broadly it rather undermined her authority."Yes, this is our neighbor Raven, and yes, she's very kindly agreed to help you with your song for the fundraiser. But we need to be respectful and listen carefully, don't we?"
"Yes, Miss Swift," the class chorused, though they were all vibrating with excitement.
Raven looked like she deeply regretted every decision that had led to this moment.
"Right," she said, setting her guitar case down. "Let's… um, let’s do this, then."
Annabelle gestured to the chair she'd set up at the front of the classroom. "I'll just be over here if you need anything. Children, best behavior, please."
She retreated to her desk, ostensibly to mark some maths worksheets, but really she just wanted to watch.
Raven pulled her guitar from its case and settled into the chair. The children gathered around her in a semicircle on the carpet, some sitting cross-legged, others kneeling, all of them staring with the kind of rapt attention Annabelle usually only achieved when she brought in actual cake.
"So," Raven said, clearing her throat. "This is a song about the library. It's important, what you're all doing. Trying to save it."
