Swept off Her Feet (33 page)

Oh, God, she was coaching me from the side.

In a panic, I started turning on the spot, in the opposite direction to everyone else. It was a bit lame, but there was a cheer anyway, more so when I got bold and raised a hand over my head. Then Fraser’s strong hand reached out and caught me for the set and turn, and when he spun me, he swung me so precisely in front of Sir Hamish that I didn’t miss a beat.

Sir Hamish smiled encouragingly and turned me with decorous care, and then Fraser and Sir Hamish and I were scuttling round in the figure eight. The lilting music hustled us
along, and without warning the tightness started to unwind from my chest. This time, as the circle turned, I spun with one hand on my hip and the other in the air, and when I stepped toward Robert, I was smiling so hard I could feel it on my face.

The
reel
was making me do it. It was taking over somehow, moving my feet without me having to think. There was something so flirty about the set and turn that I couldn’t help flashing a cheeky wink from under my lashes as Robert and I swung our shoulders, and I could have sworn when he turned me, he trailed his fingers along the inside of my wrist as he steered me toward Duncan.

My feet and my head and my heart were light. It was so simple, yet so satisfying, to move in time with the music, to feel as if the music was helping me, not trying to trip me up. I stepped back and took Fraser’s and Duncan’s hands, and we carried on like clockwork.

My heart hammered, but the nerves and the enjoyment were mingling like the most intoxicating cocktail. And best of all, Robert in the middle meant I was free to stare at him, long-limbed and handsome in his white tie. He could have stepped out of any of the portraits in the house, and in just a few moments he’d be turning to me, and holding out his hand with that invitation in his eyes, and …

My gaze lingered a second too long. Robert turned faster than I expected and caught me looking right at him. A slow smile spread over his face, and a hot, hot flush erupted deep inside me.

That did it. I didn’t think there was any misinterpreting that.

I was so busy trying to cover my confusion that I didn’t really take proper notice of the disturbance behind me until a
hand grabbed my upper arm and pulled me out of the circle, and a body slid neatly into my place between Fraser and Duncan, leaving me outside.

Whoever it was, her timing was perfect, because on the next beat the circle closed up again and the eight started going around to the left, with Sir Hamish now in the middle.

I staggered backward, nearly tripping on the person behind me. Who the hell was that? Laura Learmont? Janet Learmont? How far would these Learmonts
go
to make sure I didn’t mess things up?

My cheeks burned.
Had
I messed things up? I’d thought I was doing fine.

As the circle turned, a funny ripple effect started on the faces of the other ballgoers. Shocked expressions, confusion, and in some cases amusement flickered up as one by one they got a look at the interloper.

I craned my neck to see who it was, but I was in the wrong place, and painfully conscious that the people who weren’t staring at the new dancer in the reel were now gawping at me. All I could see was the flash of a long yellow dress and long arms.

“Well done, Evie. You did yourself proud.” A hand patted my shoulder. I turned round to see Sheila flanked by her husband, now looking like a ceremonial bald eagle in a kilt.

“Have I just been sent off?” I gasped. “Who is that? Is that Laura?”

Sheila looked surprised. “No. Can you not see who it is?”

I peered as the new girl set and turned Robert. “No,” I began, “I don’t—Oh, my God.”

The long flailing arms should have given it away: as Robert tried to spin her, she gave him a nasty thwack in the chest and turned awkwardly to reveal her face to me.

It was Alice. And for some reason, she was wearing a gigantic diamanté eye patch.

“Alice?”

I said out loud. “Indeed.” Sheila’s voice was dry. “Her ankle seems to be holding up all right. But did she injure her eye at the same time? You never said.”

Robert, Fraser, and Alice lurched round each other in the figure eight. Fraser and Robert, I could tell, were using the move as a chance to get a better look at her bizarre accessory. She actually wasn’t that easy to look at straight-on; their position right underneath the huge crystal chandelier meant that the diamantés were flashing dazzling beams of light right across the room.

“That? Oh, um, it’s her style signature,” I improvised. “She often wears one to big events.”

“Is that a London fashion?” asked Kenneth. He sounded bemused.

“Yes,” I said. “Well, no. Oh, look, Sheila, Fraser’s in the middle.”

