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    Dancing Feet
    Dancing Feet
    Dancing Feet
    Ebook75 pages1 hour

    Dancing Feet

    By Tabitha Ormiston-Smith

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    About this ebook

    Ashley is devastated when her widowed father returns from his business trip with a new wife and her two daughters in tow. Pushed to one side by the interlopers, can she make a new life for herself?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTabitha Ormiston-Smith
    Release dateOct 20, 2017
    ISBN9781370940547
    Dancing Feet
    Author

    Tabitha Ormiston-Smith

    Tabitha Ormiston-Smith was born and continues to age. Dividing her time between her houses in Melbourne and the country, she is ably assisted in her editing business and her other endeavours by Ferret, the three-legged bandit.

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      Book preview

      Dancing Feet - Tabitha Ormiston-Smith

      DANCING FEET

      Tabitha Ormiston-Smith

      Copyright Tabitha Ormiston-Smith 2017

      Smashwords edition

      This edition is dedicated to the memory of Leo Schafer.

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to www.smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      DANCING FEET

      The last thing, the very last thing Ashley Morrison expected that Wednesday evening was to lose her teacher. She had arrived at the Firebird School of Dance, as she always did, a comfortable fifteen minutes before her lesson started, giving herself time to change her shoes and warm up. The only worry on her mind was how bitchy her teacher, Antonio, was going to be tonight. He could be savage if anything displeased him, or even if it didn’t. Sometimes it was as if he just felt like being spiteful for no reason.

      She was surprised to see Mr Valentino emerge from his office in close conversation with another man, and even more surprised when they walked over and sat down beside her.

      Evening, Ashley. I’m afraid there have been some changes. Antonio has left us. He went on, smoothly talking through her gasp of consternation. This is Adriano Mantarro. Adriano will be taking over Antonio’s students. Adriano, this is Ashley. She’s the gold medal student I told you about.

      Ashley could feel herself blushing crimson as she shook hands with the new teacher. Damn, now he’d think she fancied him. She hated that she always turned bright red in social situations. She wasn’t all that keen on very good-looking people, either. In her experience, they were often not very nice. All the nastiest girls at her school were the prettiest ones, and Antonio, who looked like a stone angel, had on a bad day been right up there with Cruella DeVil. Her private nickname for him had, in fact, been Cruella. She hoped Adriano wouldn’t be another like him. He certainly was handsome enough, in a Botticelli kind of way.

      Adriano led the way onto the dance floor and held out his arms. Let’s just have a dance to start with. She crossed the floor and took up her frame, full of misgivings.

      The music playing was a slow waltz, the easiest of the five styles she would perform for her gold medal. Perhaps not the easiest really, but she had started with it; it had been the first ballroom dance she learned, and long familiarity, combined with the slow, rocking cadences of the music, had given the dance in Ashley’s mind something of the comfort of a warm, fleecy blanket. As the soothing rhythm warmed her, she felt her initial tension drain away. Perhaps it would be alright.

      As they danced Adriano, unlike the snooty Cruella, kept up a stream of friendly chat. Where did she go to school, what was she planning to do after school, did she like cats. He described his own cat at some length, and was encouraging about her plans to attend the prestigious Melbourne Dance Academy and qualify as a teacher herself. Almost without noticing it, Ashley found herself talking easily and comfortably to a stranger, a thing that had never happened before. She told him about losing her mother to cancer the year before, and how her mother’s deerhound had almost pined away, but had eventually rallied and started eating again. She told him all about the hound Dalrymple, his cleverness, his immense size and gentleness. Adriano took all this in with seeming interest. He was a cat man himself, he said, and described how he had found his own cat, a half-starved scrawny kitten, sheltering from the rain under his car one morning, and might have run over it, only for the fact he’d dropped his keys and stooped to pick them up. A lucky escape, he said, for both of them. By the time the lesson ended, she felt as easy with him as if she’d known him all her life. They’d danced all of the five dances she would perform for her medal, and Adriano had a list of things they were to work on in the next lesson. She rode her bike home with a warm glow of satisfaction.

      Ashley usually stayed for Group Class after her Wednesday lesson, but this time she had a Mission. Her father had called the night before to say he’d be arriving home that evening from his trip. He had a big surprise for her, he had said. She was pretty sure it would be the expensive dancing shoes she’d been coveting.

      Dallie met her at the door, standing up to wrap his arms around her neck, his massive tail swinging like a pendulum. She buried her nose in his fur, breathing in his clean, dry-grass scent as he wuffled into her ear and dabbed her face with whiskery kisses. Then she pushed him gently down. Off you get, Deery McDeerface. We’ve got a lot to do before Dad gets home.

      She had cleaned the house after school, and set the table, using the best lace tablecloth in honour of the festive occasion.

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