And we were off.

Except we weren’t, because Siobhan’s fingers stumbled in the first couple of bars. She turned to Andy.

“Again!” she cried.

This time she got it, and we really were off, blasting through ‘The Mouth of the Tobique’ at hyper-speed. Con joined us on his guitar when we got to the third part of the tune, but Lizzie and Andy waited till we’d gotten through the whole tune once on our own before they came in as well.

I thought the roof was going to come off the place when we finished. Siobhan was beaming from ear to ear. She put her mouth near my ear, said “Thank you” over the roar of the crowd, then kissed my cheek.

“Couldn’t let you sit out the whole night without playing a tune,” I told her.

She handed me her fiddle and waved to the crowd as she made her way back to the merch table. I caught Jilly’s gaze and smiled at the approval I saw in it. I replaced Siobhan’s fiddle in its case, retrieved my own, and then we were off with another set of reels.

The easy camaraderie between the four of us up here on the stage got me thinking about my conversation with Christy yesterday. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to put together a real band and do some touring. I loved the music and I didn’t really mind travelling. So I’d have to record a CD to get the gigs and have something to sell after the show. Was that really such a big deal? Everybody else did it, so why shouldn’t I? I could even put some of my own music on it. For that matter, I had enough tunes I’d written over the years that I could fill a CD with them and still have some left over.

Con sang a song after we finished the reels, then Lizzie led us off on a truly magnificent version of “The Stray away Child.” Slow and stately, filled with heart and grace.

I switched to harmonies in the second position when we began to repeat the tune. Lizzie looked at me and smiled, then closed her eyes again, leaning into the music. I let my gaze drift over the crowd until it was drawn to a tall figure standing by the door at the back of the room. I couldn’t really see much of him, what with the dim lighting and the cigarette smoke, but something about him grabbed my attention, and it wasn’t because he was wearing sunglasses. It took me a moment to realize what he was. The dark glasses were a typical fairy touch, considering how they can see as well in the dark as we can in the middle of the day. But fairy like to stand out, even when they’re playing at being human.