Page 44 of Tricks & Treats at The Cosy Cornish Bakery

‘All right, Ginger. Hold your horses,’ Tina huffed. ‘Go to Derek over there. He’ll let you into the first one when there’s a gap. Can’t allow too many people in at once. Wouldn’t be scary if you all went in as a crowd, would it? Then just follow the map round the village. Enjoy,’ she snapped out. ‘Spiced hot chocolate from Spotty Jo’s included in the ticket.’

Josh took Ginger’s arm as they headed towards the pub. ‘Jim Jones? Couldn’t you have come up with something a little more imaginative?’

She giggled. ‘Didn’t see you racing in with an answer. And besides, what’s the matter with it? It’s nice and Welsh.’

‘Next time I’m calling myself Richard Burton. Ah, here we are,’ he said as they stopped at the entrance to The Smugglers car park manned by a figure dressed as Dracula. ‘This must be Derek, complete with bloodied fangs. This Drama Club, they’ve got things organised, haven’t they?’

‘Always do.’

‘You said you’d acted before. You never think to join the Drama Club?’

Ginger grimaced. ‘Not a lot of free time and, besides, I learned long ago that I hadn’t an acting bone in my body.’ She smiled at him fondly. ‘I leave all that to the professionals.’

‘Well, the am dram lot certainly seem to have got this Scare Fest well organised.’

‘Tina was the same at school. Always brilliant at organising stuff. Think she was Head Girl, now I think about it.’

‘And what were you? A naughty schoolgirl?’

‘In your dreams.’

He stopped and turned her to face him. ‘Don’t do that to me,’ he groaned. ‘Now my dreams are going to be full of you dressed in uniform.’

‘Don’t be such a perv,’ she teased and tapped him lightly on the nose.

He captured her hand and kissed the fingers. ‘I’ll be anything you want me to be,’ he said, gazing directly into her eyes.

Ginger’s breath stopped. She let him nibble her fingers, the action sending heat coursing through her body. He’d be anything she wanted? That was the problem. Or one of them. She still hadn’t pinned down just who Josh was. Was he the big movie star? The ordinary bloke from a large family in Stafford? The guy with a love for all things Russian and a surprisingly widely read reader. Or was he playing his latest role, the flirty guest? Chloe’s warning that he was trained to be any persona he wanted, and convincingly so, came back. For the life of her, Ginger couldn’t decide if Josh was being sincere or just acting.

‘Come on,’ he waggled his eyebrows, ‘let’s get going. Will you hold my hand if I get really scared?’

Ginger shook off her introspection and smiled at him. Whoever Josh was, or who he’d decided to be, she was half in love with him already. Live in the moment. Don’t think about tomorrow. Enjoy the here and now. Looking up at the clear black sky where stars were twinkling down on them, she prayed. Universe, if I let this man into my heart, will you look after me? Then she said aloud, ‘I’ll willingly hold your hand, Josh, but you need to stop kissing my fingers first.’

Two hours later, they sat on the straw bale in front of Spotty Jo’s ape, their hands clutched around huge mugs of warming chocolate. Screams of delight from the fair rides mixed in with The Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack as it pumped out. To celebrate the season, Joanna had surrounded the van with piled up pumpkins and brought out her special Halloween-themed orange pumpkin mugs.

‘I’ve only just stopped shaking,’ Ginger said, clutching hers to her, hanging on to its black handle for dear life. ‘I’m sure it wasn’t as frightening last year. I had forty fits when that bloke jumped out at me with the enormous hypodermic demanding my blood for his alien cloning experiment.’

‘Was that supposed to be the Science Zone?’ Josh shook his head in disbelief.

‘Yes. And Science Zone, my foot.’ Ginger let out a giggle of relief that she’d survived. ‘It’s the garages behind The Smugglers.’

‘They’d gone to town in there. I particularly liked the sheets of translucent plastic they’d hung up that we had to fight through. You didn’t know what to expect next and Mr Hypodermic was really going method.’

‘Didn’t help that he had half his face missing.’ Ginger shuddered. ‘It was vile. The am dram team must have used up all their fake blood. Oh, and how had they made Squeezy Belly Alley so creepy?’

Josh snorted. ‘Squeezy what?’

‘It’s the long alley that leads from Beach Lane towards the beach. Supposed to be an old smuggling route.’

‘Was that the Zombie Alley?’

‘Yes. I hate that stiff-legged walk they do with their arms stretched out and that crazed look in their eyes. Ugh. I really hate zombies. They petrify me. Can’t even watch the Michael Jackson ‘Thriller’ vid and, sorry to admit it, but I shut my eyes through most of Zombie Space Pilots from Galaxia.’

‘Aw, Ginger, you missed some of my best bits.’ Josh put a comforting arm around her shoulders. ‘Does it help to know most of the zombies were played by stuntmen who happily knit to while away the time in between takes?’

‘A little.’ She jerked up, remembering something else. ‘That bloke in the Frankenstein set up. I could swear it was Nik.’

‘The tall guy, the one with the chainsaw dripping blood? You know, you could be right. It was a good set but I reckon Mary Shelley would be turning in her grave. Didn’t bear the slightest resemblance to her book.’