Chapter 11 #2
He settled himself in a seat on the front row and gazed up at them, a wide smile on his face.
‘Lawrie! Thanks so much for coming,’ Lucy said, as the ghosts all called a welcome. ‘We’re just about to start auditions. What did you think to the song?’
‘Oh, I love it. “Sunshine on Leith”, right?’
‘How on earth did you know that?’ asked Lucy, clearly astonished.
She wasn’t the only one to be taken aback. The ghosts gazed at Lawrie with a mixture of awe, respect, and amazement.
He laughed. ‘My son William. He was a huge Proclaimers’ fan back in the day. Still is, as a matter of fact. I remember him playing their albums over and over, and he had a particular fondness for this song.’
‘So he did!’ Agnes exclaimed. ‘I knew I’d heard it before.’
‘Well,’ said Immi, ‘that gives it a special meaning to Brodie, too, doesn’t it?’
‘It does,’ Lucy agreed. ‘Is William coming back for the engagement party?’ she asked Lawrie.
He shook his head. ‘Sadly not. However, he and Katya have promised to be here for the wedding, come hell or high water, so maybe if this goes well you could all repeat the performance for him then?’
‘But he won’t hear us,’ Agnes pointed out sadly.
‘That could be a good thing,’ Florrie said, giving Isaac a pointed look and rubbing her ears as if they were still hurting from his bellowing.
‘He’ll hear as much as Brodie will,’ Lawrie said with a shrug.
‘We’ve got to blooming learn the thing first,’ Bill told him.
‘Be honest,’ said Polly, ‘how bad did it sound?’
‘It sounded very good, actually,’ Lawrie assured her. ‘Of course,’ he added as the ghosts looked highly relieved and rather self-congratulatory, ‘it helped enormously that you were singing along with the track. What it will sound like without that is anyone’s guess.’
‘Like cats in a bag,’ came a voice from the back of the cinema.
Lawrie turned, and the ghosts and Immi craned their necks to see who had spoken.
The Reverend Silas Alexander got to his feet. Evidently, he’d been sitting in a seat in one of the rows furthest from the stage and had been watching the proceedings without making his presence known. They’d all been so focused on what was happening onstage that they hadn’t noticed him.
‘What’s old grumpy chops doin’ ’ere?’ Florrie muttered.
‘What’s the matter?’ whispered Lucy, seeing the surprise on Immi’s face.
‘The shouty vicar’s here,’ Immi whispered back.
‘Oh heck,’ Lucy murmured. ‘I’m guessing he’s not here to support us.’
‘No need for insults, Silas,’ Aubrey said. ‘We’ve only just started after all. What brings you to our rehearsals anyway? I wouldn’t have thought this would be of any interest to you.’
‘Want to join us, Reverend?’ asked Ray cheekily. ‘You’d be very welcome to sing along.’
Silas visibly shuddered. ‘Hardly. However, I was curious to see how you were getting along, and it’s as bad as I feared. Some of you have truly appalling voices. It’s enough to make Callie call the whole thing off, if you ask me.’
‘Well, no one did ask you,’ Agnes said tartly. ‘And if you’re not going to be constructive then you may as well leave.’
Silas smirked. ‘Always the feisty one, eh, Mrs Ashcroft?’
Agnes gave an indignant gasp, and a visibly cross Aubrey took a step forward. ‘Now, look here, Silas—’
‘Sorry!’ Silas held up his hands. ‘A slip of the tongue, I assure you. I meant, Mrs Wyndham, naturally.’
‘Silas, I do think that it would be best if you left them to it,’ Lawrie said firmly. ‘After all, they only have until Saturday to learn this song and it’s Wednesday now. They don’t need anyone putting them off or obstructing them.’
‘Not here to obstruct them, or to put them off,’ Silas said. He walked down the centre aisle towards the stage and sat down next to Lawrie. ‘I thought, since I’ve nothing better to do, that I could help.’
There were some doubtful mutterings at that.
‘Help?’ Lawrie narrowed his eyes. ‘In what way?’
‘Well,’ Silas explained, ‘it’s all very well having a living person in charge of proceedings, but she’s pretty limited in what she can do, isn’t she?’
‘Which is why I’m here,’ Lawrie pointed out. ‘And Immi, of course.’
‘But far better to have a ghost taking charge of the proceedings, don’t you think?’
‘You must be joking,’ Ronnie said, shaking his head in horror at the thought. ‘You’re the last person we need to be in charge.’
‘Well, it’s up to you.’ Silas steepled his fingers under his chin and watched them keenly. ‘Go ahead. Carry on as you are. If you don’t want my experience and expertise, then so be it.’
‘What experience and expertise?’ Peter asked.
He’d never been particularly fond of the clergy, and The Reverend Alexander was one of the worst of his kind he’d ever met.
