Fairy Godmothers, Inc

EIGHT



Moving Along


Thursday, naturally, took a small eternity to get through. Had the ambassador’s rambling stretch the meeting out for yet another five minutes, Jon was ready to hit the man over the head with a piece of statuary and bury him behind the palace.

As it was, Jon was still a full twenty-five minutes later than he should have been. He finally arrived outside Rellie’s house, breathing harder than was dignified, barely biting back frustration at himself and the universe in general. Kate was no longer at the meeting place they’d decided on, but there was a faint, reassuring glow coming from one of the back windows suggesting she hadn’t yet wrapped up her work for the evening.

Steeling himself to deliver whatever apologies Kate felt were necessary before she’d forgive him, Jon climbed to the top of the decorative wall in the backyard. Opening the bag he’d brought with him, he carefully dropped down to the other side and took a few steps toward the house. When he heard the expected warning growl, he dumped the leftover chicken he’d brought on the ground and headed quickly toward the backdoor in the desperate hope that they’d remember to leave it unlocked for him.

The dog wouldn’t eat forever, after all, and Jon didn’t think he could handle Kate having to rescue him twice.

Thankfully, the door was unlocked and he made it inside with no further rescuing required. Jon began working out his introductory apology as he crept through the darkened kitchen toward the voices coming from behind the cloth-covered door. If he started out too dramatically she wouldn’t believe a word he said, but if he were too nonchalant she’d think being here on time hadn’t mattered to him.

As he knocked into a broom and sent it crashing to the floor, it became painfully clear that sneaking through the dark was not the best place for deep thought.

Jon went perfectly still as a pale hand reached out to yank the rag curtain aside, revealing Rellie fully decked out in her ball gown. At the sight of him, her huge violet eyes widened in satisfaction. “Mr. Assistant Guy is here!” she announced, loudly enough Jon winced. She turned to look back into her room, since Kate had apparently decided Jon’s belated arrival wasn’t worth getting up. Dammit, he knew he should have brought flowers.

At least he had something else to offer. “Yes, Mr. Assistant Guy is here,” he announced. “And as promised, plans are being made for a fancy dress ball even as we speak. I’ll make sure you get the details as soon as I have them.” When there was no response from Kate, it took effort to keep his voice cheerful. “Now, I seem to remember someone saying something about dance lessons?”

“Me!” Rellie raised her hand. “I told Kate you were going to show up. Can we start now, so I can see how the skirt gets all swirly when we spin around?”

Only silence followed the question, too complete not to be intentional. Jon shoved his hands in his pockets, fighting off the threads of panic that were starting to worm their way through his stomach. She couldn’t be that angry, could she? Being late was a regular risk of juggling a day full of meetings and reports, and he’d thought that of all people she would be the one to understand that. If she couldn’t—

Kate appeared in the doorway, staring at him over the top of Rellie’s head with something close to shock in her eyes. She opened her mouth, looking like she was about to say something, but after another moment of silence snapped it shut and went right back to staring at him.

Confused, Jon mentally reviewed the last ten minutes for anything he’d done that could have possibly put that expression on her face. “I didn’t think the outfit was that bad.” He kept his voice as light as possible, hoping to at least lessen some of the awkwardness. “If you’d like, I can go home and change before coming back.”

Rellie turned back to him. “That’s just being silly. If you went home, you’d be even later than you already are, and then we wouldn’t have any time to do any dancing at all!”

Jon’s attention stayed on Kate. She had blinked at the sound of his voice; the stunned look finally starting to fade out of her eyes as she took a deep breath. “You look . . . you look just fine,” she said. As she relaxed, the corners of her mouth curled upward into a small smile. Jon felt something in his own chest ease at the sight as he smiled back. “Are you sure you’re up for dancing lessons, though?”

Jon’s grin widened as he swept both women the courtliest bow Lawton had ever shown him. “Madame and milady, nothing would please me more than to lead two such fetching creatures around the nearest impromptu dance floor.” When he glanced up, Rellie had her arms folded across her chest, staring at him like he was nuts. Behind her, Kate was miming applause and looking like she was trying not to laugh.

Jon’s mood shot up another few notches.

Straightening, he followed Rellie into her sleeping area, gently touching Kate’s arm as soon as he was close enough. “I’m sorry I’m so late,” he murmured. “The ambassador wanted to cram in one more meeting before he left tomorrow morning, then decided that I had to hear the entire history of not only his country but also every person he’s ever met.”

Kate shook her head. “It’s okay,” she said quickly, wincing at something. She hesitated, then laid a hand against his upper arm. “Are you sure you have time to do this? I mean, I’m at least getting paid to be here, but it sounds like right now is your first chance to take a break after a day full of meetings.”

