‘Sorry I’m late. Guinea pig emergency. I’ve left Devon handling it on his own.’ Bets giggled as they rushed the down the road to the Village Hall, Ella tripping along in her sparkly red shoes. ‘He wasn’t impressed. I’m going to have to buy him a pint later to make it up to him.’
Ella shook her head. ‘What the hell constitutes a guinea pig emergency?’
‘Let’s just say, for a little fella, he produced a lot of liquid from one end. Believe me, Devon didn’t look very happy.’
‘I’m so glad I don’t do your job.’ Ella shuddered as she hauled open one of the glass double doors to the hall. ‘Mopping up animal poo sounds hideous.’
Bets just grinned as she shot forward, following the sound of a Latin American rhythm pumping.
‘Ah, ladies. Don’t be shy. There’s plenty of room here on the front row.’ The loud bellow was completely at odds from the tiny woman prowling like a territorial cat in front of the stage. Up on the raised platform behind her sat a boom box, pulsating with music, which was almost as big as her, even though the hair piled on top of her head in some astonishingly over the top do with tendrils tumbling like an errant waterfall added a good few inches to her diminutive height.
Audrey gave them a cheerful wave from the middle row, while a woman with fluffy white-blonde hair teased upwards like albino candyfloss cleared a space for them. ‘Here you go,’ she whispered. ‘You youngsters can show me what to do. I can copy you.’ She took a step back.
‘Audrey bully you into this too?’ asked Bets in a loud whisper.
‘No, love. It’s just the teacher is a bit of blur. Can’t see a thing past the end of my nose.’ She gave an impish grin. ‘Makes driving very tricky these days.’
Ella turned to Bets, her eyes widened. What the hell had she got herself into? Bets shrugged.
‘Right, ladies,’ boomed the teacher. ‘For our latecomers, a quick recap. Watch me. We’re going to take a step forward, then one back and two.’
She demonstrated with a fluidity that brought recognition. The drinks in the Latin American bar three streets away from Ella’s college digs had been the cheapest for miles. She’d spent a lot of time there as a student.
Her hips wanted to respond to the sinuous siren call of the familiar beat. She knew the steps and recognised the layered rhythms of the music, the drums, the keyboards and more percussion. One two, one two three, one two, one two three. It was all there but something held her back, perhaps the awareness of all those eyes on her back.
‘Now, ladies. With me. We’ll just mark the steps very slowly without the music and then when you’ve got them we’ll try it again with the music.’
Ella focused hard on the teacher’s feet, tentatively marking out a few steps with small conservative moves, her hips stiff and unyielding. Next to her a beady eyed OAP with a definite tinge of lilac to her helmet of coiffured curls didn’t seem the least bit self-conscious. Doris, that was her name. She lived next door to George. Mind you, anyone wearing a silver sequinned waistcoat over a white shirt over the top of a bright yellow chiffon layered skirt probably didn’t care what they looked like. Ella stared with fascination at the skirt.
The woman caught her and nodded. ‘Like it?’ She did a twirl. ‘I thought I’d get in touch with my inner Strictly.’
Ella nodded and smiled, not daring to admit she’d only seen the programme a couple of times.
‘I’m Doris, by the way, and I live next door but one to you.’
‘I know.’ Ella nodded, being polite.
‘You’re very quiet.’ The older woman looked disappointed. ‘I was hoping for a bit of loud music, the odd wild party and lots of handsome young men with beards visiting from London.’
The significance of facial hair was a puzzler but Ella couldn’t help smiling. ‘Not yet, but there’s still time.’
‘Thank God for that. I wouldn’t want to die before I got to try cocaine.’
Ella snorted in an attempt not to laugh out loud. ‘I’ll see what I can do,’ she said, unable to hide her smile.
‘Here we go, ladies.’ With great gusto, the teacher pressed the button on top of her ancient CD player and music blasted out with tinny reverberation.
Like a pocket rocket, Doris was off. Despite her advanced years, she knew how to move.
Ella followed, her steps a little wooden. It would have been a lot easier if she wasn’t on the front row and all those other women weren’t behind her able to see her every move. She wished she hadn’t given in to vanity and put on the shoes; it made it look as if she knew what she was doing.
Doris certainly didn’t seem to care as with a joyful chortle she began to sing, ‘Ay, ay, carumba’, her hips moving with a snake-like fluidity that belied her age and sent the lemon chiffon whipping through the air. Ella had no idea whether it was a salsa song or not and she suspected that neither did Doris.
‘Come on. You.’ Doris poked her in the ribs. Hard. Bony fingers arcing with precision to the tender spot right between the ribs.
‘Come on, artist girl. Show us what you’re made of. Those shoes deserve a proper outing.’ With a shimmy of bony shoulders, sending the sequins twinkling, Doris danced round her.
‘Nice moves, but come on, loosen up those hips, now. Stiff as a board, you are.’ She placed bony fingers on Ella’s hips, twisting them this way and that.
