Grace

Chapter 29

Dad sat at the piano, I was sat alongside him on another stool and Mum and Ben got into position to show me what the Viennese Waltz looked like. Dancing I, apparently, got from Mum and my musicality from Dad.

"It's been a long time since I did this," Mum said.

Ben looked a little distressed and admitted, "Dad makes me practice every holiday."

"Well then, you're fresh as a daisy," she smiled.

"Do you do the normal waltz as well?" I asked. "I need to learn that."

"Let's start with that," Ben immediately decided and stepped away from my mother.

He walked over to me, grabbed my hand and pulled me into the centre of the room. I let him pull me without protest, but frowned wondering what the issue with dancing with my mother was.

"You have no idea what the Viennese Waltz looks like do you?" he asked in an undertone when he caught sight of my expression.

"Should I?" I asked just as quietly.

He just gave me a look which had me wanting to find a video on the 'net. "Do you know what a basic waltz looks like?"

"You mean a normal one? Sure. I think."

"You only think?"

"Is it the one they do in Beauty and the Beast?"

"They dance in Beauty and the Beast?" he asked. Then he waved his hand at me and said, "Don't answer that. Take my hand."

He raised his right hand to about eye level. I grasped it lightly and when he put his other hand on the back of my shoulder, and I put my other hand on the front of his.

"These hands," he said and gently shook the ones that were holding one another, "stay at eye level, ok?"

I nodded. "Yeah.

"Ok. Now, normally we'd stand a little closer, but for now we'll stay like this so you can look at our feet. Um... I lead, you follow. My right foot goes forwards, your left back."

As he spoke he moved his foot. I moved mine a little afterwards as I wasn't prepared for him to move straight away. Then he moved his left foot to the side, I followed the movement and then again when he put his left foot next to his right.

"Then you do the same, but starting from the left," he said.

We did that and then went straight into leading from the right. We practiced that a few times going backwards and forwards in a line. After just a couple of times through the simple sequence I looked up to Ben's face and we danced looking each other in the eye. Ben smiled just a little, a tiny upturning of the corners of his mouth. I felt a smile come to my lips too and once again I felt at peace with myself and the world.

But then Ben stopped dancing and tugged me back to the centre of the room. I had to learn the up and down movement that went with the steps. It was really easy, you just bent your knees before doing the first step, rose on the second, stayed there for the third and bent your knees again when you put your feet together. When we danced backwards and forwards Dad played some Strauss. When we got to the edge of the room Ben then did some crazy spin turn thing which I did my best to follow, but I lost it after about two steps, tripped and would have gone flying had Ben not managed to steady me.

"Sorry," he said as my parents laughed.

I was facing the floor and quickly stood straight. "Want to walk me though that?" I asked.