Jon studied her expression, doing his best to gauge exactly what Kate was trying to say. When he saw her face start to close off, he lifted her hand off his arm and brought it to his lips for a kiss. “I am taking a break,” he said, watching her eyes widen a little at the touch. “Though I will admit to fantasizing about having you keep me company through a few of those meetings.”

A second later the smile he’d been looking for was back on her face. “If you can teach Rellie how to dance without getting yourself killed, I’ll sit with you through however many meetings you want.” When he raised an eyebrow in question, her smile widened. “Rellie was showing me a few of her dance moves before you—”

Kate abandoned the rest of her sentence to grab his hand and yank him forward, moving him quickly enough only his ear was grazed by the wildly swinging arm that came twirling by. Faintly alarmed, Jon turned to see Rellie spinning madly around the tiny room, head thrown back and arms outstretched in total disregard of anything that might be in the way.

“Rellie.” When that seemed to have no effect, Kate increased her volume. “Rellie!”

Finally registering that someone was calling her name, Rellie stopped, dropping her arms to her sides as she looked at Jon and Kate with a brightly expectant expression. When she noticed Kate looking at her sternly, she scowled right back in frustration. “You guys were taking forever,” she insisted, lowering her voice only when Kate jabbed a finger upward where Rellie’s stepfamily presumably slept. Apparently, they’d had this conversation already. “I had to get started without you.”

Jon squeezed Kate’s hand once before stepping away from her. He had to get through this before he had a chance to talk Kate into a few lessons. “Well, now we’re all ready to get started.” He rubbed his hands together, taking a quick survey of the room he had to work with. Kate moved to sit on the bed and free up as much floor space as possible. “I thought we should begin with a basic version of the waltz,” he told Rellie. “It’s one of the easier dances, and if you alter the timing a little it’ll work with pretty much anything the palace musicians know how to play.”

“Okay.” The girl shrugged, then held her arms out to Jon. “Teach me.”

Grateful he’d never been responsible for giving Rupert any complicated lessons, Jon moved until they were at the appropriate dancing distance (close enough to get into position, but far enough Jon wasn’t at risk of being knocked over by Rellie’s skirt). Rellie still didn’t move, apparently confident that someone else would continue to know what needed to be done, so Jon was left to place Rellie’s left hand on his shoulder, taking her right hand in his. “This is the proper dance position,” he explained, deliberately making eye contact with Rellie in the hopes of getting her a little more involved in the proceedings. “Pretty much any time you step out onto a dance floor, this is the way you and your partner are going to be starting out.”

Rellie wrinkled her forehead. “But what if I don’t want to hold the guy’s hand?”

“You only have to worry about holding Prince Rupert’s hand,” Kate contributed from her perch on the bed. After a moment of consideration, she turned to Jon. “Is there anything particularly wrong with Prince Rupert’s hands? Sweatiness? Too strong a grip?”

“Well, having never actually held Rupert’s hand, I can’t really say for certain how pleasant the experience is.” Jon raised an eyebrow at Kate, who simply grinned in response. “But I have seen him dance with several women, and none of them seemed to have minded.”

Rellie nodded, satisfied with the answer. “Works for me. So, what do we do next?”

“Next,” Jon explained patiently, “you take a step back with your left foot.”

Rellie started to take a step back, then stopped. “Wait a minute.” She looked up at Jon. “Which one is my left foot?”

Jon took a deep breath, then shook their joined hands. “The one on this side.” Apparently, he’d have to wrap up this particular portion of the evening earlier than he’d expected if he wanted any time with Kate.

Rellie took the step back, still looking down as if she could see through her layers of skirt. “Like that?”

“Yes.” Jon took the corresponding step forward. “Now use your other foot to take one step back and to the right.”

Rellie looked back at him with skepticism. “If I step back and to the right, that’s two steps.”

“Not if you do it like this.” Jon demonstrated the step and waited while Rellie paced back in the same general direction. He followed through with his portion of the steps, then told Rellie to move her feet together.

Rellie raised her eyebrow. “This sounds a lot more like just walking around the floor than it does dancing.” There was a pause. “Are you sure you’re doing this right?”

Jon considered this for a moment before making an executive decision. It was a wise man who knew when to cut his losses, and it wasn’t like anyone else was going to even notice. “You’re barefoot, right?” When she nodded, he moved them both back to the dance’s first position. “Step on my feet.”

Rellie looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “I thought that was something you weren’t supposed to do when you were dancing with somebody.”

“It’s okay as long as you do it carefully and they give you permission.” Though the response didn’t seem to comfort her at all, she climbed onto his feet and Jon tightened his grip around her waist to keep her from falling. “Now, hold on.”

Slowly, he started to dance.

Even at a nice sedate speed, the first turn made Rellie shriek a little and cling to him as if he were dangling her over a cliff. After a few minutes, panic transformed into wide-eyed delight. “Look, Kate!” Rellie called out as Jon swept past, turning her head around as far as it would go to get a better look at her Fairy Godmother. “I’m dancing!”

