Starlight on the Palace Pier: The very best kind of romance for the Christmas season in 2018. Tracy Corbett

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ balance.

      Cassie lifted the wrong leg.

      And Mi-Sun fell over.

      Becca rushed over to pick her up. ‘Are you okay?’

      The woman nodded.

      ‘Let’s try again, shall we?’ Becca stood next to Mi-Sun, one eye on Nick and Cassie behind her. ‘Lift your foot, swing it forwards, brush it on the floor.’

      Nick accidently kicked Cassie.

      Cassie lifted the wrong leg.

      And Mi-Sun almost fell over.

      Did that count as progress? Becca wasn’t sure.

      ‘Try again,’ she said, as they attempted to copy her. ‘That’s it. Don’t let your heel touch the floor, Nick. And again.’

      After ten minutes of practice, and aware that Miriam and Wanda were bored, Becca resumed her position at the front. ‘Now you’ve all mastered the brush,’ she managed to say, without any hint of irony, ‘let’s move on to the strike. This is simply the same movement in reverse. You swing your foot backwards, instead of forwards. Then we build up speed so that it looks like this.’ She did a quick demonstration, pleased to note that her knee didn’t object too much. ‘Can you see what I’m doing? Brush, strike, brush, strike.’

      Several attempts were being made to replicate the move, but none of them looked anything like a shuffle.

      Nick lost his balance.

      Cassie got her feet entangled.

      And Mi-Sun fell over.

      Becca sighed.

      It was going to be a long evening.

      *

      By the time she got home, she was mentally exhausted. Her plan to cover how to do a step-ball change and a buffalo step had gone completely out of the window. They’d spent the entire hour trying to master the shuffle…and failing. Despite her constant coaxing and reassurances that they were making progress, her pupils remained unconvinced. And with good cause. She’d never realised teaching involved so much lying.

      What had become evident during the hour-long session was that whereas Miriam and Wanda didn’t suffer from a lack of confidence – or opinions, for that matter – their enthusiasm far outweighed their skill levels. Nick and Cassie were acutely self-conscious, body-conscious and painfully shy, and poor Mi-Sun had absolutely no coordination. She was like a drunk Bambi…on ice.

      Collectively, the group had the core strength of gravy and the flexibility of iron piping. Becca had been completely out of her depth. She was just grateful that once again Carolyn hadn’t been there to witness the car crash; she’d gone to bed early with a mysterious ‘virus’.

      Becca let herself into the guest house, surprised when it looked like no one else was home. She found her mother and cousin upstairs in Jodi’s bedroom trying to fix a leak in the en suite.

      Her mum was gripping a pair of pliers, trying to turn off the tap, which didn’t appear to be budging. Her cheeks were flushed and her hair was sticking up all over the place.

      Becca leant against the doorframe. ‘Problem?’

      ‘What gave you that impression?’ The pliers slipped off the tap and banged against the splashback. Her mum whacked the sink in annoyance.

      Jodi’s expression indicated all was not well.

      Becca reached over and patted her mum’s back. Hardly the most useful of responses, but she felt something was needed. ‘Can I help?’

      Her mum moved out of the way. ‘Be my guest.’ She stretched out her back, grimacing as she did so. Becca supposed it was times like this that her mum missed her dad. He’d been such a competent handyman.

      She picked up the pliers. Having lived in a shared house with a landlord who’d never carried out any repairs, she was used to getting her hands dirty.

      Jodi edged away, not trusting her cousin to be any less lethal than her aunt. ‘How did the tap class go?’

      Becca pulled a face. ‘About as well as the ballet class.’

      ‘That good?’

      ‘Like herding cats.’

      There was a knock on the door. ‘There’s quite a bit of noise coming from up here,’ Mrs Busby called from the hallway. ‘The doctor and I are trying to watch Frost.’

      Her mum slumped onto the toilet seat.

      ‘David Jason is such a good actor, don’t you think?’ The old woman shuffled into the bedroom. ‘Pardon my intrusion, but it would be a shame to miss it.’

      Her mum forced a smile. ‘Apologies, Mrs Busby, but we have a leak. I’ll get it fixed as soon as possible.’

      ‘Oh, dear. That won’t do.’ Mrs Busby looked down at the wet floor. ‘The doctor was very disappointed there was no suet pudding for supper tonight. It is Wednesday, after all.’

      Becca jumped in before her mother said something she’d regret. ‘Sorry about that, Mrs B. As you can see, we’re a little busy. Why don’t you go back and finish watching the telly, and we’ll try not to make so much noise?’ She shut the en suite door, hoping the old lady would take the hint.

      She did, not before commenting, ‘Why you don’t telephone a plumber, I don’t know.’

      Becca watched her mother grip hold of the edge of the loo seat. ‘Does she have any idea how much a plumber would charge to come out at this time of night?’

      Not for the first time, Becca wondered if her mum was having money problems. She didn’t like to keep asking, but she couldn’t help if her mum refused to tell her what was up.

      ‘So what went wrong at the tap class?’ Jodi asked, tactfully changing topic.

      Becca twisted the tap, but it wouldn’t budge. ‘It would be easier to tell you what went right. I couldn’t even get them to pick up the basic steps. And there were only five of them. How on earth am I going to cope with a class full? It seems wrong to take Carolyn’s money. It’s like I’m defrauding her.’ She gripped the pliers around the tap and twisted.

      ‘So what are you going to do?’

      ‘Quit.’ The pliers slipped off the tap. ‘Shit.’

      ‘Oh, that’s mature. Is that how you dealt with adversity when you were a dancer?’

      Becca twisted the tap again. This time it shifted a fraction. ‘It’s different.’

      ‘How so? You wouldn’t expect to perform in a show without rehearsing, so why would you expect to teach a class without training?’

      The tap slowly began to move. ‘Exactly. I have no training.’

      ‘So you’ve got a bit of catching up to do. Suck СКАЧАТЬ