That distracted her instantly, and her clan sash lifted with pride as Fraser took his turn in the center, leaping up and down and making wild shapes with his arms (“He’s impersonating a rutting stag”) while the men in the room let out weird whooping
Yaaarrrrp
s of approval (“It’s traditional”).

And then he singled out Alice for her set and turn. Mad as I was with my sister, I had to admit that she and Fraser made a really handsome couple.

Alice’s height somehow worked in a ballgown, and she was gazing up into Fraser’s eyes, her face rosy with a sort of shy adoration I’d never really seen on her before. Fraser meanwhile looked as if his rugby team had won on the same day that
Scotland qualified for the World Cup and the tax on wine and spirits was abolished. Her ridiculous shenanigans of the last few days were clearly forgotten in his undisguised pleasure to see her.

The music shifted up a gear, and he steered her with old-fashioned courtesy; as she turned, her eyes traveled over her shoulder to stay with him as he moved across the circle to In-grid.

She really loves him,
I thought.
And he totally loves her.
In that moment, I realized what Alice had meant when she’d said I only ever had crushes on men I couldn’t have. That soul-warming glow I felt when I was near Fraser wasn’t a proper emotion; it was just a reflection of what they had. A breathing, caring relationship.

I didn’t feel jealous of Alice having Fraser. I was
glad
she had Fraser, and that Fraser had her. I watched them turning their shoulders to pass in the figure eight, eyes following each other greedily.

Then I spotted that Robert was looking at me, and another wave of intense longing rushed through me; it made the crush I’d had on Fraser feel like vanilla ice cream. Melted ice cream, at that.

Sheila nudged me. “Just as well I managed to pick up my mother’s engagement ring from Berwick earlier this week.” She gave me a stagy wink. “I hope Kirstie didn’t get the wrong idea about the box. . . .”

“It could be an expensive night for Janet Learmont,” said Kenneth unexpectedly. He nodded toward the reel, and I saw what he meant: Catriona was holding Robert’s hand with a proprietorial smile, her neck arched as if she knew everyone around her was whispering about the old tradition.

He wasn’t looking at her, though. He was only looking in two directions: at me, or into space.

I saw Janet on the other side of the circle. Her eyes were fixed on the dancing, but she was nodding to a couple of very aristocratic ladies with diamond brooches on their sashes. I could virtually hear the words
wedding registry at Jenners
forming on her pink lips.

The evening was already half over, I thought with a pang. The dinner, the first reel—done. Now it would be downhill fast to “Auld Lang Syne,” and then I’d be on my way home, in jeans and Max’s car. I wanted to cling to every single moment.

Fraser was the last man to dance, and the band was speeding up as the reel drew to a thundering close, the spectators urging them on. All four couples spun in perfect time, the ladies flowing as if on invisible wheels, the men stepping flamboyantly round them. White hands flew up and were clasped by stronger ones, skirts swirled, hair floated out behind.

And then there was a loud final chord, and it was over. Alice sank into a deep curtsy to Fraser, a graceful action spoiled only when she tried to stand up, not realizing she was treading on her own hem. He grabbed her before she could slip, and turned it into a hug of welcome.

Good job he had strong arms—he’d be doing that a lot over the next forty years, I thought.

As the rest of the crowd swarmed onto the floor to repeat the reel in their own sets of eight, I made my way over to Alice, now explaining herself to a bewildered but happy Fraser.

Robert and Catriona were diplomatically ignoring the tricky conversation going on next to them, and were instead congratulating Duncan and Ingrid and the visiting dignitaries.
When they saw me, Robert’s eyes lit up, and he reached out a hand to guide me through the crowd.

“Evie! That was some impeccable reeling. Wasn’t it, Cat?”

Catriona smiled, as she could afford to now that it had all gone off without me head-butting Duncan. “It was a strong seven out of ten for me.”

“Seven out of ten?”

“Well, she didn’t finish the reel, did she?”

“Yes, well, I need to talk to Alice about that,” I said, grabbing Alice’s arm. “Can I have a quick word? Sorry, Fraser, you can have her back in a moment.”

I pulled her through the circles of dancers forming as the rest of the guests prepared to repeat the same reel. The room seemed very small now that it was filled with warm bodies, and we had to weave our way out into the empty hall.

