‘Now who has two left feet?’ he asked.
‘I’ll admit you’ve got better,’ she acquiesced.
‘You have got worse,’ he said with a chuckle guiding her backwards, holding their intertwined hands up and indicating he wanted to spin her.
‘I’m out of practice. Not much call to dance these days,’ she said quietly as she turned, his hand holding hers above them.
When she faced him again, he pulled her back towards him and said softly, ‘There will be call to dance again.’ The comment almost made her cry. Would there? When?
Slowly, as he led her, she began relaxing, trying to unstiffen herself. Just as she finally let her body free into the dance, the song ended. Stefan looked down at her and smiled. ‘Persephone—’ he started.
A cough sounded from the doorway and Dido and Jack were standing together, their hats still on, watching. Dido began clapping.
‘What is it with people lurking in doorways today?’ Persey said defensively, angry both that she had allowed herself to dance with Stefan and that she had been caught doing so. She dropped Stefan’s hand and moved away.
‘You spin a girl very beautifully,’ Dido teased Stefan.
‘Thank you,’ he said, not looking at Dido but still at Persephone as she moved around the room.
Persey did her best to ignore it. Confusion scattered itself throughout her mind. When she had finally begun to enjoy herself she had felt so many things she knew she shouldn’t feel. Now she thought she might be tainted in some way. Was she flushed? She needed to be far away from him. ‘I’ll go and let Mrs Grant know you’re back.’
Dido moved back from the doorway in order to let Persey pass but Jack stood his ground, forcing Persey to squeeze through a gap that wasn’t really there.
‘What the hell are you doing?’ he hissed at her.
She ignored him and carried on towards the kitchen. As she rounded the corner and dipped out of view she leant against the kitchen doorframe waiting for the beat in her heart to still itself.
‘There you are,’ Mrs Grant said. ‘Now everyone’s back you can take this in.’ She gestured towards a plate of very thinly carved beef, which would just about go round.
‘Where did you get this?’ Persey asked in order to distract herself.
‘I have my ways,’ Mrs Grant replied knowingly. ‘The German says he doesn’t much like English mustard, so of course, I’ve slathered it all over.’
As Mrs Grant turned away, Persey sighed and closed her eyes for a few moments before heading back towards the dining room.
It baffled Persey as to why Stefan wanted to dine with them every now and again when Jack was sullen throughout every meal Stefan attended. And this one was no exception. Mrs Grant had begrudgingly admitted Stefan had been bringing small gifts of tinned goods and fish recently so it was fair that he got to eat some of it. But it confused Persey even more why Jack insisted on being so petulant in front of the officer when it would be less conspicuous to at least pretend to be happy. Persey wanted to kick him, tell him to buck up and smile at least once, but she couldn’t get Jack’s attention and Stefan spent the majority of the meal glancing in her direction. She would talk to Jack about it later.
Dido was making a good show of small talk but strangely not about where she’d been today, which prompted Persey to enquire. Both Dido and Jack looked up sharply.
‘Nowhere special,’ she said. ‘Just a nice long walk.’
‘Jack, what will you do for work now you have been excused from the war?’ Stefan asked.
Persey thought she could have heard a pin drop.
‘Excused?’ Jack asked eventually.
‘From the war effort because of your heart,’ Stefan clarified.
‘Oh yes, well nothing strenuous of course, because of my heart. A man like me isn’t meant for heavy lifting, it would appear. May see if one of the shops in town needs a man with a keen eye for adding up and handing over change to old ladies doing their shopping,’ Jack said bitterly, and Persey felt he actually meant it. Jack prodded his beef. ‘Mother’s chucked a lot of mustard on this. Why’s she not let us add our own today, I wonder?’ He became occupied with scraping off the yellow tinge. ‘Ruined a perfectly good piece of meat.’
Stefan looked at his plate curiously. ‘I think I know why,’ hesaid quietly and began scraping his own beef. ‘I have been thinking, Jack,’ Stefan began a new subject, ‘about your friend.’
‘Which one?’ Jack asked.
‘The one who brought you back here.’
‘God, not this again,’ Jack said under his breath.
