Page 30 of Winter Magic on Railway Lane

Ethan frowned. ‘Right.’

He spotted an old wicker broom in a corner, with yet more fairy lights. There were black and orange tapered candles on the tables, too.

‘Don’t you like it?’ asked Katy, catching his expression.

‘Of course,’ he replied, running a hand through his hair. ‘But I’ve just realised that it’s the one thing we haven’t thought of. Should we be decorating the train?’

Katy laughed until she realised that he wasn’t joking for once. ‘You mean you haven’t planned to decorate the train?’ she said, with a gasp.

He shook his head.

‘But it’s a Halloween-themed train!’ she spluttered.

‘Who’s talking about my famous train?’ asked Bob, coming into the coffee shop.

‘We haven’t thought about any decorations,’ said Ethan, looking round at his dad aghast.

‘Well, there’s plenty in the shops,’ said Ryan. ‘Just go and buy some.’

But, to Ethan’s surprise, Bob was shaking his head. ‘It’s all right, son,’ he told them. ‘It’s all in hand.’

‘How?’ asked Ethan, non-plussed. He could hardly imagine Bob and Eddie going online to order Halloween decorations.

‘As it happens, your cousin has offered to help out and is going to bring it all on the day.’ Bob smiled. ‘Isn’t that kind of him?’

But Ethan wasn’t smiling. ‘Dodgy Del is helping to decorate our Halloween train?’ he asked slowly.

‘For free!’ said Bob, beaming. ‘Isn’t that marvellous?’

Ethan blew out a long sigh and mentally crossed his fingers that the Halloween train wouldn’t end up being a horror show if Dodgy Del was involved.

Del was their cousin and a nice enough guy. He just had a habit of continually getting into trouble, normally leaving a trail of chaos and carnage behind him wherever he went.

‘Apparently he knows someone in the party industry,’ carried on Bob. ‘So it’s all sorted without any kind of price tag.’

‘Will there be any price to pay though?’ asked Ethan, thinking back to Del’s other disasters.

Ryan grimaced. ‘Let’s hope not, bro.’

Katy was looking out of the window onto the platform. ‘I can always get some more of our decorations and decorate the outside as well,’ she said.

‘Thanks,’ replied Ethan. ‘That would be a great help.’

‘I shall think of it as a practice run for the Christmas train,’ Katy told him, her eyes lighting up. ‘Can you imagine dressing up the whole station for that? It’s going to look amazing.’

‘A big tree,’ said Bob, nodding his approval.

‘Wreaths and swags all lit up with fairy lights,’ added Katy.

‘I wonder if we could even get some fake snow from somewhere?’ said Bob, thoughtfully.

Katy clapped her hands together. ‘Wouldn’t that be magical?’ she replied.

As she and Bob carried on chatting, Ethan’s heart sank a little.

He wouldn’t be there. He would be in Seattle, helping create the lighting system for a sophisticated shopping mall, full of designer boutiques and fancy dining. It would be vastly different from tiny Cranfield in both structure and grandeur.

Normally, he would be grateful to be getting away around Christmastime. The memories of his mum trying to fake how happy she was stayed with him. Christmas had always made thesham of his parents’ marriage seem even worse to Ethan and he had managed to stay away throughout the festive season ever since leaving home.