“Limp!” I hissed.

“I was
not
! I was very good!”

“No,
limp
. You’re meant to have sprained your—Oh, forget it, just hurry up.” I came to a stop underneath the portrait of Wyndham McAndrew in his powdered wig and with matching spaniels. “What on earth are you doing with that ridiculous eye patch? You look like Long John Silver, the Studio 54 years.”

Alice had only one eye to glower with, but she really only needed one. “What else was I supposed to do? You told them I had an
eye
infection.”

“No I didn’t.” I boggled at her. “Why would that stop you dancing?”

“You tell me! You’re the one who left the message.” She pulled a
me
face. “ ‘Alice, you selfish cow, just FYI, you’ve got chronic conjunctivitis that has laid you up—’ ”

“Tendinitis!” I roared. “I told them you had an old
dancing
injury that had flared up! Don’t you ever listen to anything I say?”

“Oh!” said Alice. “I didn’t think it was one of your better on-the-spot fibs. Tendinitis . . . Anyway, it’s growing on me.” She admired her reflection in the speckled mirror opposite. She still had that peachy glow about her from Fraser’s welcome. “Bit David Bowie, bit Lady Gaga.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” I demanded. “I thought the trains had been canceled from Newcastle!”

“Tell me about it. Do you know what time I left Clapham this morning? Six! I’ve never been on so much public transport in my life. Train, cab, bus, tractor . . .
bigger
tractor. I had to negotiate pretty hard to get here in time.” She nodded at me. “And you don’t want to know where I got changed. There is a shed with a
very
surprised gardener in it.”

I had no trouble picturing Alice urging some poor unsuspecting farmer through the drifts, Dr. Zhivago hat and all.

“And at no point in all this—this cavorting—did you think to ring me and let me know I should do a one-eighty turnabout in my covering-up-for-you strategy?” I spluttered. “It’s not like I’ve spent the last couple of days tying myself in knots!”

Alice grabbed my hands. “Oh, listen, I
am
sorry. You
were
right, that’s why I’m here. I
have
been really, really stupid.”

She paused, and I basked in a rare moment of Alice apologizing, and in such a beautiful, cinematic setting.

“I thought of what you said about Fraser, and about how he might get the wrong idea and be hurt, and then I thought of you and how lonely . . .” She trailed off, then restarted more diplomatically. “I’ve been seeing Zoe, the therapist Mum refers
sensitive clients to, and she said I had to reset my relationship parameters.”

“What does that mean in English?”

“We have to stop believing that we’re doomed to be as boring as Mum and Dad.” Alice shook my hands for emphasis. “We don’t have to be like them! I didn’t sleep a wink last night, making a list of pros and cons, and then I got up and thought,
Right,
I’m going to tell Fraser exactly how I feel about him, even the stuff he does that really winds me up, like the sock issue, and—”

“Too much information,” I interrupted, but her eyes were shining and she wasn’t listening. From the expression on her upturned face, Alice seemed to be hearing my own imaginary strings of emotional climax. There was something in the atmosphere at Kettlesheer, clearly.

“—then I realized that making lists was the whole problem. I don’t need a list. I just need Fraser!”

“I’m so happy for you!” I roared, mainly to make her stop talking. “Come here!” And I grabbed her in a massive hug, and we jumped up and down a bit together, which made a lot of secured ornaments rattle.

“So, what about you and Robert?” Alice demanded, breaking free.

“Me and Robert?” I gabbled. “Nothing.”

“I’m not stupid, Evie,”
said Alice in a much more familiar managerial tone.

The blush that gave the pair of us away was sweeping over my neck and up my face like I’d been dipped in dye.

“He was staring at you the entire time you were dancing. Wasn’t I right about stepping out of your comfort zone? Good on you! Robert is miles out of your usual league, no offense!”

“No, hang on, he hasn’t—we’re not—”

She grabbed me by the shoulders, the mad light of zeal in her eye. “Tonight, the Nicholson sisters
do it for themselves
!”

“No, no, no.” I shook my head emphatically. I actually preferred Alice buttoned-up and in control. “Robert has a girlfriend. You know, Catriona—um, the girl he was dancing with?”

“So? You were
born
to live in a castle. Think of the space you’d have for your collections!”