Free Music and Lies (George and Finn Book 1) by Gill-Marie Stewart Page B

his posh bloody boarding school? I don’t see anyone else rushing to offer more than once a year.’ Cami glowered at his beer.
    ‘He’s your cousin?’ I just stared at him. It seemed totally unlikely.
    ‘Yeah, I said, didn’t I? His mum was our mum’s sister. God knows why we stuck by him after what he did, but Marcus says we have to.’
    I studied him in the fading light. He was good-looking in a scruffy way, but I hadn’t realised there was any similarity to Finn. Now I saw the eyes, pale and slanted, with their straight, slim eyebrows, were exactly the same. I suppose Cami’s dark hair and swarthy complexion had stopped me recognising it before.
    So Finn was here with Marcus. That at least explained why he knew everybody, always knew what was going on. But he never quite belonged. He went to a ‘posh school’? And there was something else Cami was hinting at. I was trying to work it all out in my head, gazing across the grassy clearing, when I saw Finn himself emerge from Dex and Becky’s van. It was a long way away but I was pretty sure it was him. No one else wore that camouflage jacket, with the dark hat pulled low in just that way.
    ‘There he is now,’ I said, and then felt guilty as though I’d given him away.
    Cami swung round. When he saw where his cousin was coming from his lip curled. ‘Oh-oh, cosying up to Beck again, is he? Trying to make it all right after Dex’s had a go at her? He’d better watch out, Dex won’t like that.’ He noticed my expression. ‘Finn’s got a thing for Beck, didn’t you know?’ He laughed, not in a nice way.
    He up-ended his can, found it was empty, and wandered off.
    I was still trying to make sense of all that when someone else took up the guitar and began to play songs I knew very well indeed. Covers of Murdo Mensah. Immediately I was drawn in closer, wanting to enjoy the heavy rhythms, almost reggae style, with the haunting, moody lyrics. I didn’t recognise the guy who was playing but he was pretty good. I loved this music, even if the guy didn’t have Murdo’s amazing deep voice. But soon I was going to see – and hear – Murdo himself! I took a sip of beer and told myself to enjoy the moment. I was so lucky to be here.
    By the time I’d finished my first can and was half way down the second someone else had provided, I was feeling pretty happy with the world.
    ‘Enough fucking karaoke already.’ Dex was standing at my side. Probably not my first choice of someone to talk to. I looked round for Becky but couldn’t see her. It was dark now, lit here and there by the fires of barbecues and lamps people had brought from their tents. The patterns of light and dark made me want to get out my sketch book. ‘Can’t you lot play anything original?’ yelled Dex, looping an arm around my shoulders. I tried to move away a bit, but failed. Probably he was just being friendly; he wasn’t so bad.
    ‘You certainly can’t,’ someone shouted back.
    ‘But Murdo Mensah is brilliant,’ I said, eagerly. ‘Don’t you like him?’
    Dex shrugged. ‘The original’s okay, not this doing the same thing over and over.’
    ‘Get Finn to play some of his stuff,’ said someone else.
    ‘Finn! Don’t make me laugh.’
    ‘I’ll play, if you want,’ said a slight blond girl who had been standing nervously on the sidelines, holding what looked like a small guitar.
    ‘Aye, go on, let’s hear Hailey, she’s no so bad,’ said someone.
    Suddenly the girl didn’t look nervous anymore. She moved to the stool that performers had taken to occupying and tuned her funny little instrument quickly and competently. She was dressed in jeans and a baggy white shirt with a pin-striped waistcoat. Her hair stood out in little tufts. She looked odd, but no odder than most of the other people.
    ‘What’s that thing she’s playing?’ I asked Dex. I’d have preferred it if he didn’t stand so close, but it was useful to have someone to tell me things.
    ‘Mandolin. Looks