Dancing for Destiny

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

That evening Eva asked Hannah and Henry when Lewis could start his stay at their house.

“Well, I must say, that took longer than expected!” remarked her uncle with an almost undetectable smirk.

“Oh, Henry, really!” Hannah said.

“Your dear friend Lewis can come as soon as he would like. I will ask Jenny or Hattie to prepare the spare room.”

“Oh, thanks, I’ll tell him, by the way, I get the feeling you both think there’s something going on between Lewis and myself?”

“There, there, isn’t?” stuttered Eva’s aunt, genuinely confused. “No, and you know what, to prove it, I’d like to tell you that I’m going round to George's house on Friday” Eva said triumphantly “if it’s ok with you that is” she added as an afterthought.

That evening, Eva was listening to ‘Pachabel’s canon’ , it was her favourite classical tune and the only one she could play on her gramophone when  she spotted an unused notebook lying beside her new art deco lamp and decided to write a diary, she’d tried it a few years earlier and found she just didn’t have the time. This time, it would be different. Eva picked up an ink pen and opened the notebook to the very first page. As the pen nib scratched the date, Eva exhaled, as she wrote the first words from her mind they spilled onto the page. She felt tears rolling down her cheeks, she wasn’t particularly unhappy, it was the freedom she had felt talking to Jordy.

She had spoken to few people about the subject of her love life, previously namely Lewis although now it was George. Eva collapsed on her desk, moving her diary aside with a derisive chuckle for she was demonstrating the tidiness her aunt had drummed into her since she was born.

On the next day, which was Friday, as Eva and Karen waltzed  into the academy, George detached himself from the group of his friends and bounded over to them, “Hey, Eva, did Hannah and Henry say you could come today?” He asked, breathless from dragging his mother all the way to the academy. “Yes, I kind of just informed them of the fact!”

“Oh la, how brave!”

“Listen, I need to talk to Jordy Malpass’ friend a minute.”

“Ok, I’ll come and meet him.”

They walked over to Jordy, Lewis and Ted who had just come in through the door. Ted saw them and headed towards the balcony. Lewis and Jordy turned, Lewis’ face sour as he saw George tagging alongside Eva.  They held each other’s gaze as they were introduced and Lewis only tore his eyes away from George’s when Eva started to speak again. “Hello Lewis, my aunt and uncle said you can come as soon as you like.” Eva stated coolly.  “Oh, uh, thanks, I’ll ask Ted but whenever’s fine from my point of view” answered Lewis. “I’ll be looking forward to it!” As he turned to follow Ted, behind Eva’s back, George exclaimed “What?!!?”

Jordy quickly grabbed George and hurried him to the far corner of the practice hall, explaining the state of affairs in order to placate him. George was still not happy, however, when their teacher told them not to get into their starting positions, he wouldn’t talk to Eva and she was cross. Boys! They were so complicated sometimes, she didn’t understand them one bit. He was forced to talk to her after practice because Eva went home with him. They had a delicious dinner of Venison and Eva met George’s family, he had two younger brothers called Ptolemy and Benjamin and a sister, one year older then George and herself called Lucy. His parents names were Tom and Anna. 

The family owned horses so Eva and George went out to the stables and George persuaded Eva to take Lucy’s horse Bartholomew. They walked the horses through a few fields and came to the stream and tying their mounts up, they sat together in a solitary ray of sunshine squinting down through the trees. For a while, the two companions sat in silence, and then George spoke suddenly, “Eva, will you sing for me?” he asked. She thought about this for a few moments. “Maybe one day.” Eva answered and for his answer, George took Eva’s hand and tugged her to her feet.

“Come on, let’s go and paddle in the stream” he said. They tugged off their shoes and socks and raced down to the water, for the next hour or so, George taught Eva how to skim stones and she found one or two pretty pebbles to take back to Hannah. When, at last, it was time for Eva to go, they rode back on the horses, laughing at the joy of the most simple things in life. Henry was already there when they got back to the house and tutted with a slightly twisted smile to see the hem of Eva’s dress completely sodden. “Been down by the brook” he remarked,

“Yes Mr Bodmin, it’s lovely down there this evening!”

“Well, begging your pardon, George but I’m going to have to whisk Eva away, we have to prepare for a guest who is coming tomorrow” Henry announced. George’s smile drifted a little when he heard mention of Lewis but managed to plaster it back onto his face relatively quickly. “Bye then Eva, see you on Sunday.”

“Ok, goodbye, thank you for having me Mr and Mrs Atkinson.”

“That’s quite alright Eva, goodbye Henry” they answered.

 When Eva got home, she went straight up to her bedroom to get her diary. Descending the stairs, Eva settled herself in the armchair closest to the window in their libraryand picked up her uncle’s best fountain pen.

Today was ok, I sat in school at my desk thinking of love, what I know about it anyway but my feelings are all so mixed up, I imagined that I fancied Lewis more than George who I’m now going out with! I will admit to this diary now that a few weeks ago, I wrote a note to Lewis that said ‘Everyone has been telling me that you fancy me. I would just like to know the truth. E.x. Ps. Please tell me if I’ve got the wrong end of the stick!’ I gave it to Jordy to give to Lewis and a day later, he came to me, with Jordy pulling him along and said “Eva, you’re so far down the stick you’re actually off it!”

But that incident was forgotten long ago. That thought kept going round my head for so long that I didn’t hear a word of my maths lesson and in my favourite lesson, French, we were supposed to be learning the imperfect tense. I did gather that we had homework Karen poked me with her ruler so I wrote it own but it’s to revise this week’s work because we have a test next lesson so I’m in trouble! (Unless I ask Karen -who’s fluent in French -to help me!) Whilst day dreaming yet again, the headmistress Sister Gunthorpe walked past me in the corridor and told me to straighten my uniform and pull up my socks which I did with much haste, Sr Gunthorpe is a formidable character. Persephone told us that once she gets to know you, she’s really rather pleasant but for the moment, I’m sticking with my original judgement. Ours is an all girl’s school and the nuns teach us all our lessons. The uniform is not particularly comfortable and some girls moan about it non-stop but I think it incredibly chic! We have blue blazers, blue skirts, below the knee snow white socks, a white blouse and a stripy tie but it’s more of a scarf as the blouses don’t have collars. Luckily, though, we don’t have to wear grass green berets like St John’s school in Tidworth.

My school is called St Agatha’s because it is attached to the church and the colours are navy blue and white (as you probably guessed from the uniform!) I’ve just realised that I don’t write to the diary, I write to the person reading this diary! Well, I guess my life might make good reading material one day! Odd though. Of all the many books I’ve read, I’ve never once read a diary! Write later. Eva xx