‘No, you go down. I want to dither about changing my dress,’ said Lizzie. ‘I’ll do that better if I haven’t got you all looking at me!’
‘OK,’ said Vanessa, obviously keen to get away. ‘We’ll go down and if you’re not with us in fifteen minutes, we’ll send out a search party.’
Lizzie hadn’t wanted comments from her friends when she got out her dress. It felt old fashioned now of course – her mother had chosen it! – but she was definitely going to wear it. It was sleeveless, which would be cool if she got hot dancing, its full skirts had underskirts which swished delightfully, and she knew she looked nice in yellow.
As Lizzie made her way down the stairs she realised that had she arrived for tea wearing that, instead of the short, sharp, fashionable dress she had worn, Vanessa’s parents wouldn’t now have her down as a bit tarty.
She let herself out of the house by a side door, walked down a short passage that Vanessa had told her about and found herself in a gravelled area, the main house behind her and a collection of outbuildings ahead and to the right.
To the left she could see glimpses of a beautiful garden, with lawns and large trees. There was obviously a ha-ha in the lawn because there were fields and then there was the river. It caught the sun and glinted like a strip of silver. In the distance beyond the river Lizzie could just see a church tower.
She walked across the gravel towards the barn thinking that Vanessa’s parents weren’t nice enough to own such a beautiful house in such a glorious setting. But on the other hand, Hugo was, and presumably he would inherit it all one day. She could easily imagine Electra arranging flowers for the large drawing room and having career-enhancing dinner parties in the dining room. Electra could probably imagine all that too, Lizzie thought ruefully.
She could hear music coming from the barn and saw that plenty of people had arrived already. No wonder Vanessa had been keen to get there after dinner.
As she got closer, she realised the music was rock and roll and Lizzie hurried over. But when she got to the barn, although it was full of people all standing round the dance floor with glasses in their hands, no one was really dancing. There were a few people jigging from foot to foot on the edges but so far the middle of the big barn was empty.
Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to make the barn attractive. There were coloured light bulbs strung across one wall. There was a bar made outof barrels and planks of wood and bales of hay surrounded the dance floor for people to sit on. People were clapping to the rhythm, obviously enjoying the music. Why was there no one on the floor? It was such a waste, Lizzie thought.
She went inside and stood at the back of the crowd, looking for her friends. She’d just spotted them over the other side, when someone said her name.
‘Hey! Lizzie!’ It was Hugo. The last time she’d seen him he’d been wearing a dinner jacket. Now he was in jeans and a dark shirt, open at the neck. ‘Come and dance with me!’
‘OK,’ Lizzie said casually. Inside she was fizzing like a firework.
He led her into the middle of the barn and they waited a couple of beats and then they started.
Lizzie loved to jive and was good at it. Hugo was good at it too. He spun her round, sent her under his arm and out again, their feet going in perfect time to the music. And as they danced others joined them.
The other dancers made Lizzie even braver and she and Hugo did some more extreme moves when he lifted her in his arms and swung her around. She landed neatly and it encouraged him to try more.
At last the song ended and they were both panting hard. ‘You’re good! When did you learn to dance like that?’ Hugo exclaimed.
‘I could ask you the same question! But I’ll go first. My mother sent me to ballroom-dancing classes and afterwards the teacher added rock-and-roll or jive classes for those who were interested. I always stayed for them. I loved it.’
‘That explains it. But you know some pretty nifty moves.’
‘So do you!’
‘What would you like to drink? Beer, cider or squash?’
‘Cider please,’ said Lizzie. She was still short of breath and knew it was because she was so close to Hugo and not just because they’d been dancing.
Hugo seemed a lot calmer. He got them both drinks and they headed for a vacant hay bale.
‘I learnt at boarding school,’ he said. ‘Sometimes we were allowed to go to dances with the local girls’ school and one of the teachers thought we should be encouraged not to slow-dance with the girls. They got in someone to teach us to jive, or rock and roll, whatever you call it.’
‘My parents weren’t keen on my learning how to do that,’ said Lizzie.
‘My parents don’t even know.’
‘Can Electra jive?’ asked Lizzie.
Hugo looked apologetic. ‘Not really her sort of thing. She waltzes beautifully though.’
Before Lizzie could comment, Electra herself appeared. ‘There you are, Hugo!’ she said irritably.‘I’ve been looking for you everywhere. What on earth are you doing here when you should be in the house?’
‘I was just making sure Vanessa’s party got off to a good start,’ he said calmly.
