Dead Man Dancing Read Online Free PDF

Cole Porter’s ‘It’s Delovely’.
    Unaccountably, my heart did a flip-flop. I grabbed Paul’s hand and squeezed. ‘Thanks for coming.’
    Paul turned his head and grinned down at me. ‘I hope neither of us will regret it, sweetie.’
    The music ended and one couple made a swooping spin while the other did a death drop finish. I realized that we had been watching a private coaching session between a pair of instructors – red leotard and green shirt – and a couple of advanced pupils – the black and white twins. After giving her pupils a brief critique, the woman in red dismissed her partner and came over to us, breathless. ‘You must be Ruth,’ she said to me, extending her hand. ‘Jay told me your group was coming. I’m Alicia Sweeney.’ She nodded toward the guy in the striped shirt. ‘Chance Baldwin and I will be your instructors tonight.’
    I squeezed her hand. ‘Hi, Alicia. I’m Hannah Ives. That spiky-haired individual over there is the bride, my sister, Ruth.’
    Alicia giggled charmingly, then beamed her 1000-watt smile on Ruth. ‘So you’re the bride?’
    Ruth’s cheeks, already red from the cold, got redder. ‘And this is my fiancé, Hutch,’ the blushing bride said.
    After introductions all round, Alicia pointed out the closet, and the dressing rooms. ‘One for the boys and one for the girls. Bathrooms are in there, too.’
    Alicia waited until we’d hung up our coats, then clapped her hands to get our attention. Chance had relocated to an alcove containing what appeared to be a state-of-the-art console, where he was fiddling with dials and punching buttons. Black, industrial-size EV speakers were supported on tripods on either side of the alcove.
    Alicia herded us into two lines, facing one another, boys on one side and girls on the other, just like sixth grade. ‘First,’ she said, draping her right arm over Ruth’s shoulders, ‘we’re going to learn the waltz. Picture yourself, Ruth, your wedding gown frothing around you, dancing in the arms of your prince.’ With her left arm, she made a sweeping motion, indicating Hutch. ‘Waltzing, waltzing, one-two-three, one-two-three, just like Cinderella at the ball.’ She went on in relentless fairy tale mode for a minute more while across the room, Paul tried to act cute by pantomiming dabbing at his eyes with a tissue and mouthing, ‘I think I’m going to cry.’
    I gave him the evil eye.
    Somewhere in the middle of an anecdote about Sleeping Beauty, just as
I
was about to cry, Alicia finally wound down. ‘Chance. Over to you.’
    â€˜First, the man’s part,’ said Chance, smoothly taking over from Alicia. ‘Gentlemen. Watch me.’
    He raised both arms, as if holding an invisible woman. ‘Think of the waltz as drawing a box on the floor. We start with our feet together, like this. Then – watch me now – left foot forward, right foot to the side, left foot closes to the right foot, right foot back, left foot side, right foot closes to the left foot.
One
-two-three,
one
-two-three,
one
-two-three,
one
-two-three. Now, you try.’
    I watched with some pride as Daddy and Paul executed the steps flawlessly. Hutch, bless his heart, performed the maneuver right along with them, as if he hadn’t been doing box steps all his life.
    Alicia coached us ladies through our steps, which were mirror images of the guys’ – right-left-right, left-right-left – until we got it perfectly, too.
    â€˜The waltz,’ Alicia said, planting herself midway between our ragged boy-meets-girl lines, ‘was first introduced in the early 1800s, but denounced by the church for its immorality. It was the first time polite society had seen a man holding a woman so close to his body, and in public, too! But that, of course, was what made the dance so appealing, and why the waltz