Summer Nights at the Moonlight Hotel Read Online Free PDF Page B

Hampstead, but have lived all over the place since.’ I mentally pocket this nugget of biography to fill in Emily later.
‘I always knew I’d end up in the Lakes though, at least for a time. My dad fancied himself as a bit of an adventurer and so we’d come at least twice a year, to scramble up Scafell
Pike or Great Gable. So when an opportunity arose a few months ago, I did that unforgivable thing the locals must hate tourists doing: I moved here.’
    I raise my eyebrows. ‘Well, I am a true, bona-fide local and I can say for the record that I’m totally at ease with the idea of welcoming people who’ve fallen in love with the
place.’
    ‘Really?’ he asks dubiously.
    ‘Yep. Until they all turn up, that is.’
    He laughs and takes my hand again, but Lulu steps in. ‘Time for a switch around,’ she tells us. ‘Move along now.’
    According to Lulu, it’s not the done thing to dance with the same person all evening, so over the next forty-five minutes, we shuffle promiscuously from partner to partner. The idea is to
experience dancing with a range of abilities, rather than this being an elaborate prelude to a swingers’ party. Marion also insists that it’s the best way for us all to get to know each
other – and I can’t deny that collective cringing proves to be a remarkably effective bonding tool.
    The only one who isn’t convinced by the new system is Stella. I end up next to her while Lulu demonstrates a turn with one of the newcomers – a toned, olive-skinned guy with an
accent I can’t place. They make the steps look very remedial. ‘Don’t get me wrong – I get why we’re doing it this way,’ says Stella, as Will steps up and takes
her by the hands and I’m joined by a sprightly man who must be in his seventies but looks good on it. ‘I’m just worried that Mike is going to dislocate someone’s
kneecaps.’ We both look over and wince as he attempts to unravel himself from Cate’s ankles.
    My partner, it turns out, is a former theology lecturer called Frank. He is three inches shorter than me, with a sweet smile and haphazard beard that resembles the bristles in a stiff boot
cleaner. As we follow Lulu’s lead, stepping and turning to the music, it’s obvious he’s significantly better at this than me. I start moving my hips a little more, in a bid to
make more of an effort.
    ‘How long have you and Mike been together?’ I ask Stella when the music stops.
    ‘Three and a half years,’ she replies.
    ‘He seems lovely.’
    ‘Oh, he’s a gem,’ she says, wrinkling her nose affectionately. ‘And I get on like a house on fire with his family. Or at least I did until the Monday before
last.’
    ‘Oh?’
    ‘I thought I’d give Mike a nice surprise and recreate that scene in
Pretty Woman
. You know, where she sits on the table, naked except for his tie.’
    ‘Ah,’ I reply, unsure how else to respond.
    ‘So I’m there: table set, candles on the sideboard, seabass in the oven. Only, after I heard a key in the door and whipped off my dressing gown, I discovered that it was actually his
mum letting herself in to feed the cat. She’d thought we were still away for the weekend.’
    ‘Oh good God . . .’
    ‘I know. There I was with his M&S tie dangling between my knockers and in walks his mother with a bowl of Sheba. It was terrible.’
    Tonight’s newcomers make for an interesting mix. As well as the Mountain Rescue volunteers, there’s Frank, the ex-theology lecturer, Esteban – who, it turns out, is
twenty-five, a restaurant manager and from Peru – as well as a couple of nurses and a gorgeous blonde Ambleside College student called Jilly: Esteban can’t take his eyes off her.
There’s also one couple from the Midlands who are staying at the hotel for a week’s holiday and are salsa fanatics.
    But our small band of new dancers are mainly locals, covering a vast age range that starts somewhere in the early twenties and ends with Frank.
    All of which makes the