Kate smiled at her, clearly pleased for the girl. “And you’re doing a wonderful job at it.”

“Unfortunately, it does end up being a little harder than this,” Jon interjected, already wondering if he could talk Rupert into simply letting Rellie stand on his feet like this at the actual ball. “But we can worry about that another night. I just wanted you to get a feel of what dancing can be like after a little practice.”

Rellie grinned up at him as they started into another time around. “Okay, so maybe you do know how to do this whole dancing thing.” Then, without warning, she leapt backward off Jon’s feet and began moving around the floor on her own. Even though Jon couldn’t see her feet, it was clear Rellie’s moves still had miles to go before it could be called a waltz. Thankfully, it was also considerably closer to actual dancing than the earlier wild spinning.

Jon watched her a moment, surprised to find himself a little proud of her. When his eyes met Kate’s, they grinned at each other, sharing the moment. As soon as Rellie was sufficiently distracted, he held a hand out to Kate. “Your turn, milady.” He was careful not to let the words become a question, which would have been more gentlemanly. It would also have given her the chance to say no.

She froze, caught completely off guard despite Jon’s definite memory of having discussed this previously. “You . . . I thought . . .” She stopped, eyes sliding away from his. “You know what? Let’s not worry about that.” Her voice was artificially light. “There’s not a lot of call for dancing Fairy Godmothers. We should be focusing on Rellie.”

At this, Rellie halted mid-twirl, staring at Kate with a deeply affronted expression. “You can’t say no to dancing lessons! You get to spin around and make your skirt all swishy, and Mr. Assistant Guy is just starting to get good at his part.”

Jon wisely restrained any response and merely attempted to look dignified. If Rellie felt the need to help him with his case, he wasn’t about to argue.

“You should be saying thank you to Jon for being here to give you dancing lessons,” Kate chided Rellie, deliberately keeping her eyes on her rather than Jon. “He’s a very busy man, and I’m certainly not capable of helping you with that part of the evening.”

“Which is why,” Jon interjected smoothly, watching Kate go still, “you should come over here and let me give you your first dance lesson.”

Slowly, she turned to look at him, their eyes locking for a few seconds. Then, she pushed herself to her feet and walked over to him. Taking the hand he held out, she hesitated briefly before putting her other hand on his shoulder. “I’m not standing on your feet,” she said quickly, a hint of warning in her voice. “I’d be staring over the top of your head as we danced.”

It occurred to Jon that he’d be receiving an excellent view either way, but restrained himself to a grin as he tightened his arm around Kate’s waist and pulled her considerably closer than he had Rellie. “Whatever you feel comfortable with.” He flattened his hand against the curve of her lower back, keeping her in place.

Kate tightened her grip on Jon’s shoulder. “So.” The word had a definite breathy edge to it. “Back with my left foot, then back and to the right with my other foot?”

“Exactly.” Together they followed through with the first two steps, then along the rest of the basic box step. When their feet moved together for the last time, he smiled at her. “Keep doing that until the song’s over, and you pretty much have a waltz.”

Kate’s brow lowered. “But . . .”

“But nothing. We’re simply moving on to the next phase of the lesson.” He rubbed her back in small circles, trying to ease some of the tension out of her body. “Which is for you to relax.”

She opened her mouth, then closed it and narrowed her eyes at him. “I need to pay attention to the steps so I can make sure I’m doing them correctly. I don’t want to end up crushing your toes.”

“You’ve already shown that you know the steps beautifully, and the only way you could possibly crush my toes is by driving a carriage over them.” He stared into her silvery-green eyes, wishing he could read the emotions swirling just below the surface. He wanted her to smile at him again, wanted to see that sparkle of light come back. “And I would be more than happy to have them stepped on by such a beautiful, intelligent woman.”

She blushed slightly, eyes darting away from his again. “Let’s see if you still feel that way after you’ve had them flattened for the fifth time in as many minutes.”

“Kate.” Jon attempted to keep his voice even, but the surprise in her eyes suggested he hadn’t quite managed it. He exhaled slowly, voice gentle as he tightened his fingers around hers. “Trust me.” She squeezed his hand back, making his chest tighten. “Trust yourself, and trust me.”

Kate stared at him for a long moment, tension slowly seeping out of her. “That doesn’t sound like a traditional part of a waltz lesson,” she said softly, the corners of her mouth curving upward.

“I’ll admit, I have added a few flourishes.”

Before Kate could respond, Rellie slapped a hand on both of their arms, shocking them back into reality. “You guys aren’t going to get any dancing done just standing there!” She gave them a stern look before twirling off again in example. “Move, you two! Move!”

Grinning at each other, Jon and Kate obliged.