From Silver to Diamonds

Chapter 6

More complex spins, twist and turns were thrown in till the music had finally stopped playing. Amelie and I couldn’t help giving them a pause after their final pose.

 Realising it’s almost my turn. I did a gulp and moved towards Stefan who held out his hands. I pleaded him to show it slowly but no matter how slow he taught me I still didn’t get the hang of it. He kept telling me to rock but did the reverse way and ended up stepping on his toes. When he told me to chasse, I was slow and didn’t have any bounce to my movement. 

Meanwhile as I finally got the hang of it, Amelie played the music, Slow Turning by John Hiatt. It was faster than I thought and kept missing and stumbled over the beats. In the end Amelie was grumbling about my clumsiness and my lack of rhythm. Lucie who was at the side panicking and worrying for me each time I was yelled by Amelie.

“Alright that is enough for now. Why don’t we get a little break?” Stefan suggested.

I nodded and sank on to my chair beside the window. I wiped the sweat off my forehead and Lucie ran to me with a soft towel and a cup of Earl Grey.

“Thank you,” I mumbled.

Then there was a soft knock on the door. An elegant woman poked her head through the door.  She was weary and tired at the look of her bags under her eyes. However it didn’t spoil her fair looks and wore a plain light grey V-neck sheath dress dapped with a pastel pink lacey shawl.

“What is the racket?” her voice of a thousand angels rang out.

Lucie and Stefan quickly assembled their spots behind Amelie. All of them had fixed their appearances before looking straight into the woman’s eyes.

“Good evening, Madam,” all three of them said in the same time.

Then Amelie continued. “We apologize for keeping Madam awake from your nap. Just few minutes ago we were trying to teach the young mistress how to do the Genovian dance,”

The lady’s eyes landed on me. With one look her face began to light up.  She hobbled over me and was about to tumble over when Amelie caught her just in time, then shook her off. She came to me and without giving me one good look close up, she’d given me a teary embracement.

“Oh Sophie, my darling home at last,” the crown princess cried. “How I have missed you so much,”

She had finally let go of me and looked into my eyes. Suddenly her face changed. Her face was once again turned as pale as ghost, mixed with embarrassment and disappointment.

“I’m sorry,” I said only loud enough for her to hear. “I’m not your daughter, I’m Sophie Harrison.”

The crown princess gave me another tight hug.

“It is alright,” she’d said softly. “Our Sophie would never forgive us. We have been very hard on her giving her no air to breathe. I regret it and I wish I could do something to reverse everything.”

I gently patted her until she pulled away sniffling behind an embroidered silk handkerchief.

At that moment, the princess decided to teach me how to listen to the beats. She had made me bring out my laptop and play a song that she thought it was perfect.  She had chosen the original mix of Dynamite in my list on itunes. Then she began clapping in an orderly manner to the music. I followed. It gave me the slightest idea what a beat was not that I didn’t know. It was the little ticks or light drumming throughout the song. 

Afterwards, the princess had ordered Lucie to bring a particular record from her collection and play it on the gramophone. It was Wake Up Me Before You Go Go from Back to the 80s. She had all the servants to clap along the beats as she took her position as the male. With the help of the servants and the crown princess it made it a lot easier and fun to learn the dance.