‘I’VE COME TO make sure you all have everything you need,’ he said, taking in Sofia’s much-changed appearance with interest. ‘If there’s anything more I can do for you,’ he added, ‘please let me know.’
The soft whir of the spurs on her fan as she opened it drew his attention. ‘I didn’t expect to find you here. Are you performing tonight? I have to say the costume suits you.’
‘This is all thanks to my new friends,’ she explained as the women who had helped her watched on. ‘My mother’s people,’ she explained, remembering how her mother had told her to take compliments gracefully and always be proud of who she was. Composing her features into something less wistful, she raised her chin and said, ‘Thank you.’
‘So I will see you dance tonight,’ Cesar concluded.
‘You will,’ she confirmed, thinking him so rampantly male it would be hard to concentrate on anything while he was watching. But behind that compelling persona she saw genuine interest fire in his eyes. This was a chance to make her mother proud, and her brothers too. She couldn’t influence Cesar. His thoughts were up to him.
She was surprised when he waited behind to escort her. ‘Will you allow me?’ he asked.
‘Do I have a choice?’ she teased.
He linked her arm through his. ‘None,’ he confirmed.
The party was being held outside, where a huge bonfire lit up the night. The stage was set at a safe distance in front of it, backlighting the performers with soaring flames. A backdrop of mountains and a soundscape of owls could lead some to think this a romantic setting. Not Sofia, who had so much to prove, though it was certainly rare to have a flamenco performance in this part of Italy, with Apennine wolves howling in the background, as if they agreed that she’d better not mess this up.
‘Did you organise the wolf chorus especially for Team Lobos?’ Dante enquired with amusement as he and Jess came over to greet Cesar and Sofia.
‘My friends never disappoint me,’ Cesar confirmed dryly. ‘They are no doubt as curious and as excited as we are, especially as we’re so close to their mountain home.’
It was an elemental setting, Sofia realised as she looked around, and as such was the perfect setting for Cesar.
‘Are you dancing tonight?’ Dante asked, taking in her costume.
‘That’s the price I have to pay for borrowing one of these fabulous dresses,’ she admitted, ‘though I hope I can remember the steps our mother taught me.’
‘You will,’ Dante said confidently.
She had to now.
‘No one persuades Sofia to do anything she doesn’t want to do,’ Cesar commented, which earned him a look and a shrug from Dante. ‘Enjoy the party,’ he added.
Just how much she would enjoy the party remained to be seen.
There must have been something in the air that night, or maybe it was the fabulous red fan, casting its promised spell. Surrounded by her mother’s people, Sofia felt able to express herself fully and freely, perhaps for the first time since she’d lost her mother. Tears rolled unchecked down her cheeks at one point while she danced, for all the things they could no longer share, and when the final chord sounded and the main dancer came on stage, she took Sofia in her arms to whisper, ‘Your mother would be very proud of you. And remember that as we cry when we lose someone, we live on in their honour to laugh and make love, and live fully again.’
And then the crowd went wild, and called for an encore.
There comes a point at the end of an impassioned flamenco solo when the dancer, having expended every last drop of emotion, cries out, ‘Duende!’ and drops to the floor. He was waiting at the side ready to give his congratulatory speech once Sofia had finished dancing when that moment occurred. Sofia struck her final pose, and then allowed her limbs to soften and her face to relax as she sank to the ground.
‘Duende!’
The audience rewarded Sofia with rapturous applause. Duende perfectly expressed the heightened emotions he’d witnessed on stage, and he was cheering with the rest. There couldn’t be a single person present she hadn’t touched in some way.
Sofia was an extraordinary performer. The story she’d told through the medium of dance was one that everyone could relate to at some point. The mask she showed to the world had dropped away, leaving Sofia totally exposed and vulnerable. He might have had every reason to mistrust her in the past, but what he’d seen made him want to re-evaluate what he knew of.
‘Congratulations!’ he exclaimed as he raised her to her feet.
‘I have my mother to thank.’ Her eyes were shining with happy memories as she looked back into the past. ‘My mother believed in the power of dance, saying music is a power for good.’
‘Your mother was right, and you certainly convinced everyone here,’ he admitted as he led her forward to take another bow. ‘You surprised me tonight,’ he confessed once they were out of the spotlight.
‘Well, we don’t know that much about each other, do we, Cesar?’ she said as she lifted her chin to search his eyes. ‘All we know is what we see now, and what rumour suggests is fact. Who knows how many more surprises are in store?’
‘Just don’t write another article,’ he cautioned with a lift of his brow.
Her face fell, making him wish he hadn’t said it. Couldn’t he even allow her to enjoy this moment of triumph?