Given that Peter’s death had been an indirect result of him dodging church because of another bolshy vicar, no one could blame him for that.
‘Have you any idea how long I formed and taught choirs?’ Silas demanded.
‘Decades! I was responsible for recruiting the singers and training them, and believe me, my choirs were some of the best in the land. We won awards. People came for miles to listen to us. Why, when I was curate at the church in Steeple Bagnall I—’
‘That was a long time ago,’ Lawrie said kindly. ‘Are you sure you’re still up to the job?’
Silas gave him a ferocious look. ‘Still up to the job? Of course I’m up to the job! When one has such gifts, one never forgets how to use them! It’s a great pity I can’t physically play the piano any longer because I’m probably one of the finest pianists you’re ever likely to hear.’
‘And the most modest,’ murmured Polly.
‘Having listened to that peculiar song three times now,’ Silas continued, ‘I would suggest that we’d need at the very least a pianist, a guitarist, and a violinist. I would also venture that we should have three soloists, each singing one verse each, with an additional singer coming in on the fifth line of each verse. Then all of you would sing the chorus.’
‘I didn’t know they had guitars when you were alive,’ Brooke said in surprise.
‘My dear child, they had guitars long before my lifetime, although I will admit that the sound they produce has changed a great deal since my death. But I do keep up with musical trends, believe it or not, and even though 99 per cent of what passes for music these days is utter bilge I take comfort from the 1 per cent that soothes the soul.’
‘What on earth is going on?’ Lucy asked, clearly exasperated.
Lawrie quickly explained what Silas had just said.
Lucy blew out her cheeks. ‘You know, that’s pretty impressive. I was going to suggest a very similar arrangement and I’ve had a head start on the vicar, given I’ve known which song we’d be doing since last night – if you all agreed, of course – and that I’d talked it all over with Sam.’
Silas looked smug at the compliment. ‘So,’ he said. ‘Do you want my help or not?’
‘Do we want his help?’ Lawrie questioned. He opened his hands in a gesture that clearly said it was up to the ghosts.
‘I think, given how little time we’ve got, and that neither myself or Sam can communicate directly with most of you, that we probably do,’ Lucy said.
The ghosts eyed each other uncertainly.
‘I suppose she has a point,’ Walter said grudgingly.
‘I think that’d be swell, Silas,’ Harmony said, bestowing a beautiful Hollywood smile on the rather startled vicar. ‘So, any thoughts on who should take the solos?’
Silas clapped his hands. ‘Since you ask, yes, I have. But I’d like to hear you each sing a verse before I make my final decision.’
As everyone exchanged worried looks he practically ran up the steps onto the stage and Danny thought he’d never seen such a look of enthusiasm on the vicar’s face.
‘Something to do at last,’ Aubrey murmured to him. ‘He’s been very low lately, and rather bored, I fear. This could be the making of him.’
‘And the finish of us,’ Danny said with feeling. He wasn’t so keen on the idea of singing a solo in front of everyone, and he clearly wasn’t the only one as several of the ghosts asked if they could opt out of auditions and just sing the chorus with everyone else instead.
‘Don’t you dare,’ Brooke warned him before he had the chance to make the same request. ‘I’m strictly a chorus girl only, but if you chicken out of this, I’ll never forgive you. You’ve got a brilliant voice, Danny. Please don’t hide it away.’
‘That so?’ Harmony asked, raising an eyebrow.
‘Well in that case, you’d better audition, Danny, because we need all the decent voices we can get.
C’mon,’ she pleaded, seeing the doubtful expression on his face, ‘think of Callie and Brodie if nothing else. You can’t subject them to Isaac’s terrible impression of a cow in labour, can you? ’
Danny grinned. ‘S’pose not. Okay, I’ll give it a shot.’
‘Great. I’m rootin’ for ya,’ she told him, squeezing his arm, while Brooke couldn’t wipe the smile off her face.
He was nervous and there was no hiding it. Aubrey, Peter, Walter, Isaac (who was clearly oblivious to how awful he sounded), Millie and Harmony all auditioned, along with the four children and Danny himself.
Lawrie, Silas and Lucy held a meeting at the side of the stage while the ghosts waited nervously for their verdict. Lawrie had offered to pass Silas’s thoughts to Lucy, so it would be a genuine three-way decision, and Danny tried hard not to care too much about the outcome.
It didn’t really matter anyway. He wasn’t bothered about taking a lead part and wasn’t even sure why he’d auditioned, except he had to admit it had been nice to hear Brooke singing his praises like that.
It was good to know that she appreciated his singing.
It had been a long time since anyone had told him how good his voice was.
‘Okay,’ Lucy said finally as the three of them rejoined the others in the centre of the stage. ‘We’ve made our choice. Lawrie?’