The Good Time Girls at Christmas by Fiona Ford

Author:Fiona Ford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction
Published: 2022-08-23T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Five

As Harry Leder’s band played an easy standard, Temperance swayed her hips in time to the music as she waited to step onto the dance floor. Not, this time, in her capacity as pen manager, but as an exhibition dancer! To say she was nervous was an understatement. She had only ever danced publicly with Archie once before, at the fundraising competition back in September. And although they had won, she couldn’t forget the terrible consequences of that day. She had lost her brother and her world had upended itself in a heartbeat.

Now, as she stood in the corridor waiting to go on with Archie, she felt a mix of emotions coursing through her body. Though she couldn’t wait to show off her skills and have Archie hold her in his arms, she was scared of what was waiting for her on the other side.

‘It’s going to be fine,’ Archie promised.

He reached for her hand, lifted it to his lips and kissed her knuckles.

Temperance felt herself blushing. ‘You don’t know that.’

Archie gave her a teasing frown. ‘Temp, I am telling you, lightning doesn’t strike twice. You and I are going to walk out there and dance like we’ve never danced before, and to rapturous applause. Then we’re going to have a drink in the bar to celebrate, and that will be it.’

Temperance couldn’t help smiling. She had confided her fears to Archie earlier that day, half expecting him to laugh at her. But he hadn’t, he had been sweet, kind, understanding and attentive. Archie was convinced that nothing was going to go wrong, that the evening would be nothing short of a success. Temperance really hoped he was right. She glanced at him now. Archie Ledbetter was so easy on the eye, with his filmstar smile and the twinkle in his eyes. The wonderful thing about him was that he didn’t seem to know how good-looking he was. Even if he did, Temperance reckoned he was far too modest to exploit it.

She was taking a few calming breaths when the opening notes to the dance she and Archie were performing started to play. Feeling excited butterflies in her stomach, Temperance smiled nervously at Archie as he reached for her hand and then led her across the dance floor.

The first thing she saw was the lights hitting the replica fountain. The next thing was the sheer volume of people. At the sight of so many dancers with smiling faces, Temperance felt the last of her nerves begin to subside. They all wanted her to succeed as much as she did, and it was wonderful for the Palais to have so many faces enjoying a dance. Temperance knew that this was exactly what Nancy had hoped when she’d planned the Valentine’s dance.

She searched the sea of faces, hoping to find her manager and friend, but, to her surprise, Nancy was nowhere to be found. Nor was Renee. The only well-wisher she could see easily was Maisie, who gave a her huge thumbs-up amid the applause.

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