Free Resonance by Celine Kiernan Page B

He’s promised to have a bit of a rest.’
    â€˜He’ll be back to himself before you know it,’ said Harry.
    â€˜Mm hmm.’
    â€˜You really should go home, Tina. Joe and I don’t have a heck of a lot to lose here, but it won’t do you any good to be caught hanging about after lockup like this.’
    She cut him a sideways look that conveyed just about all she had to say on the subject of her leaving. ‘How’d you do in the auditions?’ she asked.
    Harry sighed. ‘Not well,’ he said.
    â€˜You and poor Miss Ursula both.’
    Miss Ursula. Harry hadn’t seen her since her dignified exit from the stage. ‘Will she be all right?’ he asked Tina.
    She gave him that sideways look again – of course the old lady was not going to be all right. ‘The theatre’s no place to grow old, Harry.’
    It was a bald statement, and both of them knew the horrible truth of it too well. To fill the silence that followed, Harry took his cards from his pocket and began practising riffle and faro shuffles in the near dark.
    Tina watched him. ‘Will you be all right, Harry?’
    He shrugged. ‘I guess I shouldn’t have tried the magic act without an assistant. But I’d no shills for the mind-reading, couldn’t even get them interested in the card tricks … I should have just done some fortune-telling and left it at that.’
    â€˜I used to tell fortunes. When I was a little kid.’
    â€˜Oh?’
    â€˜Fran made me stop. She didn’t like how they used to come true.’
    Harry grinned. ‘Some people take it very seriously.’
    There was an uncertain pause. ‘I think I scared her.’
    Oh, thought Harry. That’s sad . ‘Well, like I said, some people take it very seriously.’
    â€˜Joe was never scared of me. Joe … Joe’s been very good to me, Harry.’
    Harry thought of Joe’s thin, street-wary face, his moments of unexpected gentleness. Silence weighed down on themonce more. Harry let the cards run through his fingers, back-palmed the locator ace, cut it single-handed into the middle of the pack.
    The abrupt rustle of Tina’s skirts startled him, and he looked up as she surged to her feet. He thought maybe she’d heard Joe coming, but she just stood there, staring towards the moon-washed stage. ‘Harry?’ she whispered. ‘Someone’s coming.’
    The tone of her voice had him stowing the deck and rising cautiously to her side. ‘What do you mean?’
    â€˜Someone … that man. That man is coming. Lord Wolcroft.’
    Before Harry could say, How could you possibly know that? the theatre lights went on, making him jump.
    â€˜He’s here!’ hissed Tina. ‘Oh, Harry! He’s here! What’ll we do?’
    There were voices in the auditorium now: the sound of people murmuring to each other as they neared the stage. Harry grabbed Tina and swivelled her towards the ladder to the catwalks. ‘Climb up! Hurry! Just leave the darned cup! Climb up, before they catch you and you lose your job!’
    Tina grabbed the hem of her heavy skirt, hoisted it over her knees and scrambled up the ladder with surprising agility. She had only just reached the top, with Harry climbing after her, when the first footsteps rang out on the stage.
    Miss Ursula’s plummy voice said, ‘The witching hour approaches! If you do not object, Lord Wolcroft, I shall light the candles and lay out the spirit board so that when the others arrive, we may commence at once to commune with the dead.’
    Tina leaned over the top of the catwalk’s sandbag wall. Harry scrambled to her side. There was a terrific view of thestage, but Tina did not seem interested. Instead, she was craning her neck to see down the back stairs, and Harry realised that she was watching for Joe.
    â€˜Say,’ whispered Harry. ‘You knew that dandy was coming before the lights even