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 an exhibition 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 like Dirty 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 Bets trying 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.
‘I take it salsa was a hit.’
‘So much fun,’ enthused Ella, demonstrating with a few quick steps, still wearing her red shoes. ‘I loved it.’
Bets dropped her bottle on the table in front of him. ‘Old snake hips. What a laugh. You’ve got to hand it to her, Audrey gets some good things organised, although I could do without the blinking dog agility thing.’
‘Hmm,’ said Devon dubiously. ‘I’m doing my best to keep my head down, but I think she’s starting to ramp up her campaign. I’ve tried to lay it on thick about how busy I am.’
‘What does dog agility entail?’ asked Ella, taking a long slug of beer. Devon watched the smooth column of her neck as she chugged straight from the bottle with evident enjoyment. It was as if someone had a lit a candle inside her; she glowed.
Ella turned to Bets. ‘I’ve got visions of aerobics for dogs. Seriously?’
‘No, I build a course of jumps and tunnels and gates. The dogs have to go through the course. Except they often get a bit excited by the crowd and other dogs, so don’t behave, run off, go the wrong way around the course. It would be hilarious, except I’m supposed to keep some sort of score, and lots of the kids enter and then I get irate parents challenging the result. Tiger moms.’
‘I think I might have got off lightly. Apparently I’m doing the tombola.’
‘Lucky you,’ said Bets. ‘I’d love to do the tombola. Dead easy. And what’s this about a talk to the WI?’
Ella suddenly frowned. ‘I was hoping to get out of that, and to be honest I’d forgotten. She collared me in the hospital when I was visiting George.’ An expression of sheer panic suddenly blossomed in her eyes. ‘How does she do that?’
‘It’s called the Audrey Factor,’ said Devon fondly. ‘She’s an irresistible force of nature that you just don’t mess with. And I should know, I’ve had to put up with it all my life.’
Bets shot an apologetic glance his way before saying, ‘With Audrey there’s no getting out of anything, you’re committed now.’
‘That’s what I was afraid of. What the hell am I going to talk about for an hour? I’ve got nothing to say.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Devon chipped in. ‘Of course you have. How did you get started? How do you come up with the ideas? You can talk about the flamenco pictures.’ He winked, reminding her of how he’d caught her dancing.
She rolled her eyes at him.
‘You can talk about how you work? You know draw, dance, draw.’
Ignoring his teasing, she worried at a loose thread at the bottom of her shirt. ‘I’m not sure that it’s going to be terribly interesting.’
‘Rubbish. If you talk with enthusiasm and passion, you can make anything interesting.’
‘But standing there talking is a bit dull.’
‘You could give them a demonstration. Do a dance.’
Bets raised an intrigued eyebrow. ‘What’s with the dancing?’
‘It’s a long story,’ said Ella glaring at him, although there was a twinkle in her eye. ‘Will you shut up with the dancing. You caught me once. I don’t normally work like that.’
‘You should. It looked like fun.’ He sobered. ‘Seriously. You drew that sketch in the pub pretty quickly, as I recall. Make it interactive.’
Ella paused. That might be fun.
‘I’ve got an idea!’ She grabbed a beer mat and fished a pen out of her bag. ‘Think of a hat.’
‘What?’ Devon and Bets looked at each other, puzzled.
‘A hat.’
‘Perfect.’ With quick deft strokes, she sketched Cuthbert wearing one looped around his neck.
‘Wow, that’s amazing. You’ve even captured the John Wayne bow-legged look.’
Ella beamed. ‘That’s what I’ll do. I’ll get the audience to suggest different hats. And it will give me plenty of material for the future. And I could display some of my pictures – I’ve got loads in storage. And seven of them are already framed. I’ll need to get a couple more done, so that I can do a bit of a display. I can probably buy a few nice frames with mounts, although time’s a bit tight.’
‘Bets and I could pitch in to help. If you just bought a job lot of frames in IKEA, they wouldn’t be expensive.’
‘That’s a brilliant idea. The original illustrations can be cut down easily to fit as they’re all on A4 cartridge paper.’ Ella frowned. ‘Although I’m not sure how I’ll get them out here. I don’t fancy taking Magda’s car into London and I can’t carry them on the train.’
‘That’s easy,’ said Devon. ‘I’m going into London on Tuesday. You’d get them all in the Volvo. Where’s your storage?’
‘It’s just off the North Circular in London.’
‘Perfect. I can drive you there and park the car and then get a Tube into central London. I’m going to see a vet friend of mine. You can come and meet him. Nice chap. We could grab some lunch together.’
‘Thanks. That would be great.’
‘OK. We’ll need to leave earlyish. I expect we could persuade Bets to have both dogs for the day.’ He flashed Bets a smile, knowing it was a rare day she turned down a chance for a dog fix. ‘Shall I pick you up about eight? Then we’ll miss the worst of the traffic in town.’