Free There Will Come A Stranger by Dorothy Rivers Page A

where she had recently been visiting a diplomatic family. Witty, amusing, and intelligent, she talked with such vivacity and calculated charm that Valerie by contrast felt every moment more dim and dull and nondescript. Ruefully she wondered whether the Fraynes were going to stay with them all evening.
    Then came the last straw on the burden of her disappointment. As they were finishing their coffee, the band began to play a tune whose rhythm was haunting and provocative.
    Many a time Valerie had heard it on the wireless. Many a time its teasing, taunting lilt had set her feet a-tapping as she stood beside the kitchen sink, and pirouetting on her way from dining-room to larder.
    But it filled her now with horror. For it was a cha-cha! Oh, calamity! She hadn ’ t the remotest notion how to dance it!
    Last year Hilary and Rory had paired off together a good deal. And since Rory was good - looking and amusing, a crack skier and a good dancer, Gordon Frayne had little doubt that Hilary intended things to shape that way again. That being so, she would be determined to have Rory for her cavalier this evening, regardless of previous arrangements, with the indifference that was typical of her. Brother and sister always played into each other ’ s hands; his part, therefore, must be to take on the little fair girl with the outsize eyes, who had obviously been brought by Rory as his partner for the evening.
    Gordon viewed the prospect with mixed feelings. Certainly she was extremely pretty, but she hadn ’ t uttered a word all through dinner. Looked to him as though he might be in for a dull evening. On the other hand, those silent girls were sometimes quite surprising when you got ’ em to yourself. Still waters run deep!
    He turned to Valerie. “Will you dance this with me?”
    Rory heard him, and impatient though he was to dance with Hilary, whom he knew of old to be the perfect partner, he was none the less annoyed that Gordon should have had the nerve to try to snaffle his partner at this early stage of the proceedings. So he exclaimed, “Hey, there! What ’ s all this? I brought Valerie here, and I ’ m going to have the first dance with her, whatever happens later!”
    And without more ado he caught her up into his arms and swept her away.
    She gasped, “But Rory—I can ’ t dance the cha - cha!”
    “We ’ ll shuffle around to it instead, then.” He grinned down reassuringly at her troubled face. “Don ’ t look so worried! Quite a lot of people can ’ t, you know!”
    She hadn ’ t danced since she left school, and then her dancing had been mostly in the school gymnasium, punctuated by the admonitions of the dancing mistress: “O n e-and-two-and-three - and- one -and-two-and-three-and-Don ’ t bend the knees, girls-smoothly, remember — ”
    How should she manage now? Supposing — frightful thought!—she had forgotten how to follow? Tense with anxiety, she started off on the wrong foot, and began to panic. Then the pressure of Rory ’ s hand, light and firm against her back, told her what she must do. Recovering, she found with passionate relief that she was managing to follow after all. Yet something wasn ’ t quite right. Something was lacking. She was moving like a robot, lifelessly, woodenly.
    Oh, Lord! thought Rory ruefully—one might as well be dancing with a clothes-peg. Stiff as a bit of wood. And yet to look at her you ’ d think she should be good—when she walks she ’ s like a feather drifting on the wind.
    I ’ m hopeless! Valerie thought despairingly. I can ’ t even dance. It isn ’ t in me. Oh, if only this were over! How he must be loathing every minute of it—wishing he hadn ’ t asked me!
    Rory had noticed that the hand upon his arm was trembling. Above her head Valerie heard his puzzled voice say in concern, “You ’ re shivering! What ’ s up? Surely you can ’ t be cold?”
    She hadn ’ t wanted him, or anyone, to know what she was feeling, but now the unexpected