She smelt of freesias and up close Ella could see the powder dusting her lines. Despite the whites of her eyes being dull and underpinned by bags with a net of lavender-veined lines, a devilish twinkle lit them. ‘Lord, we used to have so much fun doing this. You wouldn’t believe what we got up to. You young people think you invented sex and being naughty, but I can tell you a thing or two.’
It wasn’t hard to imagine Doris up to no good. The pixie face, over-active eyebrows and deeply furrowed laughter lines suggested a life well-lived. The older woman threw back her head, shimmied her shoulders and danced with delicious joy.
Ella gave a polite smile, feeling her muscles freezing. She put her head down and focused on her steps, feeling her feet bed into the heels. One, two, one two three. Inside her stomach churned. She knew how to do this but it was so hard in front of everyone. They’d think she was . . . What would they think?
Ella sneaked a look around the room. No one was watching her. On her other side, Bets laughed as she fluffed her steps, copying the woman next to her. ‘Lordy, I am rubbish at this,’ she said as she stepped back onto Audrey’s toes. Audrey wasn’t bad at all, dancing with neat little steps, her arms bent and moving in time to the music. What struck Ella was the huge beam on her face.
Next to Ella, Doris was having a whale of a time, dancing up to other people so that they could mirror her steps.
‘Come on. Give me a shimmy.’ The chiffon skirts brushed Ella’s jeans. Watching the waves of sunshine fabric lapping at the dark denim, an image of a painting she’d seen at anexhibition last year popped into her head. Sonia Delaunay’s work. Dancers in a bar, absorbed in their world. Ella drifted for a second, remembering the pictures.
‘That’s more like it.’ Doris whirled past her, catching one of her hands, jerking her forward. The momentum made her stumble and then like magic everything clicked into place. Somehow the music had seeped in note by note, commanding her muscles and with almost a sigh of relief her limbs relaxed, sinking into the rhythm. The bands of tension lacing her shoulders fell away and even breathing suddenly seemed easier.
With a grin, she added a shimmy of her shoulders in time with Doris. It all came back, those nights in the dimly lit bar of Havana Straights, the hip action, rolling them with ease, from left to right, the steps second nature. Closing her eyes, she let the music flood through. A sense of joy burst bright, her body lighter. Her feet knew what to do on their own, she didn’t even need to think about it. How could she have forgotten this? This sense of ease with herself. It didn’t matter what anyone else in the room thought. Whether she was a good or a bad dancer. Who cared?
‘You go, girl,’ yelled Doris, with a few wild turns before taking Ella’s left hand in her right and placing a loose hand on her hip. ‘Come on, you can be the man.’
In perfect synchronisation, they danced together, forward and back.
‘Ooh, it’s just likeDirty Dancing,’ said Doris, immediately throwing in a few showy turns. ‘Except I’m no one’s Baby,’ she added with a wink before letting go of Ella’s hand and whirling off to dance with Bets.
With a smile, her hips still rolling, Ella watched Doris valiantly try to teach Bets the moves in time to the music. Bets still hadn’t quite got the rhythm, not that it seemed to faze her, and she grinned as she pointed at Ella’s hips. ‘Nice moves.’
‘Thanks.’
‘It’s like the darts all over again. I suppose you’re going to tell me that you lived next door to a salsa bar.’
Ella grinned. ‘Down the road. Havana Straights.’
Bets rolled her eyes good-naturedly.
Her feet tingled and her hips ached but it was worth it for the high she felt. Ella couldn’t remember the last time she’d had so much fun.
‘Bye, Doris.’
‘Bye, and don’t you forget. I want a party invitation.’
‘I won’t.’ Ella was conscious of Bets beside her jumping about in agitation.
‘Come on, we need to go.’ Dragging Ella by the arm, she hurried her to the exit. ‘Damn.’ Bets muttered under her breath. ‘Whatever you do, don’t stop.’
‘Thanks, Audrey, that was brilliant fun.’ Bets almost threw her fiver at the older woman, waiting at the door with an old margarine tub in her hand.
‘Yes, thank you,’ added Ella placing her money more carefully into the container.
Audrey stepped in front of her, making direct eye contact. Next to Ella, Bets let out a low groan.
‘I’m so glad you could both make it. Always good to have some younger blood at these things.’ She shot an amused look at Doris’s retreating figure. ‘I don’t suppose either of you are first aid trained. I really must talk to the Village Hall Committee about perhaps fundraising for a defibrillator. Which reminds me,’ she flashed a charming, shark-going-in-for-the-kill smile at Ella, ‘I know you’ve agreed to do our little talk at the WI and Bets says you’ve agreed to donate a picture for the hall roof fund raiser but I wondered if you’d give us a pair.’ With an encouraging smile she carried on, completely oblivious to Betstrying to sidle away. Ella nodded but didn’t manage to get a word in before Audrey was off again.
‘And I shall see you both at the Spring Fayre. My gosh, we’re going to miss your godmother this year. We’re going to need something really spectacular decoration-wise for the Chiltern Bake Off, but that’s a month away, so we’ll worry about that after the Fayre.’ Audrey gave a plaintive sigh. ‘No one bakes cakes quite like Magda. I daresay the cake stall will manage.’
She whipped out her notebook. ‘Now, Bets, you said you’d manage the dog agility competition, so I’ve left you to do that.’ She turned to Ella and with a shrewd assessing look gave her up a quick up and down. ‘Hmm, I think it will have to be the tombola stall for you. Shall I put you down for the ten till twelve slot?’
Ella looked helplessly at Bets.
‘Excellent. Now all we need is good weather on the day.’ With a bird-like tilt of her head, Audrey spotted a new victim. ‘Ah, Judith. Glad I caught you. Now with Magda away . . . ’
Devon watched the two women as they approached the table he’d snagged in the pub, Bets throwing back her head and laughing and Ella’s grave face softening before they both burst into giggles. Thinking back to the woebegone creature he’d first seen up in the woods, the transformation on Ella’s face was nothing short of a miracle. With her flushed cheeks and glittering eyes, she looked like a different person.
