Page 1 of Moonlight Kisses at Willow Tree Hall

1

‘We’ve got trouble.’

Lily Harper spun around to face Mary, the wide-eyed young intern who had just rushed up to her. ‘What’s up?’ she asked.

‘One of the waitresses has accidentally thrown red wine all down our hostess,’ Mary told her with a grimace.

Lily glanced over Mary’s shoulder and saw a glamorously dressed grey-haired lady sobbing in the middle of the ballroom.

‘And that’s not even the worst of it,’ carried on Mary. ‘The band were due to come on but their lead singer thinks she’s coming down with a migraine. She’s hiding in the toilet and won’t come out, so there’s no music. Somebody’s nicked a whole heap of party bags, so there aren’t enough to give out. Oh, and the finance director is so drunk he’s climbed onto the stegosaurus and won’t come down.’

Lily scanned the packed ballroom once more. Almost 800 people were packed into the Earth Hall of the Natural History Museum for the Forsythe & Sons annual banquet. A banner strewn across the stage read, ‘Celebrating 54 amazing years of high-density, lightweight concrete blocks!’

‘Where’s Julie?’ asked Lily, feeling irritated. ‘This is her event, not mine. She can sort it out.’

‘I can’t find her,’ said Mary, with a shrug. ‘She said something about taking a break.’

A break? Lily pressed her lips together to stop herself swearing. When had Lily ever managed to take a break in the five years that she had been doing the job? And yet Julie was the one who had somehow survived the recent wave of redundancies at the event-organising firm where they all worked, whereas Lily would be out of a job the following week.

‘Help me! Please!’ pleaded Mary.

Lily sighed. ‘Fine. Let’s see what we can sort out.’

She walked towards where the chairman’s wife was standing, grabbing a bottle of sparkling water and a pillar of salt from a nearby table as she went.

‘Hello,’ she said to the lady who was staring down in teary dismay at the ugly patch of red wine across her blue evening dress. ‘Would you mind following me? We’ll have that stain gone in a flash.’

The woman followed her to the ladies’ washrooms, where Lily quickly used the water to moisten the stain and the salt to begin lifting off the stain. She blotted and sprinkled salt over and over until the stain could no longer be seen. The woman then stood underneath the hand-dryer, which quickly dried the damp patch.

‘Thank you,’ she said, with a grateful look towards Lily. ‘I couldn’t have coped looking like that all evening.’

‘Not at all,’ replied Lily, already reaching into her pocket as she headed across to where the band’s singer was hunched in a corner clutching her head. ‘Will ibuprofen help?’ she asked, bending down.

The singer nodded. ‘Yeah, probably. Thanks.’

Lily handed her the pills and the bottle of sparkling water to wash them down with.

As she straightened up, she caught Mary smiling at her. ‘Wow. How’d you learn to do all that stuff?’

Lily shrugged. ‘I’ve seen enough crises over the years to know what to do.’

And it still wasn’t enough to keep her job, she reminded herself. After all, she hadn’t gone to university like Mary and gained a degree. She had only scraped through that business studies course at sixth form over ten years previously. Once more, she felt distinctly average in both her professional and private life.

But perhaps that was about to change? She nervously fiddled with her bare ring finger. Maybe, just maybe, tonight was the night.

With two of the crises swiftly averted, Lily headed back into the ballroom. She could really do with an extra hand but she couldn’t see her boyfriend, Mark, anywhere.

As Area Manager for the company they both worked for, he was there tonight to oversee the event.

Lily was hoping he had another, more personal reason to be there tonight as well. Especially as he had promised her a dance, which was unusual. But it was the perfect setting for what she hoped he had planned. Her heart filled with expectation, but all that would have to wait.

She went across to where a middle-aged man had clambered across the ropes and was now swaying as he hung onto the leg of the large stegosaurus skeleton.

‘Hi,’ she said to him. ‘How about we get you a nice glass of water?’

The man blinked at her before breaking into a leering, lopsided smile. He slowly ran his eyes up and down her long black dress before settling on her face.

‘Hello, beautiful.’ His words were slurred. ‘Redheads are my favourite.’