A Girl’s Best Friend by Jules Wake

Author:Jules Wake [Wake, Jules]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780751571066
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

‘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

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