All the Romance You Need This Christmas: 5-Book Festive Collection. Romy Sommer

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СКАЧАТЬ let you know your partners now,” Bob ploughed on, “so you can make arrangements for rehearsals. Remember it’s in only seven weeks so time is of the essence!”

      “Uffern dan!” Julia heard from Harri, all his boyish twinkly humour gone.

      She closed her eyes and whispered a little prayer. “Please don’t let my partner be Callum. Please don’t let it be Callum!” She wasn’t sure she could put up with his groping for the next seven weeks and there was something about his huge oafishness that was very off-putting. “I’ll do most things for charity but not that.”

      “Sorry?” Harri leaned a little closer, to hear better over the noise in the room.

      Julia blinked, she hadn’t realised she’d said it out loud. “I said I didn’t know this was in the contract.”

      “It wasn’t, but there were rumours they had something up their sleeve for this year. I just hope I don’t get -”

      She never heard who Harri didn’t want as a partner as Bob began to read out the new non professional dancing partnerships. “Lavinia, you’ll be partnered with Sam.”

      Julia looked over to where Lavinia stood with Charlie and Carol the presenters of the show. Sam was a Liverpudlian comedian known for his coarse humour. Lavinia didn’t look happy.

      “Casey, you’ll be partnered with Ted.” Casey looked equally displeased.

      “Callum, you’ll be with Suni.”

      Julia felt a pang of sympathy for Suni, an elegant celebrity TV cook and then heaved a sigh of relief as she realised she’d been spared Callum’s groping fingers. She was so busy being relieved that she missed the next few announcements.

      “And finally, as I’m sure you’ll have worked out by now, the last two celebrities not allocated partners are Julia and Harri.” Bob beamed at them. “So they will be dancing together. That’s all. Have a wonderful evening. Any questions address them to Maria, my assistant. And, don’t forget – who dares dances!” With this, Bob hurried from the studio.

      Coward, thought Julia. Drop the bombshell and run off. She turned to look at Harri. “Well, not too bad for us I suppose?” She looked questioningly up at him.

      “I think we’ll work together alright won’t we? But whether we’ll be able to dance mind, that’s another story.” He winked, his humour obviously restored.

      To Julia’s pleasure, he sounded relieved. She could do a lot worse than spend time with this man she thought.

      “Like some food?” he asked her cheerfully. “I’m going to get some, I’m starving, been filming all day, see.”

      She nodded and watched him as he made his way over to the table where a buffet was being laid. He had a good pair of shoulders and a neat set of hips. And his bottom was, well quite frankly, it was gorgeous. Yes, she could do a lot worse.

       Step Two.

      They were all back in the studio the following day. It was show day and last minute dress rehearsals had begun at nine, except for Lavinia who showed up two hours later much to the annoyance of Warren. Julia had left the party early with Harri; they’d shared a cab home, as he lived not far from her in north London. They agreed they’d both had a long day and wanted to call it a night.

      And now, thought Julia, it all starts in earnest. She looked around the studio – the same room that they had partied in last night. All remnants of the party had disappeared and there was workmanlike mood this morning. It reminded her of her days in the theatre, of dress rehearsals, of the buzzy adrenalin-filled quality of the atmosphere.

      She was nervous but excited. She and Jan were going to dance a waltz and she was pleased it was a reasonably simple routine. She’d found it hard to memorise the steps and was completely reliant on Jan leading her round. He did so with barely concealed Russian impatience, swearing quietly whenever she did something wrong - which was often. He scared her a little. She worked best with encouragement and praise and his arrogant bullying wasn’t making for an ideal partnership.

      She watched enviously as Daniel and Casey cruised round the floor in an American smooth. Daniel Cunningham was as tall and as good lookingly blonde as Jan but was much kinder and encouraging and, as a result, Casey was already dancing with impressive skill.

      “They’re good aren’t they?” a Welsh voice whispered in her ear.

      She turned and smiled at Harri. “They are. Do you think they’ll win?”

      He shrugged. “They might. But my money’s on Scott and Suni.” He nodded to where the couple were trying out some of the moves to their quickstep. “Scott’s determined to win, He’s incredibly competitive and Suni is ….” he trailed off as he looked at them.

      “So graceful,” she finished for him. “Yes, she is isn’t she?” Julia blew out a breath.

      “Something wrong?”

      “Just wondering what I’m doing here, that’s all. I’ve discovered I’ve got two left feet.”

      Harri grinned. “Not from where I was watching. You and Jan look great together.”

      “Only because he’s lugging me round. Still at least the long dress will cover any wrong steps! It’s got so many feathers sewn onto it you can’t actually see me.”

      “Wish I had the same sort of costume,” Harri laughed. “Poor Eva’s given up on me ever being able to move my hips.”

      “You’ve got a hard dance to start with, haven’t you? I wouldn’t fancy doing the salsa so early on in the competition.” Julia made a sympathetic face.

      “Yup, Eva’s one hell of a taskmaster. Bullied me into submission so I agreed to do it. But if I go wrong I can at least make a bit up, it’s not as technical as their dance.” He gestured again to Suni and Scott.

      “Agreed. Jan’s the same, a terrific bully.” She sighed.

      “I suppose that’s what it takes to get to the top of their field. Total dedication and one hundred percent competitiveness.” Harri regarded her thoughtfully.

      “Yes, but he could be nicer about it … oh hello Jan!” she said brightly as the man in question came up to them.

      “No time,” he wagged a finger at them, “no time for gossip. We work. Now!” He snatched at Julia’s hand and marched her to the dance floor.

      Harri watched her go and raised a hand as she pulled a silly face back at him. He liked her. He’d seen her on stage last year and had liked her ever since.

      She’d been brilliant. It was the first night of a Noel Coward play and she was brittle and arch and poignant, all the things that Coward demanded. He was relieved, when he met her briefly at the after show party, that she was none of those things in real life. She was actually funny and self deprecating and quite shy.

      They’d chatted and then he was dragged off to another party. He left reluctantly; he’d enjoyed talking to her.

      Now, as he watched her being swung smoothly round the dance floor by her Russian giant of a partner, he decided СКАЧАТЬ